Election of 1896
Featured:

William McKinley and the First Modern Presidential Election

This week we’re marking the 125th anniversary of the presidential election season of 1896. In this groundbreaking year, both parties’ candidates deviated from past campaign practices, writes John Giltner, a…
The new online store is live. Take 5% off our catalog of Core Documents with code MEMBER Categories Archives

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka I and II

[This is an abridged version of the document.]   Brown v. Board of Education of…

Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787

[This is an abridged version of the document.] Thursday, May 31 In the Committee of…

Consequences of the Proposed “New Deal”

Source: “Address at Madison Square Garden in New York City,” October 31, 1932. Online by…

Fort Hill Address

[This is an abridged version of the document.]   The question of the relation which…

The Webster-Hayne Debates

[This is an abridged version of the document.]   Speech of Senator Robert Y. Hayne…

“Corner Stone” Speech (excerpt)

[This is an abridged version of the document.]   Savannah, Georgia, as reported in the Savannah…

Brutus II

Source: Debates and Proceedings of the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Held in the…

Resolution Submitting the Thirteenth Amendment to the States

Thirty-Eighth Congress of the United States. A Resolution Submitting to the Legislatures of the several…

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by…

Speech on the Oregon Bill

[This is an abridged version of the document.] The first question which offers itself for…

Brutus I

Source: Herbert J. Storing, ed., The Complete Anti-Federalist (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1981),…

Plessy v. Ferguson

[This is an abridged version of the document.] The statute of Louisiana, acts of 1890,…

Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

[This is an abridged version of the document.] Fourth Annual Message to Congress To the…

Progressive Party Platform of 1912

The conscience of the people, in a time of grave national problems, has called into…

“Property”

National Gazette This term in its particular application means “that dominion which one man claims…

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Mr. Chief Justice TANEY delivered the opinion of the court. … The question is simply…

The Long Telegram

Source: The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kennan) to the Secretary of State, February 22,…

New Nationalism Speech

A Speech Delivered at the Dedication of the John Brown Memorial Park in Osawatomie, Kansas…

State of the Union Address (1944)

To the Congress: This Nation in the past two years has become an active partner…

Letter to John Holmes

I thank you, dear Sir, for the copy you have been so kind as to…

Commonwealth Club Address

Source: Samuel I. Rosenman and William D. Hassett, eds., The Public Papers and Addresses of…

First Inaugural Address (1801)

Source: Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1801, Founders Online, National Archives, https://goo.gl/B616RD. Friends…

“Fourteen Points” Message

Gentlemen of the Congress, — Once more, as repeatedly before, the spokesmen of the Central…

“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”

Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing…

“A Time for Choosing”

Thank you very much. Thank you and good evening. The sponsor has been identified, but…

Monroe Doctrine

[This is an abridged version of the document.]   Seventh Annual Message to Congress Fellow-Citizens…

Speech on Amendments to the Constitution

Source: Annals of Congress, ed. Joseph Gales, (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1834), I: 448–459,…

“Great Society” Speech

Commencement Speech at the University of Michigan   President Hatcher, Governor Romney, Senators McNamara and…

Farewell Address (1796)

Friends, and Fellow-Citizens: The period for a new election of a Citizen, to Administer the…

Proclamation Regarding Nullification

[This is an abridged version of the document.]   Whereas a convention, assembled in the State…

Veto Message of the Bill on the Bank of the United States

To the Senate. The bill “to modify and continue” the act entitled “An act to…

Speech on the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise

Peoria, Illinois The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the propriety of its restoration, constitute…

Marbury v. Madison

At the December Term, 1801, William Marbury, Dennis Ramsay, Robert Townsend Hooe, and William Harper,…

Speech on the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania We meet to celebrate the birthday of America. The coming of a new…

Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln

Delivered at the Unveiling of The Freedmen’s Monument in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C. Friends and…

Second Inaugural Address (1865)

Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln papers: Series 3. General Correspondence. 1837-1897: Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865…

Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new…

Final Emancipation Proclamation

By the President of the United States of America: A Proclamation. Whereas, on the twentysecond…

Fragment on the Constitution and Union

All this is not the result of accident. It has a philosophical cause. Without the…

Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport

Gentlemen: While I received with much satisfaction your address replete with expressions of esteem, I…

Federalist No. 51

Source: George W. Carey and James McClellan, eds., The Federalist: The Gideon Edition (Indianapolis: Liberty…

Federalist No. 10

Source: The Federalist: The Gideon Edition, eds. George W. Carey and James McClellan (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2001),…

Federalist No. 1

Source: George W. Carey and James McClellan, eds., The Federalist: The Gideon Edition, (Indianapolis: Liberty…

Letter to Roger C. Weightman

[This is an abridged version of the document.]   Monticello RESPECTED SIR, — The kind…

Letter to Henry Lee

[This is an abridged version of the document.] [W]ith respect to our rights, and the…

Constitution of the United States

Source: The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription, courtesy of the National Archives and…

Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,…