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U.S. founding documents: text, guides and quizzes

This collection brings together the documents that created the American system of government and the arguments people made about them. Each page shows the authoritative text next to a plain-English explanation, the historical context, the terms you need, links to related passages and a short quiz with explained answers.

The texts come from the National Archives, the Library of Congress, Cornell’s Legal Information Institute and scholarly editions of the ratification debate. Every page names its source, and the wording is kept exactly as those sources print it, including original spelling and capitalization.

Guided paths

Four ways to read the collection, each in an order that builds understanding.

How the government is built

Follow the Constitution’s design from purpose to institutions, then read the argument for why power was divided.

  1. 1Preamble: Preamble to the United States Constitution — Start with the purposes the people gave the government.
  2. 2Article I: Article I of the United States Constitution — Congress: two houses, the lawmaking process and the powers listed in Section 8.
  3. 3Article II: Article II of the United States Constitution — The President: election, powers and impeachment.
  4. 4Article III: Article III of the United States Constitution — The courts: judicial power, tenure and jurisdiction.
  5. 5Federalist No. 51: Checks and Balances Between the Departments of Government — Madison’s explanation of how separated powers check each other.

Rights and liberties

Read the amendments that protect individuals and see how they came to bind the states.

  1. 1Amendment 1: Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly and Petition — Religion, speech, press, assembly and petition.
  2. 2Amendment 4: Searches and Seizures — Searches, seizures and warrants.
  3. 3Amendment 5: Grand Juries, Double Jeopardy, Self-Incrimination, Due Process and Takings — Due process, self-incrimination, double jeopardy and takings.
  4. 4Amendment 14: Citizenship, Due Process and Equal Protection — Citizenship, due process and equal protection against the states.
  5. 5Anti-Federalist No. 84: Brutus II on Consolidation and a Bill of Rights — Why opponents demanded a bill of rights before ratification.

The ratification debate

Read the arguments in pairs: a Federalist essay and the Anti-Federalist reply.

  1. 1Federalist No. 10: The Union as a Safeguard Against Faction — Madison on why a large republic controls faction.
  2. 2Anti-Federalist No. 14: Cato III on Consolidation and a Large Republic — Cato III on why a republic must stay small.
  3. 3Federalist No. 70: The Executive Department — Hamilton’s defense of a single, energetic executive.
  4. 4Anti-Federalist No. 67: Cato IV on the Presidency — Cato IV on the presidency as a possible monarchy.
  5. 5Federalist No. 84: Objections to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights — Hamilton on why a bill of rights is unnecessary.

Judicial review

Trace the idea that courts can hold laws unconstitutional from the text through the debate to the first decision.

  1. 1Article III: Article III of the United States Constitution — What the text says, and does not say, about the courts.
  2. 2Federalist No. 78: The Judiciary Department — Hamilton’s argument for an independent judiciary.
  3. 3Anti-Federalist No. 78-79: Brutus XV on the Judiciary and Brutus XVI on the Senate — Brutus XV’s warning about an unaccountable Supreme Court.
  4. 4Marbury v. Madison: Marbury v. Madison (1803) — The 1803 decision that claimed the power.

The eight collections

Founding documents and cases

Every text is checked against its source and every quotation is tested. Read how we write and check these pages.