A Chronology of US Historical Documents
Links marked with an asterisk (*) are to other websites and will open in a new window.
Pre-Colonial
To 1600
- The Magna Carta (1215)
- Letter from Christopher Columbus to the King & Queen of Spain (1490's)
- The *Iroquois Constitution
17th Century
1601-1649
- The First, Second, & Third Virginia Charters
- The Mayflower Compact (1620)
- The Charter of Massachusetts Bay (1629)
- The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)
1650-1700
- The Connecticut Colony Charter (1662)
- The First Thanksgiving Proclamation (1676)
18th Century
1701-1774
- The Albany Plan of 1754
- The Resolutions of the Stamp Act (Oct. 19, 1765)
1775-1800
- *Biographies of the *First Ladies & *Presidents of the United States
- Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry (March 23, 1775)
- The Declaration of Arms (July 6, 1775)
- Yankee Doodle
- The Virginia Declaration of Rights (June 12, 1776)
- The Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)
- The Works of Benjamin Franklin
- The Articles of Confederation (Nov. 15, 1777)
- The Treaty of Paris (1783)
- The Federalist Papers
- The Memorial and Remonstrance (June 20, 1785)
- The Annapolis Convention (Sept. 14, 1786)
- Letter of Transmittal of the U.S. Constitution (Sept. 17, 1787)
- The Constitution of the United States. (1787)
- The Northwest Ordinance (July 13, 1787)
- Collection of *Rare &Historical Newspapers
- First Inaugural Address of President George Washington (April 30, 1789)
- The First State of the Union Address (Jan. 8, 1790)
- Second Inaugural Address of President George Washington (Mar. 4, 1793)
- The Proclamation of Neutrality (April 22, 1793)
- The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793
- The Treaty of Greenville (1795)
- Farewell Address of President George Washington (Sept. 17, 1796)
- The *Papers of George Washington
- Inaugural Address of President John Adams (1797)
- The Sedition Act (July 14, 1798)
19th Century
1801-1824
- First Inaugural Address of President Thomas Jefferson (1801)
- Second Inaugural Address of President Thomas Jefferson (1805)
- The *Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress
- *Thomas Jefferson Online Resources at the University of Virginia
- Information on *Monticello
- First Inaugural Address of President James Madison (1809)
- Second Inaugural Address of President James Madison (1813)
- The text of the Star Spangled Banner (Sept. 20, 1814)
- First Inaugural Address of President James Monroe (1817)
- Second Inaugural Address of President James Monroe (1821)
- The Monroe Doctrine (Dec. 2, 1823)
1825-1849
- Inaugural Address of President John Quincy Adams (1825)
- First Inaugural Address of President Andrew Jackson (1829)
- Second Inaugural Address of President Andrew Jackson (1833)
- Inaugural Address of President Martin Van Buren (1837)
- Ralph Waldo Emerson's Concord Hymn (July 4, 1837)
- Inaugural Address of President William Henry Harrison (1841)
- Inaugural Address of President James K. Polk (1845)
- Inaugural Address of President Zachary Taylor (1849)
1850-1874
- Inaugural Address of President Franklin Pierce (1853)
- Inaugural Address of President James Buchanan (1857)
- The Declaration of Causes of seceding states (Winter 1861)
- First Inaugural Address of President *Abraham Lincoln (March 4, 1861)
- The Constitution of the Confederate States of America (March 11, 1861)
- The Battle Hymn of the Republic
- McClellan's Letter to President Lincoln (July 7, 1862)
- The Gettysburg Address (Nov. 19, 1863)
- The Emancipation Proclamation (1864)
- Second Inaugural Address of President Abraham Lincoln (1865)
- *Photographic Time Line of the Civil War
- Letters from an Iowa Soldier during the Civil War
- Civil War Resources on the Web
- Civil War Generals
- Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage by Frederick Douglass (Jan. 1867)
- First Inaugural Address of President Ulysses S. Grant (1869)
- Second Inaugural Address of President Ulysses S. Grant (1873)
1875-1900
- Inaugural Address of President *Rutherford B. Hayes (1877)
- Inaugural Address of President *James Garfield (1881)
- First Inaugural Address of President *Grover Cleveland (1885)
- Inaugural Address of President *Benjamin Harrison (1889)
- Second Inaugural Address of President *Grover Cleveland (1893)
- First Inaugural Address of President *William McKinley (1897)
20th Century
1901-1924
- Second Inaugural Address of President *William McKinley (1901)
- Inaugural Address of President *Theodore Roosevelt (1905)
- Inaugural Address of President *William H. Taft (1909)
- First Inaugural Address of President *Woodrow Wilson (1913)
- Second Inaugural Address of President *Woodrow Wilson (1917)
- The Espionage Act of 1918
- Inaugural Address of President *Warren G. Harding (1921)
1925-1949
- Inaugural Address of President *Calvin Coolidge (1925)
- Inaugural Address of President *Herbert Hoover (1929)
- First Inaugural Address of President *Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933)
- Second Inaugural Address of President *Franklin D. Roosevelt (1937)
- The Neutrality Acts of 1937 & 1939
- Third Inaugural Address of President *Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)
- The Atlantic Charter (Aug. 14, 1941)
- Roosevelt's Infamy Speech (Dec. 8, 1941)
- The Declaration of War on Japan (Dec. 8, 1941)
- The Declaration of War on Germany (Dec. 11, 1941)
- Fourth Inaugural Address of President *Franklin D. Roosevelt (1945)
- The German Surrender Documents of World War II (May 8, 1945)
- Selected *Manhattan Project documents regarding the use of the bombs. (1945)
- The Japanese Surrender Documents of World War II (Sept. 12, 1945)
- The Truman Doctrine (Mar. 12, 1947)
- Inaugural Address of President *Harry S. Truman (1949)
- The North Atlantic Treaty (Apr. 4, 1949)
1950-1974
- First Inaugural Address of President *Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953)
- Second Inaugural Address of President *Dwight D. Eisenhower (1957)
- Admission of States and Territorial Acquisition *Map
- Maps of *U.S. Battlefields
- Inaugural Address of President *John F. Kennedy (1961)
- Martin Luther King Jr's *I Have A Dream Speech (Aug. 28, 1963)
- Inaugural Address of President *Lyndon B. Johnson (1965)
- State Department White Paper on Vietnam (Feb. 27, 1965)
- Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968)
- First Inaugural Address of President *Richard M. Nixon (1969)
- Second Inaugural Address of President *Richard M. Nixon (1973)
- The War Powers Resolution (Nov. 7, 1973)
1975-2000
- Inaugural Address of President *Jimmy Carter (1977)
- First Inaugural Address of President *Ronald Reagan (1981)
- Second Inaugural Address of President *Ronald Reagan (1985)
- Inaugural Address of President *George H. W. Bush (1989)
- The Civil Rights Act of 1991
- First Inaugural Address of President William J. Clinton (1993)
- President William J. Clinton's 1996 State of the Union Address
- Second Inaugural Address of President William J. Clinton (1997)
- President William J. Clinton's 1997 State of the Union Address
- President William J. Clinton's 1998 State of the Union Address
21st Century
2001-Present
- First Inaugural Address of President George W. Bush (2001)
- Address of President Bush to Nation (11 September, 2001)
- President Bush's Remarks at National Day of Prayer and Remembrance (14 September, 2001)
- Address of President Bush to a Joint Session of Congress and the Nation regarding the events of 11 September, 2001 (20 September, 2001)
- Address of President Bush on the start of strikes against Al Qaeda and the Taliban (7 October, 2001)
- President George W. Bush's 2002 State of the Union Address
- President George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address
- President George W. Bush's 2004 State of the Union Address
- Second Inaugural Address of President George W. Bush (2005)
- President George W. Bush's 2005 State of the Union Address
- President George W. Bush's 2006 State of the Union Address
- President George W. Bush's 2007 State of the Union Address
- President George W. Bush's 2008 State of the Union Address
