Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Elliot's Debates is a five-volume collection compiled by Jonathan Elliot in the mid-nineteenth century. The
volumes remain the best source for materials about the national government's transitional period between the
closing of the Constitutional Convention in September 1787 and the opening of the First Federal Congress in
March 1789.
Farrand's Records gathered the documentary records of the Constitutional Convention into four volumes, three
of which are included in this online collection, containing the materials necessary to study the workings of the
Constitutional Convention. The notes taken at that time by James Madison, and later revised by him, form the
largest single block of material other than the official proceedings. The three volumes also include notes and
letters by many other participants, as well as the various constitutional plans proposed during the convention
such as the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan.
The Making of the U.S. Constitution is a special presentation that provides a brief history of the making of the
Constitution followed by the text of the Constitution as originally adopted.
An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
This collection contains a broadside announcing that Virginia had ratified the Constitution on June 25, 1787. It
also presents a copy of the Constitution that includes Rhode Island's ratification statement from May 29, 1790.
Search this collection to locate additional printed ephemera related to the Constitution.
Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789
Presents an early printed version of the Constitution from 1787. This collection also contains an additional
twenty documents from the Constitutional Convention Broadside Collection, including documents relating to
the Constitutional Convention of 1787, extracts of proceedings of state assemblies and conventions relating to
the ratification of the Constitution, and several essays on ratification. Search on the word "Constitution" to find
these broadsides.
This collection contains an essay titled To Form a More Perfect Union that examines American history from
1774 to 1789, including the work of the Constitutional Convention.
This collection contains a printed copy of the Constitution with marginal notes by George Washington from
September 12, 1787. It also includes Washington's copies of the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan.
Search this collection using the words "Constitution" or "Constitutional Convention" to find additional
documents, including a copy of the diary Washington kept during the Constitutional Convention.
The James Madison Papers consists of approximately 12,000 items that document the life of the man who
came to be known as the “Father of the Constitution.” Includes an essay on Madison's role in the
Constitutional Convention. Also contains Madison's original notes on debates in the Federal Convention of
1787, Part 1 and Part 2, as well as John C. Payne's copy of Madison's original notes.
Thomas Jefferson received a copy of the Constitution in November, 1787, while living in France. Beginning
on the second page of a letter to James Madison dated December 20, 1787, Jefferson expressed his opinions on
the new Constitution, including his belief that a Bill of Rights was needed. This collection also contains
Alexander Hamilton's proposals from the Constitutional Convention and Jefferson's notes on the Constitution
from 1788.
Search this collection using the words "Constitution" or "Constitutional Convention" to find additional
documents on this topic.
Presents Alexander Hamilton's notes for a speech proposing a plan of government at the Constitutional
Convention.
America's Library
Jump Back in Time: The New United States of America Adopted the Bill of Rights
December 15, 1791
Exhibitions
On July 24, 1787, the Federal Convention appointed a five-man Committee of Detail, chaired by John
Rutledge of South Carolina, to prepare a draft constitution that encompassed the results of deliberations up to
that point.
During the Constitutional Convention, the Committee of Style was appointed "to revise the style of, and
arrange, the articles which have been agreed to by the House." On September 12, 1787, the Convention
ordered copies printed and distributed to the delegates. This copy belonged to James Madison.
This online exhibition offers insights into how the nation’s founding documents were forged and the role that
imagination and vision played in the unprecedented creative act of forming a self–governing country. The
exhibition contains a section on creating the United States Constitution.
This Primary Source Set includes images, documents, maps, sound files and analysis tools to help teach about
the United States Constitution.
Today in History
Members of the Constitutional Convention signed the final draft of the Constitution on September 17, 1787.
Known as the Federalist Papers, the first in a series of eighty-five essays by "Publius," the pen name of
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, appeared in the New York Independent Journal on
October 27, 1787.
On December 12, 1787, delegates to the Pennsylvania ratifying convention meeting at the Pennsylvania State
House voted to ratify the Constitution.
The New Jersey ratifying caucus approved the Constitution on December 18, 1787.
January 9, 1788
On January 9, 1788, Connecticut ratified the Constitution, becoming the fifth state in the Union.
On July 26, 1788, the Convention of the State of New York, meeting in Poughkeepsie, voted to ratify the
Constitution.
The new United States of America adopted the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S.
Constitution, confirming the fundamental rights of its citizens on December 15, 1791.
THOMAS
A collection of Constitution Day resources for teachers from the Library of Congress.
Webcasts
Award-winning author and journalist Linda R. Monk discussed her book, The Words We Live By: Your
Annotated Guide to the Constitution (Hyperion, 2003), at the Library of Congress on April 14, 2003.
The American Constitution - A Documentary Record, The Avalon Project at Yale Law School
Charters of Freedom, Constitution of the United States, National Archives and Records Administration
Our Documents, Constitution of the United States, National Archives and Records Administration
Selected Bibliography
Amar, Akhil Reed. America’s Constitution: A Biography. New York: Random House, 2005. [Catalog Record]
Bowen, Catherine Drinker. Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to
September, 1787. Boston: Little, Brown, 1986. [Catalog Record]
Collier, Christopher, and James Lincoln Collier. Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of
1787. New York: Random House, 1986. [Catalog Record]
Maddex, Robert L., The U.S. Constitution A to Z. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2008. [Catalog Record]
Maier, Pauline. Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788. New York: Simon & Schuster,
2010. [Catalog Record]
Monk, Linda R. The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution. New York: Hyperion,
2003. [Catalog Record]
Rakove, Jack N. Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution. New York: A.A.
Knopf, 1996. [Catalog Record]
Stewart, David O. The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 2007. [Catalog Record]
Younger Readers
Banks, Joan. The U.S. Constitution. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2001. [Catalog Record]
Bjornlund, Lydia D. The Constitution and the Founding of America. San Diego, Calif.: Lucent Books, 2000.
[Catalog Record]
Collier, Christopher, and James Lincoln Collier. Creating the Constitution, 1787. New York: Benchmark
Books, 1999. [Catalog Record]
Faber, Doris, and Harold Faber. We the People: The Story of the United States Constitution Since 1787. New
York: Scribner's, 1987. [Catalog Record]
Fritz, Jean. Shh! We're Writing the Constitution. New York: Putnam, 1987. [Catalog Record]