Our documents

260 Pages·2003·25.8 MB·English

by  United States. National Archives and Records Administration.

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LUirtTED STATEN:
Tlie gravity of the is:t tuition which confront* tin* world today
Malta tos my appearance before a joint Bejwion of the a
The foreign policy and the national security of this
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100 Milestone Documents m the "
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04 37 48 3-1 CC Priesdkhip 7, Ouomes Cap Ccn, re from treaties and other sources of international law can tie maintained, nndfl . . S/v '• - '
to promote social progress and better standard* of life in larger fn-ednm.H
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ur Documents h ' the fasci¬
nating story of American
nation through a colled'*: i
M
of 100 history-changing docurrs:,
Together, these landmark docui mifc
chronicle the centuries of social and
political upheaval as the country strug¬
gled to define itself as a new nation and
then to assume its place as a global
power. Judged by the National Archives
to be the most essential in the develop¬
ment of the United States, the documents
collected here include such milestones
as the Declaration of Independence,
the original design for the Great Seal of
the United States, the patent for the cot¬
ton gin, a check for the purchase of
Alaska, a Manhattan Project notebook,
and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Landmark Supreme Court decisions
are also included, as are inauguration
speeches of Presidents, international
treaties, and domestic legislation, but
this collection highlights more unusual
items as well, such as a transcription of
astronaut John Glenn’s official commu¬
nication with the space command cen¬
ter in 1962. The result is a vivid and
compelling depiction of a constantly
changing country and an indispensable
anthology of primary sources.
Richly illustrated with photographs
culled from the extensive collections of
the National Archives, this comprehen¬
sive volume is perfect for the history bufPs
library and the historian’s bookshelf. Our
Documents is an expertly edited collec¬
tion that enables readers to hold historv
in their hands.
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Our Documents
100 Milestone Documents
National Archives
from the
Foreword by Michael Beschloss
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Acknowledgments OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Our Documents is the result of the contributions of
many talented and devoted individuals. Special thanks
Oxford New York
go to those responsible for selecting the documents. Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai
The team included National Archives staff members, Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai
Stacey Bredhoff, John Constance, Susan Cooper, Lori
Nairobi Sao Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto
Lisowski, Lee Ann Potter, Milton Gustufson, and
Walter Hill; and Cathy Gorn and Maria Mazzenga
Copyright © 2003 by Oxford University' Press
from National History Day. The individuals who
researched, wrote drafts, and compiled information for Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
the contextual essays were Daniel Rulli, Lee Ann 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10016
www.oup.com
Potter, and Mary Jo Maralit. Other NARA staff mem¬
bers who provided editorial review for the essays
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
included Lori Lisowski, Chris Rudy Smith, Mary
Ryan, James Worsham, and Lisa Bainer. Jim Zeender All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
was instrumental in locating the documents and stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
ensuring the accuracy of their citations. Steve Puglia,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Jeffery Reed, and Erin Rhodes scanned the docu¬
ments. Darlene McClurkin, Kahlil Chism, and Kevin
Bradley identified historical photos to complement the Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
text. Finally, Jennifer Nelson, Darren Cole, and Theo
Welch were responsible for posting the materials on United States. National Archives and Records Administration.
Our documents : 100 milestone documents from the National
the Our Documents web site. The fact that so many
Archives,
individuals were part of this effort places significant
p. cm.
emphasis on the “Our” in Our Documents. Summary: A collection of one hundred documents that were impor¬
tant in
the development of the United States from its founding to 1965,
including the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and
lesser-known writings.
Editors:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Christine Compston ISBN 0-19-517206-X (alk. paper) - ISBN 0-19-517207-8 (pbk. : alk.
Rachel Filene Seidman paper)
1. United States-History-Sources-Juvenile literature. 2. United
Design and layout: States-Politics and government-Sources-Juvenile literature. [1.
Alexis Siroc United States-Historv-Sources. 2. United States-Politics and
government-Sources.] I. Title.
E173.U62 2003
973-dc22
2003015080
Printing number: 987654321
Printed in the United States on acid-free paper
Frontis: This engraving commemorated the committee that drafted the
Declaration of Independence: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson,
John Adams, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman.
Contents
Foreword 7
Preface 8
Why These 100 Documents? 9
1776 Lee Resolution IO • 1776 " Declaration of Independence 11 •
1777 —Articles of Confederation 15 • 1778 "^Treaty of Alliance with France 17 •
1782 Original Design of the Great Seal of the United States 18 • 1783 Treaty of Paris 20 •
1787 --- Virginia Plan 23 • 1787 ^-Northwest Ordinance 26 • 1787 Constitution of the
United States 28 • 1787-1788 ^Federalist Papers, No. 10 & No. 51 36 • 1789 President
George Washington’s First Inaugural Speech 39 • 1789 ^ Federal Judiciary Act 42 •
1791 ^ Bill of Rights 44 * 1794 " Patent for Cotton Gin 46 • 1796 President George
Washington’s Farewell Address 47 • 1798 ^ Alien and Sedition Acts 49 •
1803 " Jefferson’s Secret Message to Congress Regarding the Lewis and Clark Expedition 51 •
1803 — Louisiana Purchase Treaty 54 • 1803 <r'~ Mar bury v. Madison 56 • 1814Treaty of
Ghent 59 * 1819 -^-McCulloch v. Maryland 61 • 1820 Missouri Compromise 64 •
1823 Monroe Doctrine 66 • 1824 =■"- Gibbons v. Ogden 68 • 1830 President Andrew
Jackson’s Message to Congress “On Indian Removal” 70 •
1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 72 • 1850 "'-Compromise of 1850 74 •
1854 — Kansas-Nebraska Act 76 • 1857 Scott v. Sandford 79 •
1861 Telegram Announcing the Surrender of Fort Sumter 82 • 1862 Homestead Act 83 •
1862 '-Pacific Railway Act 84 • 1862 Morrill Act 86 •
1863 -'-Emancipation Proclamation 88 • 1863 ^-War Department General Order 143:
Creation of the U.S. Colored Troops 91 • 1863 Gettysburg Address 93 •
1864 Wade-Davis Bill 95 • 1865 President Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address 97 •
1865 ^-Articles of Agreement Relating to the Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia 99 •
1865 -'-Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery IOI •
1868 Check for the Purchase of Alaska 103 • 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie 104 •
1868 Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights 107 •
1870 Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights 109 •
1872 "Act Establishing Yellowstone National Park 111 • 1879 Patent Application for
the Light Bulb 113 • 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act 115 • 1883 ^-Pendleton Act ll8 •
1887 " Interstate Commerce Act 120 • 1887 ^ Dawes Act 122 •
1890 -- Sherman Anti-Trust Act 124 • 1896 "'-P/essy v. Ferguson 127 •
1898 ^De Lome Letter 129 • 1898 ^ Joint Resolution to Provide for Annexing the Hawaiian
Islands to the United States 131 ® 1901 Platt Amendment 133 • 1905 ^-Theodore Roosevelt’s
Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine 136 • 1913 Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
Federal Income Tax 138 • 1913 ^Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Direct
Election of U.S. Senators 140 • 1916 Keating-Owen Child Labor Act 142 •
1917 ^Zimnrermann Telegram 144 • 1917 ^- Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War
Against Germany 146 • 1918 ^President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points M9 •
1920 ^ Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right to Vote 152 •
1928“ Boulder Canyon Project Act 154 • 1933 ^-Tennessee Valley Authority Act 157 •
1933 National Industrial Recovery Act 159 • 1935 ^-National Labor Relations Act 162 •
1935 ^-Social Security Act 164 • 1936 ^President Franklin Roosevelt’s Speech in Defense
of the Second New Deal 167 • 1941 ^The Four Freedoms: President Franklin Roosevelt’s
Annual Message to Congress 170 • 1941 Lend-Lease Act 172 •
1941 ^Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry 174 •
1941 ^Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Japan 176 •
1942^-Executive Order 9066: Japanese Relocation Order 178 • 1944 ^General Dwight D.
Eisenhower’s Order of the Day 180 • 1944 ^Servicemen’s Readjustment Act 182 •
1945 ^ Manhattan Project Notebook 184 • 1945 ^ Surrender of Germany 185 •
1945 ^-United Nations Charter 187 • 1945 Surrender of Japan 191 •
1947 "• Truman Doctrine 194 • 1948 ^-Marshall Plan 197 • 1948 Press Release Announcing
U.S. Recognition of Israel 200 • 1948 Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed
Forces 202 • 1953 Armistice Agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State 204 •
1954 ^ Senate Resolution 301: Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy 207 •
1954 Brown v. Board of Education 209 • 1956 ^ National Interstate and Defense
Highways Act 212 • 1957 ^Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School 214 •
1961 ^-President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address 217 •
1961 ^President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address 220 • 1961 ^ Executive Order 10924:
Establishment of the Peace Corps 223 • 1962 John Glenn’s Official Communication with
the Command Center 225 • 1962 ^ Aerial Photograph of Missiles in Cuba 227 •
1963 Test Ban Treaty 229 • 1963 ^-Official Program for the March on Washington 232 •
1964 Civil Rights Act 235 • 1964 ^Tonkin Gulf Resolution 238 •
1965 ^Social Security Act Amendments 240 • 1965 ^ Voting Rights Act 242
Further Reading 244
Index 254
Foreword
hen I was a ten-year-old boy grow¬ going on to the expansion of the Louisiana Purchase,
ing up in Illinois, I read in an the struggles with Native Americans, the agonies over
encyclopedia about how the slavery and race. You will discover the promise of new
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence inventions like the cotton gin and the electric lamp and
were displayed at the National Archives Building in an interstate system of highways, the conflicts over
Washington, D.C. To a boy that age, it was thrilling— states’ rights and, in the twentieth century, the rise of
the hermetically sealed cases filled with inert helium the LInited States to world responsibility that finally
gas, the device that would plunge the documents into showed how prophetic Thomas Jefferson was when he
an underground vault at the first hint of impending insisted that the “contagion” of democracy would one
vandalism, fire, or nuclear war. State-of-the-art technol¬ day spread throughout the world.
ogy was deployed to protect those Charters of Freedom What the Founders would particularly cherish
from the dangers of the nuclear age. George about this book is that it is autobiography, not biogra¬
Washington and James Madison could never have phy. It allows you to experience the excitement of the
dreamt that these documents would one day have to be American story by listening to the voices of those who
protected from something called the hydrogen bomb. shaped it. It was not that the Founders lacked respect
As I grew older and became a historian, I realized for scholarship (fortunately for those of us who earn our
that the display at the National Archives was a perfect living writing history). Many were scholars themselves.
metaphor for what the Constitution meant to every But one of the many ways they wanted to distinguish
American. For twenty-one decades, we had protected America from the kingly empires of Europe was this: in
those pieces of parchment, and for twenty-one decades, the eighteenth century, most Englishmen or Spaniards
the basic ideas they embodied had protected all of us. unquestioningly absorbed the history that their rulers
As proud as the Founders were of what they had handed down to them. In contrast, Franklin and Madison
created, they knew that if the American experiment and their comrades knew that in the America of the
succeeded, the Constitution would be augmented and future, the most meaningful assessment of American
changed by other documents —treaties, Presidential history would not be that of the leaders but that of the
pronunciamentos. Acts of Congress, Supreme Court people. It would be theirs to judge how well the grand
decisions. Everyone who attended the Constitutional experiment was working.
Convention at Philadelphia wondered how it would all For that, there are few better tools than this book.
turn out. As the twenty-first century unfolds, it gives us access to
If Benjamin Franklin or James Madison were to some of the most important historical treasures we
return to life today, he could find no better way to dis¬ Americans possess in order to reach—through the filter
cover how their handiwork finally developed than to of our own generation’s traumas, joys and preoccupa¬
read the hundred documents in this book. You may tions—such a verdict for our time.
read this volume as a kind of autobiography of America. Michael Beschi.oss
It begins with the optimism of the American Revolution¬ Washington, D.C.
aries and the more skeptical designs of the Founders, July 4, 2003
Foreword 7
Preface
O
n September 17, 2002, I was honored to country. Our Documents features well-known historical
join President George W. Bush and other documents such as the Constitution and the Bill of
national leaders in the Rose Garden of the Rights, as well as less-familiar documents such as the
White House as the President announced a nationwide Lee Resolution and De Lome letter.
civics initiative in which the National Archives and In his remarks on September 17, President Bush
Records Administration is playing a key role. This book said, “Our history is not a story of perfection. It is a story
is one of the results of that initiative. of imperfect people working toward great ideas.” Our
Our Documents is a collaboration among the Documents bears this out. For example, while the
National Archives, National History Day, the Corpora¬ Supreme Court’s ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
tion for National and Community Service, and the upheld “equal but separate accommodations for the
USA Freedom Corps. The purpose of Our Documents white and colored races,” the case of Brown v. Board of
is to encourage all Americans to participate in a series Education overturned this ruling in 1954, signaling the
of events and programs to get us thinking, talking, and end of legalized racial segregation in U.S. schools.
teaching about the rights and responsibilities of citizens Likewise, the Constitution as originally written in
in our democracy. Such an exploration of our nation’s 1787 mentions little about the right to vote. At the time
civic legacy can encourage everyone to strengthen their it was thought that only a privileged few (meaning
understanding and appreciation of the records and val¬ white men who owned property) should have that right.
ues that undergird our democracy. But through the years, Americans fought passionately
Our Documents revolves around 100 milestone for the right to vote, a process illustrated by the
documents drawn primarily from the public laws, Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which in
Supreme Court decisions, speeches, treaties, constitu¬ 1870 enfranchised African-American men; the
tional amendments, and millions of other documents Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the
that have influenced the course of U.S. history and are right to vote in 1920; and the Voting Rights Act of 1965,
held by the National Archives. which outlawed discriminatory voting practices.
The list begins with the Lee Resolution of June 7, All of these documents have helped shape our
1776, a simple document resolving that the United national character, and they reflect our diversity, our
Colonies “are, and of right, ought to be free and inde¬ unity, and our commitment as a nation to continue
pendent States.” Richard Henry Lee introduced this our work toward forming “a more perfect union.”
resolution in the Second Continental Congress, and it Understanding these foundations on which our nation
was approved on July 2, setting in motion the adoption is built is crucial to participating in our democracy in a
of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. meaningful way.
Although virtually all Americans are familiar with the
Declaration of Independence, far fewer know of the John W. Carlin
role the Lee Resolution played in the history of our Archivist of the United States
8 Preface