Important Documents

The British Plan Advertisement The Constitutional Convention was tasked with proposing amendments to the Articles of Confederation which would make it a more workable plan for national government. The Convention began with the text of the Virginia Plan and Charles Pinckney’s notes . New Jersey...

The New Jersey Plan Advertisement The Constitutional Convention was tasked with proposing amendments to the Articles of Confederation which would make it a more workable plan for national government. The Convention began with the text of the Virginia Plan and Charles Pinckney’s notes before them,...

Charles Pinckney’s Plan Advertisement The Constitutional Convention was tasked with proposing amendments to the Articles of Confederation which would make it a more workable plan for national government. James Madison, largely regarded as the Father of the Constitution, came to the Convention...

The Virginia Plan Advertisement The Constitutional Convention was tasked with proposing amendments to the Articles of Confederation which would make it a more workable plan for national government. Though the final product of the Convention was a replacement for the Articles, the first proposal was...

The Pledge of Allegiance Advertisement The Pledge of Allegiance was first published for Columbus Day, on September 8, 1892, in the Boston magazine The Youth’s Companion . It was written by a member of the magazine’s staff, Francis Bellamy. The publication of the Pledge, and its wide...

Message Board Posting Tips Advertisement The USConstitution.net messaging system uses the YaBB system for posting messages and replies. The YaBB system is used throughout the Internet and may already be familiar to many users. This document will offer some tips for posting, both from a technical...

Barack Obama’s Keynote Speech The 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston had one main purpose: to nominate Senator John Kerry to be the Democratic candidate for president. The party called on all speakers to tone down anti-George Bush rhetoric, hoping to prevent the party from being...

Other Constitutions and Constitutional Resources Advertisement The Constitution is presented in several formats on this site: As one large, HTML-enhanced document As a series of pages , one for each section and amendment In plain-text In Palm DOC format In enhanced TealDoc Palm DOC format PalmPilot...

Other Historical American Documents It is not my intention to become a repository for a grand collection of historical American documents. There are other sites that have a large collection and the resources to nurture such a project. However, there are some very important documents that are...

Madison’s Introduction of the Bill of Rights James Madison, is considered by many to be the father of the Constitution, and not without good reason . What is perhaps less well known is his role in the Bill of Rights , too. During the Convention, the delegates were mostly set against the inclusion...

The Magna Carta Advertisement Of all the documents that make up the ancestry of the Constitution , one of the oldest is the Magna Carta (also known as the Magna Charta or the Great Charter). It was created in 1215 in England. It was an agreement between King John and the nobility of the day. The...

The Massachusetts Government Act When Massachusetts was first chartered, a council of inhabitants was formed, the 28 members of which were to be chosen annually by the people of the colony. This bit of democratic representation was unique among the many colonies, and it was a right the people took...

The Mayflower Compact stories of survival, of relations with American Indians, of the first Thanksgiving, and of religious freedom found, are the stuff of American legend. One of the cornerstones of the Pilgrim ethos is the Mayflower Compact. The Pilgrims were a small group of people bound by...

The Miranda Warning Advertisement The Constitution reserves many rights for those suspected of crime. One of the fears of the Framers was that the government could act however it wished by simply saying an individual was a suspected criminal. Many of the rights in the Constitution and the Bill of...

The Emancipation Proclamation – Page 3 The Emancipation Proclamation, Page 3 More images

The Emancipation Proclamation – Page 4 The Emancipation Proclamation, Page 4 More images

The Emancipation Proclamation – Page 5 The Emancipation Proclamation, Page 5 More images

The Gettysburg Address – Page 1 The Gettysburg Address, Page 1 More images

The Gettysburg Address – Page 2 The Gettysburg Address, Page 2 More images

The Declaration of Rights and Grievances In March, 1774, the British Parliament passed a series of laws they referred to as the Coercive Acts. The Americans called them the Intolerable Acts. The Acts were primarily designed to punish the colony of Massachusetts for defying British policies;...