The Founding Ten

Ten documents from 1620 to 1791, read in order: a people agreeing to govern themselves, then writing down the terms, testing them, and writing them again.

Begin with The Mayflower Compact

1. The Mayflower Compact

   November 11, 1620

   Men with no charter for the ground they landed on agree to govern themselves.

2. The Virginia Declaration of Rights

   June 12, 1776

   Rights stated before a government is framed, not granted by it.

3. The Lee Resolution

   July 2, 1776

   The motion that turned independence from an argument into a vote.

4. The Declaration of Independence

   July 4, 1776

   The reasons, written for the world to judge.

5. The Articles of Confederation

   November 15, 1777

   The first frame of the union, a league of states whose Congress could ask for money but not tax.

6. The Treaty of Paris

   September 3, 1783

   Britain recognizes American independence, and the new nation's boundaries are drawn.

7. The Northwest Ordinance

   July 13, 1787

   How new states would join as equals, and where slavery could not go.

8. The Constitution of the United States

   September 17, 1787

   The second attempt, with powers enumerated and divided.

9. The Federalist No. 1

   October 27, 1787

   Publius opens the case for the Constitution by treating ratification as a test of whether a people can choose its own government.

10. The Bill of Rights

    December 15, 1791

    The price of ratification, and the limits written in.