The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Editorial Board
• 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
• Governor Winthrop’s Speech
• 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
• Thanksgiving Proclamation
• 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 March 18, 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
• Speech On Electioneering
• Speech Before the U.s. Senate
• Speech of Mr. Webster, of Massachusetts
• 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
• Senate Speeches On the Compromise of 1850 Speech On the Slavery Question
• The Constitution and the Union
• Speech On the Slavery Question, Delivered In the Senate March 4th, 1850
• Second Fugitive Slave Law September 18, 1850
• 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

Thanksgiving Proclamation and Letters to Religious Associations

george washington

Thanksgiving Proclamation
October 3, 1789

Letter to the United Baptist Churches in Virginia
May 10, 1789

Letter to the Roman Catholics in the United States of America
March 15, 1790

Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport
August 1790