Topic: Ideas & Ideologies
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Dickinson’s Analogy for Federalism
In this speech at the federal Constitutional Convention, John Dickinson of Delaware insisted that the new government should be as well-designed and harmonious as the solar system. During the Enlightenment,...
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Edmund Randolph’s Remarks at the Virginia Ratifying Convention
This speech is by Edmund Randolph at the Virginia ratifying convention for the new Constitution. Although a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Randolph refused to sign the final...
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Ezra Stiles to Catharine Macaulay
Ezra Stiles, a Congregational minister and future president of Yale, wrote this letter to Catharine Macaulay, the famous historian of Great Britain. In 1775 many colonists began to anticipate armed...
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First Edition, Declaration of Independence
This image is one of the first printed copies of the Declaration of Independence. John Dunlap, official printer to the Continental Congress, produced about two hundred copies after the Congress...
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Frederick Douglass
When he posed for this portrait, Frederick Douglass was one of the most well-known men in America. Douglass escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist writer and orator. In one...
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George Washington to Marquis de LaFayette
In this letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, George Washington expresses satisfaction with the Constitution that emerged from the Philadelphia Convention. He believes the proposed government will be strong and...
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Hamilton to the NY Ratifying Convention
In this speech at the New York ratifying convention, Alexander Hamilton defended the kind of representative government created by the Constitution. Hamilton criticized the idea of direct democracy as it...
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James Madison to Edward Livingston
In this letter written in 1824, James Madison writes to a member of the House of Representatives about limits on the Congress’s authority to provide funds for the construction of...
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James Madison to George Thompson
In this letter, James Madison praised Virginia’s “Magnificent” college in Charlottesville. Though Madison shared Jefferson’s belief in the need to educate citizens in a republic, Virginia was not the first...
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