America’s Founding Moment: Selected Readings from 1775-1799
Andrew Finstuen
The Declaration of Independence created a new nation, one distinguished as the longest-lived democratic republic in history. The moment turned the world upside down by the audacious claim that a nation would be founded and governed not by nobility or a state religion but rather by principles of liberty and equality. The expansion of liberty and equality has been a 250-year project, sometimes called the American experiment. Capturing the fullness of that courageous leap toward independence is impossible with only a few document selections. Yet we must begin somewhere, and here are ten documents to get you started.
- Edenton Ladies’ Agreement (1774)
- Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death (1775)
- Common Sense (1776)
- The Declaration of Independence (1776)
- A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom (1779)
- The United States Constitution (1787)
- Federalist Paper #10 (1787)
- Federalist Paper #51 (1788)
- Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island (1790)
- Eulogy of George Washington (1799)
