Tarpeia is an educational nonprofit specializing in American history. We curate online curricula, host repositories consisting of thousnands of primary source documents, and publish scholarly papers that enrich American history. Tarpeia Tarpeia Tarpeia Tarpeia Enriching Civic & Historical Literacy Make Your 2025 Contribution Bridging the Chasm Between the Frontier of Scholarship and What's in the Classroom for a More Educated Union A comprehensive history of American political thought & practice. Compendium The Compendium is Tarpeia's online repository of thousands of primary source documents & events from 1492-today. Colonial Era 1492-1763 Colonial Era 1492-1763 Colonial Era 1492-1763 Colonial Era 1492-1763 Chapter I La Conquista 1492 ― 1603 Chapter I La Conquista 1492 ― 1603 View Chapter Chapter II Nova Britannia 1603 ― 1675 Chapter II Nova Britannia 1603 ― 1675 View Chapter Chapter III Intercolonial Wars 1675 ― 1763 Chapter III Intercolonial Wars 1675 ― 1763 View Chapter Revolutionary Era 1763-1784 Revolutionary Era 1763-1784 Revolutionary Era 1763-1784 Revolutionary Era 1763-1784 Chapter IIII Join or Die 1763 ― 1775 Chapter IIII Join or Die 1763 ― 1775 View Chapter Chapter V Independence 1775 ― 1784 Chapter V Independence 1775 ― 1784 View Chapter Founding Era 1784-1817 Founding Era 1784-1817 Founding Era 1784-1817 Founding Era 1784-1817 Chapter VI More Perfect Union 1784 ― 1789 Chapter VI More Perfect Union 1784 ― 1789 View Chapter Chapter VII Federalist Regime 1789 ― 1801 Chapter VII Federalist Regime 1789 ― 1801 View Chapter Chapter VIII Republican Liberty 1801 ― 1817 Chapter VIII Republican Liberty 1801 ― 1817 View Chapter Antebellum Era 1817-1849 Antebellum Era 1817-1849 Antebellum Era 1817-1849 Antebellum Era 1817-1849 Chapter VIIII Good Feelings 1817 ― 1829 Chapter VIIII Good Feelings 1817 ― 1829 View Chapter Chapter X Common Man 1829 ― 1841 Chapter X Common Man 1829 ― 1841 View Chapter Chapter XI Manifest Destiny 1841 ― 1849 Chapter XI Manifest Destiny 1841 ― 1849 View Chapter Emancipation Era 1849-1885 Emancipation Era 1849-1885 Emancipation Era 1849-1885 Emancipation Era 1849-1885 Chapter XII Sectional Crisis 1849 ― 1860 Chapter XII Sectional Crisis 1849 ― 1860 View Chapter Chapter XIII Civil War 1860 ― 1865 Chapter XIII Civil War 1860 ― 1865 View Chapter Chapter XIIII Reconstruction 1865 ― 1885 Chapter XIIII Reconstruction 1865 ― 1885 View Chapter Progressive Era 1885-1913 Progressive Era 1885-1913 Progressive Era 1885-1913 Progressive Era 1885-1913 Chapter XV Gilded Age 1885 ― 1897 Chapter XV Gilded Age 1885 ― 1897 View Chapter Chapter XVI New Nationalism 1897 ― 1913 Chapter XVI New Nationalism 1897 ― 1913 View Chapter World Wars Era 1913-1945 World Wars Era 1913-1945 World Wars Era 1913-1945 World Wars Era 1913-1945 Chapter XVII World War I 1913 ― 1921 Chapter XVII World War I 1913 ― 1921 View Chapter Chapter XVIII Roaring Twenties 1921 ― 1929 Chapter XVIII Roaring Twenties 1921 ― 1929 View Chapter Chapter XVIIII Great Depression 1929 ― 1941 Chapter XVIIII Great Depression 1929 ― 1941 View Chapter Chapter XX World War II 1941 ― 1945 Chapter XX World War II 1941 ― 1945 View Chapter Cold War Era 1945-1989 Cold War Era 1945-1989 Cold War Era 1945-1989 Cold War Era 1945-1989 Chapter XXI Containment 1945 ― 1961 Chapter XXI Containment 1945 ― 1961 View Chapter Chapter XXII Detente 1961 ― 1977 Chapter XXII Detente 1961 ― 1977 View Chapter Chapter XXIII Rearmament 1977 ― 1989 Chapter XXIII Rearmament 1977 ― 1989 View Chapter Modern Era 1989-Today Modern Era 1989-Today Modern Era 1989-Today Modern Era 1989-Today Chapter XXIIII End of History 1989 ― 2001 Chapter XXIIII End of History 1989 ― 2001 View Chapter Chapter XXV War on Terror 2001 ― 2017 Chapter XXV War on Terror 2001 ― 2017 View Chapter Chapter XXVI Crisis of Populism 2017 ― Today Chapter XXVI Crisis of Populism 2017 ― Today View Chapter A primary site for primary sources, comprising thousands of historical documents. Curriculum The Curriculum is Tarpeia's online courses covering American political history. FYI all of the courses are still under development. Colonial Era Enroll Revolutionary Era Enroll Founding Era Enroll Antebellum Era Enroll Emancipation Era Enroll Progressive Era Enroll World Wars Era Enroll Cold War Era Enroll Modern Era Enroll History gives context to civics and civics gives purpose to history. Praeconium The Praeconium is Tarpeia's family of journals where we publish academic papers, archival materials, op-eds, news, and satire. FYI all of the journals are still under development. DIURNALIS Anno # Quarto # Mense # Diurnalis Introduction and Guidelines Diurnalis Introduction and Guidelines ARCHIVES Archives Introduction An appeal in favor of that class of Americans called Africans - Lydia Maria Child Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God - Jonathan Edwards Cross of Gold - William Jennings Bryan "Never Surrender" - Churchill Promises of the Declaration of Independence: Eulogy on Abraham Lincoln - Charles Sumner Virginia's Petition, Memorial, and Remonstrance | April 16, 1768 Lincoln's Cooper Union Speech Special Message to the Congress Proposing a Nationwide War on the Sources of Poverty - LBJ Speech Upon the Foreign Slave Trade - L. W. 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Modern Era Chapter XXVI: Crisis of Populism 2017 ― Today Make America Great Again 2017-2021 Build Back Better 2021-2025 America First 2025-Today Previous Chapter Next Chapter War on Terror 2001 ― 2017 Yet to Happen Filter by Era Select Era Filter by Type Select Type Reset Year Month Day Document 1492 4 30 Privileges Granted to Columbus by the Spanish Monarchy 1492 8 3 Columbus' Letter of His First Voyage 1497 5 10 Amerigo Vespucci First Voyage 1497 7 22 Decree from Spain to Cultivate American Colonies 1498 3 5 John Cabot Patent from King Henry VII 1513 12 10 The Prince - Machiavelli 1515 8 16 Letter from Nunez de Balboa about seeing the Pacific Ocean 1520 10 30 Cortes's Second Letter to Charles V 1524 7 8 Giovanni da Verrazano Letter of his First Voyage 1578 6 11 Letters Patent to Sir Humfrey Gylberte 1584 3 25 Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh 1603 12 18 Charter of Acadia 1606 4 10 First Charter of Virginia 1609 5 23 Second Charter of Virginia 1611 3 12 Third Charter of Virginia 1614 10 11 Charter of New Netherland 1619 7 30 House of Burgesses First Meeting and Resolves 1619 8 20 First African Slaves Sold in Virginia 1620 11 3 Charter of New England 1620 11 11 Mayflower Compact 1621 7 24 Ordinances for Virginia 1622 8 10 Grant of Maine 1622 1626 11 5 Dutch Purchase of Manhatten 1628 3 18 Charter of Massachusetts Bay Colony 1628 1629 6 7 Charters of Freedoms and Exemptions 1630 4 Christain Charitie - ca John Winthrop 1632 6 20 Charter of Maryland 1634 4 28 Royal Commission for Regulating Plantations 1637 5 6 Declaration in Defense of an Order of Court 1639 1 14 Fundamental Orders of Connecticut 1639 6 4 Fundamental Agreement of New Haven 1641 3 16 Government of Rhode Island 1641 1641 12 10 Massachusetts Body of Liberties 1643 5 19 The Articles of Confederation of the United Colonies of New England 1643 11 6 Government of New Haven 1645 7 3 John Winthrop’s "Little Speech on Liberty" (1645) 1649 9 21 Maryland Toleration Act 1651 2 18 Barbados Declaration of Independence 1651 4 Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes 1657 12 27 Flushing Remonstrance 1662 4 23 Charter of Connecticut 1663 3 24 Charter of Carolina 1663 7 15 Rhode Island Royal Charter 1664 2 10 Concession and Agreement of New Jersey 1664 9 29 Dutch Surrender of New Netherlands to England 1665 6 30 Charter of Carolina 1669 3 1 Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina 1676 5 29 Berkeley's Response to Bacon 1676 7 30 Bacon's Rebellion Declaration 1681 7 11 Concessions to the Province of Pennsylvania 1682 5 5 Frame of Government of Pennsylvania 1683 1 1 Constitution of East New Jersey 1683 2 2 Pennsylvania Frame of Government 1683 1683 6 12 Randolph Condemns Massachusetts Bay Company 1686 4 7 Commission of Sir Andros for the Dominion of New England 1689 12 Second Treatise of Government - John Locke 1689 12 English Bill of Rights 1691 10 7 Charter of Massachusetts Bay Colony 1691 1696 11 1 Pennsylvania Frame of Government 1696 1697 2 8 Penn's Plan for Colonial Union 1701 10 28 Pennsylvania Charter of Privlieges 1701 10 28 Charter of Delaware 1713 3 14 Treaties of Utrecht 1725 8 26 Explanatory Charter of Massachusetts Bay 1732 6 9 Charter of Georgia 1732 1739 A Treatise of Human Nature - David Hume 1748 The Spirit of Laws- Montesquieu 1750 12 31 A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers by Jonathan Mayhew 1751 6 10 Currency Act 1751 1754 7 10 Albany Plan 1755 11 11 Pennsylvania Assembly Reply to the Governor about Native Raids 1758 Law of Nations - Emerich de Vattel 1758 10 12 Two Penny Act 1763 2 10 Treaty of Paris 1763 1763 10 7 Royal Proclamation of Colonial Boundaries 1764 On Crimes and Punishments - Cesare Beccaria 1764 An Essay in Vindication of the Continental Colonies of America by Arthur Lee 1764 1 30 A Narrative of the Late Massacres by Ben Franklin 1764 4 5 The Sugar Act 1764 4 19 Currency Act 1764 1764 5 24 Instructions to Boston's Representatives 1764 7 1 Principles of Law and Polity by Francis Bernard 1764 7 23 A Brief State of the Claim of the Colonies by Thomas Hutchinson 1764 7 30 THE RIGHTS OF THE British Colonies Asserted and proved. 1764 9 3 Sentiments of a British American by Oxenbridge Thacher 1764 10 18 New York Petition for the Repeal of the Sugar Act 1764 10 24 The Colonel Dismounted by Richard Bland 1764 11 Connecticut Petition by Thomas Fitch 1764 11 3 Petition from the Massachusetts House of Representatives to the House of Commons 1764 11 29 Rhode Island's Petition on the Sugar & Currency Acts 1764 11 30 Rights of Colonies Examined by Stephen Hopkins 1764 12 18 Petition of the Virginia House of Burgesses to the House of Commons 1765 Commentaries on the Laws of England - William Blackstone 1765 3 22 The Stamp Act 1765 5 15 Quartering Act of 1765 1765 5 29 Virginia Resolutions Responding to the Stamp Act 1765 6 8 Massachusetts Circular Letter of 1765 1765 7 4 The Late Regulations by John Dickinson 1765 9 Objections to Taxation Considered by Soame Jenyns 1765 9 21 Pennsylvania Resolves on the Stamp Act 1765 9 24 Braintree Instructions 1765 10 7 Public Letter to the People of Massachusetts by B.W. 1765 10 19 Stamp Act Congress Resolves 1765 10 25 Massachusett's Reply to Governor Bernard 1765 10 29 Massachusetts Resolves Against the Stamp Act 1765 10 31 New York Merchant's Non-importation Agreement 1765 11 29 South Carolina Resolves Against the Stamp Act 1765 12 10 Connecticut Resolution on the Stamp Act 1766 An Inquiry Into the Rights of the British Colonies by Richard Bland 1766 1 1 Considerations of Imposing Taxes by Dulany 1766 1 14 William Pitt's Speech Against the Stamp Act 1766 3 18 The Repeal of the Stamp Act 1766 3 18 The Declaratory Act 1766 5 23 The Snare Broken by Mayhew 1766 6 6 Repeal of the Sugar Act 1766 6 6 Free Port Act 1767 6 15 New York Restraining Act (1st Townshend Act) 1767 6 29 Commissioners of Customs Act (3rd Townshend Act) 1767 6 29 Revenue Act of 1767 (2nd Townshend Act) 1767 6 29 Indemnity Act of 1767 (4th Townshend Act) 1767 12 2 Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer 1768 2 11 Massachusetts Circular Letters 1768 7 6 Vice-Admiralty Court Act (5th Townshend Act) 1768 8 1 Boston Non-Importation Agreement 1768 9 22 Boston Town Meeting Resolutions 1769 5 16 Virginia Resolves 1769 5 17 Virginia Nonimportation Agreement 1769 7 22 Charleston Non-Importation Agreement 1770 4 12 Repeal of Most of the Townshend Acts 1772 5 CALM AND RESPECTFUL THOUGHTS on the NEGATIVE of the CROWN by Zubly 1772 12 3 Beauties of Liberty by John Allen 1773 An Address on Slavery in America by Benjamin Rush 1773 3 12 Virginia Establishment of Colonial Correspondence 1773 4 10 Candidus 1773 5 10 The Tea Act 1773 9 11 Rules by which a Great Empire may be reduced to a small one 1773 10 16 Philadelphia Resolutions on the Tea Act 1773 12 17 New York Association of the Sons of Liberty 1774 3 31 Boston Port Act 1774 5 14 Observations &c. by Josiah Quincy II 1774 5 20 Adiministration of Justice Act 1774 5 20 Massachusetts Government Act 1774 5 24 Virginia Resolution to Fast and Pray for Boston 1774 6 2 Quartering Act 1774 6 22 Quebec Act 1774 7 18 Fairfax Resolves 1774 8 1 Thomas Jefferson A Summary View of the Rights of British America 1774 9 5 To the People of Great Britain 1774 9 17 Suffolk Resolves 1774 9 28 Galloway's Plan for Union 1774 10 14 First Continental Congress Resolutions 1774 10 20 Continental Association 1774 10 26 Petition to Repeal the Intolerable Acts 1774 12 12 Massachusettensis by Daniel Leonard 1774 12 15 A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress by Alexander Hamilton 1775 1 23 Novanglus 1775 2 15 The Farmer Refuted by Alexander Hamilton 1775 2 27 Conciliatory Resolution 1775 3 8 African Slavery in America by Thomas Paine 1775 3 22 Edmund Burke's Speech on Conciliation 1775 3 23 Give me Liberty or give me Death 1775 3 30 The New England Restraining Act 1775 5 29 Letter to Canada 1775 5 31 The Charlotte Town Resolves 1775 6 15 Remarks on the Quebec Bill by Alexander Hamilton 1775 6 19 Washington's Commission 1775 7 6 Causes and Necessity of their taking up Arms 1775 7 8 Olive Branch Petition 1775 7 31 Report on the Conciliatory Resolution 1775 8 23 King George III Suppressing Rebellion Proclamation 1775 11 7 Lord Dunmore's Proclamation 1775 11 9 Resolution of Secrecy 1775 11 10 Establishment of the Marine Corps 1776 1 5 New Hampshire's Constitution 1776 1776 1 10 Thomas Paine's Common Sense 1776 3 23 Letter from Adams to Gates 1776 3 26 South Carolina's Constitution 1776 1776 4 1 John Adams, Thoughts on Government 1776 4 12 Halifax Resolves 1776 5 15 Preamble and Resolutions of the Virginia Convention 1776 6 11 Lee's Resolution 1776 6 12 Virginia Declaration of Rights 1776 6 29 Virginia Constitution 1776 1776 7 2 New Jersey Constitution 1776 7 4 Declaration of Independence 1776 8 21 Concord Town Resolutions on the Massachusetts Constitution 1776 9 10 Constitution of Delaware 1776 1776 9 11 Delaware's Declaration of Rights 1776 9 28 Constitution of Pennsylvania 1776 1776 11 11 Maryland Constitution 1776 1776 12 18 Constitution of North Carolina 1776 1776 12 23 The American Crisis Number I by Thomas Paine 1777 2 5 Georgia Constitution 1777 1777 4 20 New York Constitution 1777 1777 7 8 Constitution of Vermont 1777 1778 2 6 Treaty of Amity and Commerce Between The United States and France 1778 3 19 South Carolina Constitution 1778 1778 9 17 Treaty of Fort Pitt 1779 6 18 A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom 1780 3 1 Pennsylvania Act to Abolish Slavery

Progressive Era Chapter XV: Gilded Age 1885 ― 1897 His Obstinacy 1885-1889 Tariff President 1889-1893 Depression President 1893-1897 Previous Chapter Next Chapter Reconstruction 1865 ― 1885 New Nationalism 1897 ― 1913 Filter by Era Select Era Filter by Type Select Type Reset Year Month Day Document 1492 4 30 Privileges Granted to Columbus by the Spanish Monarchy 1492 8 3 Columbus' Letter of His First Voyage 1497 5 10 Amerigo Vespucci First Voyage 1497 7 22 Decree from Spain to Cultivate American Colonies 1498 3 5 John Cabot Patent from King Henry VII 1513 12 10 The Prince - Machiavelli 1515 8 16 Letter from Nunez de Balboa about seeing the Pacific Ocean 1520 10 30 Cortes's Second Letter to Charles V 1524 7 8 Giovanni da Verrazano Letter of his First Voyage 1578 6 11 Letters Patent to Sir Humfrey Gylberte 1584 3 25 Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh 1603 12 18 Charter of Acadia 1606 4 10 First Charter of Virginia 1609 5 23 Second Charter of Virginia 1611 3 12 Third Charter of Virginia 1614 10 11 Charter of New Netherland 1619 7 30 House of Burgesses First Meeting and Resolves 1619 8 20 First African Slaves Sold in Virginia 1620 11 3 Charter of New England 1620 11 11 Mayflower Compact 1621 7 24 Ordinances for Virginia 1622 8 10 Grant of Maine 1622 1626 11 5 Dutch Purchase of Manhatten 1628 3 18 Charter of Massachusetts Bay Colony 1628 1629 6 7 Charters of Freedoms and Exemptions 1630 4 Christain Charitie - ca John Winthrop 1632 6 20 Charter of Maryland 1634 4 28 Royal Commission for Regulating Plantations 1637 5 6 Declaration in Defense of an Order of Court 1639 1 14 Fundamental Orders of Connecticut 1639 6 4 Fundamental Agreement of New Haven 1641 3 16 Government of Rhode Island 1641 1641 12 10 Massachusetts Body of Liberties 1643 5 19 The Articles of Confederation of the United Colonies of New England 1643 11 6 Government of New Haven 1645 7 3 John Winthrop’s "Little Speech on Liberty" (1645) 1649 9 21 Maryland Toleration Act 1651 2 18 Barbados Declaration of Independence 1651 4 Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes 1657 12 27 Flushing Remonstrance 1662 4 23 Charter of Connecticut 1663 3 24 Charter of Carolina 1663 7 15 Rhode Island Royal Charter 1664 2 10 Concession and Agreement of New Jersey 1664 9 29 Dutch Surrender of New Netherlands to England 1665 6 30 Charter of Carolina 1669 3 1 Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina 1676 5 29 Berkeley's Response to Bacon 1676 7 30 Bacon's Rebellion Declaration 1681 7 11 Concessions to the Province of Pennsylvania 1682 5 5 Frame of Government of Pennsylvania 1683 1 1 Constitution of East New Jersey 1683 2 2 Pennsylvania Frame of Government 1683 1683 6 12 Randolph Condemns Massachusetts Bay Company 1686 4 7 Commission of Sir Andros for the Dominion of New England 1689 12 Second Treatise of Government - John Locke 1689 12 English Bill of Rights 1691 10 7 Charter of Massachusetts Bay Colony 1691 1696 11 1 Pennsylvania Frame of Government 1696 1697 2 8 Penn's Plan for Colonial Union 1701 10 28 Pennsylvania Charter of Privlieges 1701 10 28 Charter of Delaware 1713 3 14 Treaties of Utrecht 1725 8 26 Explanatory Charter of Massachusetts Bay 1732 6 9 Charter of Georgia 1732 1739 A Treatise of Human Nature - David Hume 1748 The Spirit of Laws- Montesquieu 1750 12 31 A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers by Jonathan Mayhew 1751 6 10 Currency Act 1751 1754 7 10 Albany Plan 1755 11 11 Pennsylvania Assembly Reply to the Governor about Native Raids 1758 Law of Nations - Emerich de Vattel 1758 10 12 Two Penny Act 1763 2 10 Treaty of Paris 1763 1763 10 7 Royal Proclamation of Colonial Boundaries 1764 On Crimes and Punishments - Cesare Beccaria 1764 An Essay in Vindication of the Continental Colonies of America by Arthur Lee 1764 1 30 A Narrative of the Late Massacres by Ben Franklin 1764 4 5 The Sugar Act 1764 4 19 Currency Act 1764 1764 5 24 Instructions to Boston's Representatives 1764 7 1 Principles of Law and Polity by Francis Bernard 1764 7 23 A Brief State of the Claim of the Colonies by Thomas Hutchinson 1764 7 30 THE RIGHTS OF THE British Colonies Asserted and proved. 1764 9 3 Sentiments of a British American by Oxenbridge Thacher 1764 10 18 New York Petition for the Repeal of the Sugar Act 1764 10 24 The Colonel Dismounted by Richard Bland 1764 11 Connecticut Petition by Thomas Fitch 1764 11 3 Petition from the Massachusetts House of Representatives to the House of Commons 1764 11 29 Rhode Island's Petition on the Sugar & Currency Acts 1764 11 30 Rights of Colonies Examined by Stephen Hopkins 1764 12 18 Petition of the Virginia House of Burgesses to the House of Commons 1765 Commentaries on the Laws of England - William Blackstone 1765 3 22 The Stamp Act 1765 5 15 Quartering Act of 1765 1765 5 29 Virginia Resolutions Responding to the Stamp Act 1765 6 8 Massachusetts Circular Letter of 1765 1765 7 4 The Late Regulations by John Dickinson 1765 9 Objections to Taxation Considered by Soame Jenyns 1765 9 21 Pennsylvania Resolves on the Stamp Act 1765 9 24 Braintree Instructions 1765 10 7 Public Letter to the People of Massachusetts by B.W. 1765 10 19 Stamp Act Congress Resolves 1765 10 25 Massachusett's Reply to Governor Bernard 1765 10 29 Massachusetts Resolves Against the Stamp Act 1765 10 31 New York Merchant's Non-importation Agreement 1765 11 29 South Carolina Resolves Against the Stamp Act 1765 12 10 Connecticut Resolution on the Stamp Act 1766 An Inquiry Into the Rights of the British Colonies by Richard Bland 1766 1 1 Considerations of Imposing Taxes by Dulany 1766 1 14 William Pitt's Speech Against the Stamp Act 1766 3 18 The Repeal of the Stamp Act 1766 3 18 The Declaratory Act 1766 5 23 The Snare Broken by Mayhew 1766 6 6 Repeal of the Sugar Act 1766 6 6 Free Port Act 1767 6 15 New York Restraining Act (1st Townshend Act) 1767 6 29 Commissioners of Customs Act (3rd Townshend Act) 1767 6 29 Revenue Act of 1767 (2nd Townshend Act) 1767 6 29 Indemnity Act of 1767 (4th Townshend Act) 1767 12 2 Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer 1768 2 11 Massachusetts Circular Letters 1768 7 6 Vice-Admiralty Court Act (5th Townshend Act) 1768 8 1 Boston Non-Importation Agreement 1768 9 22 Boston Town Meeting Resolutions 1769 5 16 Virginia Resolves 1769 5 17 Virginia Nonimportation Agreement 1769 7 22 Charleston Non-Importation Agreement 1770 4 12 Repeal of Most of the Townshend Acts 1772 5 CALM AND RESPECTFUL THOUGHTS on the NEGATIVE of the CROWN by Zubly 1772 12 3 Beauties of Liberty by John Allen 1773 An Address on Slavery in America by Benjamin Rush 1773 3 12 Virginia Establishment of Colonial Correspondence 1773 4 10 Candidus 1773 5 10 The Tea Act 1773 9 11 Rules by which a Great Empire may be reduced to a small one 1773 10 16 Philadelphia Resolutions on the Tea Act 1773 12 17 New York Association of the Sons of Liberty 1774 3 31 Boston Port Act 1774 5 14 Observations &c. by Josiah Quincy II 1774 5 20 Adiministration of Justice Act 1774 5 20 Massachusetts Government Act 1774 5 24 Virginia Resolution to Fast and Pray for Boston 1774 6 2 Quartering Act 1774 6 22 Quebec Act 1774 7 18 Fairfax Resolves 1774 8 1 Thomas Jefferson A Summary View of the Rights of British America 1774 9 5 To the People of Great Britain 1774 9 17 Suffolk Resolves 1774 9 28 Galloway's Plan for Union 1774 10 14 First Continental Congress Resolutions 1774 10 20 Continental Association 1774 10 26 Petition to Repeal the Intolerable Acts 1774 12 12 Massachusettensis by Daniel Leonard 1774 12 15 A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress by Alexander Hamilton 1775 1 23 Novanglus 1775 2 15 The Farmer Refuted by Alexander Hamilton 1775 2 27 Conciliatory Resolution 1775 3 8 African Slavery in America by Thomas Paine 1775 3 22 Edmund Burke's Speech on Conciliation 1775 3 23 Give me Liberty or give me Death 1775 3 30 The New England Restraining Act 1775 5 29 Letter to Canada 1775 5 31 The Charlotte Town Resolves 1775 6 15 Remarks on the Quebec Bill by Alexander Hamilton 1775 6 19 Washington's Commission 1775 7 6 Causes and Necessity of their taking up Arms 1775 7 8 Olive Branch Petition 1775 7 31 Report on the Conciliatory Resolution 1775 8 23 King George III Suppressing Rebellion Proclamation 1775 11 7 Lord Dunmore's Proclamation 1775 11 9 Resolution of Secrecy 1775 11 10 Establishment of the Marine Corps 1776 1 5 New Hampshire's Constitution 1776 1776 1 10 Thomas Paine's Common Sense 1776 3 23 Letter from Adams to Gates 1776 3 26 South Carolina's Constitution 1776 1776 4 1 John Adams, Thoughts on Government 1776 4 12 Halifax Resolves 1776 5 15 Preamble and Resolutions of the Virginia Convention 1776 6 11 Lee's Resolution 1776 6 12 Virginia Declaration of Rights 1776 6 29 Virginia Constitution 1776 1776 7 2 New Jersey Constitution 1776 7 4 Declaration of Independence 1776 8 21 Concord Town Resolutions on the Massachusetts Constitution 1776 9 10 Constitution of Delaware 1776 1776 9 11 Delaware's Declaration of Rights 1776 9 28 Constitution of Pennsylvania 1776 1776 11 11 Maryland Constitution 1776 1776 12 18 Constitution of North Carolina 1776 1776 12 23 The American Crisis Number I by Thomas Paine 1777 2 5 Georgia Constitution 1777 1777 4 20 New York Constitution 1777 1777 7 8 Constitution of Vermont 1777 1778 2 6 Treaty of Amity and Commerce Between The United States and France 1778 3 19 South Carolina Constitution 1778 1778 9 17 Treaty of Fort Pitt 1779 6 18 A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom 1780 3 1 Pennsylvania Act to Abolish Slavery

ANAPPEALIN FAVOR OF THAT CLASSOFAMERICANS CALLED AFRICANS. By Mrs. CHILD, AUTHOR OF THE MOTHER'S BOOK, THE GIRL'S OWN BOOK, THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE, ETC. "We have offended, Oh! my countrymen! We have offended very grievously, And been most tyrannous. From east to west A groan of accusation pierces Heaven! The wretched plead against us; multitudes, Countless and vehement, the sons of God, Our brethren!" Coleridge. PREFACE. Reader, I beseech you not to throw down this volume as soon as you have glanced at the title. Read it, if your prejudices will allow, for the very truth's sake:—If I have the most trifling claims upon your good will, for an hour's amusement to yourself, or benefit to your children, read it for my sake:—Read it, if it be merely to find fresh occasion to sneer at the vulgarity of the cause:—Read it, from sheer curiosity to see what a woman (who had much better attend to her household concerns) will say upon such a subject:—Read it, on any terms, and my purpose will be gained. The subject I have chosen admits of no encomiums on my country; but as I generally make it an object to supply what is most needed, this circumstance is unimportant; the market is so glutted with flattery, that a little truth may be acceptable, were it only for its rarity. I am fully aware of the unpopularity of the task I have undertaken; but though I expect ridicule and censure, it is not in my nature to fear them. A few years hence, the opinion of the world will be a matter in which I have not even the most transient interest; but this book will be abroad on its mission of humanity, long after the hand that wrote it is mingling with the dust. Should it be the means of advancing, even one single hour, the inevitable progress of truth and justice, I would not exchange the consciousness for all Rothchild's wealth, or Sir Walter's fame. Source: https://archive.org/details/appealinfavor00child/page/n7/mode/2up https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/28242/pg28242-images.html An appeal in favor of that class of Americans called Africans - Lydia Maria Child

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) Enfield, Connecticut July 8, 1741 Their foot shall slide in due time. Deuteronomy 32:35 In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them, remained (as vers 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. -- The expression I have chosen for my text, their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed. 1. That they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the manner of their destruction coming upon them, being represented by their foot sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm 73:18. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction." 2. It implies, that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: Which is also expressed in Psalm 73:18,19. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: How are they brought into desolation as in a moment!" 3. Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down. 4. That the reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost. The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this. -- "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." -- By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment. -- The truth of this observation may appear by the following consideration. 1. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands. -- He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defence from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell. What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down? 2. They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" Luke 13:7. The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back. 3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John 3:18. "He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is, John 8:23. "Ye are from beneath:" And thither he is bound; it is the place that justice, and God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law assign to him. 4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell. And the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as he is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell. So that it is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that he does not let loose his hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such an one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them. 5. The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The scripture represents them as his goods, Luke 11:21. The devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost. 6. There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men, a foundation for the torments of hell. There are those corrupt principles, in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are seeds of hell fire. These principles are active and powerful, exceeding violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of God upon them, they would soon break out, they would flame out after the same manner as the same corruptions, the same enmity does in the hearts of damned souls, and would beget the same torments as they do in them. The souls of the wicked are in scripture compared to the troubled sea, Isa. 57:20. For the present, God restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;" but if God should withdraw that restraining power, it would soon carry all before it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God's restraints, whereas if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone. 7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest sight cannot discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners going out of the world, are so in God's hands, and so universally and absolutely subject to his power and determination, that it does not depend at all the less on the mere will of God, whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell, than if means were never made use of, or at all concerned in the case. 8. Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment. To this, divine providence and universal experience do also bear testimony. There is this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no security to them from death; that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between the wise and politic men of the world, and others, with regard to their liableness to early and unexpected death: but how is it in fact? Eccles. 2:16. "How dieth the wise man? even as the fool." 9. All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the greater part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done. He does not intend to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends to take effectual care, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail. But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as those who are now alive: it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear about hell, ever to be the subjects of misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another reply, "No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself -- I thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that manner; it came as a thief -- Death outwitted me: God's wrath was too quick for me. Oh, my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction came upon me." 10. God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace who are not the children of the covenant, who do not believe in any of the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant. So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction. So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God. Application The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. -- That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up. You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it. Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff on the summer threshing floor. The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. It is true, that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the floods of God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the mean time is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward. If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it. The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows. The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell. O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment. -- And consider here more particularly, 1. Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God. If it were only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it would be comparatively little to be regarded. The wrath of kings is very much dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, who have the possessions and lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to be disposed of at their mere will. Prov. 20:2. "The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: Whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul." The subject that very much enrages an arbitrary prince, is liable to suffer the most extreme torments that human art can invent, or human power can inflict. But the greatest earthly potentates in their greatest majesty and strength, and when clothed in their greatest terrors, are but feeble, despicable worms of the dust, in comparison of the great and almighty Creator and King of heaven and earth. It is but little that they can do, when most enraged, and when they have exerted the utmost of their fury. All the kings of the earth, before God, are as grasshoppers; they are nothing, and less than nothing: both their love and their hatred is to be despised. The wrath of the great King of kings, is as much more terrible than theirs, as his majesty is greater. Luke 12:4,5. "And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear him." 2. It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the fury of God; as in Isa. 59:18. "According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isa. 66:15. "For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." And in many other places. So, Rev. 19:15, we read of "the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." The words are exceeding terrible. If it had only been said, "the wrath of God," the words would have implied that which is infinitely dreadful: but it is "the fierceness and wrath of God." The fury of God! the fierceness of Jehovah! Oh, how dreadful that must be! Who can utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them! But it is also "the fierceness and wrath of almighty God." As though there would be a very great manifestation of his almighty power in what the fierceness of his wrath should inflict, as though omnipotence should be as it were enraged, and exerted, as men are wont to exert their strength in the fierceness of their wrath. Oh! then, what will be the consequence! What will become of the poor worms that shall suffer it! Whose hands can be strong? And whose heart can endure? To what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be sunk who shall be the subject of this! Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of his anger, implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so vastly disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed, and sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom; he will have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much in any other sense, than only that you shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires. Nothing shall be withheld, because it is so hard for you to bear. Ezek. 8:18. "Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them." Now God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare. God will have no other use to put you to, but to suffer misery; you shall be continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no other use of this vessel, but to be filled full of wrath. God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that it is said he will only "laugh and mock," Prov. 1:25,26, etc. How awful are those words, Isa. 63:3, which are the words of the great God. "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment." It is perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, viz. contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favour, that instead of that, he will only tread you under foot. And though he will know that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he will not regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he will crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost contempt: no place shall be thought fit for you, but under his feet to be trodden down as the mire of the streets. 3. The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is. Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those that would provoke them. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show his wrath when enraged with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; and accordingly gave orders that the burning fiery furnace should be heated seven times hotter than it was before; doubtless, it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it. But the great God is also willing to show his wrath, and magnify his awful majesty and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies. Rom. 9:22. "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" And seeing this is his design, and what he has determined, even to show how terrible the unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of Jehovah is, he will do it to effect. There will be something accomplished and brought to pass that will be dreadful with a witness. When the great and angry God hath risen up and executed his awful vengeance on the poor sinner, and the wretch is actually suffering the infinite weight and power of his indignation, then will God call upon the whole universe to behold that awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it. Isa. 33:12-14. "And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear ye that are far off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites," etc. Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty, and terribleness of the omnipotent God shall be magnified upon you, in the ineffable strength of your torments. You shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen it, they will fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isa. 66:23,24. "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." 4. It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For "who knows the power of God's anger?" How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider it, whether you be young or old! There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell? And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time, even before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this meeting-house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be there in a little time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their case is past all hope; they are crying in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God extreme misery and perfect despair; but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned hopeless souls give for one day's opportunity such as you now enjoy! And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the souls of the people at Suffield, where they are flocking from day to day to Christ? Are there not many here who have lived long in the world, and are not to this day born again? and so are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and have done nothing ever since they have lived, but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath? Oh, sirs, your case, in an especial manner, is extremely dangerous. Your guilt and hardness of heart is extremely great. Do you not see how generality persons of your years are passed over and left, in the present remarkable and wonderful dispensation of God's mercy? You had need to consider yourselves, and awake thoroughly out of sleep. You cannot bear the fierceness and wrath of the infinite God. -- And you, young men, and young women, will you neglect this precious season which you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ? You especially have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will soon be with you as with those persons who spent all the precious days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness and hardness. -- And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God, who is now angry with you every day and every night? Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings? And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God's word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great favour to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles' days; the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded. If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse this day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a season of the pouring out of God's Spirit, and will wish that you had died and gone to hell before you had seen it. Now undoubtedly it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist, the axe is in an extraordinary manner laid at the root of the trees, that every tree which brings not forth good fruit, may be hewn down and cast into the fire. Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed." Source: https://ccel.org/ccel/e/edwards/sermons/cache/sermons.pdf

Monday May 31, 1787 William Pierce from Georgia took his seat. In Committee of the whole on Mr. Randolph's propositions. The 3d. Resolution "that the national Legislature ought to consist of two branches" was agreed to without debate or dissent, except that of Pennsylvania, given probably from complaisance to Docr. Franklin who was understood to be partial to a single House of Legislation. Resol: 4. first clause "that the members of the first branch of the National Legislature ought to be elected by the people of the several States" being taken up, Mr. SHERMAN opposed the election by the people, insisting that it ought to be by the State Legislatures. The people he said, immediately should have as little to do as may be about the Government. They want information and are constantly liable to be misled. Mr. GERRY. The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots. In Massts. it had been fully confirmed by experience that they are daily misled into the most baneful measures and opinions by the false reports circulated by designing men, and which no one on the spot can refute. One principal evil arises from the want of due provision for those employed in the administration of Governmt. It would seem to be a maxim of democracy to starve the public servants. He mentioned the popular clamour in Massts. for the reduction of salaries and the attack made on that of the Govr. though secured by the spirit of the Constitution itself. He had he said been too republican heretofore: he was still however republican, but had been taught by experience the danger of the levilling spirit. Mr. MASON, argued strongly for an election of the larger branch by the people. It was to be the grand depository of the democratic principle of the Govtt. It was, so to speak, to be our House of Commons-It ought to know & sympathise with every part of the community; and ought therefore to be taken not only from different parts of the whole republic, but also from different districts of the larger members of it, which had in several instances particularly in Virga., different interests and views arising from difference of produce, of habits &c &c. He admitted that we had been too democratic but was afraid we sd. incautiously run into the opposite extreme. We ought to attend to the rights of every class of the people. He had often wondered at the indifference of the superior classes of society to this dictate of humanity & policy; considering that however affluent their circumstances, or elevated their situations, might be, the course of a few years, not only might but certainly would, distribute their posterity throughout the lowest classes of Society. Every selfish motive therefore, every family attachment, ought to recommend such a system of policy as would provide no less carefully for the rights and happiness of the lowest than of the highest orders of Citizens. Mr. WILSON contended strenuously for drawing the most numerous branch of the Legislature immediately from the people. He was for raising the federal pyramid to a considerable altitude, and for that reason wished to give it as broad a basis as possible. No government could long subsist without the confidence of the people. In a republican Government this confidence was peculiarly essential. He also thought it wrong to increase the weight of the State Legislatures by making them the electors of the national Legislature. All interference between the general and local Governmts. should be obviated as much as possible. On examination it would be found that the opposition of States to federal measures had proceded much more from the officers of the States, than from the people at large. Mr. MADISON considered the popular election of one branch of the National Legislature as essential to every plan of free Government. He observed that in some of the States one branch of the Legislature was composed of men already removed from the people by an intervening body of electors. That if the first branch of the general legislature should be elected by the State Legislatures, the second branch elected by the first-the Executive by the second together with the first; and other appointments again made for subordinate purposes by the Executive, the people would be lost sight of altogether; and the necessary sympathy between them and their rulers and officers, too little felt. He was an advocate for the policy of refining the popular appointments by successive filtrations, but though it might be pushed too far. He wished the expedient to be resorted to only in the appointment of the second branch of the Legislature, and in the Executive & judiciary branches of the Government. He thought too that the great fabric to be raised would be more stable and durable, if it should rest on the solid foundation of the people themselves, than if it should stand merely on the pillars of the Legislatures. Mr. GERRY did not like the election by the people. The maxims taken from the British constitution were often fallacious when applied to our situation which was extremely different. Experience he said had shewn that the State legislatures drawn immediately from the people did not always possess their confidence. He had no objection however to an election by the people if it were so qualified that men of honor & character might not be unwilling to be joined in the appointments. He seemed to think the people might nominate a certain number out of which the State legislatures should be bound to choose. Mr. BUTLER thought an election by the people an impracticable mode. On the question for an election of the first branch of the national Legislature by the people. Massts. ay. Connect. divd. N. York ay. N. Jersey no. Pena. ay. Delawe. divd. Va. ay. N. C. ay. S. C. no. Georga. ay. The remaining Clauses of Resolution 4th. relating to the qualifications of members of the National Legislature, being pospd. nem. con., as entering too much into detail for general propositions: The Committee proceeded to Resolution 5. "that the second, [or senatorial] branch of the National Legislature ought to be chosen by the first branch out of persons nominated by the State Legislatures." Mr. SPAIGHT contended that the 2d. branch ought to be chosen by the State Legislatures and moved an amendment to that effect. Mr. BUTLER apprehended that the taking so many powers out of the hands of the States as was proposed, tended to destroy all that balance and security of interests among the States which it was necessary to preserve; and called on Mr. Randolph the mover of the propositions, to explain the extent of his ideas, and particularly the number of members he meant to assign to this second branch. Mr. RAND observed that he had at the time of offering his propositions stated his ideas as far as the nature of general propositions required; that details made no part of the plan, and could not perhaps with propriety have been introduced. If he was to give an opinion as to the number of the second branch, he should say that it ought to be much smaller than that of the first; so small as to be exempt from the passionate proceedings to which numberous assemblies are liable. He observed that the general object was to provide a cure for the evils under which the U. S. laboured; that in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy: that some check therefore was to be sought for agst. this tendency of our Governments: and that a good Senate seemed most likely to answer the purpose. Mr. KING reminded the Committee that the choice of the second branch as proposed (by Mr. Spaight) viz. by the State Legislatures would be impracticable, unless it was to be very numerous, or the idea of proportion among the States was to be disregarded. According to this idea, there must be 80 or 100 members to entitle Delaware to the choice of one of them. -Mr. SPAIGHT withdrew his motion. Mr. WILSON opposed both a nomination by the State Legislatures, and an election by the first branch of the national Legislature, because the second branch of the latter, ought to be independent of both. He thought both branches of the National Legislature ought to be chosen by the people, but was not prepared with a specific proposition. He suggested the mode of chusing the Senate of N. York to wit of uniting several election districts, for one branch, in chusing members for the other branch, as a good model. Mr. MADISON observed that such a mode would destroy the influence of the smaller States associated with larger ones in the same district; as the latter would chuse from within themselves, altho' better men might be found in the former. The election of Senators in Virga. where large & small counties were often formed into one district for the purpose, had illustrated this consequence Local partiality, would often prefer a resident within the County or State, to a candidate of superior merit residing out of it. Less merit also in a resident would be more known throughout his own State. Mr. SHERMAN favored an election of one member by each of the State Legislatures. Mr. PINKNEY moved to strike out the "nomination by the State Legislatures." On this question. Massts. no. Cont. no. N. Y. no. N. J. no. Pena. no. Del divd. Va. no. N. C. no. S. C. no. Georg no. On the whole question for electing by the first branch out of nominations by the State Legislatures, Mass. ay. Cont. no. N. Y. no. N. Jersey. no. Pena. no. Del. no. Virga. ay. N. C. no. S. C. ay. Ga. no. So the clause was disagreed to & a chasm left in this part of the plan. The sixth Resolution stating the cases in which the national Legislature ought to legislate was next taken into discussion: On the question whether each branch shd. originate laws, there was an unanimous affirmative without debate. On the question for transferring all the Legislative powers of the existing Congs. to this Assembly, there was also a silent affirmative nem. con. On the proposition for giving "Legislative power in all cases to which the State Legislatures were individually incompetent." Mr. PINKNEY & Mr. RUTLEDGE objected to the vagueness of the term incompetent, and said they could not well decide how to vote until they should see an exact enumeration of the powers comprehended by this definition. Mr. BUTLER repeated his fears that we were running into an extreme in taking away the powers of the States, and called on Mr. Randolp for the extent of his meaning. Mr. RANDOLPH disclaimed any intention to give indefinite powers to the national Legislature, declaring that he was entirely opposed to such an inroad on the State jurisdictions, and that he did not think any considerations whatever could ever change his determination. His opinion was fixed on this point. Mr. MADISON said that he had brought with him into the Convention a strong bias in favor of an enumeration and definition of the powers necessary to be exercised by the national Legislature; but had also brought doubts concerning its practicability. His wishes remained un ltered; but his doubts had become stronger. What his opinion might ultimately be he could not yet tell. But he should shrink from nothing which should be found essential to such a form of Govt. as would provide for the safety, liberty and happiness of the community. This being the end of all our deliberations, all the necessary means for attaining it must, however reluctantly, be submitted to. On the question for giving powers, in cases to which the States are not competent, Massts. ay. Cont. divd. [Sharman no Elseworth ay] N. Y. ay. N. J. ay. Pa. ay. Del. ay. Va. ay. N. C. ay. S. Carolina ay. Georga. ay. The other clauses giving powers necessary to preserve harmony among the States to negative all State laws contravening in the opinion of the Nat. Leg. the articles of union, down to the last clause, (the words "or any treaties subsisting under the authority of the Union," being added after the words "contravening &c. the articles of the Union," on motion of Dr. FRANKLIN) were agreed to witht. debate or dissent. The last clause of Resolution 6. authorizing an exertion of the force of the whole agst. a delinquent State came next into consideration. Mr. MADISON, observed that the more he reflected on the use of force, the more he doubted the practicability, the justice and the efficacy of it when applied to people collectively and not individually. -A union of the States containing such an ingredient seemed to provide for its own destruction. The use of force agst. a State, would look more like a declaration of war, than an infliction of punishment, and would probably be considered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be bound. He hoped that such a system would be framed as might render this recourse unnecessary, and moved that the clause be postponed. This motion was agreed to nem. con. The Committee then rose & the House Adjourned Source: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/debcont.asp