HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS: 18th Century
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There
is probably no need to point out that this page will be added to. Maps
are provided from the
Perry-Castañeda
Map Library at the University of Texas and the
Atlas
Section of the History Department United States Military
Academy. |
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1776 | $
Common
Sense [PDF]: Thomas Paine [1737-1809]
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Published
January 10, Common Sense is Paine's argument for revolution
and independence. |
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1776 | $
Lee
Resolution |
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On
June 7, Richard Henry Lee's resolution, seconded by John Adams, put
the choice of independence squarely before the Second Continental
Congress. (Just a year before, no one had seriously considered the
idea.) The Congress debated it on the 10th, and because the unanimity
of the colonies could not be assured - Pennsylvania and Maryland were
still opposed - postponed it until July 1. Meanwhile, on June 11 a
committee was chosen to draft a declaration of independence. On July 2
the resolution was taken up again and passed. |
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1776 | $
The
Declaration of Independence |
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The
document is both a list of greivances against the English King and
Parliament and a statement of principles declaring independence to be
the only possible redress to those grievances. It was almost
immediately forgotten until 'rediscovered' during the elections of the
1790s when it became a symbol of Jefferson's Republican party. By the
1820s - not least through the efforts of Jefferson, himself - the
document had begun to assume the stature and meaning it has today; a
fundamental statement of American identity. Forty years later, in the
midst of the Civil War, Lincoln's understanding of it would make it a
statement of American purpose as well. |
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1777 | $
The
Articles of Confederation |
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America's
first attempt at the creation of a central government, the Articles
maintained the sovereignty and independence of the individual states,
with a weak federal government lacking the power to tax, regulate
trade or make laws for its citizens. This structure hampered
collective national action and left the union in constant danger of
external threat and internal dissolution. Ratified May 1, 1781, the
Articles were replaced by the Constitution March 4, 1789. |
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1783 | $
The
Treaty of Paris |
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Signed
on September 3, the treaty ended the Revolutionary War between Great
Britain and the United States. |
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1785 | $
The
Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments |
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Written
in June, James Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance opposed a
bill pending in the Virginia Assembly to levy a tax to support
teachers of religion. The bill eventually failed and the Assembly
passed Thomas Jefferson's The Virginia Act for Establishing
Religious Freedom the following year [see below]. |
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1786 | $
The
Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom |
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Jefferson's
act was passed by the Virginia Assembly in place of a proposal put
forward by Patrick Henry, among others, to tax the citizens of the
state in order to support religious instruction. The Act dates from
Jefferson's first draft, written in 1779, and is, in part, a succinct
statement of Jefferson's thinking on the relationship of the state to
religion and to individual faith. |
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1787 | $
The
Northwest Ordinance |
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Passed
by Congress on July 13, the Ordinance mandated the process by which
the new territories north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississipi
would eventually enter the union as states; first, that new states
would enter the union on an equal footing with the old, and second,
that their inhabitants would enjoy the same civil rights in the
territories as elsewhere. Finally, by outlawing slavery in the
Northwest, it was the first national document to limit slavery. The
Ordinance set a seal on the way the nation would expand westward.
Map |
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1787-1788 | $
The
Federalist Papers |
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Written
by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, and published over
a period of several months, the Papers made the case against the
Articles of Confederation and for the Constitution. They clearly set
out the thinking of pro-Constitution advocates, and in doing so
cogently articluate a theory of American representative democracy. |
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1789 | $
The
Constitution |
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The
Constitution creates the structure of the U.S. government and
regulates the relationship between it and the states, and between
individual states. Its first ten amendments - the Bill of Rights -
both establish the rights of individuals and limit the power of
government. The Constitution was submitted to Congress September 17,
1787, became effective March 4, 1789 and was ratified by the last
state to do so May 29, 1790. (The thirteenth ratification made it
unanimous, but only nine were necessary to its becoming law.) |
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1789 | $
The
Judiciary Act |
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Along
with Article III of the
Constitution, the Judiciary Act of 1789 created the federal court
system. Rather dry reading, it is Section 25 which establishes the
federal courts' power of judicial review, i.e., the power to judge the
laws of the land by the standards of the Constitution. |
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1793 | $
The
Fugitive Slave Law |
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Passed
due to Southern alarm over the gradual elimination of slavery in the
North, the law was intended to guarantee the 'property rights' of
slave-holders in the return of escaped slaves. The law allowed proof
of ownership on the word of the slave-holder alone, denied the right
of accused blacks to trial or any review process and levied a $500
fine on anyone harboring an 'escaped slave'. Oral proof allowed any
northern Black to be accused, and denial of due process meant that
even emancipated Blacks could offer no proof of their emanicipation.
Northern states responded with "liberty laws" which
guaranteed a right to trial, required written proof of ownership,
denied the use of state facilities to slave-holders and provided for
the prosecution of kidnapping. The South worked for decades to
overturn the liberty laws, and finally succeeded 1850 with the Clay
Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Act
[see also 19th Century]. |
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1798 | $
The
Alien and Sedition Acts |
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The
Alien Act provided that in time of war or threatened war, aliens of
belligerent or potentially belligerent nations could be seized,
interned and deported. (A further law extended the time aliens had to
wait to become citizens from five to fourteen years.) The Sedition Act
prohibited the "...writing, printing, uttering or publishing [of]
any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the
government of the United States." Debate remains as to whether
these laws were passed out of fear of potential war with France, or
whether they were just useful tools for the Federalist Congress to
silence their Democratic-Republican opponents. Not only the Sedition
Act, but also the Alien Act suggest this, since recently naturalized
aliens voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic-Republicans. Little
doubt remains, however, that they were direct assaults on the
First Amendment and clearly
unconstitutional. |
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