We hold these truths: documents of American democracy

The Mayflower Compact, 1620

The Hartford constitution, 1639

The Albany plan of union, 1754 / Benjamin Franklin

Declaration and resolves of the First Continental Congress, 1774

"Give me liberty, or give me death!" / Patrick Henry

Appendix to "Common sense", 1776 / Thomas Paine

The Virginia bill of rights, 1776

Resolution for American independence, 1776

The Declaration of Independence, 1776 / Thomas Jefferson

The crisis, 1776 / Thomas Paine

The Massachusetts bill of rights, 1780

The Articles of confederation, 1777-1781

The federalist, No. X, 1787 / James Madison

The Constitution of the United States, 1787

First inaugural address, 1789 / George Washington

Farewell address, 1796 / George Washington

First inaugural address, 1801 / Thomas Jefferson

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams on natural aristocracy, 1813

McCulloch v. Maryland: opinion of John Marshall for the Supreme Court, 1819

The Monroe doctrine / James Monroe

First inaugural address, 1829 / Andrew Jackson

Reply to Robert Hayne, 1830 / Daniel Webster

Barron v. Baltimore: opinion of John Marshall for the Supreme Court, 1833

The compromise of 1850 / Henry Clay

Speech on the slavery question, 1850 / John C. Calhoun

The Constitution and the union, 1850 / Daniel Webster

The Dred Scott Case: opinion of Roger Brooke Taney for the Supreme Court, 1857

"House divided" speech / Abraham Lincoln

First inaugural address, 1861 / Abraham Lincoln

The Emancipation proclamation, 1863 / Abraham Lincoln

Gettysburg Address, 1863 / Abraham Lincoln

Second inaugural address, 1865 / Abraham Lincoln

American democracy, 1870 / Walt Whitman

North American relations with South America, 1881 / James G. Blaine

The significance of the frontier in American history, 1893 / Frederick Jackson Turner

The open door in China, 1899, 1900 / John Hay

Corollary to the Monroe doctrine, 1904, 1905 / Theodore Roosevelt

Free speech in wartime, 1917 / Robert M. LaFollette

The fourteen points, 1918 / Woodrow Wilson

Schenck v. United States: opinion of Oliver Wendell Holmes for the Supreme Court, 1919

Near v. Minnesota: opinion of Charles E. Hughes for the Supreme Court, 1931

First inaugural address, 1933 / Franklin D. Roosevelt

Credo, 1940 / Thomas Wolfe.