Download American historical documents PDF book From (1490 - 1904) published in 1910.

Columbus

No final history of the United States of America has been written or is likely to be written. Research constantly bring to light new facts that correct details or modify the traditional view of larger questions, and the most impartial historian is subject to personal or sectional bias which leads to his works’ being regarded as imperfect by another generation, or as unfair by the people of parts of the country other than his own. In such a series as the present, then, it is unwise to represent the story of the growth of this nation by the summary of any one scholar.The alternative has been to place before the reader a selection of the most important documents which record in contemporary terms the great events in the history of the country. Beginning with the personal records of the earliest discoverers of the continent, the selection goes on to present the first attempts at organizing a machinery of government made by the first settlers of the New England colonies; proceeds to the landmarks of the struggle for independence and the formation of the Constitution; shows the laying of the foundation of national policies and of the interpretation of the Constitution; indicates by the texts of the treaties themselves the acquisition of each successive increase of territory, and reveals by the original state papers the main causes and effects of the wars in which the country has from time to time been engaged.Read in succession, these documents afford a condensed view of the political progress of the American people; freed from any prejudice save that which swayed the makers of the history themselves.The Voyages to Vinland. 5The Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery (1493).22Amerigo Vespucci’s Account of His First Voyage (1497). 29John Cabot’s Discovery of North America (1497). ,, 47First Charter of Virginia (1606).51The Mayflower Compact (1620).62The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639) ... 63The Massachusetts Body of Liberties (1641) .... 70Arbitrary Government Described and the Government ofMassachusetts Vindicated from that Aspersion,BY John Winthrop (1644).90The Instrument of Government (1653).113A Healing Question, by Sir Henry Vane (1656) . . . 126John Eliot’s Brief Narrative (1670).147Declaration of Rights (1765).157The Declaration of Independence (1776).160The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (1775) . 166Articles of Confederation (1777).168Articles of Capitulation, Yorktown (1781).180Treaty with Great Britain (1783).185Constitution of the United States (1787).192The Federalist, Nos. I and 2 (1787).212Opinion of Chief Justice Marshall, in the Case ofMcCulloch vs. the State of Maryland (1819). 222Washington’s First Inaugural Address (1789) .... 241Treaty with the Six Nations (1794).246Washington’s Farewell Address (1796).250Treaty with France (Louisiana Purchase) (1803). 267Treaty with Great Britain (End of War of 1812) (1814) 273The arrangement as to the Naval Force to be RespectivelyMaintained on the American Lakes (1817) . . . 283HC—Vol. 43(1> 1Treaty with Spain (Acquisition of Florida) (1819). 286The Monroe Doctrine (1823).296Webster-Ashburton Treaty with Great Britain (1842) 299Treaty with Mexico (1848). 309Fugitive Slave Act (1850). 3^7Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address (1861). 334Emancipation Proclamation. (1863). 344Haskell’s Account of the Battle of Gettysburg .... 347Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (1863).441Proclamation of Amnesty (1863). 442Lincoln’s Letter to Mrs. Bixby (1864).446Terms of Lee’s Surrender at Appomattox (1865) . . . 447Lee’s Farewell to his Army (1865). 449Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (1865).450Proclamation Declaring the Insurrection at an End(1866). 4 S 3Treaty with Russia (Alaska Purchase) (1867) . . . 459The annexation of the Hawaiian Islands (1898) .... 464Recognition of the Independence of Cuba (1898) . . . 467Treaty with Spain (Cession of Porto Rico and The Philippines) (1898).469Convention Between the United States and the Re¬public OP Panama (1904).478