Ben Franklin Helped Edit the Declaration While Laid Up With Gout

Benjamin Franklin was appointed to the Committee of Five in June 1776 to help draft the Declaration of Independence. But for much of the work, Franklin was not in the room.

He was suffering from what he called “a severe Fit of the Gout,” a painful form of arthritis that often affects the feet and joints. Franklin spent part of that period recovering outside Philadelphia and missed some meetings of Congress and the drafting committee.

Still, he was not absent from the work entirely. Thomas Jefferson sent Franklin a draft of the Declaration, and Franklin reviewed it. His edits were small but important.

One of the best-known changes came in Jefferson’s famous line about truths being “sacred and undeniable.” Franklin suggested changing it to “self-evident,” giving the Declaration one of its most memorable phrases: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”

It was a very Franklin moment: sharp, efficient, and useful, even while he was in pain.

The gout did not end with the Revolution. By the time of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Franklin was 81 and often in poor health. He attended as a delegate from Pennsylvania, but he was sometimes carried to the convention in a sedan chair. Some historical accounts say the chair was carried by prisoners from a nearby jail.

Franklin may not have been the loudest voice in every meeting, but his influence was still felt. Whether editing from a sickbed or arriving at the convention by chair, he remained one of the most important figures in the founding of the United States.