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American Documents by Theme

THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1776)

  1. The Declaration of Independence
           
       
    BUILDING A GOVERNMENT
       
  2. The Mayflower Compact (1620)
     
  3. Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)
     
  4. Albany Plain of Union (1754)
     
  5. The Northwest Ordinance (1787)
      
  6. Constitution of the United States (1787)
     
  7. James Madison, The Federalist No. 10 (1787)
     
  8. The Judiciary Act of 1789
     
  9. Marbury v. Madison (1803)
     
  10. McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
      
      

    THE NATION GROWS

         

  11. Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural (1801)
     
  12. Black Hawk, Surrender Speech (1832)
     
  13. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)
     
  14. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance (1841)
     
  15. Dorothea Dix, Memorial to the Massachusetts Legislature (1843)
     
  16. Horace Mann, Report No. 12 of the Mass. School Board (1848)
     
  17. Seneca Falls Declaration (1848)
     
        

    THE CRISIS OF THE UNION

  18. American Anti-Slavery Society, Declaration of Sentiments (1833)
     
  19. Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (1846)
     
  20. Massachusetts Personal Liberty Act (1855)
     
  21. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
     
  22. Abraham Lincoln, "A House Divided" (1858)
     
  23. Sullivan Ballou, Letter to His Wife (1861)
     
  24. Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
     
  25. Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (1863)
     
  26. Ex parte Milligan (1866)
      
      

    INDUSTRIAL AMERICA

  27. Morrill Act (1862)
     
  28. Pendleton Act (1883)
     
  29. People's Party Platform (1896)
     
  30. Muller v. Oregon (1908)
     
  31. Theodore Roosevelt, The New Nationalism (1910)
     
  32. Woodrow Wilson, First Inaugural (1913)
     
     

    FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM

  33. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
     
  34. Harlan Fiske Stone, Carolene Products Footnote (1938)
     
  35. Harry S. Truman, Executive 9981 (1948)
     
  36. Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
     
  37. Cooper v. Aaron (1958)
     
  38. Martin Luther King Jr., "I Have a Dream" (1963)
     
  39. Civil Rights Act (1964)
     
  40. Lyndon B. Johnson, "The American Promise" (1965)
     
  41. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)
      
      

    FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

  42. Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786)
     
  43. Abrams v. United States (1919)
     
  44. Whitney v. California (1927)
     
  45. Near v. Minnesota (1931)
     
  46. West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)
     
  47. Engel v. Vitale (1962)
     
  48. New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)
     
      

    FACING THE WORLD

  49. George Washington, Farewell Address (1796)
     
  50. The Monroe Doctrine (1823)
      
  51. Woodrow Wilson, Fourteen Points Speech (1918)
     
  52. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address at Charlottesville (1940)
     
  53. The Atlantic Charter (1941)
     
  54. Foreign Aid and Human Rights (1976)
     
  55. Jimmy Carter, Human Rights and Foreign Policy (1977)
     
  56. Sanctions Against South Africa (1986)
      
       

    COLD WAR ISSUES

  57. The Marshall Plan (1947)
     
  58. Recall of Gen. Douglas MacArthur (1951)
     
  59. Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952)
     
  60. Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy (1954)
     
  61. Democracy and Foreign Policy (1990)
      
        
    A MORE INCLUSIVE AMERICA
     
  62. Bradwell v. Illinois (1873)
     
  63. Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus" (1883)
     
  64. Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886)
     
  65. Korematsu v. United States (1944)
     
  66. John F. Kennedy, Address to Southern Baptist Leaders (1960)
     
  67. Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
     
  68. Reynolds v. Sims (1964)
     
  69. NOW Statement of Purpose (1966)
     
  70. Clyde Warrior, "We Are Not Free" (1967)
     
  71. Maya Angelou, "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993)
     
         
      CONTINUING VITALITY
      
  72. United States v. Nixon (1974)
     
  73. Excerpts from Presidential Debates (1992)