An excellent piece written in 2004 for The New York Times by Walter Isaacson. Here is an excerpt but take the time to go read it all — it is our nation’s birthday after all.
Where did these axioms come from? At first, the founders foundered a bit in figuring that out. “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable,” Jefferson wrote in his initial rough draft. Franklin crossed this out with his heavy printer’s pen and changed it to “we hold these truths to be self-evident.” Drawing on the concepts of his friend David Hume, Franklin believed that the truths were grounded in rationality and reason, not in the dictates or dogma of any particular religion.
Similarly, Jefferson originally noted that “from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable.” John Adams, a product of Puritan Massachusetts, appears to be the one who suggested that this be amended to, “they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” But whatever the provenance of these basic premises, it was clear what this meant for the role and the legitimacy of governments: “To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” A nice concept.