Knowing Our History, and The Minds That Shaped It: A Catalog Of Historical Documents

A great many political debates are rooted in the principles and legacy of our founding fathers, the documents, letters, actions and opinions they produced. It’s often not enough to just cite the constitution and bill of rights when trying to make a point. The pitfall of reinterpreting them in terms of modern times is often misleading and the attempts to co-opt Our legacy in terms of party ideology is dangerous. This thread is hereby established to make it easier to research and understand the mindset of the founders, and just exactly what they meant and thought about the documents they created.*

This list is the assemblage of contributions made by a multitude of posters from another forum, however, I have always considered this to be a work in progress. Suggestion for additions to the list are greatly welcomed.

UPDATE​

Links to the Consitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights

Declaration of Independence

Constitution Basics - National Constitution Center

National Constitution Center: Interactive Constitution*
This is one kick ass interactive version of the Constitution. Based on the annotated Constitution, it is searchable by topic, supreme court case, or keyword. Great resource tool. Ya gotta check this out.
The Bill of Rights*

Amendments 11-27 to The U.S. Constitution


Pre-American Documents of Influence


Articles of Confederation - National Constitution Center

Magna Carta
Cato's Letters*- Tried to find the entire collection on an impartial site, but this will do for now... the complete collection of Cato's letters.
The Virginia Declaration of Rights - National Constitution Center
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 by John Locke - Project Gutenberg
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 2 by John Locke - Project Gutenberg
Second Treatise of Government by John Locke - Project Gutenberg

Documents of the Continental Congress, Federalist and Constitutional Conventions


Federalist Papers
Index to Anti-Federalist Papers
Thomas Paine's Common Sense - Text Version

Landmark SCOTUS Decisions


http://www.jmu.edu/madison/center/ma...ial/bkgrnd.htm

General Resources

Online Library of Liberty - Founding Father's Library
Historical Documents and Speeches - Documents that Shaped America 1776 - 1882
The University of Oklahoma College of Law: A Chronology of US Historical Documents
Compilation of Historical American Documents - WallBuilders
America's Historical Documents
Founding Fathers of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Founding Fathers – Letters, Essays and other works

From Revolution to Reconstruction: Presidents:*Thomas Jefferson: Letters
The Writings of*Benjamin Franklin, Volume I: Boston and London, 1722 - 1726*Links to the rest of his writings and letters can be found at the bottom of this page.
Selected Works of*James Madison
Alexander Hamilton*. Document Database | The New-York Historical Society*A great site for all things Hamilton
Links to*Sam Adams'*Collected Works

Lectures, Classes and Documentaries surrounding the founding.

Badnarik Constitution Class Part 1
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 2
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 3
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 4
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 5
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 6
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 7

The Founders Opinions on Central Banking

Reference: Article 1 - The Legislative Branch
Section 10 - Powers Prohibited of States

The Avalon Project : Hamilton's Opinion as to the Constitutionality of the Bank of the United States, 1791

Confederate States Founding Documents


Ordanances of Secession of the 13 Confederate States of America

Re: Knowing Our History, and The Minds That Shaped It: A Catalog Of Historical Docume

A great many political debates are rooted in the principles and legacy of our founding fathers, the documents, letters, actions and opinions they produced. It’s often not enough to just cite the constitution and bill of rights when trying to make a point. The pitfall of reinterpreting them in terms of modern times is often misleading and the attempts to co-opt Our legacy in terms of party ideology is dangerous. This thread is hereby established to make it easier to research and understand the mindset of the founders, and just exactly what they meant and thought about the documents they created.*

This list is the assemblage of contributions made by a multitude of posters from another forum, however, I have always considered this to be a work in progress. Suggestion for additions to the list are greatly welcomed.

UPDATE​

Updating a dead link for Marbury v Madison.
Would like to hear some suggestions for resources to add to this list of historic documents...

Links to the Consitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights

Declaration of Independence

Constitution Basics - National Constitution Center

National Constitution Center: Interactive Constitution*
This is one kick ass interactive version of the Constitution. Based on the annotated Constitution, it is searchable by topic, supreme court case, or keyword. Great resource tool. Ya gotta check this out.
The Bill of Rights*

Amendments 11-27 to The U.S. Constitution


Pre-American Documents of Influence


Articles of Confederation - National Constitution Center

Magna Carta
Cato's Letters*- Tried to find the entire collection on an impartial site, but this will do for now... the complete collection of Cato's letters.
The Virginia Declaration of Rights - National Constitution Center
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 by John Locke - Project Gutenberg
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 2 by John Locke - Project Gutenberg
Second Treatise of Government by John Locke - Project Gutenberg

Documents of the Continental Congress, Federalist and Constitutional Conventions


Federalist Papers
Index to Anti-Federalist Papers
Thomas Paine's Common Sense - Text Version

Landmark SCOTUS Decisions


FindLaw Supreme Court Center: Landmark Decisions
In 1800, this landmark ruling established the SCOTUS as the final arbiter of Constitutional issues. Many see it as the first time the SCOTUS wielded power equal to the three other branches of government.

General Resources

Online Library of Liberty - Founding Father's Library
Historical Documents and Speeches - Documents that Shaped America 1776 - 1882
The University of Oklahoma College of Law: A Chronology of US Historical Documents
Compilation of Historical American Documents - WallBuilders
America's Historical Documents
Founding Fathers of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Founding Fathers – Letters, Essays and other works

From Revolution to Reconstruction: Presidents:*Thomas Jefferson: Letters
The Writings of*Benjamin Franklin, Volume I: Boston and London, 1722 - 1726*Links to the rest of his writings and letters can be found at the bottom of this page.
Selected Works of*James Madison
Alexander Hamilton*. Document Database | The New-York Historical Society*A great site for all things Hamilton
Links to*Sam Adams'*Collected Works

Lectures, Classes and Documentaries surrounding the founding.

Badnarik Constitution Class Part 1
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 2
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 3
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 4
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 5
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 6
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 7

The Founders Opinions on Central Banking

Reference: Article 1 - The Legislative Branch
Section 10 - Powers Prohibited of States

The Avalon Project : Hamilton's Opinion as to the Constitutionality of the Bank of the United States, 1791

Confederate States Founding Documents


Ordanances of Secession of the 13 Confederate States of America

Re: Knowing Our History, and The Minds That Shaped It: A Catalog Of Historical Docume

The major influence on the Jeffersonians were the English Oppositionists, so named for their opposition to 'Walpoleism'; Walpoleism was in turn the major influence on the Hamiltonian Federalists.

From Forrest MacDonald's The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson, page 19:

... Indeed, though the Jeffersonians borrowed some of their ideas from James Harrington and other seventeenth century writers and some from John Locke, their ideology was borrowed in toto from such Oppositionists as Charles Davenant, John Trenchard, Thomas Gordon, James Burgh, and most especially Henry St. John, First Viscount Bolingbroke. As a well-rounded system, it is all to be found in the pages of the Craftsman, an Oppositionist journal that Bolingbroke published from 1726 to 1737. The Republicans adjusted the ideology to fit the circumstances, to fit the Unites States Constitution and the "ministry" of Alexander Hamilton rather than the British Constitution and the ministry of Robert Walpole; but that was all, and astonishingly little adjustment was necessary.

Click to expand...

So, those journals are worth a read as well. I think they're at Google Books somewhere, though I don't know if the complete set is available or not.

Re: Knowing Our History, and The Minds That Shaped It: A Catalog Of Historical Docume

A great many political debates are rooted in the principles and legacy of our founding fathers, the documents, letters, actions and opinions they produced. It’s often not enough to just cite the constitution and bill of rights when trying to make a point. The pitfall of reinterpreting them in terms of modern times is often misleading and the attempts to co-opt Our legacy in terms of party ideology is dangerous. This thread is hereby established to make it easier to research and understand the mindset of the founders, and just exactly what they meant and thought about the documents they created.*

This list is the assemblage of contributions made by a multitude of posters from another forum, however, I have always considered this to be a work in progress. Suggestion for additions to the list are greatly welcomed.

UPDATE​

It's been a while since I did a comprehensive check of the links in the list and found a number of dead links. I believe most of them have been corrected now.

There is much yet to add to this list, just waiting for folks to contribute. Landmark SCOTUS decisions is a great section open to suggestions.

Links to the Consitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights

Declaration of Independence


National Constitution Center: Interactive Constitution*
This is one kick ass interactive version of the Constitution. Based on the annotated Constitution, it is searchable by topic, supreme court case, or keyword. Great resource tool. Ya gotta check this out. (The keyword search is currently not functioning, but still an awesome resource)
The Bill of Rights*

Amendments 11-27 to The U.S. Constitution


Pre-American Documents of Influence


Articles of Confederation - National Constitution Center

Magna Carta
Cato's Letters*- Tried to find the entire collection on an impartial site, but this will do for now... the complete collection of Cato's letters.
The Virginia Declaration of Rights - National Constitution Center
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 by John Locke - Project Gutenberg (now available in many formats; Kindle, eBook, HTML, etc)
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 2 by John Locke - Project Gutenberg (now available in many formats; Kindle, eBook, HTML, etc)
Second Treatise of Government by John Locke - Project Gutenberg (now available in many formats; Kindle, eBook, HTML, etc)

Documents of the Continental Congress, Federalist and Constitutional Conventions


Federalist Papers
Index to Anti-Federalist Papers
Thomas Paine's Common Sense - Text Version

Landmark SCOTUS Decisions


FindLaw Supreme Court Center: Landmark Decisions
In 1800, this landmark ruling established the SCOTUS as the final arbiter of Constitutional issues. Many see it as the first time the SCOTUS wielded power equal to the three other branches of government.

General Resources

Online Library of Liberty - Founding Father's Library
100 Milestone Documents
The University of Oklahoma College of Law: A Chronology of US Historical Documents
Compilation of Historical American Documents - WallBuilders
America's Historical Documents Cool site with high resolution images of actual documents
Founding Fathers of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Founding Fathers – Letters, Essays and other works

From Revolution to Reconstruction: Presidents:*Thomas Jefferson: Letters
The Writings of*Benjamin Franklin, Volume I: Boston and London, 1722 - 1726*Links to the rest of his writings and letters can be found at the bottom of this page.
Selected Works of*James Madison
Alexander Hamilton*. Document Database | The New-York Historical Society*A great site for all things Hamilton
Links to*Sam Adams'*Collected Works

Lectures, Classes and Documentaries surrounding the founding.

Badnarik Constitution Class Part 1
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 2
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 3
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 4
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 5
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 6
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 7

The Founders Opinions on Central Banking

Reference: Article 1 - The Legislative Branch
Section 10 - Powers Prohibited of States

The Avalon Project : Hamilton's Opinion as to the Constitutionality of the Bank of the United States, 1791

Confederate States Founding Documents


Ordanances of Secession of the 13 Confederate States of America

Re: Knowing Our History, and The Minds That Shaped It: A Catalog Of Historical Docume

A great many political debates are rooted in the principles and legacy of our founding fathers, the documents, letters, actions and opinions they produced. It’s often not enough to just cite the constitution and bill of rights when trying to make a point. The pitfall of reinterpreting them in terms of modern times is often misleading and the attempts to co-opt Our legacy in terms of party ideology is dangerous. This thread is hereby established to make it easier to research and understand the mindset of the founders, and just exactly what they meant and thought about the documents they created.*

This list is the assemblage of contributions made by a multitude of posters from another forum, however, I have always considered this to be a work in progress. Suggestion for additions to the list are greatly welcomed.

UPDATE​

It's been a while since I did a comprehensive check of the links in the list and found a number of dead links. I believe most of them have been corrected now.

There is much yet to add to this list, just waiting for folks to contribute. Landmark SCOTUS decisions is a great section open to suggestions.

Finally, some new additions, provided by LesGovt. "Notes on the Debates in the Federal Convention" and Elliot's Debates Home Page: U.S. Congressional Documents

Links to the Consitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights

Declaration of Independence


National Constitution Center: Interactive Constitution*
This is one kick ass interactive version of the Constitution. Based on the annotated Constitution, it is searchable by topic, supreme court case, or keyword. Great resource tool. Ya gotta check this out. (The keyword search is currently not functioning, but still an awesome resource)
The Bill of Rights*

Amendments 11-27 to The U.S. Constitution


Pre-American Documents of Influence


Articles of Confederation - National Constitution Center

Magna Carta
Cato's Letters*- Tried to find the entire collection on an impartial site, but this will do for now... the complete collection of Cato's letters.
The Virginia Declaration of Rights - National Constitution Center
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 by John Locke - Project Gutenberg (now available in many formats; Kindle, eBook, HTML, etc)
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 2 by John Locke - Project Gutenberg (now available in many formats; Kindle, eBook, HTML, etc)
Second Treatise of Government by John Locke - Project Gutenberg (now available in many formats; Kindle, eBook, HTML, etc)

Documents of the Continental Congress, Federalist and Constitutional Conventions


Federalist Papers
Index to Anti-Federalist Papers
Thomas Paine's Common Sense - Text Version
Avalon Project - Notes on the Debates in the Federal Convention
Elliot's Debates Home Page: U.S. Congressional Documents
Landmark SCOTUS Decisions


FindLaw Supreme Court Center: Landmark Decisions
In 1800, this landmark ruling established the SCOTUS as the final arbiter of Constitutional issues. Many see it as the first time the SCOTUS wielded power equal to the three other branches of government.

General Resources

Online Library of Liberty - Founding Father's Library
100 Milestone Documents
The University of Oklahoma College of Law: A Chronology of US Historical Documents
Compilation of Historical American Documents - WallBuilders
America's Historical Documents Cool site with high resolution images of actual documents
Founding Fathers of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Founding Fathers – Letters, Essays and other works

From Revolution to Reconstruction: Presidents:*Thomas Jefferson: Letters
The Writings of*Benjamin Franklin, Volume I: Boston and London, 1722 - 1726*Links to the rest of his writings and letters can be found at the bottom of this page.
Selected Works of*James Madison
Alexander Hamilton*. Document Database | The New-York Historical Society*A great site for all things Hamilton
Links to*Sam Adams'*Collected Works

Lectures, Classes and Documentaries surrounding the founding.

Badnarik Constitution Class Part 1
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 2
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 3
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 4
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 5
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 6
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 7

The Founders Opinions on Central Banking

Reference: Article 1 - The Legislative Branch
Section 10 - Powers Prohibited of States

The Avalon Project : Hamilton's Opinion as to the Constitutionality of the Bank of the United States, 1791

Confederate States Founding Documents


Ordanances of Secession of the 13 Confederate States of America

Re: Knowing Our History, and The Minds That Shaped It: A Catalog Of Historical Docume

Well... I usually consider a thread a "success" if it receives a view to post ratio of ten to one...

... however, this thread has a ratio of sixty-one to one. 244 views and four posts... and I think they're all mine.

There has been one contribution made recently by a DPF member (see last update), but the list is far from complete. The SCOTUS section alone is wide open.

Just thought I'd bring this up again to see if anyone has anything to add to this resource.

Re: Knowing Our History, and The Minds That Shaped It: A Catalog Of Historical Docume

I hadn't seen this before, what's it doing under History?

Re: Knowing Our History, and The Minds That Shaped It: A Catalog Of Historical Docume

American said:

I hadn't seen this before, what's it doing under History?

Click to expand...

Where would you suggest?