Primary Source Series · Volume IV
Faith and the Founding
The Founding Generation
The wider founding generation on God and government, in their own words. No commentary.
About this volume
Volume IV widens the circle beyond the presidents. Forty of its forty-four documents come from nineteen founders: signers of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, along with founders who signed none of the three but whose voices belong in the record. These are the men who filled the state houses and the Congresses, carried the correspondence and drafted the reports, and who, alongside the famous few, made the revolution and the republic.
The volume opens with six founders whose writings are gathered under their own names, then follows the rest of the founding generation in two chronological sections. Here are letters, reports, sermons, addresses, drafts and public papers, from a 1755 militia law to the founding of the University of Virginia.
What's inside
- John Jay. Documents 1 to 9.
- Benjamin Franklin. Documents 10 to 14.
- Alexander Hamilton. Documents 15 to 18.
- Gouverneur Morris. Documents 19 to 21.
- Edmund Randolph. Documents 22 to 24.
- Benjamin Rush. Documents 25 to 27.
- The Revolution and the Founding. Documents 28 to 37. Isaac Backus, John Dickinson, John Witherspoon, Roger Sherman, Henry Knox, John Leland and others.
- The New Republic. Documents 38 to 44. James McHenry, Charles Pinckney, Thomas McKean, the University of Virginia boards and others.
Inside this volume
The founders beyond the famous few
Signers, delegates and ministers, 1755 to 1822
To George Washington, June 27, 1786
John Jay
Prayer Motion in Convention
Benjamin Franklin
Defence of the Bible as a School Book
Benjamin Rush
The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men
John Witherspoon
The Rights of Conscience Inalienable
John Leland
Report of the Board of Commissioners for the University of Virginia
The New Republic
Plus 38 more: letters, reports, sermons, addresses and public papers.
Built for reference
Every document, ready to cite
- A headnote on every document: date, author or issuing body, and why it matters.
- Numbered paragraphs, so “Doc. 44, para. 1” points to exactly one passage.
- Original spelling and punctuation, reproduced in full from the authoritative text.
- An index by document and paragraph at the back.
Complete the set
Faith and the Founding, Volumes I to IV
