Date:1787 Annotation: Toward the end of the Constitutional Convention, the delegates appointed a committee to revise and arrange the articles agreed upon by the House. Copies were printed and distributed to the delegates and few changes were made in the Committee of Style report. The Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787. Document: WE, the People of…

Annotation: The U.S.Constitution was ratified on September 17, 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philedelphia. Document: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do…

Date:1787 Annotation: Some of the bitterest controversies in post-Revolutionary American involved western land. Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, North and South Carolina, and Virginia insisted that their colonial charters extended their boundaries to the Mississippi River or beyond. Maryland, which had no western land claims, refused to approve the Articles of Confederation unless it received…

Date:1786 Annotation: The proceedings of a convention to consider revising the Articles of Confederation. Document: PROCEEDINGS OF COMMISSIONERS TO REMEDY DEFECTS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (1) ANNAPOLIS IN THE STATE OF MARYLAND SEPTEMBER 14th 1786 At a meeting of Commissioners, from the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia- Present New York ALEXANDER HAMILTON…

Author:   George Washington Date:1784 Annotation: Washington’s proclamation on the Whiskey Rebellion. Document: BY AUTHORITY By the president of the United States of America A PROCLAMATION Whereas, combinations to defeat the execution of the laws laying duties upon spirits distilled within the United States and upon stills have from the time of the commencement of those laws…

Date:1781 Annotation: After considerable debate and alteration, the Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777. This document served as the United States’ first constitution, and was in force from March 1, 1781, until 1789 when the present day Constitution went into effect. Document: To all to whom these Presents shall come,…

Author:   Thomas Jefferson Date:1779 Annotation: A bill concerning slaves in Virginia. Document: Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that no persons shall, henceforth, be slaves within this commonwealth, except such as were so on the first day of this present session of Assembly, and the descendants of the females of them. Negroes and mulattoes which…

Author:   John Adams Date:1776 Annotation: Thoughts on Government was written by John Adams during the spring of 1776 in response to a resolution of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina which requested Adams’s suggestions on the establishment of a new government and the drafting of a constitution. Document: MY DEAR SIR,–If I was equal to the…

Annotation: The Declaratory Act of 1766stated that the British Parliament’s taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain. Document: An act for the better securing the dependency of his majesty’s dominions in America upon the crown and parliament of Great Britain. Whereas several of the houses of representatives in his Majesty’s colonies and plantations…

Date:1765 Annotation: Resolutions on the Stamp Act, Massachusetts Assembly Document: WHEREAS the just rights of his majesty’s subjects of this province, derived to them from the British constitution as well as the royal charter, have been lately drawn into question: In order to ascertain the same, this house do unanimously come into the following resolves. I. Resolved,…