Do You Know These Famous American Documents?

Known as the Lee Resolution, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee’s proposal convinced the Continental Congress to create a formal statement of independence from Britain. Congress delayed the vote until July, giving the committee and its lead writer, Thomas Jefferson, time to work. Lee’s plan was approved July 2, but the Declaration wasn’t adopted for two more days, which is why Americans celebrate independence on the Fourth of July.

Benjamin Franklin was accomplished in many different fields. A printer, postmaster, author, and inventor, the U.S. founding father is perhaps best known for his decades-long political career spanning several of the nation’s early milestones. He signed some of America’s founding documents, but not the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, a set of laws regulating immigration.

Passed in 1901, the Platt Amendment allowed the U.S. to intervene in Cuba in situations “for the preservation of Cuban independence.” But it was largely viewed as a free pass for the U.S. to maintain a presence on the island following the Cuban War of Independence. President Franklin D. Roosevelt revoked most of the amendment in 1934 under his Good Neighbor Policy.

The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 defined the borders between the “Old World” of Europe and the colonized Americas. It stated that the young United States would recognize existing settlements as long as no further colonization took place. President Theodore Roosevelt’s Corollary allowed the U.S. to intervene in cases of extreme injustice and was used to justify future U.S. involvement in conflicts in Central and South America.

An important early politician from Virginia, George Mason contributed heavily to Virginia’s state constitution, a document that influenced Thomas Jefferson as he wrote the U.S. Declaration of Independence. During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Mason pushed strongly for individual liberties, and refused to sign the Constitution without the inclusion of a Bill of Rights that outlined and protected these individual rights.

Written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison between October 1787 and May 1788, the Federalist Papers were a series of essays published in an attempt to persuade New York state to ratify the new U.S. Constitution. Since Hamilton and Madison had both attended the Constitutional Convention, historians view the Federalist Papers as an insight into the minds of two key architects of American government.

America’s second war with Britain in less than 40 years stemmed from Britain’s blockade of France, as well as its support for hostile Indigenous tribes in the U.S. and the imprisonment of American seamen. The War of 1812 is perhaps most famous for the burning of the U.S. White House in August 1814. After a series of American victories at sea, the two sides agreed to a truce on Christmas Eve.

The 1775 Olive Branch Petition was a last-ditch effort to avoid a split between the U.S. and Britain. Written by U.S. founding father John Dickinson, the document was carefully worded to blame the untenable conditions in the American colonies on King George’s governors and not the king himself. When George III refused to even read the petition, the colonists knew there was little chance of a peaceful negotiation to self-govern.

Although World War I had been raging in Europe since 1914, President Woodrow Wilson promised to keep the U.S. out of it. But by early 1917, Germany’s submarine attacks against merchant ships had caused a spike in anti-German sentiment. The exposure of the Zimmermann Telegram, a secret effort to persuade Mexico to ally with Germany against America, was a final straw. Five weeks after its release, the U.S. officially entered the war.

Jonathan Dayton was a young war hero in the American Revolution, earning the rank of captain at 19 years old. After the war, he established a legal practice and participated in local New Jersey politics throughout the 1780s. Dayton was sent to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 after his father declined his invite, and became the founding document’s youngest signator. At 81, Benjamin Franklin was the oldest person to sign the Constitution.

As one of the biggest pieces of legislation passed under the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance set rules to help the rapidly growing U.S. expand westward in an orderly fashion. Congress decided the lands north and west of the Ohio River should be split into no more than five states to protect the balance of governing power. The territory eventually became the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

In April 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for the 13th time for leading protests in Birmingham, Alabama. Though he was put in solitary confinement, a friend smuggled in a newspaper with an open letter from local white clergymen criticizing King’s methods and calling for an end to the demonstrations. With no notes or supporting materials, King responded to the request with an impassioned defense of civil disobedience, his now-famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail.”

Less than half of the people on board the Mayflower were pilgrims seeking religious freedom — the others were craftsmen and merchants looking for economic opportunity. The group had a contract with the Virginia Company, but weather blew the Mayflower north to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Worried their Virginia agreement wouldn’t be followed, passengers signed a new contract of self-government before disembarking, known as the Mayflower Compact.

The Continental Congress officially approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 — but it took a while longer for the document to be signed by all 56 delegates. An official copy wasn’t applied to parchment until July 19, and on August 2, 1776, John Hancock famously added the first and largest signature.

After World War II, the U.S. made some major changes to its defense and intelligence policies. The comprehensive National Security Act of 1947 defined three separate military branches: the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Army, all directed by a new civilian position, the secretary of defense. The act is also known for creating the Central Intelligence Agency, the government’s primary foreign intelligence service.

The Articles of Confederation were written in a post-revolutionary haste that greatly limited the power of the new union: The government wasn’t allowed to collect taxes or regulate trade between states. After a second attempt to allow taxation failed in 1786, public sentiment shifted towards the desire for a new form of government. The Constitutional Convention gathered in Philadelphia a year later.

Though fighting in the Revolutionary War had already started by 1775, many colonists were still reluctant to oppose British rule. Thomas Paine, a journalist and political philosopher living in Philadelphia, believed Americans were ready for independence but needed a push. His treatise on government provided it, selling about 500,000 copies across the colonies and helping foment revolution.

After WWII, western Europe was in bad shape. Major cities such as London and Paris had sustained severe damage. The Marshall Plan — named for then Secretary of State George Marshall — had the U.S. invest the equivalent of 5% of its GDP into rebuilding Europe between 1948 and 1952. The Soviet Union’s refusal to participate despite an invite is often viewed as the start of the Cold War.

Try to find the word "democracy" in the Constitution and you'll come up short — and you won't find it in the Declaration of Independence, either. In fact, the Founding Fathers were very much against pure democracy, fearing a majority rule would disrupt the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Instead, they put their trust into the checks and balances provided by the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government.

President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, amid the Civil War. The document freed enslaved peoples in Confederate states some three years before the 13th Amendment abolished slavery nationwide. Lincoln had developed the proclamation months earlier, but was persuaded to wait for a momentum swing before making it public. The Union victory at Antietam — a turning point in the war — provided the perfect opportunity.