The Papers of Thomas Jefferson

A definitive scholarly edition of the correspondence and papers of Thomas Jefferson

Among the fresh contributions made by the documents in Volume 1, which covers the years 1760–1776, are the following: new light on the Declaration of Independence, hitherto unpublished material; full assessment of the part played by Jefferson in the drafting of the Virginia Constitution; full presentation of his efforts in 1776 to disestablish the Church of Virginia and to establish religious toleration; complete presentation of bills and statutes drawn by Jefferson in 1776 in the beginning of his great legislative reforms by which he hoped to “eradicate every fibre of aristocracy”; settlement of the disputed authorship of the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms; and first publication of Jefferson’s comments on Franklin’s Plan of Union, 1775.