The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Alphabetical List of Authors
• Illustrations
• Introduction
• Note On the Texts
• Part One: Colonial Settlements and Societies
• Virginia Articles, Laws, and Orders I610–11
• The Mayflower Compact November 11, 1620
• Fundamental Orders of Connecticut January 14, 1639
• The Massachusetts Body of Liberties December 1641
• Charter of Liberties and Frame of Government of the Province of Pennsylvania In America May 5, 1682
• Dorchester Agreement October 8, 1633
• Maryland Act For Swearing Allegiance 1638: Plymouth Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity 1625
• Little Speech On Liberty
• Copy of a Letter From Mr. Cotton to Lord Say and Seal
• Part Two: Religious Society and Religious Liberty In Early America
• The Bloody Tenent, of Persecution, For Cause of Conscience
• A Platform of Church Discipline
• Providence Agreement August 20, 1637: Maryland Act For Church Liberties 1638: Pennsylvania Act For Freedom of Conscience December 7, 1682
• Worcestriensis 1776
• Thanksgiving Proclamation and Letters to Religious Associations
• Farewell Address
• The Rights of Conscience Inalienable
• Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association
• Part Three: Defending the Charters
• Magna Charta 1215
• Petition of Right 1628
• An Account of the Late Revolution In New England and Boston Declaration of Grievances: Boston Declaration of Grievances
• The English Bill of Rights 1689
• The Stamp Act March 22, 1765
• Braintree Instructions
• Resolutions of the Virginia House of Burgesses June 1765: Declarations of the Stamp Act Congress October 24, 1765
• The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved
• The Act Repealing the Stamp Act March 18, 1766; the Declaratory Act, 1766
• Part Four: the War For Independence
• A Discourse At the Dedication of the Tree of Liberty
• Letters From a Farmer In Pennsylvania, Letters V and Ix
• Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress October 14, 1774
• Virginia Bill of Rights June 12, 1776
• On Civil Liberty, Passive Obedience, and Non-resistance
• Common Sense
• The Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776
• Part Five: a New Constitution
• Thoughts On Government
• Articles of Confederation 1778
• The Essex Result April 29, 1778
• Northwest Ordinance 1787
• Albany Plan of Union July 10, 1754
• Virginia and New Jersey Plans 1787
• The Constitution of the United States of America 1787
• The Federalist , Papers 1, 9, 10, 39, 47–51, 78
• Address of the Minority of the Pennsylvania Convention December 12, 1787
• An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution
• Part Six: the Bill of Rights
• The Federalist , Papers 84 and 85
• Letter I
• Essay I
• Letter Iii
• Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments: Virginia Bill For Establishing Religious Freedom
• Speech Introducing Proposed Constitutional Amendments: Debate Over First Amendment Language August 15, 1789: The First Ten Amendments to the Constitution, Or the Bill of Rights 1789
• Commentaries On the Constitution of the United States
• The People V. Ruggles
• Marbury V. Madison
• Barron V. The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore
• Part Seven: State Versus Federal Authority
• Essay V: “brutus” 1787
• Chisholm V. Georgia: U.s. Constitution, Eleventh Amendment 1787
• The Alien and Sedition Acts June 25, 1798: Virginia Resolutions December 21, 1798: Kentucky Resolutions November 10, 1798: Counter-resolutions of Other States 1799: Report of Virginia House of Delegates 1799
• The Duty of Americans, At the Present Crisis
• Report of the Hartford Convention 1815
• Commentaries On the Constitution of the United States: a Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States
• Part Eight: Forging a Nation
• Opinion Against the Constitutionality of a National Bank: Opinion As to the Constitutionality of the Bank of the United States
• Veto Message
• Veto Message
• Commentaries On the Constitution of the United States
• Address to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois: Address to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Newspaper Editorials: “direct Taxation” April 22, 1834: “chief Justice Marshall” July 28, 1835: “the Despotism of the Majority” March 25, 1837: “morals of Legislation” April 15, 1837: “the Morals of Politics” June 3, 1837
• Speech On Electioneering
• Speech Before the U.s. Senate (webster): Speech Before the U.s. Senate (hayne)
• Fort Hill Address
• Part Nine: Prelude to War
• Laws Regulating Servants and Slaves, 1630–1852
• “slavery” “agriculture and the Militia”
• The Missouri Compromise 1820–21
• Newspaper Editorials: “governor Mcduffie’s Message” February 10, 1835: “the Question of Slavery Narrowed to a Point” April 15, 1837: “‘abolition Insolence’” July 29, 1837
• Senate Speeches On the Compromise of 1850 Speech On the Slavery Question
• Second Fugitive Slave Law September 18, 1850: Ableman V. Booth (62 Us 506)
• Scott V. Sandford
• The Relative Position and Treatment of the Negroes the Abolitionists—consistency of Their Labors
• What Is Slavery? Slavery Is Despotism
• Kansas-nebraska Act 1856: Fifth Lincoln-douglas Debate October 7, 1858
• Bibliography

Illustrations

• Title page of Colonial Constitution of Pennsylvania
• Portrait of George Washington by John Trumbull
• Portrait of John Adams, colonial leader and second president of the United States
• The original Declaration of Independence
• Fourth U.S. president and Federalist author, James Madison, by Gilbert Stuart
• John Jay, first chief justice and Federalist author; head-and-shoulders engraving by Hall
• Painting of Alexander Hamilton, American statesman and Federalist author
• Engraving of Joseph Story by J. Cheney, from a crayon drawing by W. W. Story
• The Issue of Sovereignty; lithograph by O.E. Woods
• Daniel Webster, senator from Massachusetts
• Robert Y. Hayne, senator from South Carolina
• Election poster for Andrew Jackson’s presidential campaign
• Engraving of Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States