449 BC - The Roman Law of the 12 Tables

1215 - Magna Carta

1492 - Christopher Columbus - Journal

1542 - Bartoleme de Las Casas - Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies

1584 - Arthur Barlowe - First Voyage to Virginia

1584 - Richard Hakluyt - A Discourse Concerning Western Planting

1606 - The First Virginia Charter

1606 - Instructions for the Virginia Colony

1609 - The Second Virginia Charter

1612 - The Third Virginia Charter

1619 - John Pory - Letter from Virginia

1620 - The Charter of New England

1620 - Mayflower Compact

1621 - An Ordinance and Constitution of the Virgina Company in England

1621 - William Bradford - Reasons for Leaving England

1624 - John Smith - The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England + the Summer Isles

1629 - Charter Of Massachusetts Bay

1629 - Extract from Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions to Patroons

1630 - John Winthrop - A Model of Christian Charity

1631 - John Winthrop - Reasons for Emigrating to New England

1631 - Young Pond - Letter to His Parents

1634 - Father Andrew White - First Impressions of Maryland + Its Native Inhabitants

1636 - John Cotton - Letter to Lord Say + Sele

1637 -  Trial and Interrogation of Anne Hutchinson

1637 - Thomas Morton - Description of the Indians in New England

1637 - William Bradford - Thomas Morton's Revelry in New Canaan

1639 - John Cotton - The Just Price

1639 - The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

1640 - Plantation Agreement at Providence

1643 - New England Articles of Confederation

1644 - Dom. John Megapolensis Describes the Iroquois

1644 - Roger Williams - The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution

1647 - Rev. Nathaniel Ward - Against Toleration

1649 - Maryland Act of Religion

1660s - Virginia Slave Laws

1662 - Michael Wigglesworth - God's Controversy with New England

1666 - Robert Home - A Brief Description of the Province of Carolina

1672 - George Fox - Journal

1676 - Bacon's Declaration in the Name of the People

1676 - Governor William Berkely on Bacon's Rebellion

1679 - General Court Synod - God's Judgments on New England

1681 - Rev. Morgan Goodwyn - Proposals for the Carrying on the Negro's Christianity

1681 - William Penn - Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania

1682 - William Penn - A Draft Copy of the First Frame of Government for Pennsylvania

1682 - William Penn - Letter to His Wife and Children

1682 - Thomas Newe - Letters to His Father from South Carolina

1685 - Edward Randolph - A Description of King Philip's War

1689 - Samuel Prince - Letter Describing the Boston Uprising

1689 - A Gentleman's Letter Condemning Leisler's New York Uprising

1692 - Salem Witch Trial Documents

1694 - Samuel Willard - The Character of a Good Ruler

1697 - Penn's Plan of Union

1698 - A Letter Supporting Leisler's New York Uprising

1698 - Gabriel Thomas - An Account of West Jersey and Pennsylvania

1701 - Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges

1704 - Robert Beverley - On Bacon's Rebellion

1705 - Robert Beverley - Of the Servants + Slaves in Virginia

1715 - The North Carolina Biennial Act

1726 - Benjamin Franklin - Journal of a Voyage

1733 - James Oglethorpe - Founding Vision for Georgia

1736 - Governor Gabriel Johnston - Request to Repeal the Biennial Act

1750 - Gottlieb Mittelberger - Journey to Pennsylvania

1750 - Reason against a General Prohibition of the Iron Manufacture in His Majesty's Plantations

1750s - Mary Jemison - Captivity Narrative (1824)

1700s - Rev. Devereux Jarratt - Autobiography of Life in Virginia (1806)

1752 - Washington's Prayer Journal

1753 - William Livingston - 'Of Party Divisions'

1754 - Albany Plan

1758 - Ben Franklin - Advice about the Way to Wealth

1761 - Governor Glen - The Role of the Indians in the Rivalry between France, Spain and England

1765 - Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress

1765 - Soame Jenys - The American Objections to Taxation Considered

1766 - William Pitt - Speech on the Stamp Act

1770 - Captain Thomas Preston - Account the of Boston Massacre

1770 - Anonymous Account of the Boston Massacre

1774 - Resolutions of the First Continental Congress

1775 - Edmund Burke - Conciliation with America

1775 - Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty" Speech

1775 - Second Continental Congress - Declaration

1776 - Thomas Paine - Common Sense

1776 - Richard Henry Lee's Resolution

1776 - The Virginia Declaration of Rights

1776 - Thomas Jefferson - Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence

1776 - Declaration of Independence

1776 - Washington's General Orders for Christian Military Service

1776 - Thomas Paine - The Crisis

1777 - Albigence Waldo - Valley Forge Diary

1778 - Articles of Confederation

1778 - Treaty of Alliance with France

1779 - Proclamation - National Day of Fasting and Prayer

1781 - Ebenezer Denny - Yorktown Diary

1783 - Washington's Newburgh Address

1783 - Treaty of Paris

1783 - Washington - Circular Letter to the States

1785 - James Madison - Memorial and Remonstrance

1786 - Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

1787 - Virginia Plan

1787 - Franklin's Motion for Prayer to Break the Constitutional Deadlock

1787 - US Constitution

1787 - Northwest Ordinance

1787/88 - The Federalist Papers

1789 - James Madison - Proposed Amendments to the Constitution

1789 - First 12 Amendments

1789 - Washington's First Inaugural Address

1789  - Washington's National Thanksgiving Proclamation

1794 - Robespierre on Political Morality

1796 - Washington's Farewell Address

1797 - John Adams - Inaugural Address

1797 - John Adams - Presidential Message to Congress - Troubles with France

1797 - Paine's Criticism of France's Atheistic Science Curriculum

1798 - Venture Smith - Narrative of a Slave's Capture

No date - Thomas Jefferson - On Slavery

1801 - Thomas Jefferson - First Inaugural Address

1802 - Jefferson's "Wall of Separation" Letter

1803 - Jefferson's Secret Message to Congress Regarding the Lewis and Clark Expedition

1803 - Louisiana Purchase Treaty

1803 - Marbury vs. Madison

1805 - Thomas Jefferson - Second Inaugural Address

1812 - Madison's Call for a Day of Prayer and Fasting

1814 - Treaty of Ghent

1819 - McCulloch vs. Maryland

1820 - Jefferson's Letter to John Holmes Concerning the "Missouri Compromise"

1830 - Andrew Jackson: "On Indian Removal"

1831 - Nat Turner - Confessions

1835 - The New Echota Treaty with the Cherokee

1861 - Abraham Lincoln - First Inaugural Address

1862 - Lincoln's General Orders for Military Sabbath-Day Observations

1862 - McClellan's Letter  to Lincoln on the Peninsula Campaign

1863 - Emancipation Proclamation

1863 - Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

1865 - Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

1866 - Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction

1867 - Andrew Johnson - Veto of the First Reconstruction Act

1868 - Charles Sumner - Opinion on the Trial of Andrew Johnson

1868 - James Grimes - Excerpt from the Opinion on the Trial of Andrew Johnson

1879 - Henry George - Excerpt from Progress and Poverty

1883 - Frederick Douglass - Autobiography

1888 - Edward Bellamy - Excerpt from Looking Backward

1889 - Andrew Carnegie - Wealth

1890 - The Sherman Anti-Trust Act

1894 - Henry Demarest Lloyd - Excerpt from Wealth against Commonwealth

1894 - William Graham Sumner - The Absurd Effort to Make the World Over

1894 - 'Coin' Harvey - Excerpts from Coin's Financial School

1895 - James Laurence Laughlin - Answer to 'Coin' Harvey

1909 - Teddy Roosevelt's "Expansion of the White Races" Speech

1917 - Wilson's Message Calling for War against Germany

1918 - Wilson's Fourteen Points

1919 - Henry Cabot Lodge: Reservations with Regard to the Versailles Treaty

1922 - Harry Emerson Fosdick:  Shall the Fundamentalists Win?

1933 - The Humanist Manifesto

1940 - Roosevelt's Fireside Chat 15:  On National Defense

1940 - Churchill's Parliamentary speeches of encouragement

1941 - Franklin Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" Speech

1941 - The Atlantic Charter

1941 - Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" Speech Requesting War with Japan

1941 - Hitler's Declaration of War against America

1943 - Roosevelt's Christmas Eve Fireside Chat - #142

1944 - Roosevelt's D-Day Prayer

1945 - The Surrender of Germany

1945 - The United Nations Charter 

1945 - The Surrender of Japan

1946 - Churchill's "Iron Curtain" Speech

1946 - US Secretary of State Byrnes Restatement of US Policy on Germany

1947 - 'X' (George Kennan):  "The Sources of Soviet Conduct," Foreign Affairs

1947 - The Truman Doctrine

1952 - Truman's Proclamation Establishing a 'National Day of Prayer'

1961 - Eisenhower's "Military-Industrial-Complex" (or Farewell) Speech

1961 - Kennedy's Inaugural Address

1963 - King's "I Have a Dream" Speech

1964 - Johnson's Outline of his "Great Society" Program

1973 - The Humanist Manifesto - II

1976 - The 2nd Presidential Debate between President Ford and  Governor Carter

1977 - Carter's Inauguration Speech

1983 - Reagan on the proposed constitutional amendment on public school prayer

2001 - Bush's post -9/11 Address to the American People

2001 - Bush's 9/11 Followup Speech to Congress

2004 - Obama's Keynote Address to the Democratic National Convention

2008 - Obama's Acceptance Speech as the Democratic Party's Presidential Candidate

2009 - Obama's Inauguration Speech

2009 - Obama's Speech to the Muslim World from Cairo

2017 - Trump's Inauguration Speech

2021 - Trump's Speech Protesting the 2020 Election Results

2021 - Biden's Inauguraton Speech


  Miles H. Hodges