Our documents : 100 milestone documents from the National Archives. [print]

A collection of one hundred documents that were important in the development of the United States from its founding to 1965, including the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and lesser-known writings.

1776: Lee Resolution ; Declaration of Independence 1777: Articles of Confederation 1778: Treaty of Alliance with France 1782: Original design of the Great Seal of the United States 1783: Treaty of Paris 1787: Virginia Plan ; Northwest Ordinance ; Constitution of the United States 1787-1788: Federalist Papers, No. 10 and No. 51 1789: President George Washington's First Inaugural Speech ; Federal Judiciary Act 1791: Bill of Rights 1794: Patent for Cotton Gin 1796: President George Washington's Farewell Address 1798: Alien and Sedition Acts 1803: Jefferson's Secret Message to Congress Regarding the Lewis and Clark Expedition ; Louisiana Purchase Treaty ; Marbury volume Madison 1814: Treaty of Ghent 1819: McCulloch volume Maryland 1820: Missouri Compromise 1823: Monroe Doctrine 1824 Gibbons volume Ogden 1830: President Andrew Jackson's message to congress "On Indian Removal" ; 1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1850: Compromise of 1850 1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act 1857: Scott volume Sandford 1861: Telegram announcing the surrender of Fort Sumter 1862: Homestead Act ; Pacific Railway Act ; Morrill Act 1863: Emancipation proclamation ; War Department General Order 143: Creation of the U.S. Colored Troops ; Gettysburg Address 1864: Wade-Davis Bill 1865: President Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address ; Articles of Agreement Relating to the Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia ; Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery 1868: Check for the purchase of Alaska ; Treaty of Fort Laramie ; Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights 1870: Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights 1872: Act establishing Yellowstone National Park 1879: Patent application for the light bulb 1882: Chinese Exclusion Act 1883: Pendleton Act 1887: Interstate Commerce Act ; Dawes Act 1890: Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1896: Plessy volume Ferguson --

1898: De Lome Letter ; Joint Resolution to Provide for Annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States 1901: Platt Amendment 1905: Theodore Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine 1913: Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Federal Income Tax ; Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Direct Election of U.S. Senators 1916: Keating-Owen Child Labor Act Zimmermann Telegram ; Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Germany 1918: President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points 1920: Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote 1928: Boulder Canyon Project Act 1933: Tennessee Valley Authority Act ; National Industrial Recovery Act 1935: National Labor Relations Act ; Social Security Act 1936: President Franklin Roosevelt's Speech in Defense of the Second New Deal 1941: The Four Freedoms: President Franklin Roosevelt's Speech in Defense of the Second New Deal ; Lend-Lease Act ; Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry ; Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Japan 1942: Executive Order 9066: Japanese Relocation Order 1944: General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Order of the Day ; Servicemen's Readjustment Act 1945: Manhattan Project Notebook ; Surrender of Germany ; United Nations Charter ; Surrender of Japan 1947: Truman Doctrine 1948: Marshall Plan ; Press Release Announcing U.S. Recognition of Israel ; Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces 1953: Armistice agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State 1954: Senate Resolution 301: Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy ; Brown volume Board of Education 1956: national Interstate and Defense Highways Act 1957: Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School 1961 President Dwight . Eisenhower's Farewell Address ; President John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address ; Executive Order 10924: Establishment of the Peace Corps 1962: John Glenn's Official Communication with the Command Center ; Aerial Photograph of Missiles in Cuba 1963: Test Ban Treaty ; Official Program for the March on Washington 1964: Civil Rights Act ; Tonkin Gulf Resolution 1965: Social Security Act Amendments ; Voting Rights Act Further reading.

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