If you had to select/preserve/identify (pick your verb) your top 5 historic documents tied to American Independence and our formative ideas what would they be?
Or rephrased, what 5 documents/letters/etc, would you choose to best show our founding fathers thoughts on liberty and freedom?
Example:
1. Declaration of Independence
2. Constitution
3. Federalist 52
4. The Rights of Man
5. Samual Adams, On American Independence
Patrick Henry's address to the Virginia house of burgesses should be on that list somewhere.
Thomas Paine's Common Sense.
The collection of the Anti-Federalist Papers.
They predicted what would happen with a strong central government. And they were right.
My top 5...
1) Declaration of Independence
2) Constitution
3) Thomas Paine's Common Sense and/or The Crisis (especially the 1st pamphlet)
4) Patrick Henry's address to the Virginia House of Burgesses ("Give me Liberty or give me Death!") speech
5) Joseph Warren's 1775 Boston Massacre Oration
George Washington's farewell address
Been pondering this for a bit. And some of you are quite a bit more well read than I, so I'm likely rehashing what's been previously hashed.
1) Mayflower Compact
2) Dr. Warren's speech at Old South Meeting House (3/6/1775)
3) Patrick Henry's speech to the Virginia Statehouse
4) Declaration of independence
5) Constitution