1829  ENGRAVING OF JEFFERSON'S DRAFT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BY CHARLES TOPPAN.

Charles Toppan (1796-1874), engraver. Steel-engraved draft of the Declaration of Independence. Philadelphia: Charles Toppan, 1829. 4 pages, 12 3/4 x 8 1/2inch, woven paper printed on rectos only. Tappan's mark to lower right of 4th leaf. Howes R-60, Sabin 35891, Shaw & Shoemaker 39133.

A fine engraving of Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence, complete with edits and annotations. The work was commissioned for and included in the 1829 first edition of Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, the first publication of Jefferson's collected works, issued three years after his death. The work was edited by his grandson and executor of his estate, Thomas Jefferson Randolph (1792 - 1875).  

At the Second Continental Congress, which convened during the opening throes of the Revolution in 1775, the delegates overwhelmingly supported issuing a formal declaration of independence from Great Britain. Jefferson, though one of the youngest delegates at only 33, was selected, with support from John Adams, as a member of the Committee of Five. Congress charged this committee with authoring the founding document. In addition to Adams and Jefferson, the committee also included Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. While the committee initially expected Adams to be the primary author, Adams successfully argued for Jefferson, championing his popularity, erudition, and excellent writing skills. 

After consultation with his fellow members, Jefferson isolated himself to write America's argument for independence and freedom between June 11 and 28, 1776, crafting one of the most celebrated political documents. 

Today, there are six extant manuscript drafts. A fragment of the earliest handwritten draft, known as the "Composition Draft," was discovered by historian Julian P. Boyd in the Jefferson Papers in 1947. 

The engraving offered here is a copy of what is referred to as the "original rough draft," with copy edits by Franklin, Adams, and possibly other members of Congress. The original is held with the Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress. Several other copies of the rough draft were made to be sent to friends, four of which (each without edits) are extant. 

Compared to the final text adopted by Congress on the morning of 4 July 1776, most of the edits are additive, rather than subtractive. The edits by Adams and Franklin were mostly copy editing, refraining from major changes. The edits made by Congress to the "Fair Copy" draft were much more extensive, including the omission of a paragraph assigning responsibility of the slave trade in the colonies to King George III. The exclusion was difficult to Jefferson to accept and wrote in his autobiography: "The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms with, still haunted the minds of many. For this reason those passages which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck out, lest they should give them offence. The clause too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who on the contrary still wished to continue it. Our northern brethren also I believe felt a little tender under those censures; for tho’ their people have very few slaves themselves yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.”

Charles Toppan (1796-1874) was an experienced and talented engraver who, in 1814, joined Messrs. Draper, Murray & Fairman, then the only banknote engraving firm in the United States. When he was just 33, he opened his own engraving firm in Philadelphia. A patriotic and enthusiastic antiquarian, this fine engraving was one of the first projects of his new company. 

A cornerstone engraving for any Jeffersonian or early Americanist. 

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