Archiving Early America: Historic Documents from 18th Century America The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania," pages from Revolutionary-era newspapers, Thomas Paine's "The Rights of Man," and many more documents are available on this site. There's also a guide to reading 200 year old documents.

Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address

Supreme Court Decisions by John Marshall

• Marbury v. Madison.
• McCulloch v. Maryland
• Cherokee Nation v. Georgia

Supreme Court Decisions by Roger B. Taney

• Ableman v. Booth

"Wrestling With the Legacy of Slavery at Yale". A recent New York Times article emphasizing that slavery, and support for it, was rooted in the North as well as in the South.

Declarations of Secession

• Georgia
• Mississippi
• South Carolina
• Texas

Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address

Confederate Documents

• Constitution for the Provisional Government, February 8, 1861
• Jefferson Davis's Inaugural Address as President of the Confederate Provisional Government, February 18, 1861
• Constitution of the Confederate States of America, March 11, 1861
• Alexander Stephens's "Cornerstone" Speech, in which the newly-inaugurated Vice-President of the Confederacy explains the new constitution and the philosophy on which it rests.

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, November 11, 1863

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