It was the eve of the American Revolution, and the colonies' quarrel with England was intensifying. A squad of British soldiers had massacred five colonists in Boston. Then gunfire was exchanged at Lexington and Concord. 

The colonists did not know where to turn. Should they fight England for their freedom? Or should they remain colonies? Who was to decide?

On June 7, 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed a Committee of Five to tell the world why America wanted to be free.

—Thomas Jefferson did most of the writing. A Virginia Lawyer, he was to become the nation's third president.

—John Adams, Massachusetts teacher turned lawyer, was to become the first president to occupy the White House.

—Benjamin Franklin, a Philadelphia printer who became America's foremost writer, scientist, and diplomat.

—Roger Sherman, who was to author the Connecticut Compromise that made the United States Constitution possible.

—Robert R. Livingston of New York, who was to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the size of the United States.

The document written by these five men was our Declaration of Independence. It proclaimed the birth of a new nation. But the thoughts and words speak for all people in every age.

From the dust jacket