1.1. Main purpose: to declare the 13 colonies free from Great Britain
1.2. Who: Thomas Jefferson
1.3. Time: 1776
1.4. Structured: by sections
1.5. Top 5 Most important: set the 13 colonies free from Great Britain to be their own country, it made our country a roll model for other countries, helped us to get increased foreign assistance from France, the Declaration of Independence stated certain ideals that the colonists believed were important for man to have, such as liberty and equality, and the Declaration of Independence also listed what the colonists thought was wrong of England to do.
2. Articles of Confederation
2.1. main purpose: to organize the new, free country during the 13 colonies
2.2. Who: John Dickinson
2.3. Time: 1777
2.4. Structured: in one long assay
2.5. Top 5 most important: it creation and maintenance of the Continental Army, established a weak central government that mostly, but not entirely, prevented the individual states from conducting their own foreign diplomacy, provided enough of a structure for the nation to survive during those eight years, The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of The United States, served as a bridge between the initial government by the Continental Congress of the Revolutionary period and the federal government provided under the U.S. Constitution of 1787.
3. Constitution: Main Purpose
3.1. Who: James Madison
3.2. Time: 1787
3.3. Structured:by articles
3.4. Top 5 most important: it was the document that founded our government, it was the basis of what would form the United States and amazingly because it was so well crafted that here we are over 200 years later and we are still using the exact same document to run our country the Constitution is important because it outlines all of our rights as citizens, it gives a complete list of all the things that we can do, and the rights that we have, it protects us from each other, and it protects us from our own government, it protects us from wrongful prosecution, incriminating ourselves, our right to speech, our right to bear arms, our right to freedom of religion, it is the MOST important document ever crafted in American History, and the one document that affects every single citizen within the United States every single day. When you practice the religion of your choice, thank the founding fathers.... When you say whatever is on your mind without fear of having your tongue ripped out or having your head chopped off, thank the founding fathers.
3.5. Main Purpose: to replace the Articles of Confederation
4. Northwest Ordinance
4.1. Main Purpose: addressed a need for government in the Northwest territory
4.2. Who: Nathan Dane
4.3. Time: 1787
4.4. Structured: one long essay
4.5. 5 Most important: it provided for the scientific surveying of the territory’s lands and for a systematic subdivision of them, it is the most important of the three acts, it laid the basis for the government of the Northwest Territory and for the admission of its constituent parts as states into the Union, under this ordinance, each district was to be governed by a governor and judges appointed by Congress until it attained a population of 5,000 adult free males, at which time it would become a territory and could form its own representative legislature, the ordinances were a major accomplishment of the often-maligned government under the Articles of Confederation.
5. Federalist Papers
5.1. Main Purpose: gave the Federalist's feelings about the constitution
5.2. Who: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
5.3. Time: 1787
5.4. Structured: one long essay
5.5. Top 5 most important: they convinced the State of New York to ratify the Constitution by explaining the benefits of belonging to the Union, they remain important today as a guide to understanding the founders' intent for each Article of the Constitution, they remain important today as a guide to understanding the founders' intent for each Article of the Constitution, and are sometimes factored into judicial decisions, it was called the most significant public-relations campaign in history; it is, in fact, studied in many public relations classes as a prime example of how to conduct a successful campaign, they remain the most excellent, concise and eloquent argument for the Constitution, and republican government in general.
6. Antifederalist Papers
6.1. Top 5 most important: to speeches urging ratification of the new Constitution, Paper Number 17 took issue specifically with Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, lists the many powers and responsibilities of the US Congress, they set out cogent argument in favor of the Constitution, the essays originally appeared in three New York newspapers, the Independent Journal, the New York Packet, and the Daily Advertiser, between October 5, 1787 and June 27, 1788, and were intended to build popular support and convince the States (particularly New York) to ratify the new Constitution to replace the old government organized under the Articles of Confederation.
6.2. Main Purpose: gave the feelings of the antifederalist on the Constitution
6.3. Who: George Clinton and Robert Yapt
6.4. Time: 1787
6.5. Structured: one long essay
7. Bill of Rights
7.1. Who: James Madison
7.2. Time: 1791
7.3. Structured: by articles
7.4. Main Purpose: to assure that people's rights can not be taken away by the government
7.5. Top 5 most important: the concept of a Bill of Rights implied, to many thinkers of the revolutionary era, a monarchy, the Bill of Rights was used, by Antifederalists, as a rallying point to argue in favor of the pre-constitutional status quo--a confederation of independent states, operating under the glorified treaty that was the Articles of Confederation, the idea that the Bill of Rights would imply that the federal government's power is otherwise unlimited, a Bill of Rights would have no practical power; it would have functioned as a mission statement, and there would have been no means by which the legislature could have been forced to adhere to it, the Constitution itself already included statements in defense of specific rights that might have been impacted by the limited federal jurisdiction of the time.
