Historical Documents Research Paper Sample

United States Constitution is the fundamental law of the United States, which has the highest legal force.

1) It was adopted on September 17, 1878 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Then all thirteen American states subsequently ratified this document and on March 4, 1789 U.S. Constitution entered into force.
2) As the United States Constitution was adopted by the Constitutional Convention, which consisted of 74 delegates from 12 states (the only state that refused to send representatives was Rhode Island), it is impossible to outline specific author or authors. Nevertheless, the most significant influence on the text of the document had James Madison, the main ideologist of "Virginia Plan".
3) The main purpose of creation the U.S. Constitution was legal weakness of the Articles of Confederation, which regulated the powers of the central authorities before the Constitution; George Washington even figuratively called the Articles of Confederation “ropes of sand”. Therefore, proposals to amend the Articles quickly began to emerge; so the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia was called to create new fundamental law for the American nation.

Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitutional document of the United States.

1) The Articles of Confederation were adopted on November 15, 1777 in York. Then it was ratified by all thirteen states (the last was Maryland with ratification on March 1, 1781).
2) The authorship of this document belongs to the Second Continental Congress, which consisted of 65 delegates from 13 American colonies of Great Britain.
3) This reason of creation, adoption, and ratification of the Articles of Confederation was to establish the fundamental law of the new State, which defined the United States as a confederation and fixed the powers of the central authorities.
United States Declaration of Independence is a historical document, which declared independence of thirteen colonies in North America from Great Britain.
1) The text of the Declaration was submitted to Congress for consideration on July 1, 1776, then approved by Congress and signed by President of Congress John Hancock and Secretary Charles Thomson on July 4, 1776.
2) The authorship of this document also belongs to the Second Continental Congress, but the main work on writing of the declaration was done by Thomas Jefferson.
3) The main objective was to declare that the thirteen colonies in North America are free and independent states and that all political connection between them and the United Kingdom will be canceled.
The Federalist Papers is a list of articles, which support the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
1) Articles were published during 1787-1788 in the New York newspapers. The collection of the articles entitled "The Federalist" was released in 1788.
2) "Federalist" was written by a group of authors. The major part was written by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Also a few articles were written by John Jay.
3) The purpose of the articles was to convince the public of New York State to ratify the U.S. Constitution and thus establish a unified state – the confederation of independent colonies.

Works cited

“Articles of Confederation”. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
26 March, 2015. <http://www.archives.gov/philadelphia/exhibits/franklin/articles.html>
“Constitution of the United States”. The U.S. National Archives and Records
Administration. 26 March, 2015. <http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html>
“Declaration of Independence”. The U.S. National Archives and Records
Administration. 26 March, 2015. <http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html>
“The Federalist Papers”. Library of Congress, Thomas. 26 March, 2015.
<http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html>