Important Documents

August 6 Draft of the Constitution Advertisement On Tuesday, July 24, 1787, the Constitutional Convention appointed members to the Committee of Detail . The Committee was tasked with taking all of the points debated by the Convention up to that point and constructing a document that could be used...

September 12 Draft of the Constitution Advertisement On Saturday, September 8, 1787, the Constitutional Convention appointed members to the Committee of Style and Arrangement . The Committee was tasked with taking the August 6 draft and editing it to include all points decided by the Convention,...

Constitution of the People’s Republic of China Advertisement The following is the complete text of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, as adopted on December 4, 1982. The electronic text was acquired from the The Wiretap Electronic Text Archive and was marked up for Web display...

The Boston Port Act Advertisement In 1773, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea in America without any duty. The act was partially passed because the East India Company’s imports of tea into America had declined sharply during the...

The Administration of Justice Act

Advertisement Worried by the courts that convened in America and in Massachusetts in particular, and their bias toward the colonists over their British governors, on May 20, 1774, the Parliament passed the Administration of Justice Act. It provided that the governor of Massachusetts had the...

The signers of America’s first constitution, the Articles of Confederation , are less well-known than those of the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence , but they are no less important to our history. Some basic demographic information about these men is presented below. Name State...