The Face of Thomas Jefferson

Portraits of Our Third President

Lately, I’ve taken an interest in the people who cared for our country in her early years.

As I read about them, I imagine the overarching question, Now what? that must come over them—after the war against Britain was won. Since such a feat had never before been pulled off, I’m sure many of them were prepared for the possibility that the experiment would fail.

It is a good thing that the young nation had strong leaders, fit for the task. The most obvious examples would have been present during the Second Continental Congress. These were meetings by delegates from the thirteen colonies.

Their meetings proved to be fruitful. One of the most famous outcomes of these discussions was the Declaration of Independence. Ironically, the delegates did not know at the time that this Declaration would mean so much.

There was much for these men to discuss. How important was our alliance with France? Was there any chance of patching up some wounds in the relationship with the mother country?

These were important matters; if one was to get into those disputes, it would spiral into another article entirely.

In this post, I would like to talk about one of the most famous members of the Second Continental Congress, the man who is most often credited with writing the Declaration of Independence.