Foundational Documents

Track #307633: The Constitution's Foundational Documents
Annotated by: James Ditzenberger
http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/ts/viewTrackMembersText.do?org.apache.struts.taglib.html.TOKEN=890747a40fba109a4db80b9e53489863&number=307633&password=


1.
An Overview of the Magna Carta http://www.bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta/basics.html
Called the "Cornerstone of Liberty" the basis for why the Magna Carta was written is provided.

2.
The Complete Magna Carta in Modern English http://www.bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta/translation.html
A modern day translation of the centuries-old Magna Carta.

3.
The English Bill of Rights http://bessel.org/billrts.htm
A brief summary of the context in which the Bill of Rights was written helps explain its purpose and importance. The complete documents follows the summary.

4.
The Mayflower Compact http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1601-1650/plymouth/compac.htm
The Mayflower Compact may be short, but it still impacts American life today and its ideas strongly influenced the civic virtues of early American life.

5.
Two Treatises of Government-John Locke http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Treatises_of_Government
Scroll down to the second treatise and read the five subsections.

6.
The Great Law-The Constitution of the Iroquois Confederation http://www.iroquoisdemocracy.pdx.edu/html/activity4.htm
The Great Law (Iroquois Constitution) is explained and provided in full.

7.
A Summary of Common Sense by Thomas Paine http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/commonsense/summary.html
A summary of Thomas Paine's wildly popular booklet, Common Sense.

8.
The Declaration of Indepence-Annotated http://www.founding.com/declare/index.cfm
The entire Declaration of Independence is provided, but certain sections are underlined and commentary is given in a convenient window to the right of the document.

9.
Articles of Confederation http://www.usconstitution.net/constconart.html
The Articles are compared with the Constitution, in a point-by-point format. This site is very helpful for those who want to quicly understand the major differences between the two documents.