The Washington Post reports that Thomas Jefferson had originally written “subjects” and not “citizens” in an early draft of the Declaration of Independence. The Post reports,
“Many words were crossed out and replaced in the draft, but only one was obliterated.
Over the smudge, Jefferson then wrote the word “citizens.”
No longer subjects to the crown, the colonists became something different: a people whose allegiance was to one another, not to a faraway monarch.
Scholars of the revolution have long speculated about the “citizens” smear — wondering whether the erased word was “patriots” or “residents” — but now the Library of Congress has determined that the change was far more dramatic. “
It is interesting that such a discovery was announced over Independence Day weekend and at a time when the federal government – as well as State & Municipal governments – are taking more and more power. Do you feel more like a “citizen” or a “subject”? Before answering you should remember that “Big Brother is watching you!”