Jefferson also included equally lofty language describing the wrongs done to the colonists by their British brethren. They had permitted the king to send both lrirumeu and mercenaries to attack. the coloniaJs md, in so doing, had "given the last stab to agonizing aliectiou." The only course was to "endeavor to forget our former love for"' the British ptople. Here's what Jefferson wrote, ..... ~th some edits by himself, FranUin, and Adams: u this vcn rime tu<I 1hc:~· arc p.:rmittiog ilmr dud r11aglitr.ll( tll k1\d over not ouly "1lclier• of oo 1r common blood. bl.IL Scolch &: fom~1 mcrc:m;incs t.o illVadt 8c. • .i...-y .. 1'~""' "'l dduge us i:11 blood. ihese fact.9 h~vc given 1he bm tW> Lo agonizin~ affection and manyl s11irit hkb us to renounce forever thu..-u11(eding brethr1:n. we must erulcavor IO foritct our fonncr lcwc for chem., and 10 hold the rest ofmanlind. enemitf in war. in peace rricnd~. we ought h;ivc b«n a rrcc & ;a gl'l'al people 1ogctlicr: but 3 cominuniation of gnn<lcur & of freedom 11seems1s bdo" their .ligtnl)-~II'°• SJ™'c iher will ha•·c it: the rmJ ro ~ h.itppincss·•.,.,,., i~ open 1011> 1w: "'C will dirub i1 _,._.i-h1 a scpautcl• sutc. <1nd acquiesce in tltc n~ll.~il) winch I'"' uouncn our .awr.a1.......-c+e1last1145 Adieu! Aud then htre is what Congress did to shat passage: ""-••ttictV.ac chis 'ety tirnc bHJ tfJC: me pumitting; drcit dzidu1agisuare to au1d u+e1 tM o•d) svldiu s ufcxu cunn1rvo blood; but Stvtth Be l\;ccigat auucuaaiics: to juuade & ~ ..... uolFllAll""f"I' ddngc win blood. tbesc f.cta bate gi+en thclast stzb to agornamg Acuon :md na1n I spb it bacb us w 1u1omacc Mc1 cc d1CK m1kdi:ug brcdu cu. nc 11msc u1clc:ac m bJ fuabd om knuiU locc fu1 duc:m;a.1w:J cu IR>ld dtt tat ofnw•kimi mcncics ir1 w;u. 011x:vc c focuds .. we migln ha•c been w 6a &: a il!;IC3L people wgcdtu. but a comu•mnc:tt101t v.'g1andcu1 tl off1ccdcmc it sttnn is bclv" chcn dig:nit:. be il so, snKc the) cciit lracc 1c rhc 1uacl cu glo17 Be lrc1ppi11cu.........-rtsorn tu us tw. we «iJI~ dmdr .~ ........ .,_ ....... i11 a scparnt<l} scare. and ac<iu•('SlC Ul the neco--.1(')' wluch 11">"'nouocc:~our .....,.~,,ulastir1i;Adi:m! _.._.,.._ ~ .... .., \..,~ ............ _ ..... Congress had no interest in Jefferson's sentimental and romantic fantasy of the colonists as jilted lovers.

Then, of C'Ourse, there \\'Cre the changes that Congress made to the draft that the Committee of Five submitted.Jefferson, whose relationship to slavery was maddeningly complex-an issue to which we will return-wrote high-flown p:wages about the ills of slavery. charging the British king with ha"ing '"waged cruel war against hnman nature itself, "-jolating it's most sacred rights of Ii.le & liberty in the persons of a distaut peo-ple who never ofreuded him, captivating & carrying them to slavery iu another hemisphere.,.. Herc is the passage in full:

To see just how group writing works-to understand this democralic art-we need to linger on the writing process. Here is an excerpt of the first draft as worked over by Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson: Y..'e hold Lhesc audu co~ :.i.,..;o... sauce! and undutiablc, d1at all men arc creaird equal 8: is1dq1t1Jdent, thJ.t ftou1 d1t1c cqa.J c1eativt1 d1c7 clt1i•< i111igl1rs c1 .. ,.,.,"""'"""' ,... _ ...... •uh inhcrtt1t ~ inllienablc."""' tl1.1.t, among wbidt."-arc tftc p1ese1 vacio1T'Vf life, lie liberty, and the punuit ofluppincss; that to secure these cmh ....... , govcmmenis are wntuted among mco. deriving their jwt powcn fr<lm the Consent of thc~ultd; Look how messy the work was. People always think that the phrase "we hold these truths to be selr~vident" is one of tht moiit important in THC. l:OITC•RS [ 7J] the Declaration, but it started out as .. we hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable." How did it go, the discussion among Adams, Franl:Jiu, and Jefferson abont whether "sacred and undeniablt:1• or "'self-evident'• was the better choice? One has to imagint: the argwnent on each side. Did debating these options make Adams "mortally" tired of~sacred and undeniable" as debating the use of ''Mother Country" had done the pre-ceding Oclober? These drafts are likt snapshots of conversacions.

-)._dence, il rumed to the quest.ion of the text of the formal Declara-tion. Its reprcsentatins took np i.hc draft that had been presented by Jefferson's Committee of Five an late June. Congress worked for two days straight emendingi correciing, and, especiallr, cutting the tat. If you measure by word count, Congress reduced i.he Dtcluation by abont 25 percent. Yet most of the a~entat:ivc structure iuitially provided by Jef-ferson survived. Despite cutting so many words, C.Ongress mdorsed that argument and, in so doing, brought the writingjob within a hair's hreadlh of completion.