Founders’ Library

Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiastical and Civil (1651)

Thomas Hobbes | 1651

The Excellencie of a Free State (1656)

Marchamont Nedham | 1656

The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656)

James Harrington | 1656

The Whole Duty of Man According to the Law of Nature (1673)

Samuel von Pufendorf | 1673

A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) and Two Treatises on Government (1690)

John Locke | 1689

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)

John Locke | 1690

Discourses concerning Government (1698)

Algernon Sidney | 1698

Cato’s Letters (1720-23)

John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon | 1720

Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue

Francis Hutcheson | 1725

Letters concerning the English Nation (1733)

Voltaire | 1733

Argument in the Zenger Trial (1735)

John Peter Zenger | 1735

The 1735 trial of John Peter Zenger later shaped the Founding generation’s commitment to a free press.

Essays Moral, Political and Literary (1741-58)

David Hume | 1741

A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy (1747)

Francis Hutcheson | 1747

A Total Eclipse of Liberty (1755) and Appendix to A Total Eclipse (1756)

Daniel Fowle | 1755

The Law of Nations (1758)

Emmerich de Vattel | 1758

Against Writs of Assistance (1761)

James Otis | 1761

Instructions to Jasper Mauduit from the Massachusetts General Court (1762)

Massachusetts General Court | 1762

On Crimes and Punishments (1764)

Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria | 1764

Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. 1 The Rights of Persons (1765) and vol. 2, The Rights of Things (1766)

Sir William Blackstone | 1765

Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69)

William Blackstone | 1765

Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies (1768)

John Dickinson | 1768

Massachusetts Circular Letter (1768)

Samuel Adams and James Otis | 1768

Remarks on the Review of the Controversy Between Great Britain and Her Colonies (1771)

Edward Bancroft | 1771

Letter to Reverend Samuel Occum (1774)

Phillis Wheatley | 1774

The Constitution of England, or, An Account of the English Government (1771-75)

Jean-Louis de Lolme | 1775

Common Sense (1776)

Thomas Paine | 1776

Thoughts on Government (1776)

John Adams | 1776

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)

Adam Smith | 1776

Letter to John Adams (1776)

Abigail Adams | 1776

The Virginia Declaration of Rights

Virginia House of Delegates | 1776

The Declaration of Independence

Second Continental Congress | 1776

Pennsylvania Constitution (1776)

Pennsylvania Convention | 1776

Petition to the Massachusetts Legislature (1777)

Prince Hall | 1777

Letter to Gouverneur Morris (1777)

Alexander Hamilton | 1777

The Essex Result

Theophilus Parsons | 1778

A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom

Thomas Jefferson | 1779

Massachusetts Constitution (1780)

Massachusetts Constitutional Convention | 1780

Articles of Confederation (1781)

Continental Congress | 1781

Notes on the State of Virginia (1782)

Thomas Jefferson | 1782

Instructions to the Jury in the Quock Walker Case, Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Nathaniel Jennison (1783)

William Cushing | 1783

Newburgh Address (1783)

George Washington | 1783

The New Hampshire Bill of Rights

New Hampshire Constitutional Convention | 1784

Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments

James Madison | 1785

To the Public (1786)

James Iredell | 1786

Letter to Henry Knox (1786-1787)

George Washington | 1786

Vices of the Political System of the United States (1787)

James Madison | 1787

Madison and Wilson, Constitutional Convention Speeches (1787)

James Madison and James Wilson | 1787

Morris, Constitutional Convention Speeches (1787)

Gouverneur Morris | 1787

The Northwest Ordinance (1787)

Confederation Congress | 1787

Closing Speech at the Constitutional Convention (1787)

Benjamin Franklin | 1787

Speech at a Public Meeting in Philadelphia (1787)

James Wilson | 1787

Objections to the Constitution of Government formed by the Convention (1787)

George Mason | 1787

An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution (1787)

Noah Webster | 1787

Essay No. 1 (1787)

Brutus | 1787

Federalist 1 (1787)

Alexander Hamilton | 1787

Federalist 10 (1787)

James Madison | 1787

Federalist 37 (1788)

James Madison | 1788

Federalist 51 (1788)

James Madison | 1788

Federalist 55 (1788)

James Madison | 1788

Federalist 68, 70, 72 (1788)

Alexander Hamilton | 1788

Observations on the New Constitution (1788)

Mercy Otis Warren | 1788

Federalist 78 (1788)

Alexander Hamilton | 1788

Correspondence on a Bill of Rights (1787-1789)

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison | 1789

First Inaugural Address (1789)

George Washington | 1789

Speech in Support of Amendments (1789)

James Madison | 1789

Letter to the Society of Quakers (1789)

George Washington | 1789

Petition from the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery to the First Congress (1790)

Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery | 1790

Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island (1790)

George Washington | 1790

Farewell Address (1796)

George Washington | 1796

The Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)

Congress | 1797

The Virginia Resolutions (1798)

James Madison | 1798

First Inaugural Address (1801)

Thomas Jefferson | 1801

The Louisiana Purchase, Treaty Between the United States of America and the French Republic (1803)

Robert Livingston, James Monroe and Barbé Marbois | 1803

Speech at Vincennes (1810)

Tecumseh | 1810

Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829)

David Walker | 1829

Indian Removal Act (1830)

Congress | 1830

Bank Veto Message (1832)

Andrew Jackson | 1832

The Constitution is not a Compact (1833)

Daniel Webster | 1833

American Anti-Slavery Society Declaration of Sentiments (1833)

American Anti-Slavery Society | 1833

The Gag Rules (1835-1840)

House of Representatives | 1835

The Rights of Colored Men (1838)

William Yates | 1838

Speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield (1838)

Abraham Lincoln | 1838

Seneca Falls Declaration (1848)

Seneca Falls Convention | 1848

The Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

Congress | 1850

Speech to the Women’s Rights Convention, Assembled in Worcester, MA (1851)

Clarina I. Nichols | 1851

Proceedings of the State Convention of Colored People, Held at Albany, New York (1851)

State Convention of Colored People | 1851

Petition to California Governor John Bigler (1852 )

Norman Asing | 1852

Massachusetts Personal Liberty Act (1855)

Commonwealth of Massachusetts | 1855

A Sketch of the Early History of Kenosha County, Wisconsin, and of the Western Emigration Company (1856), recounting the settlement of this area in the 1830s

Jason Lothrop | 1856

Opinion of the Maryland Court of Appeals, Hughes v. Jackson, 12 Md. 450 (1858)

John Carroll LeGrand | 1858

The Constitution: Is it Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery? (1860)

Frederick Douglass | 1860

South Carolina Declaration of Secession (1860)

State of South Carolina | 1860

Cooper Institute Address (1860)

Abraham Lincoln | 1860

A Plea for Free Speech in Boston (1860)

Frederick Douglass | 1860

A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union (1861)

State of Mississippi | 1861

First Inaugural Address and Message to the Special Session of the 37th Congress (1861)

Abraham Lincoln | 1861

Contemporary Documents on the District Emancipation Bill (1862)

Various | 1862

District of Columbia Emancipation Act 1862

Congress | 1862

Homestead Act, “An Act to Secure Homesteads to Actual Settlers on the Public Domain” (1862)

Congress | 1862

Retaliation Order (1863)

Abraham Lincoln | 1863

Freedmen’s Bureau Bill, “An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees” (1865)

Congress | 1865

Second Inaugural Address (1865)

Abraham Lincoln | 1865

Equal Suffrage: Address from the Colored Citizens of Norfolk, Va. to the People of the United States (1865)

Colored Citizens of Norfolk, Va. | 1865

Black Codes (1865)

Mississippi and South Carolina | 1865

Report on the Condition of the South (1865)

Carl Schurz | 1865

Speech Introducing the Fourteenth Amendment (1866)

Thaddeus Stevens | 1865

Speech Introducing the Fourteenth Amendment to the Senate (1866)

Jacob Howard | 1866

One Country, One Constitution, One People (1866)

John Bingham | 1866

Civil Rights Act of 1866, “An Act to protect all Persons in the United States in their Civil Rights, and furnish the Means of their Vindication”

Congress | 1866

Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction (1866)

| 1866

Harpers’ Weekly, “The Massacre in New Orleans,” (1866)

Harpers’ Weekly | 1866

One Man Power vs. Congress (1866)

Charles Sumner | 1866

“Reconstruction” in Atlantic Monthly 18 (1866)

Frederick Douglass | 1866

Reconstruction Acts (1867-1868)

Congress | 1868

Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, “An Act to enforce the Provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other Purposes”

Congress | 1871

United States of America v. Susan B. Anthony: Closing Arguments (1873)

Susan B. Anthony | 1873

Civil Rights Act of 1875, “An Act to Protect All Citizens in Their Civil and Legal Rights”

Congress | 1875

Narrative of Sojourner Truth, “Washington Streetcar System,” (1881)

Sojourner Truth | 1881

Remarks on Chinese Immigration (1882), 13 Cong. Rec. 1515–22

George Frisbie Hoar | 1882

Political Recollections, 1840-1872 (1884)

George Washington Julian | 1884

Address of Mr. Justice Field, The Centenary of the Supreme Court (1890)

Stephen J. Field | 1890

Populist Party Platform (1892)

Populist Party | 1892

Remarks on Direct Election of Senators (1892)

Omer Kem | 1892

The Nation’s Safeguard (1893)

David J. Brewer | 1893

Statement on the Supreme Court’s Verdict Upholding the Injunction (1895)

Eugene V. Debs | 1895

“After the War,” Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers (1902)

Susie King Taylor | 1902

The Spirit of American Government (1907)

J. Allen Smith | 1907

Constitutional Government in the United States (1908)

Woodrow Wilson | 1908

The Promise of American Life (1909)

Herbert Croly | 1909

Platform Adopted by National Negro Committee (1909)

NAACP | 1909

Remarks on Taxation (1909)

Cordell Hull | 1909

Liberty of Contract (1909)

Roscoe Pound | 1909

The New Nationalism (1911)

Theodore Roosevelt | 1910

The New Freedom (1913)

Woodrow Wilson | 1913

An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (1913)

Charles A. Beard | 1913

True Americanism: Fourth of July Oration (1915)

Louis D. Brandeis | 1915

Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act of 1918 (1917-1918)

Congress | 1917

Speech Against the Eighteenth Amendment (1917)

Henry Cabot Lodge | 1917

“Freedom of Speech” (1918)

Zechariah Chafee, Jr. | 1918

Principles and Ideals of the United States Government, Campaign Speech, Madison Square Garden (1928)

Herbert Hoover | 1928

Address on Constitution Day (1937)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt | 1937

Statement by a Man Described as “an Older Nisei” During an Interview in the Manzanar Internment Camp (1943)

Morris E. Opler | 1943

Statement by the President Announcing the Use of the A-Bomb at Hiroshima (1945)

Harry S. Truman | 1945

Individualism and Economic Order (1948)

Friedrich A. von Hayek | 1948

Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948)

Harry S. Truman | 1948

The Struggle for Human Rights (1948)

Eleanor Roosevelt | 1948

1984 (1949)

George Orwell | 1949

Dissenting Opinion in Briggs v. Elliott (1951)

Judge J. Waties Waring | 1951

Speech for the “One Hundred Percent Wrong Club” Banquet (1956)

Branch Rickey | 1956

Up from Liberalism (1959)

William F. Buckley, Jr. | 1959

To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)

Nelle Harper Lee | 1960

The Military-Industrial Complex Speech (1961)

Dwight D. Eisenhower | 1961

Eulogy for Medgar Evers (1963)

T.R.M. Howard | 1963

The Ballot or the Bullet (1964)

Malcolm X | 1964

Debate in Union Hall, Cambridge University (1965)

James Baldwin and William F. Buckley | 1965

Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence (1967)

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | 1967

This Country was a Lot Better Off When Indians Were Running It (1970)

Vine Deloria Jr. | 1970

The Negro Woman’s Stake in the Equal Rights Amendment (1971)

Pauli Murray | 1971

Neutral Principles and Some First Amendment Problems (1971)

Robert H. Bork | 1971

Remarks on East-West Relations at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin (1987)

Ronald Reagan | 1987

The Constitution’s Bicentennial: Commemorating the Wrong Document? (1987)

Thurgood Marshall | 1987

West’s Doors Closing (1993)

Patrick Buchanan | 1993

The Internet Tidal Wave (1995)

Bill Gates | 1995

A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace (1996)

John Perry Barlow | 1996

Boston and Busing (1999)

Michael Patrick McDonald | 1999

An Act Relating to Civil Unions (2000)

Vermont | 2000