Historic Documents - PatriotPost.US

Historic Documents

"It is the duty of every good citizen to use all the opportunities which occur to him, for preserving documents relating to the history of our country." —Thomas Jefferson, 1823

Founding Documents

The Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)
The Articles of Confederation (November 15, 1777)
The New Jersey Plan (June 15, 1787)
Hamilton’s Plan of Union (June 18, 1787)
Letter Of Transmittal (September 17, 1787)
The Constitution of the United States of America (September 17, 1787)
The Federalist Papers (1787-1788)
Bill of Rights Preamble (1789)
The First Ten Amendments as Ratified (1789)
Madison's Proposal for the Bill of Rights (June 8, 1789)
The Bill of Rights (December 15, 1791)
Amendments 11-27 to the Constitution of the United States (February 7, 1795)
In Other Words: The Federalist Papers in Modern Language (1999)
A Note on the Signers of The Declaration of Independence

Foundations of the West (Ancient-1492)

Exploration and the Colonial Era (1492-1765)

Privileges and Prerogatives Granted by Their Catholic Majesties to Christopher Columbus (1492)
The Letter of Columbus to Luis De Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery (1493)
A Letter from Christopher Columbus to the King and Queen of Spain (1494)
Ninety-Five Theses (October 31, 1517)
The Augsburg Confession (1530)
Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh (March 25, 1584)
The Colony At Roanoke (1586)
Elizabeth I's Speech to the Troops at Tilbury (1588)
Constitution of the Iroquois Nations (Late 16th century)
The First Virginia Charter (April 10, 1606)
The Settlement Of Jamestown (1607)
The Second Virginia Charter (May 23, 1609)
The Third Virginia Charter (March 12, 1612)
The Mayflower Compact (1620)
How The Pilgrims Lived (1621)
Charter Of Massachusetts Bay (1629)
The Act of Surrender of the Great Charter of New England to His Majesty (1635)
Agreement of the Settlers at Exeter in New Hampshire (1639)
The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (January 14, 1639)
Fundamental Agreement, or Original Constitution of the Colony of New Haven (June 4, 1639)
The Articles of Confederation of the United Colonies of New England (May 19, 1643)
Maryland Toleration Act of 1649 (September 21, 1649)
Connecticut Colony Charter (1662)
The First Thanksgiving Proclamation (June 20, 1676)
English Bill of Rights (1689)
The Second Treatise of Government (1690)
An Apology for Printers (June 10, 1731)
Defense of John Peter Zenger (August 4, 1735)
Washington's Rules of Civility (c. 1748)
Albany Plan of Union (1754)
Braddock's Defeat (b July 18, 1755)
In Opposition to Writs of Assistance (b February 1761)
The Way to Wealth (1758)

Independence and the Early State (1765-1789)

Resolutions of the Stamp Act (October 19, 1765)
Anonymous Account of the Boston Massacre (March 5, 1770)
Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress (October 14, 1774)
Yankee Doodle (1775)
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death! (March 23, 1775)
Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (July 6, 1775)
Common Sense (1776)
The Lee Resolution (June 7, 1776)
Virginia Declaration of Rights (June 12, 1776)
General Orders (July 2, 1776)
Samuel Adams Advocates American Independence (August 1, 1776)
Treaty of Alliance with France (1778)
George III's Letter on the Loss of America (c. 1780)
The Commerce Between Master and Slave (1782)
Contract Between the King and the Thirteen United States of North America (1782) (July 16, 1782)
Speech to Officers at Newburgh (1783)
Treaty of Paris (1783)
Declarations for Suspension of Arms and Cessation of Hostilities (January 20, 1783)
Contract Between the King and the Thirteen United States of North America (1783) (February 25, 1783)
Proclamation Declaring the Cessation of Arms (April 11, 1783)
Memorial and Remonstrance (June 20, 1785)
The Religious Freedom Statute (1786)
The Annapolis Convention (Sept. 14, 1786)
Northwest Ordinance (1787)
The Virginia Plan (May 29, 1787)
The North-west Ordinance (July 13, 1787)
Closing Speech at the Constitutional Convention (September 17, 1787)
Letter from the Federal Convention President to the President of Congress, Transmitting the Constitution (September 17, 1787)
Speech in Defense of the Ratification of the Constitution (June 6, 1788)
On the Adoption of the Constitution (June 24, 1788)
Federal Judiciary Act (1789)
Washington's First Inaugural Address (April 30, 1789)

Antebellum America (1789-1860)

First Thanksgiving Proclamation (October 3, 1789)
Washington's First State of the Union Address (January 8, 1790)
Militia Act of 1792 (May 2, 1792)
The Fugitive Slave Law (1793)
The Proclamation of Neutrality (April 22, 1793)
The Treaty of Greenville (August 3, 1795)
Washington's Farewell Address (September 17, 1796)
Inaugural Address of John Adams (Saturday, March 4, 1797)
Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)
Daniel Boone Settles Kentucky (c. 1800)
Jefferson's First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1801)
Letter to the Danbury Baptists (January 1, 1802)
Jefferson's Secret Message to Congress on the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803)
Louisiana Purchase Treaty (1803)
Marbury v. Madison (1803)
Tecumseh to Governor Harrison at Vincennes (August 12, 1810)
Sleep not longer, O Choctaws and Chickasaws (1811)
War of 1812 (June 18, 1812)
A British Account of the Burning of Washington (1814)
Treaty of Ghent (1814)
The Burning of Washington (August 23, 1814)
Star Spangled Banner (September 14th, 1814)
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
The Missouri Compromise (1820)
Address on U.S. Foreign Policy (July 4, 1821)
How a Log Cabin Was Built (1822)
The Monroe Doctrine (December 2, 1823)
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
Jackson's Message to Congress 'On Indian Removal' (1830)
Second Reply to Hayne (January 26, 1830)
To The Public (January 1, 1831)
Proclamation Regarding Nullification (December 10, 1832)
American Anti-Slavery Society's Declaration of Sentiments (1833)
Democracy in America, Volume 1, Part A (1835)
Democracy in America, Volume I, Part B (1835)
Message to the Seminoles (February 16, 1835)
Jackson's Farewell Address (1837)
The American Scholar (1837)
The Concord Hymn (1837)
The Lyceum Address (January 27, 1838)
Democracy in America, Volume II, Part A (1840)
Democracy in America, Volume II, Part B (1840)
Self Reliance (1841)
Garnet's 'Call to Rebellion' (1843)
Memorial to the Massachusetts Legislature (1843)
Peter Wilson (Waowawanaonk) on The Empire State (May 4, 1847)
Report No. 12 of the Massachusetts School Board (1848)
Seneca Falls Declaration (1848)
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 2, 1848)
Keynote Address at Seneca Falls (July 19, 1848)
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849)
Compromise of 1850 (1850)
The Underground Railroad (1850)
The Clay Compromise Measures (March 4, 1850)
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? (July 5, 1852)
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
Speech on the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise at Peoria, Illinois (October 16, 1854)
Massachusetts Personal Liberty Act (1855)
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
"House Divided" Speech (June 16, 1858)
The Death of John Brown (1859)
John Brown's Speech to the Court at his Trial (November 2, 1859)
The Fall Of The Alamo (1860)
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (1860)
Address at Cooper Institute, New York City (February 27, 1860)
A Plea for Free Speech in Boston (December 10, 1860)
James Madison’s Proclamation - Humiliation and Prayer (July 9, 1812)
Jefferson’s Decalogue of Canons (February 21, 1825)

Secession and War (1860-1865)

South Carolina Declaration of Secession (December 24, 1860)
Constitution of the Confederate States of America (1861)
Declaration of Causes of Seceding States (1861)
Telegram Announcing the Surrender of Fort Sumter (1861)
The Battle Hymn of the Republic (1861)
Farewell Speech to the United States Congress (January 21, 1861)
Georgia Secession (January 29, 1861)
A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union (February 2, 1861)
Lincoln's Farewell Address to Springfield (February 11, 1861)
Jefferson Davis, 1st Innaugural Address (February 18, 1861)
Lincoln's First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1861)
The Homestead Act (1862)
The Morrill Act (1862)
The Pacific Railway Act (1862)
Jefferson Davis, 2nd Innaugural Address (February 22, 1862)
The Emancipation Proclamation (September 22, 1862)
War Department General Order 143: Creation of the U.S. Colored Troops (1863)
The Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863)
The Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
Articles of Agreement Relating to the Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia (1865)
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (April 10, 1865)
Robert E. Lee's Farewell Address to the Army of Northern Virginia (April 10, 1865)

Reconstruction and Westward Expansion (1865-1914)

Ex parte Milligan (1866)
Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage (January 1867)
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
The Great Chicago Fire (October 14, 1871)
Act Establishing Yellowstone National Park (1872)
Woman's Rights to the Suffrage (1873)
Surrender Speech to the U.S. Army at Bears Paw Battle (October 5, 1877)
Reasons for Being a Republican (September 28, 1880)
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Pendleton Act (1883)
The New Colossus (1883)
Not Yours to Give (1884)
Memorial Day Address (May 30, 1884)
Dawes Act (1887)
Interstate Commerce Act (1887)
Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)
Address to the Atlanta Exposition (September 18, 1895)
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
The People's [Populist] Party Platform (1896)
Cross of Gold (July 9, 1896)
De Lôme Letter (1897)
Joint Resolution on the Annexation of the Hawaiian Islands (1898)
The Strenuous Life (April 10, 1899)
Against Imperialism (August 8, 1900)
Platt Amendment (1903)
Theodore Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (December 6, 1904)
Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1905)
On American Motherhood (March 13, 1905)
The San Francisco Earthquake (April 19, 1906)
Speech at Harpers Ferry: The Niagara Movement (August 16, 1906)
Muller v. Oregon (1908)
Lynching: A National Crime (April 1909)
The New Nationalism (1910)

The Modern State and Foreign Engagement (1914-1945)

The Fundamental Principle of a Republic (June 21, 1915)
Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 (1916)
Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Germany (1917)
The American's Creed (1917)
Zimmermann Telegram (1917)
Address to the Jury (July 9, 1917)
Free Speech in Wartime (October 6, 1917)
The Balfour Declaration (November 2, 1917)
Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points (1918)
The Espionage Act (May 16, 1918)
Senate Speech Against the League of Nations (August 12, 1919)
Boulder Canyon Project Act (1928)
National Industrial Recovery Act (1933)
Tennessee Valley Authority Act (1933)
Franklin D. Roosevelt -- 1st Inaugural Address (March 4, 1933)
National Labor Relations Act (1935)
Social Security Act (1935)
'We Have Only Just Begun to Fight' (October 31, 1936)
Letter from FDR to President of National Federation of Federal Employees (August 16, 1937)
'We Shall Fight on the Beaches' (June 4, 1940)
Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry (1941)
Lend-Lease Act (1941)
The Atlantic Charter (1941)
The Four Freedoms (1941)
Roosevelt's Infamy Speech (December 8, 1941)
Executive Order 9066: Resulting in the Relocation of Japanese (1942)
General Eisenhower's Order of the Day (1944)
Servicemen's Readjustment Act (G.I. Bill) (1944)
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Call to Prayer (June 6, 1944)
Korematsu v. United States (December 18, 1944)
Surrender of Germany (1945)
Surrender of Japan (1945)
Roosevelt's Fourth Inaugural Address (January 20, 1945)
Statement on the Bombing of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945)
International Organizations Immunities Act (December 9, 1945)
United Nations Participation Act (December 20, 1945)

Cold War, Cultural Upheaval, and the Reagan Era (1945-1991)

"Iron Curtain" Speech (March 5, 1946)
Participation in UNESCO (July 30, 1946)
Truman Doctrine (1947)
The Marshall Plan (June 5, 1947)
Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948)
Government Press Release Announcing U.S. Recognition of Israel (1948)
North Atlantic Treaty (April 4, 1949)
Amendment of United Nations Participation Act (October 10, 1949)
'Enemies From Within' Speech at Wheeling, West Virginia (February 9, 1950)
Recall of General Douglas MacArthur (April 16, 1951)
Eisenhower's First Inaugural Address (January 20, 1953)
Armistice Agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State (July 27, 1953)
Senate Resolution 301: Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy (1954)
Brown v. Board of Education (May 17, 1954)
National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (1956)
Eisenhower's Second Inaugural Address (January 21, 1957)
Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School (September 24, 1957)
Cooper v. Aaron (Brown II) (1958)
The Sharon Statement (1960)
Kennedy's Address to Southern Baptist Leaders (September 12, 1960)
Executive Order 10924: Establishment of the Peace Corps (1961)
President Kennedy Appeals to the Congress for a Tax Cut (1961)
Eisenhower's Farewell Address (January 17, 1961)
John F. Kennedy -- 1961 Inaugural Address (January 20, 1961)
Glenn's Official Communication with the Command Center (1962)
MacArthur's Farewell Speech to West Point (May 12, 1962)
Statement on the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 22, 1962)
Test Ban Treaty (1963)
Letter from Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963)
I Have a Dream (August 28, 1963)
Civil Rights Act (1964)
Goldwater's Acceptance Speech for the Republican Presidential Nomination (1964)
Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964)
A Time for Choosing (October 27, 1964)
Voting Rights Act (1965)
Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968)
'Vietnamization' (November 3, 1969)
Vietnam War Testimony to the House Foreign Relations Committee (April 22, 1971)
War Powers Resolution (1973)
Roe v. Wade (January 22, 1973)
United States v. Nixon (1974)
Reagan's Speech to the 1976 Republican National Convention (1976)
Reagan's Acceptance Speech to the 1980 Republican National Convention (1980)
'Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!' (July 17, 1980)
Reagan's First Inaugural Address (January 20, 1981)
Ronald Reagan -- Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (1983)
The Evil Empire (March 8, 1983)
Reagan's Remarks at Pointe du Hoc on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day (June 6, 1984)
Reagan's Second Inaugural Address (January 21, 1985)
Executive Order 12612: Reagan's Executive Order on Federalism (October 26, 1987)
Texas v. Johnson (1989)
Democracy and Foreign Policy (1990)

Contemporary America (1991-Present)

Statement Announcing Operation Desert Storm (January 16, 1991)
Executive Summary of the Final Report of the Iran-Contra Investigation (1993)
Contract With America (1994)
Statement by the President following the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks (September 11, 2001)
Remarks at National Day of Prayer and Remembrance (September 13, 2001)
Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People (September 20, 2001)
Commencement of Military Strikes Against al Qaeda and the Taliban (October 7, 2001)

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