Even a year after the first shots of the revolution, Congress was still debating whether independence or reconciliation with Britain. When delegates to the Second Continental Congress agreed on independence, Congress formed Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston as the "Committee of Five" to draft the declaration. Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the declaration and after several changes and modifications by other delegates, Congress finally issued the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThe text of the Declaration began by stating that “all men are created equal” and that “they are endowed by their Creator of certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He declared that governments are established among men to guarantee inalienable rights and that whenever a government violates these rights, the people have the right and the duty to modify or abolish it. The Declaration proclaimed the King of Great Britain a tyrant and then listed the "abuses and usurpations" committed by the King and the British government. The final section of the Declaration of Independence declared the colonies to be free and independent states and absolved of all allegiance to the British Crown. Historians have examined the circumstances under which the Declaration of Independence was written as well as the people, events, and other documents that influenced it. To begin with, historian Carl Becker and many other historians have argued that John Locke's Second Treatise on Government influenced Jefferson's idea of ​​government. Locke's political philosophy asserted that governments were essentially a compact between individuals based on the principle of human nature and that if there were no government or laws, humans would have complete freedom within the limits of the "laws of nature”. But because some individuals violate the “laws of nature,” people have always agreed to create governments that will maintain order in human society. Jefferson's colleague Richard Henry Lee commented that in writing the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson had "copied Locke's treatise on government." Historian Garry Wills has argued that the writings of Francis Hutcheson and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers were even more important to Jefferson than those of Locke. Biographer Joseph Ellis said Virginia's new constitution also influenced the Declaration of Independence. Letters had informed Jefferson that the Virginia convention had adopted a preamble written by George Mason to the state constitution. Mason wrote that "All men are created equally free and independent, and have certain inherent and natural rights, among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and of pursuing and to obtain happiness and security. Jefferson had received these words a little over a week before he wrote the Declaration. Historian Pauline Maier noted that the Continental Congress was not the only body to issue a declaration of independence. At least ninety other resolutions were passed by town meetings, militia and labor rallies, and by grand juries or county conventions. And like the Congressional Declaration, local and state resolutions also listed grievances. But unlike the “long train ».”.