greykit.essays — #natural-rights
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1852-07-05
[american-civic]
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?
Douglass's searing Independence Day address — "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine" — indicting a republic that celebrated liberty while holding millions in bondage.
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1795-02-07
[american-founding]
Amendments XI–XXVII to the Constitution
The seventeen amendments after the Bill of Rights — from the Eleventh (1795) through the Twenty-seventh (1992).
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1791-12-15
[american-founding]
The Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments to the Constitution, guaranteeing fundamental civil rights.
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1786-01-16
[american-founding]
The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
Jefferson's statute disestablishing religion in Virginia — that "no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship.
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1776-07-04
[american-founding]
The Declaration of Independence
The thirteen colonies' unanimous declaration dissolving allegiance to the British Crown.
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1776-06-12
[american-founding]
The Virginia Declaration of Rights
Mason's declaration of inherent rights — a direct model for the Declaration of Independence and the federal Bill of Rights.
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1776-01-10
[american-founding]
Common Sense
Paine's incendiary case for American independence and against monarchy and hereditary rule.
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1775-07-06
[american-founding]
Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms
Congress's July 1775 declaration justifying armed resistance a year before independence — "resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.
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1775-03-23
[american-founding]
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death
Henry's call to arm the Virginia militia against Britain, closing on the most quoted sentence of the Revolution.
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1774-10-14
[american-founding]
Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress
The colonies' first united statement of grievances and of the rights they claimed as Englishmen, on the eve of the Revolution.
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1768-01-01
[american-founding]
Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania
Dickinson's twelve letters against the Townshend duties — the most influential colonial argument that Parliament could not tax the colonies, however the tax was disguised.
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1689-01-01
[sources-of-liberty]
A Letter Concerning Toleration
Locke's argument that the magistrate's power reaches only civil interests, not the salvation of souls — the founding text of the liberal case for religious liberty.
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1689
[sources-of-liberty]
Second Treatise of Government
Locke's foundational argument for government by consent, natural rights, and the right of revolution — the deepest source of the American founding.
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c. 54 BC
[sources-of-liberty]
On the Commonwealth
Cicero's dialogue on the best form of the state — the mixed constitution, the doctrine of a natural higher law ("True law is right reason"), and the Dream of Scipio. Surviving in fragments, it shaped the founders' idea of a republic.