<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>There's a new post on the Web of Language:</div><div><br></div><div><!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal">Revising our freedom: Digital archeology
and Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence</p>
<!--EndFragment-->
</div><div><br></div>On the last page of the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence,
Thomas Jefferson wrote “fellow-subjects,” then thought better of a
phrase that evoked the very monarch he was challenging and changed the
words to “fellow-citizens.” It’s no surprise that Jefferson was a writer
who revised: every writer tweaks and fiddles, and a declaration of
independence should be worded just right. What’s interesting about this
particular edit is what Jefferson changed, how he changed it, and how
that change came to light. <br>
<br>
In a list of the colonies’ grievances against King George III Jefferson
wrote, “he has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow-subjects,
with the allurements of forfeiture and confiscation of our property.”
But the future president, whose image now graces the two-dollar bill,
must have realized right away that fellow-subjects was the language of
monarchy, not democracy, because “while the ink was still wet” Jefferson
took out subjects and put in citizens. <br>
<br>
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