Volume 13 of the Chronicles of America Series ∴ Allen Johnson, Editor Assistant Editors Gerhard R. Lomer Charles W. Jefferys Abraham Lincoln Edition New Haven: Yale University Press Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co. London: Humphrey Milford Oxford University Press 1921 Copyright, 1921, by Yale University Press The Fathers of the Constitution...

“ The United States of America”! It was in the Declaration of Independence that this name was first and formally proclaimed to the world, and to maintain its verity the war of the Revolution was fought. Americans like to think that they were then assuming “among the Powers of the Earth the equal and independent Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them”; and, in view of their subsequent marvelous development, they are inclined to add that it must have been before an ex

Though the word revolution implies a violent break with the past, there was nothing in the Revolution that transformed the essential character or the characteristics of the American people. The Revolution severed the ties which bound the colonies to Great Britain; it created some new activities; some soldiers were diverted from their former trades and occupation; but, as the proportion of the population engaged in the war was relatively small and the area of country affected for any length of ti

When peace came in 1783 there were in the United States approximately three million people, who were spread over the whole Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia and back into the interior as far as the Alleghany Mountains; and a relatively small number of settlers had crossed the mountain barrier. About twenty per cent of the population, or some six hundred thousand, were negro slaves. There was also a large alien element of foreign birth or descent, poor when they arrived in America, and, althou

The population of the United States was like a body of water that was being steadily enlarged by internal springs and external tributaries. It was augmented both from within and from without, from natural increase and from immigration. It had spread over the whole coast from Maine to Georgia and slowly back into the interior, at first along the lines of river communication and then gradually filling up the spaces between until the larger part of the available land east of the Alleghany Mountains

John Fiske summed up the prevailing impression of the government of the Confederation in the title to his volume, The Critical Period of American History. “The period of five years,” says Fiske, “following the peace of 1783 was the most critical moment in all the history of the American people. The dangers from which we were saved in 1788 were even greater than were the dangers from which we were saved in 1865.” Perhaps the plight of the Confederation was not so desperate as he would have us bel

The body of delegates which met in Philadelphia in 1787 was the most important convention that ever sat in the United States. The Confederation was a failure, and if the new nation was to be justified in the eyes of the world, it must show itself capable of effective union. The members of the Convention realized the significance of the task before them, which was, as Madison said, “now to decide forever the fate of Republican government.” Gouverneur Morris, with unwonted seriousness, declared: “

Rutledge and his associates on the committee of detail accomplished so much in such a short time that it seems as if they must have worked day and night. Their efforts marked a distinct stage in the development of the Constitution. The committee left no records, but some of the members retained among their private papers drafts of the different stages of the report they were framing, and we are therefore able to surmise the way in which the committee proceeded. Of course the members were bound b

The course of English history shows that Anglo-Saxon tradition is strongly in favor of observing precedents and of trying to maintain at least the form of law, even in revolutions. When the English people found it impossible to bear with James II and made it so uncomfortable for him that he fled the country, they shifted the responsibility from their own shoulders by charging him with “breaking the original Contract between King and People.” When the Thirteen Colonies had reached the point where

¹ The documents in this Appendix follow the text of the Revised Statutes of the United States , Second Edition, 1878....

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be

To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send greeting. Whereas the Delegates of the United States of America in Congress assembled did on the fifteenth day of November in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventyseven, and in the Second Year of the Independence of America agree to certain articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the States of Newhampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhodeisland and Providenc

An Ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio. Section 1. Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, That the said territory, for the purpose of temporary government, be one district, subject, however, to be divided into two districts, as future circumstances may, in the opinion of Congress, make it expedient. Sec. 2. Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the estates both of resident and non-resident proprietors in the

We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America. Section. 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. Section.

There are many comprehensive histories which include the period covered by the present volume, of which a few—without disparaging the others—are deserving of mention for some particular reason. David Ramsay’s History of the American Revolution, 2 vols. (1789, and subsequently reprinted), gives but little space to this particular period, but it reveals the contemporary point of view. Richard Hildreth’s History of the United States, 6 vols. (1849-1852), is another early work that is still of value

Forty signatures were attached to the Constitution of the United States in the Federal Convention on September 17, 1787, by thirty-nine delegates, representing twelve States, and the secretary of the Convention, as the attesting officer. George Washington, who signed as president of the Convention, was a delegate from Virginia. There are reproduced in this volume the effigies or pretended effigies of thirty-seven of them, from etchings by Albert Rosenthal in an extra-illustrated volume devoted t

This e-book was transcribed from the Abraham Lincoln Edition of The Fathers of the Constitution by Max Farrand. The Table of Contents in the book did not break down the 4 great American source documents in the Appendix—but users of the e-book can navigate directly to one of these four documents from the Contents. The documents were produced as typed in the paper book, with the exception of the signers of the document. The book had two signatures per line; we used one signature per line to allow