reat Britain,
Jefferson denied that Parliament had any authority over the colonies, and he attacked the
restrictive acts passed by Parliament as a deliberate plan to destroy colonial freedom. Jefferson
also accused the king of rejecting the best laws passed by colonial legislatures, of preventing the
outlaw of slavery, of permitting his governors to break up colonial assemblies, and of sending
armed forces without right to do so(Dos Passos, Page #169). On June 21, 1775 he was given a
seat in the Continental Congress, appointed to the committee to draft the Declaration of
Independence, and he was chosen by the committee to write the declaration because of his
"peculiar felicity of style." The Declaration of Independence was formally adopted on July 4,
In 1776 Jefferson was elected to the Virginia legislature, giving up his seat in the
Continental Congress and declining an offer to serve with Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane as
commissioners to France, mostly because of personal reasons having to do with his family, but
also, because he felt he could best serve the revolutionary cause by furthering the reformation of
Virginia ( Adams, Page #98-99). He then served three years in the house of delegates. While
there he began the revision of the laws of Virginia. His most noteworthy achievement during this
time was his proposal of the Statute for Religious Freedom, which stated in Jefferson's own
words, "that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or
ministry whatsoever", and that no one should suffer in any way for their "religious opinions or
beliefs." The bill was eventually adopted in 1786. Jefferson also had succeeded in the of passing
bills to abolish primogeniture and entail. Although never passed, his Bill of Universal Diffusion of
Knowledge, set forth a philosophy of providing free public schooling for all citi...