Historic Documents

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)
• The Constitution of the United States of America (September 17, 1787)
• Letter Of Transmittal (September 17, 1787)
• The Federalist Papers (1787-1788)
• The First Ten Amendments as Ratified (1789)
• Bill of Rights Preamble (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)

Foundations of the West (Ancient-1492)

• The Code of Hammurabi (1727-1680 B.C.)
• The Ten Commandments (1447 B.C.)
• The Constitutions of Clarendon (1164)
• The Magna Carta (June 15, 1215)
• The Declaration of Arbroath (1320)

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)
• An Apology for Printers (June 10, 1731)
• Defense of John Peter Zenger (August 4, 1735)
• The Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation (c. 1748)
• Albany Plan of Union (1754)
• Braddock's Defeat (b July 18, 1755)
• In Opposition to Writs of Assistance (b February 1761)

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)
• Letter from the Federal Convention President to the President of Congress, Transmitting the Constitution (September 17, 1787)
• Closing Speech at the Constitutional Convention (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)
• Marbury v. Madison (1803)
• Jefferson's Secret Message to Congress on the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803)
• Louisiana Purchase Treaty (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)
• The American Scholar (1837)
• Jackson's Farewell Address (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)
• Memorial to the Massachusetts Legislature (1843)
• Garnet's 'Call to Rebellion' (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)
• The Underground Railroad (1850)
• Compromise of 1850 (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)

Secession and War (1860-1865)

• South Carolina Declaration of Secession (December 24, 1860)
• Telegram Announcing the Surrender of Fort Sumter (1861)
• Declaration of Causes of Seceding States (1861)
• Constitution of the Confederate States of America (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 Pacific Railway Act (1862)
• The Morrill Act (1862)
• The Homestead 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)

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)
• Interstate Commerce Act (1887)
• Dawes Act (1887)
• Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)
• Address to the Atlanta Exposition (September 18, 1895)
• The People's [Populist] Party Platform (1896)
• Plessy v. Ferguson (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)
• The American's Creed (1917)
• Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Germany (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)
• Tennessee Valley Authority Act (1933)
• National Industrial Recovery Act (1933)
• Franklin D. Roosevelt -- 1st Inaugural Address (March 4, 1933)
• Social Security Act (1935)
• National Labor Relations Act (1935)
• 'We Have Only Just Begun to Fight' (October 31, 1936)
• 'We Shall Fight on the Beaches' (June 4, 1940)
• Lend-Lease Act (1941)
• The Four Freedoms (1941)
• The Atlantic Charter (1941)
• Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry (1941)
• Roosevelt's Infamy Speech (December 8, 1941)
• Executive Order 9066: Resulting in the Relocation of Japanese (1942)
• Servicemen's Readjustment Act (G.I. Bill) (1944)
• General Eisenhower's Order of the Day (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)
• Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964)
• Civil Rights Act (1964)
• Goldwater's Acceptance Speech for the Republican Presidential Nomination (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)