Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/156

122 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS member, describes him as "so prompt, frank, ex plicit, and decisive upon committees and in con versation that he soon seized upon my heart." His readiness in composition, his profound knowledge of British law, and his innate love of freedom and justice gave him solid standing in the body. On his return to Virginia he was re-elected by a majority that placed him third in the list of seven members. After ten days vacation at home, where he then had a house undergoing enlargement, and a household of thirty- four whites and eighty-three blacks, with farms in three counties to superintend, he returned to congress to take his part in the events that led to the complete and formal separa tion of the colonies from the mother-country. In May, 1776, the news reached congress that the Vir ginia convention were unanimous for independence, and on June 7 Richard Henry Lee obeyed the instructions of the Virginia legislature by moving that independence should be declared. On June 10 a committee of five was appointed to prepare a draught of the Declaration Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Mr. Jefferson, being the chairman of the committee, was naturally asked to write the document. He then lived near what is now the corner of Market and Seventh streets. The paper was written in a room of the second floor, upon a little writing-desk three inches high, of his own