Creating the United States

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Virginia Constitution as Model for the Declaration of Independence (032.00.04)

Thomas Jefferson. Draft Virginia Constitution, [May 1776]. Manuscript. Thomas Jefferson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (032.00.04)
[Digital ID # us0032p3]

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    Virginia Constitution as Model for Declaration of Independence

    In May 1776, Thomas Jefferson, a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, wrote at least three drafts of a Virginia constitution. Jefferson’s litany of British governmental abuses in his drafts of the Virginia Constitution became his “chain of abuses” in the Declaration of Independence.