evidence: Actually, I think that's right, going through the records. And actually, Thomas Jefferson affirmed that. Not that Jefferson was there to witness it. That's another story. No one had argued and worked for independence longer or more strenuously than Adams. Thomas Jefferson, who by the summer of 1776 had been about a year a member of Congress, but had attended his duty in the House but a very small part of the time, and when there had never spoken in public. Nonetheless, as Adams complained in an earlier letter, Jefferson had run off with all the glory. It was even more annoying Thomas Paine was saying he was exclusively responsible for independence.