Christopher Burkett - 50 Core American Documents: Required Reading for Students, Teachers, and Citizens

013 Ashbrook Center , Ashland University

I Have a Dream Speech 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. renewed 1991 Coretta Scott King. Reprinted by arrangement with The Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., c/o Writers House as agent for the proprietor New York, NY

L ibrary of Congress Cataloging -in-Publication Data

0 Core American Documents : Required Reading for Students, Teachers, and Citizens;

Edited by Christopher Burkett

p . cm .

Includes Index

1. United States Politics and government.

I SBN 978-1 -878802-26-2 (pbk.)

Ashbrook Center at Ashland University

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I n 1825 , James Madison and Thomas Jefferson discussed by letter the kinds of texts that should be required reading at the recently founded university in Virginia. It is certainly very material that the true doctrines of liberty, as exemplified in our Political System, should be inculcated on those who are to sustain and may administer it, Madison wrote. It is, at the same time, he continued, not easy to find standard books that will be both guides & guards for the purpose. Madison proceeded to recommend certain fundamental documents as essential reading for future citizens and statesmen, including the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist, and George Washingtons Farewell Address.

The Ashbrook Centers list of 50 Core American Documents is meant to fulfill those same purposes. This list is meant to affirm the value and usefulness of reading original documents (as opposed to textbook summaries of major issues), and to introduce readers to Americas story as it has unfolded from the American Founding into the Twentieth Century. We chose these documents not necessarily because they have some official status (some are considered official, but many are private letters), or because they are the most widely read. Rather, each document tells us something important about the American mind, to borrow a term from Thomas Jeffersons 1825 letter to Henry Lee; in other words, they reveal a certain turn of each authors thought about the basic principles of economic, religious, or political liberty.

This list is by no means definitive or comprehensive, but is a starting point. It serves as an introduction to aspects of American thought and history that are deeply interesting, even surprising, and that will, we hope, entice readers to want to read and learn more. Many of the documents emphasize Americas uniqueness and contributions to the world, which is one way to view the American narrative. They also tell the stories of some of the greatest acts of statesmanship in American history including George Washingtons prudence in securing the young republic, Abraham Lincolns efforts to preserve the Union and end slavery, and Franklin Roosevelts attempts to restore confidence to the American people during the Great Depression. But the documents also present different views on some of the major issues and disputes in American history and government especially on the meaning of the Constitution, the injustice of slavery, and the demands of progress. Readers may compare and contrast the views of Alexander Stephens and Abraham Lincoln, for example, on the meaning of equality and liberty; Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun on the nature of the American Union; Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge on the meaning of progress; and James Monroe and Woodrow Wilson on the role of the United States in the world. The list concludes with Lyndon Johnsons Great Society Speech and Ronald Reagans A Time for Choosing speech, since they contain views of Americas purpose and meaning that have continued to broadly influence political debate in the United States to this day.

Taken as such, the documents reveal a kind of political dialogue to readers, an ongoing and profoundly consequential conversation about how Americans have agreed and often disagreed on the meaning of freedom and self-government. This list of 50 Core American Documents invites teachers and citizens alike to join in this American political dialogue. And because these documents can help citizens better understand the true principles of liberty and acquire the prudence needed to apply them in the varying circumstances of American politics, we consider them to be essential reading for high school students, who will have the responsibility of sustaining and administering our republic in the future.

To help introduce readers tot his conversation, we have included short introductions and suggested questions to consider when reading the documents. The readings in this book can also be supplemented by visiting the list of 50 Core Documents at ashbrook.org. Teachers and students can also find the 50 Core Docs at TeachingAmericanHistory.org which also includes information about additional educational resources offered by the Ashbrook Center.

Sources for the texts are also listed on both sites. In most cases we have retained the spellings, capitalization and punctuation as they appeared in the original sources, including the archaic usages.

Special thanks are due to Roger Beckett, Executive Director of the Ashbrook Center, for his direction and support of the project, Lisa Ormiston of the Ashbrook Center for her editing work on this project, and to the Ashbrook Scholar interns, especially Samuel Mariscal, for their diligence in assembling and proofreading the documents.

D rafted by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence justified the American Revolution by appealing to the Laws of Nature and of Natures God, universally applicable in all times and places. It was the first time in history that a political society founded itself upon such principled considerations of natural right rather than simply upon tradition, accident, or force. The Declaration of Independence also expressed fundamental principles regarding equality, liberty, and the purposes of government, describing them as self-evident truths. Bringing society into alignment with those founding principles would prove difficult in the future; nevertheless, by proclaiming them to be true, Founding-era Americans challenged themselves and their posterity to rise to the ideal of justice expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

Questions for consideration: What general and specific reasons does the Declaration of Independence give to justify political separation from Great Britain? What is the original purpose of government, and why must it derive its powers from the consent of the governed to be just? What guidelines does the Declaration of Independence provide regarding when and how a people should engage in revolution? What does it mean for a people or nation to be independent?

I N CONGRESS , July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Natures God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.