1620 to 1700
Self-government practiced before anyone theorized it. People bound themselves to each other in writing because there was nobody else to do it for them.
IN the name of God, Amen. We whose names are vnder-written, the loyall Subiects of our dread soueraigne Lord King IAMES, by the grace of God of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having vnder-taken …
The Mayflower Compact
November 11, 1620
Compact | The forty one signers
GOD ALMIGHTY in his most holy and wise providence, hath soe disposed of the condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poore, some high and eminent in power and dignitie; others mean and in submission. …
A Modell of Christian Charity
1630, day unknown | Excerpt
Sermon | John Winthrop
Forasmuch as it hath pleased the Allmighty God by the wise disposition of his diuyne pruidence so to Order and dispose of things that we the Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, Harteford and Wethersfield are now cohabiting and dwelling in …
The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
January 14, 1639
Constitution | The inhabitants of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield
The free fruition of such liberties Immunities and priveledges as humanitie, Civilitie, and Christianitie call for as due to every man in his place and proportion without impeachment and Infringement hath ever bene and ever will be the tranquillitie and …
The Massachusetts Body of Liberties
December 1641 | Excerpt
Code of laws | Nathaniel Ward and the General Court of Massachusetts
FOR AS MUCH as Liberty is in real value next unto Life: None ought to part with it themselves, or deprive others of it, but upon most mature Consideration. The Numerousness of Slaves at this day in the Province, and …
The Selling of Joseph, A Memorial
June 24, 1700
Tract | Samuel Sewall
1741 to 1775
The pulpit builds the argument. A century of preaching supplies the terms the political case would later be made in.
Their foot shall slide in due time.
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
July 8, 1741 | Excerpt
Sermon | Jonathan Edwards
It is evident that the affair of civil government may properly fall under a moral and religious consideration, at least so far forth as it relates to the general nature and end of magistracy, and to the grounds and extent …
A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers
January 30, 1750 | Excerpt
Sermon | Jonathan Mayhew
Kings and kingdoms are the most majestic sounds in the language of mortals, and have filled the world with noise, confusions, and blood, since mankind first left the state of nature, and formed themselves into societies. The disputes of kingdoms …
The Mediatorial Kingdom and Glories of Jesus Christ
May 9, 1756 | Excerpt
Sermon | Samuel Davies
Shall we rejoice, my fathers and brethren, or shall we weep together, on the return of this anniversary, which from the first settlement of this colony has been sacred to liberty, to perpetuate that invaluable privilege of choosing from among …
Government Corrupted by Vice, and Recovered by Righteousness
May 31, 1775 | Excerpt
Sermon | Samuel Langdon
The Essential Rights and Liberties of Protestants
1744 | Not sourced
Elisha Williams
It belongs in this movement and we cannot yet publish it. Boston, printed and sold by S. Kneeland and T. Green in Queenstreet, 1744. Sixty six pages, signed Philalethes on the last. It is Evans 5520. The only digital copy we know of is in Evans Early American Imprints at the University of Michigan, record N04455, which we have not been able to reach. Evans records the author as Elisha Williams; the pamphlet has also been attributed to Thomas Cushing. The slot stays here, named and empty, until the text can be set from the sheets rather than described from a catalog.
1776 to 1781
The claim becomes a country. These are the documents everyone knows, and they read differently once you have read what came first.
I desire you would Remember the Ladies
Abigail Adams to John Adams
March 31, 1776
Letter | Abigail Adams
A DECLARATION of RIGHTS made by the representatives of the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and free Convention; which rights do pertain to them, and their posterity, as the basis and foundation of government. 1 THAT all men …
The Virginia Declaration of Rights
June 12, 1776
Declaration | George Mason
Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain …
The Lee Resolution
July 2, 1776
Resolution | The Second Continental Congress
The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves
General Orders, 2 July 1776
July 2, 1776
Orders | George Washington
The Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776
Declaration | Second Continental Congress
Articles of Capitulation settled between His Excellency General Washington Commander in Chief of the combined Forces of America and France—His Excellency the Count de Rochambeau, Lieutenant General of the Armies of the King of France—great Cross of the Royal & …
Articles of Capitulation, York, 19 October 1781
October 19, 1781
Capitulation | Earl Cornwallis, with the answers of the allied commanders
1781 forward
Winning was not the same as governing. These are the documents that built the instrument, argued over it in public, and set the limits its opponents demanded before they would agree to it.
To all to whom these Presents shall come, we, the undersigned Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send greeting. Whereas the Delegates of the United States of America in Congress assembled did on the fifteenth day of November …
The Articles of Confederation
November 15, 1777
Constitution | The Second Continental Congress
It having pleased the Divine Providence to dispose the Hearts of the most Serene and most Potent Prince George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, Duke of Brunswick …
The Treaty of Paris
September 3, 1783
Treaty | The United States and Great Britain
Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, That the said territory, for the purposes of temporary government, be one district, subject, however, to be divided into two districts, as future circumstances may, in the opinion of Congress, …
The Northwest Ordinance
July 13, 1787
Ordinance | The Confederation Congress
The Constitution of the United States
September 17, 1787
Constitution | The Federal Convention
To the People of the State of New York. After an unequivocal experience of the inefficacy of the subsisting Fœderal Government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks …
The Federalist No. 1
October 27, 1787
Essay | Alexander Hamilton
The Bill of Rights
December 15, 1791
Amendments | The First Congress
The library is built in four movements. Each document carries a headnote, and a note at the foot saying where the text comes from and what was done to it.
Next in the library 27 October, in 5 days. The Federalist No. 1, Alexander Hamilton.
Huzzah