Benjamin Franklin was one of the most important delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Because he brought no new ideas to the Convention and did not deliver remarks that changed the course of the Convention’s …
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“Wallowing in the superfluity of liberty”: Agrarian Unrest and the Constitution
In 1787, about ninety percent of the population of the United States was engaged in agriculture. After the Revolution, many of these people, particularly those in the backcountry, struggled to pay their taxes and debts. …
Lost and Found: New Hampshire’s Founding Documents
As a 24-year-old graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison I had a quarter-time appointment working as a project assistant for my major professor, Merrill Jensen, who was then editing the Documentary History of the …
Deism and The Founders
During the Revolutionary and Founding eras many Americans increasingly abandoned traditional Christianity, embracing beliefs that could be described as either Unitarian or Deist. Many of these converts publicly maintained their original religious affiliations, attempting to …
Patrick Henry: “He Spoke as Homer Wrote”
How can anyone truly capture the power of Patrick Henry before a live audience? In truth, it’s nearly impossible.
Changing Course: The Three Non-Signers of the Constitution
Changing Course: The Three Non-Signers of the Constitution Of the delegates present on the final day of the Constitutional Convention on 17 September 1787, only three refused to sign the Constitution—Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and …
The Due Process of Law: Its Backdoor Entry into the Constitution
The concept of the due process of law is guaranteed in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It ensures that neither the federal nor, following incorporation by the Supreme Court, state governments …
The American Trilogy: Three Foundational Documents
Shortly after the destruction of the Twin Towers at New York’s World Trade Center in September 2001, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Library chose to commemorate the tragedy by publishing a pamphlet containing the Declaration of …
A Most Important “Non-English” Document in American History: Vergennes’ Considerations, Versailles, France, 12 March 1776
A year after the shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, heralding the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, French Foreign Minister Vergennes submitted a report to King Louis XVI and his council on the …
Adams and Jefferson: “The North and South Poles of the American Revolution”
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson occupy the top tier in the American pantheon of Revolutionary Era giants. They knew each other for fifty years—from 1775 when they first met during the Second Continental Congress until …