ISIL Freedom Network: United States > Online Books and Collections > American Founding Fathers and Freedom in History

The Roosevelt Myth
Source: Popsvox Publishing/Henry Hazlitt Foundation
Author: John T. Flynn
Country: United States

Franklin Roosevelt: benevolent reformer or statist strangler? Find out the real story here. A beautiful Web version of a hard-to-find book. A Freedom Home Page of the Week.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Source: Charles W Eliot LLD P F Collier & Son Company
Author: Benjamin Franklin
Country: United States

The story of the inventor, philosopher, and founding father -- in his own words.

The Federalist Papers
Source: FoundingFathers.info
Author: Publius (Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison)
Country: United States

A series of essays written in 1787-88 in support of the recently proposed U.S. Constitution. Some consider them the masterwork of American democracy; others consider them the beginning of the end of American liberty. All agree that they are some of the most important works on political theory ever written, and that they are essential to understanding the original intent of the framers.

The Antifederalist Papers
Source: WEPIN
Author: Anonymous
Country: United States

Many founding fathers did not support the constitution. The anti-federalists made some serious challenges to the federalists, and in the process, some important contributions to political theory.

French explorers
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"At the moment when Henry Hudson was bartering with the Indians along the banks of the Hudson, Champlain was but a few miles away, exploring the beautiful lake that bears his name; and the year before that he had established a post on a rocky cliff overlooking the majestic St. Lawrence, and had named it Quebec." (1904)

Common Sense -- e-text
Source: University of Groningen, Netherlands
Author: Thomas Paine
Country: United States

Full text of the book that inspired the Declaration of Independence and fueled the American revolution. Also available at http://bartleby.com/133/ (1776)

King William's war (1690-1697)
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"King James II of England, unlike his profligate brother, Charles II, was extremely religious, and his religion was that of Rome. The large majority of the people of England were Protestants; but they would have submitted to a Catholic king had he not used his official power to convert the nation to Catholicism." (1904)

Foreign aid
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The crisis of the Revolution had passed before the colonists received any substantial military aid from abroad, and they would probably have won their independence had they been left wholly to themselves. Nevertheless the help that at length came was received most gratefully. France was the first to stretch forth a helping hand." (1904)

Colonization: The southern colonies
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The New World had been discovered for a century, and the territory of the present United States was still a wilderness, uninhabited except by the native savage. It was not possible that such a condition could endure. North America presented wonderful opportunities for future development." (04/02)

Colonial government
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"In addition to the brief account of the government of each colony in our narrative of the settlements, an account must here be given of colonial government as a whole. The thirteen colonies are usually grouped, according to the form of government, into three classes -- the Charter, the Royal, and the Proprietary; but recent historical criticism has reduced these three forms to two..." (1904)

The navigation acts
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"Throughout the colonial period, after the middle of the seventeenth century, the one great source of irritation between the mother country and her colonies was found in the Navigation Acts. The twofold object of these acts was to protect English shipping, and to secure a profit to the home country from the colonies." (1904)

New Hampshire
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The first settlement was made in 1623 by a Scotchman named Thomson, at the mouth of the Piscataqua River, and was called Little Harbor. A few years later Edward Hilton, a London fish merchant, founded Dover six miles up the river. He was soon joined by his brother William and several families, and later by others from Massachusetts." (1904)

Valley Forge and Monmouth
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"Every American reader is familiar with the story of the sufferings of the patriot army at Valley Forge. To this valley among the hills that border the winding Schuylkill, some twenty miles from Philadelphia, Washington led his half-clad army of eleven thousand men about the middle of December, 1777." (1904)

John Adams and the spirit of liberty
Source: Independent Institute
Author: C. Bradley Thompson
Country: United States

"For more than 200 years, the second president of the United States has been slighted by scholars who understood him as pro-aristocracy, even pro-monarchy. Analyzing Adams's highly learned political writings, Thompson restores Adams to his rightful place as a major positive influence on the young republic -- and the innocent victim of poor scholarship and political partisanship."

Queen Anne's war
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"After this brief season of peace the colonists were obliged to face another long and murderous war. In character this war was similar to that which preceded it, a contest over Acadia and New France, consisting of surprises and bloody massacres." (1904)

South Carolina
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"North Carolina and South Carolina were twin-born. Though settled at different times by different peoples, both were included in the famous charter of 1663, both were intended to be governed by the Grand Model, and as they were not separated politically until 1729, their histories run parallel for many years, and much that we have said of the one will apply to her twin sister to the south." (1904)

Fort Moultrie and Long Island
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The first day of the memorable year 1776 was marked by two events that are still remembered in Revolutionary annals -- the burning of Norfolk by the fleet of Governor Dunmore, who had been driven to the sea by the infuriated people of Virginia; and the unfurling of the flag over the Continental army at Cambridge." (1904)

King George's war
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"This war, known by the above name in America, was but the faint glimmer of the dreadful conflagration that swept over Europe at this time under the name of the War of the Austrian Succession." (1904)

Struggle for the Hudson Valley
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"It was decided that an army should invade New York from Canada, and that it should be commanded by Lieutenant General John Burgoyne, who had succeeded Guy Carleton, the governor of Canada, in command at the north." (1904)

Otis and Henry
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"Otis was an advocate of the king, but he resigned the office and took up the cause of the people. In a fiery, passionate address before the Superior Court he sounded a clarion note, declaring that the power used in issuing the writs was the kind of power, the exercise of which had 'cost one king of England his head and another his throne,' and calling upon the people to resist." (1904)

Anti-federalist papers
Source: Constitution.org
Country: United States

Arguments against the proposed Constitution, arguing that it provided for too centralized a government and contained the seeds of tyranny. (1787-1789)

The papers of Thomas Jefferson
Source: The Avalon Project
Author: Thomas Jefferson
Country: United States

The collected writings of the often-libertarian author of the Declaration of Independence.

The pilgrim fathers
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The Separatists were less numerous by far than other classes of Nonconformists, yet they formed the advance guard of the great Puritan exodus from the mother country to the shores of New England." (1904)

The French and Indian War
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The Treaty of Aiz-la-Chapelle of 1748, like its predecessors, at Ryswick and Utrecht failed to settle the vital question between the rival claimants of North America. A commission of two Englishmen and two Frenchmen sat in Paris for many months after this treaty was signed, endeavoring to adjust the French-English boundaries in America; but they labored in vain." (1904)

New Amsterdam
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"Thus began the great metropolis of the New World, now New York City. The government of the new colony was carried on by Governor, or 'Director General,' Minuit and a council of five appointed by the company in Holland. It was very similar to the government of Virginia before the first House of Burgesses was elected." (1904)

Duquesne and Acadia
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"But the French and Indian War had its origin on this side of the water, and was caused by boundary disputes between two great European powers concerning their possessions in North America. And yet this was closely connected with the tremendous war that raged simultaneously in Europe, known as the Seven Years' War..." (1904)

Yorktown
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"On reaching Wilmington, North Carolina, Cornwallis did not go southward and begin a reconquest of the state he had lost; he proceeded, without orders from Clinton, into Virginia, in the hope of conquering that state, and in the belief that if he did so the Carolinas would easily fall again into his possession." (1904)

Colonial life
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"To compare our own age with a former age only to show our cleverness and wisdom over those of our ancestors to laud and magnify our intelligence and civilization at the expense of our forefathers -- is at least of doubtful good taste." (1904)

The Wyoming Valley and other valleys
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"This valley of Wyoming, watered by the sparkling Susquehanna that winds among the hills like a belt of silver, seems from a distant view like a dream of Eden; and yet this beautiful spot, where 'all save the spirit of man was divine,' became the scene of the most fiendish massacre of the long and bloody war." (1904)

The revolution -- opening events and causes
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The American Revolution, viewed from its results, was one of the greatest movements in human history. The expenditure of life and treasure has often been exceeded, but the effect on the political life of the world is not easy to parallel. The chief result was the birth of the first successful federal government in history..." (1904)

King Philip's War
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The war began with an Indian attack on the town of Swansea, in which several men, women, and children were killed. The cry of alarm instantly spread throughout the colonies and the effect was immediate. Three hours after the messenger had reached Boston a body of men was on the march from that city toward the Indian country." (1904)

The New England Confederation (1643-1684)
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"This union, the prototype of our present national Union, had its origin in the same town that gave to the world its first written constitution, and the same that, nearly two centuries later, became the seat of the famous Hartford Convention. The articles were drawn up at Boston in May, 1643, by leading men of New England." (1904)

New York
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"For more than three centuries England and Holland had been the closest of friends; but now, at the close of the long and bloody Thirty Years' War, which ended with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the power of Spain was crushed, and the Dutch, no longer having anything to fear from his Catholic Majesty, rose to dispute with the English the dominion of the seas." (1904)

Delaware
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The soil of the little state of Delaware had more claimants than that of any other of the thirteen original colonies. It lies along the great bay and river of the same name, and its importance consisted in its command of these and of the great fertile valley drained by them." (1904)

Occupations and customs
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"America in colonial days was a land of farmers. Our forefathers on migrating to America found no great cities with innumerable openings for the industrious and thrifty, no great industries with salaried positions awaiting them." (1904)

New Jersey and Trenton
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The remaining two months of this memorable year, save only the final week, must be pronounced the darkest days of the Revolution. A chain of unfortnnate events came near bringing ruin upon the cause of American independence." (1904)

Border war in the South and West
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"At the very threshold of the long war, even before the battle of Lexington, there occurred at Point Pleasant, on the Great Kanawha River, near its junction with the Ohio, one of the most desperate battles with the Indians ever fought on American soil. A thousand Virginians lay sleeping under the trees, when at daybreak they were surprised by a larger body of Indians..." (1904)

Bunker Hill
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"Notwithstanding the Lexington disaster, British hopes again ran high in Boston harbor during the spring of 1775. The arrival in May of Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, with another army, raised the British force to ten thousand men." (1904)

The Stamp Act and other acts
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"Every source of English revenue was drained on account of the great war debt, and it was proposed to lay a tax on the colonies, not to pay the interest on the national debt, nor to be expended in England in any way, but solely for the protection and defense of the colonies." (1904)

Washington and the army
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"After an overland journey from Philadelphia, that partook of the nature of an ovation, Washington arrived in Cambridge two weeks after the Bunker Hill battle, mid the next day, beneath the shade of a great elm tree that still stands as a living monument of that heroic age, he formally assumed command of the Continental army." (1904)

War in the South
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The seat of war was transferred to the South late in the year 1778. Even before the battle of Lexington the strife had begun south of Mason and Dixon's line. There was Dunmore's War, and the battle at Moore's Creek, and the valiant defense of Fort Moultrie." (1904)

Maryland
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The founding of Maryland marks the beginning of a new plan in colony building in North America. The tentative experiments of Gilbert and Raleigh had for their object mainly the establishing of trading posts, from which a search for gold and for a northwest passage to the Indies might be carried on." (1904)

Fall of Quebec
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"Pitt's success during his first year of power was marvelous. He had played a winning band in the terrible war that convulsed Europe at the time, and had won the most signal victories in America. Louisburg, Frontenac, and Duquesne had fallen before his victorious armies, and the French hold on the Ohio country was entirely broken." (1904)

Virginia
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"At the beginning of the seventeenth century all the eastern portion of North America, which afterward became the thirteen original states, was known as Virginia. Great interest in American colonization was awakened throughout the kingdom by a little book on 'Western Planting,' inspired by Raleigh and written by Richard Hakluyt." (1904)

Common Sense
Source: Liberty Journal
Author: Thomas Paine
Country: United States

"Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher." (February 14, 1776)

William Pitt
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The fortunes of England were now at the lowest ebb. For three years she had suffered one defeat upon another, and now, at the close of the year 1757, there was not an English fort or hamlet in the basin of the St. Lawrence or in the Ohio Valley." (1904)

Means of travel; Mails; Newspapers
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"In nothing has there been a greater change in the last hundred years than in the means of travel. For two thousand years, as Henry Adams says, to the opening of the nineteenth century, the world had made no improvement in the methods of traveling." (1904)

Massachusetts Bay
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"Puritanism increased mightily in England during the later years of James I and the reign of his son Charles, notwithstanding the cruel persecutions. If the Dissenters hoped for better things by the change of monarchs, they were doomed to disappointment; for if James had chastened them with whips, Charles chastised them with scorpions." (1904)

Georgia
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The last, as well as the first, of the English colonies planted in North America belongs to the southern group. Seventy-five years had elapsed between the founding of Virginia and Pennsylvania and twelve English colonies were now flourishing on the soil of North America. Then came a lapse of fifty years at the end of which Georgia, the last of the famous thirteen, came into existence." (1904)

Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms
Source: Liberty Journal
Author: Thomas Jefferson
Country: United States

"A declaration by the representatives of the united colonies of North America, now met in Congress at Philadelphia, setting forth the causes and necessity of their taking up arms." (07/06/1775)

A view of the belligerents
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"It is in place here to take a momentary view of the two peoples, as we find them in America, who were about to grapple in a great final struggle for the control of the continent. ... Both had occupied portions of the continent for nearly two hundred years, both were intensely religious ... and each was bigoted and intolerant and jealous of its rival." (1904)

Queen Anne's war (1702-1714)
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"After this brief season of peace the colonists were obliged to face another long and murderous war. In character this war was similar to that which preceded it, a contest over Acadia and New France, consisting of surprises and bloody massacres." (1904)

Rhode Island and Providence Plantation
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"We have noticed the flight of Roger Williams from Salem. ... He visited the good old chief Massasoit, who received him with great kindness, and Canonicus, who gave him a tract of land at the head of Narragansett Bay; and here on the banks of a little river he, with five followers, laid out a town and called it Providence." (1904)

Mayflower Compact
Source: Liberty Journal
Country: United States

"Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic..." (1620)

Second Continental Congress
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"It was on May 10, 1775, the day that had witnessed the capture of the powerful fortress at the base of the Adirondacks by the intrepid Allen, that the Second Continental Congress met in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. It was composed of the best brains of the land." (1904)

Federalist papers authored by James Madison
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: James Madison
Country: United States

The fourth president of the United States penned 28 of the 85 "Federalist Papers" which were written to encourage the people of New York, and eventually the rest of the colonies, to ratify the US Constitution. The essays are in numerical order and linked.

Foreign aid
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The crisis of the Revolution had passed before the colonists received any substantial military aid from abroad, and they would probably have won their independence had they been left wholly to themselves. Nevertheless the help that at length came was received most gratefully." (1904)

From Morristown to Germantown
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"During the year 1777 the military operations were carried on in two parallel lines. The one we have traced to its culmination in the surrender at Saratoga. The other lay in a different field and with different surroundings, and although no brilliant victory rewarded the American commander his generalship was this year, as usual, superior to that of any of his fellow-commanders." (1904)

New Jersey
Source: Foundinng Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The first settlements in New Jersey were made by the Dutch along the western bank of the Hudson, with one on the Delaware at Fort Nassau; but these settlements were insignificant, and the history of the colony properly begins with the occupation of the territory by the English." (1904)

Federalist Papers authored by Alexander Hamilton
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Alexander Hamilton
Country: United States

A complete listing of the fifty-two Federalist Papers authored by America's first Treasury Secretary. The Federalist Papers were written and published during the years 1787 and 1788 in several New York State newspapers to persuade New York voters to ratify the proposed constitution.

Bunker Hill
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"Gage seemed no longer to doubt his ability to put down the rebellion; and yet, to show his moderation, he issued a proclamation, offering a free pardon to all, except Adams and Hancock, who would lay down their arms and return to their allegiance, while those taken in arms were to be put to death." (1904)

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin; 1706-1757
Source: Liberty Journal/Project Gutenburg
Author: Benjamin Franklin
Country: United States

"That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to say, that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first." (1771)

Second Continental Congress
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"It was on May 10, 1775, the day that had witnessed the capture of the powerful fortress at the base of the Adirondacks by the intrepid Allen, that the Second Continental Congress met in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. It was composed of the best brains of the land." (1904)

Pennsylvania
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The idea of founding a separate colony in America as a refuge for persecuted Quakers was not original with William Penn, but with George Fox, the founder of the sect. Fox was a man of intense religious fervor and of wonderful personal magnetism." (1904)

Puritan laws and character
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The people as a whole were liberty-loving in the extreme, but the individual was restrained at every step by laws that no free people of to-day would tolerate for an hour. Paternalism in government was the rule in the other colonies and in Europe, but nowhere was it carried to such an extreme as in New England." (1904)

The Revolution: Opening events and causes
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The American Revolution, viewed from its results, was one of the greatest movements in human history. The expenditure of life and treasure has often been exceeded, but the effect on the political life of the world is not easy to parallel." (1904)

Washington and the army
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"After an overland journey from Philadelphia, that partook of the nature of an ovation, Washington arrived in Cambridge two weeks after the Bunker Hill battle, mid the next day, beneath the shade of a great elm tree that still stands as a living monument of that heroic age, he formally assumed command of the Continental army." (1904)

The great declaration
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"Early in the autumn of 1775 Congress was waiting to hear from the king. In deference to his Majesty, who would not recognize Congress as a legal body, the members had signed their humble petition, not as a body, but ... as individuals representing their respective colonies. This alone proves their sincerity, and absolutely disproves any intention to strike for independence at that time." (1904)

The great declaration
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"Early in the autumn of 1775 Congress was waiting to hear from the king. In deference to his Majesty, who would not recognize Congress as a legal body, the members had signed their humble petition, not as a body, but separately, as individuals representing their respective colonies." (1904)

Border war in the south and west
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"At the very threshold of the long war, even before the battle of Lexington, there occurred at Point Pleasant, on the Great Kanawha River, near its junction with the Ohio, one of the most desperate battles with the Indians ever fought on American soil. A thousand Virginians lay sleeping under the trees, when at daybreak they were surprised by a larger body of Indians ..." (1904)

The treason of Arnold
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"Whatever his grievances, his means of revenge were altogether unwarranted and utterly to be condemned. His crime is one of the blackest in history. He sought to betray his country into the hands of its enemy, and to do this he must first betray the confidence of the one unswerving friend who had ever trusted him, the commander in chief." (1904)

The Continental Congress; Lexington
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"There must be some central authority to which all the colonies could turn for guidance. This political union came about in the formation of a Continental Congress. This Congress was the result of a spontaneous and almost simultaneous movement throughout the country." (1904)

Original amendments, some of which became the Bill of Rights
Source: Liberty Journal
Country: United States

"The conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added."

Federalist papers authored by John Jay
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: John Jay
Country: United States

The first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court penned only 5 of the 85 Federalist Papers. The essays were written to encourage the citizens of New York, and the other colonies, to ratify the new U.S. Constitution. Jay wrote primarily about the dangers of foreign force and influence. All five essays are listed numerically and are linked.

Connecticut
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The people of Massachusetts were not long in casting their eyes westward from their own barren coast to the fertile valley of the Connecticut River, which Adrian Block, the Dutchman, had discovered some years before; and the result was that a new colony was soon flourishing on its banks. The father of Connecticut was Thomas Hooker..." (1904)

King George III
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The first two Georges had little to do in the management of the empire, but the third was not long in his high station before he determined to take the reins of government into his own hands, to obey the frequent mandate of his mother, 'George, be king!'" (1904)

French explorers
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"At the moment when Henry Hudson was bartering with the Indians along the banks of the Hudson, Champlain was but a few miles away, exploring the beautiful lake that bears his name; and the year before that he had established a post on a rocky cliff overlooking the majestic St. Lawrence, and had named it Quebec." (1904)

Conspiracy of Pontiac
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The fall of French dominion in Canada and the West left the Algonquin Indians unprotected. Since the days of Marquette and La Salle the many tribes of this great family had lived in harmony with the French, and during the late war had been their faithful allies. But they now found in their new masters a people very different in their attitude toward the red man." (1904)

Population and social rank
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"In 1760 the population of the thirteen colonies was approximately 1,600,000, about one fourth of whom were negro slaves. The people were scattered thinly over the vast region along the seaboard between New Brunswick and Florida, extending from the coast in decreasing numbers to the foothills of the Alleghanies." (1904)

Religion; education; medicine
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"In tracing the growth of the several colonies we have had frequent occasion to notice the religious life of the people, but a few additional words are necessary here. In the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland the Church of England was recognized by law as the State Church; and in Maryland, which had passed through Catholic and Puritan hands, this church was supported by general taxation." (1904)

King William's war
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"King James II of England, unlike his profligate brother, Charles II, was extremely religious, and his religion was that of Rome. The large majority of the people of England were Protestants; but they would have submitted to a Catholic king had he not used his official power to convert the nation to Catholicism." (1904)

North Carolina
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"North Carolina came near being the first of the permanent English colonies in America. Five voyages were made under the Raleigh charter of 1584 with the view of planting a permanent colony on the soil that became North Carolina; but the effort ended in failure, and almost a century passed when other hands carried into effect the noble ambition of Raleigh." (1904)

Edmund Andros
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"This feeling of the king was heightened by the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights of 1661, which, while professing allegiance to the king, was regarded by him as an encroachment on his authority. This declaration is one of the memorable documents of the colonial era." (1904)

The Pilgrim Fathers
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"The Separatists were less numerous by far than other classes of Nonconformists, yet they formed the advance guard of the great Puritan exodus from the mother country to the shores of New England." (1904)

Struggle for the Hudson Valley
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Henry William Elson
Country: United States

"It was decided that an army should invade New York from Canada, and that it should be commanded by Lieutenant General John Burgoyne, who had succeeded Guy Carleton, the governor of Canada, in command at the north. From this army a detachment of a thousand men under St. Leger was sent by way of Lake Ontario to land at Oswego..." (1904)

Federalist No. 1: General Introduction
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: Alexander Hamilton
Country: United States

"[Y]ou are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the UNION, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world." (1787)

Federalist No. 2: Concerning dangers from foreign force and influence
Source: Founding Fathers
Author: John Jay
Country: United States

"Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with requisite powers." (1787)

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