Written by Todd DePastino
When we think of the Declaration of Independence, we picture a finished parchment proclaiming its famous line:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”
But how is human equality self-evident? Thomas Jefferson, who drafted the Declaration, didn’t use that word. He called the assertion that “All Men Are Created Equal” sacred and undeniable. It was Benjamin Franklin who changed the wording in an editorial sleight-of-hand designed to preempt any debate over the controversial claim
Franklin’s trick is captured well in the 2008 HBO series John Adams, where Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson convene to discuss Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration of Independence:
This founding document of the United States of American came about in mid-June 1776, when the United Colonies were inching toward a final break with Britain. On June 10, Congress formed a “Committee of Five” to prepare a declaration explaining the colonies’ reasons for independence. The committee included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and a quiet Virginian named Thomas Jefferson.
Adams had pushed for Jefferson to take the lead on writing. Jefferson had a certain literary grace, and, more importantly, he wasn’t yet tarnished by too much speaking in the contentious congressional debates. “You can write ten times better than I can,” Adams told him. So Jefferson got to work in a boarding house a few blocks from the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall), putting pen to paper between June 11 and 28.
When Jefferson finished, he handed copies to Franklin and Adams for review.
That’s when the edits began.
In the original draft, Jefferson wrote:
“We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable…”
This phrasing placed liberty’s foundation squarely in the realm of religion and natural law. It had theological weight and lofty moral power. But to Franklin the appeal to divine authority invited theological disputation. Ever the rationalist, he suggestred using the language of Enlightenment reason.
Franklin crossed out “sacred and undeniable” and scribbled something new: “self-evident.”
In 1776, Benjamin Franklin was 70 years old, 37 years older than Jefferson, and had sat through more committee meetings and wrestled with more politics than Adams and Jefferson combined. He understood that to rally a continent and pass muster with the prickly delegates of the Continental Congress, the Declaration’s truths needed to be stated plainly, not preached.
“Self-evident” drew on the language of 17th-century philosophers like Descartes and 18th-century thinkers like John Locke. It suggested these were not mere articles of religious faith, but truths discernible by reason and shared human experience.
In other words, you didn’t need a Bible to know that all men are created equal. You just had to open your eyes and think clearly.
In the HBO dramatization, Jefferson’s response to Franklin’s change is a study in quiet indignation:
“Every single word was precisely chosen. I assure you of that, Dr. Franklin.”
Franklin, unfazed, replies gently: “Yes, but yours will not be the only hand in this document. It cannot be.”
Jefferson wasn’t happy. But Franklin was right.
The edits weren’t over. Congress itself would spend all day July 3rd and most of July 4th revising the document—cutting nearly a quarter of it, including Jefferson’s scathing denunciation of the slave trade.
But Franklin’s change remained. Self-evident survived. It threaded the needle between moral conviction and rational persuasion, giving the line a universalism that has carried through centuries.
Franklin’s word change is covered well in Ken Burns’ 2022 2-part, 4-hour documentary Benjamin Franklin. Watch a 3-minute clip about the edit here.
