done, and, being approved by them, I] reported
[it] to the House on Friday, the 28th of June, when it was read,
and ordered to lie on the table."--Works, vol. i, pages 17 and
18. This is the first insinuation. I say insinuation, for the
sentence, "_It_ was accordingly done, and I reported it," is not
frank and outspoken, as it ought to be, if he meant to say he
drafted it. Mr. Paine has been dead almost twelve years, but Mr.
Jefferson has dropped the pledge to Heaven and earth for the truth
of it, which he has heretofore been careful to put in. He is now
seventy-eight years old.

6. In August, 1823, he now comes forward, and says: "The committee
of five met; no such thing as a sub-committee was proposed, but
they unanimously pressed on myself alone to undertake the draft. I
consented. I drew it."--Works, vol. vii, page 304. John Adams had
said there was a sub-committee of two, viz., Jefferson and
himself, appointed by the other three. But Jefferson says there
was not--"that John Adams had forgotten about it." Query: Can a
person forget about something which never was? To this statement
there is no "pledge to Heaven and earth." He is eighty years old.

7. In the year 1825 he says once that he wrote it, and once that
he drafted it; but no "pledge to Heaven and earth" as before.

Now, he never acknowledged that he was the author of it in any of his
works before the death of Mr. Paine. He gave several full accounts of
the whole transaction, and calls on Heaven and earth to witness the
truth of his statements. About the time Mr. Paine dies he says he can
make no personal claim to it. Ten years after Mr. Paine's death, he very
ambiguously claims it, as if his pen refused to write it, and drops his
oath. But twelve years after Mr. Paine's death, and he now in his
eightieth year, he first says he drew it. Was he too _modest_ to affirm
it till he had got into his dotage? The reader must answer. It is with
painful feelings I record the above facts. "But they are too true, and
the more is the pity." But to proceed.

Mr. Jefferson could not have followed so closely Common Sense in the
production of the Declaration of Independence, if he had studied it for
a whole year with this special purpose in view. For, the style he could
not have imitated; the figures of speech he could not have adopted; the
impassioned eloquence would have stuck to the dry leaves; the exact
order would have been mis