American Scripture

The chapter opens with Thomas Jefferson’s arrival in Congress in May 1775. Congress had approved John Adams’s preface “calling for the suppression of all authority under the Crown” after approving the resolution that colonies without established governments must form new ones (47). Jefferson wanted to be in Williamsburg to take part in forming Virginia’s government; he did his best to participate from afar. Jefferson sent written contributions for Virginia’s new constitution, including a draft preamble in which he castigates the King’s misrule and concludes that his tyrannical acts release Virginia from its ties with Britain. This version of the preamble to Virginia’s constitution would be part of the first draft of Congress’s Declaration of Independence (48).

The style of Jefferson’s draft wasn’t original, for there were nearly 90 contemporary documents that shared similarities in rhetoric and syntax with Jefferson’s preamble—some documents even bore the title of “declaration,” while most of them were declarations in nature if not in name. Maier argues that those state and local government documents “offer the best opportunity to hear the

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