|
1936 Constitution of the U.S.S.R. |
by Congress of Soviets |
| Article 125. In conformity with the interests of the working people, and in order to strengthen the socialist system, the citizens of the U.S.S.R. are guaranteed by law: freedom of speech; freedom of the press; freedom of assembly, including the holding of mass meetings; freedom of street processions and demonstrations. |
|
2004 Presidential Debates |
| Good evening from the University of Miami Convocation
Center in Coral Gables, Florida. I'm Jim Lehrer of the News Hour on PBS.
And I welcome you to the first of the 2004 Presidential debates between
President George W. Bush, the Republican nominee, and Senator John
Kerry, the Democratic nominee. |
|
A Citizens Guide To The Fine Art Of Investigation |
by Dan Noyes |
| Knowing the facts is essential to educating and organizing citizens so they can participate in the decision making that affects their lives. Citizens have a right to know the facts but this right is useless unless they also have the know-how to obtain them. This guide is an introduction to how and where you can use libraries and public records for facts about individuals, government, corporations and ownership of property. |
|
Abraham Lincoln's 2nd Inaugral Speech (1865) |
by Abraham Lincoln |
| With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in,
to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a
just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. |
|
Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address |
by Abraham Lincoln |
| The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. |
|
Amendments to the Constitution of the United States |
by Various |
| Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the government for a redress of grievances. |
|
An Appraisal of the Technology of Political Control |
by EU |
| A massive Police Industrial Complex has been spawned to service the needs of police, paramilitary and security forces, evidenced by the number of companies now active in the market. An overall trend is towards globalisation of these technologies and a drift to increasing proliferation, without much regard to local conditions. |
|
Canadian Green Party Platform |
by Green Party |
| No Ecology No Economy No Jobs! |
|
Canadian Reform Party Platform |
by RPC |
| If elected, a Reform Government will undertake a general program of reduction or elimination of federal expenditures until it allows for a lower level of taxation, a lower cost of doing business, and a lower cost of living. |
|
Clinton's 1995 budget proposal |
|
Commencement Address - American University |
by John F. Kennedy |
| What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. |
|
Concord Hymn |
by Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| Sung at the completion of the Battle Monument - July 4, 1837 |
|
Congressional Resolution on Iraq |
| Joint Resolution to Authorize the use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq. Passed by House and Senate October 2002. |
|
Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress |
by Various Authors |
| That the foundation of English liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council: and as the English colonists are not represented, and from their local and other circumstances, cannot properly be represented in the British parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, where their right of representation can alone be preserved, in
all cases of taxation and internal polity. |
|
Declaration of of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms |
by Various Authors |
| 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.(1775) |
|
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen |
by Marquis de Lafayette |
| The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly,
believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the
sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have
determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and
sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly before
all the members of the Social body, shall remind them continually of their
rights and duties. (1789) |
|
Emancipation Proclamation |
by Abraham Lincoln |
| And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and
declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts
of States, are, and henceforward shall be, free; States, including the military
and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said
persons. |
|
FDR's First Inaugural Speech |
by Franklin Delano Roosevelt |
| This is pre-eminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. |
|
Farewell Address |
by George Washington |
| It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those intrusted with its administration to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. |
|
Farewell Address |
by Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. |
|
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for US District C |
|
First Thanksgiving Proclamation (1676) |
by Council of Charlestown |
| The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his Afflictive dispensations in and by the present Warr with the Heathen Natives of this land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst
of his judgements he hath remembered mercy. |
|
George Washington's Farewell Address, 1796 |
by George Washington |
| Friends and Fellow Citizens: The period for a new election of a citizen, to administer the executive government of the United States, being not far distant, and the time actually arrived, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made. |
|
Gettysburg Address |
by Abraham Lincoln |
| Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. |
|
Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death |
by Patrick Henry |
| No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities,
of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different
men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it
will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do
opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my
sentiments freely and without reserve. |
|
H. Ross Perot at the National Press Club |
by H. Ross Perot |
| Thank you very much. It's a privilege to be with you again. You all are going to get to punch me around here for the last 30 minutes, so let me open by asking you a question. How many of you ate broccoli today at lunch? That's good. The last thing I read, it cures cancer. I think we ought to all try it. |
|
Hitler's First Letter about Jews |
by Adolf Hitler |
| Adolf Hitler's letter to Gemlich about Jews. |
|
I Have A Dream |
by Martin Luther King |
| I say to you today, my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. |
|
Inaugural Speech |
by John F. Kennedy |
| The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forbearers fought are still at issue around the globe -- the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God. |
|
Inaugural Speech |
by Thomas Jefferson |
| A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye, when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue, and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. |
|
Iroquois Confederacy Constitution |
| The complete Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy Constitution. The basis for the U.S. Constitution |
|
Letter from a Birmingham Jail |
by Martin Luther King, Jr. |
| I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. |
|
Letter to the President of the Federal Convention, Sept. 17, 1787 |
by George Washington |
| We have now the honor to submit to the consideration of the United States in Congress assembled, that Constitution which has appeared to us the most advisable. |
|
Libertarian Party Platform |
by Libertarian Party |
| We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal rights of others to live in whatever manner they choose. |
|
Magna Carta |
by Various Authors |
| No free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised or outlawed
or exiled or in any way victimised, neither will we attack him or send anyone to
attack him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the
land. |
|
Memorandum for the Director of FEMA |
by President George W. Bush |
| Designation of Officers of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Act as Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. |
|
Nixon Tapes Transcript: March 20, 1973 |
| That's what worries me more. But, I'm not so sure that what Dean could make an oral statement to the Cabinet. An oral statement (unintelligible) reported on the (unintelligible) lay a few things to rest. |
|
On Guerrilla Warfare |
by Mao Tse-tung |
| In a war of revolutionary character, guerrilla operations are a necessary part. This is particularly true in war waged for the emancipation of a people who inhabit a vast nation. |
|
On The History of the Communist League |
by Frederick Engels |
| With the sentence of the Cologne Communists in 1852, the curtain falls on the first period of the independent German workers' movement. Today this period is almost forgotten. Yet it lasted from 1836 to 1852 and, with the spread of German workers abroad, the movement developed in almost all civilized countries. Nor is that all. The present-day international workers' movement is in substance a direct continuation of the German workers' movement of that time, which was generally speaking the first international workers' movement, and which brought forth many of those who took the leading role in the International Working Men's Association. And the theoretical principles that the Communist League had inscribed on its banner in The Communist Manifesto of 1847 constitute today the strongest international bond of the entire proletarian movement of both Europe and America.
|
|
Second Inaugural Address |
by Abraham Lincoln |
| With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God
gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to
bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and
for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and
lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. |
|
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific |
by Frederick Engels |
| The materialist conception of history starts from the principle that production and, next to production, the exchange of things produced, is the basis of every social order; that in every society that has appeared in history, the distribution of wealth and with it the division of society into classes or estates are dependent upon what is produced, how it is produced, and how the products are exchanged. |
|
Speech at London |
by George W. Bush |
| "It was pointed out to me that the last noted American to visit London stayed in a glass box dangling over the Thames. A few might have been happy to provide similar arrangements for me. I thank Her Majesty the Queen for interceding." |
|
Star-Spangled Banner: The National Anthem |
by Francis Scott Key |
| Key witnessed the bombardment from his own vessel. It began at 7 a.m., September 13, 1814, and lasted, with intermissions, for 25 hours. The British fired over 1,500 shells, each weighing as much as 220 lbs. They were unable to approach closely because the Americans had sunk 22 vessels in the channel. |
|
State of the Union Address - Feb 1993 |
by William Jefferson Clinton |
| Let me begin by saying that it has been too long, at least three decades, since a President has come and challenged Americans to join him on a great national journey, not merely to consume the bounty of today, but to invest for a much greater one tomorrow. |
|
The Annapolis Convention, 1786 |
| That there are important defects in the system of the Federal Government is acknowledged by the Acts of all those States, which have concurred in the present Meeting; That the defects, upon a closer examination, may be found greater and more numerous, than even these acts imply, is at least so far
probably, from the embarrassments which characterize the present State of our national affairs, foreign and domestic, as may reasonably be supposed to merit a deliberate and candid discussion, in some mode, which will unite the Sentiments and Councils of all the States. |
|
The Articles of Confederation |
| Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.
|
|
The Bill of Rights |
| Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. |
|
The Charlotte Town Resolves (1775) |
by Various Authors |
| That all Commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the Crown, to be exercised in these Colonies, are null and void, and the Constitution of each particular Colony wholly suspended. |
|
The Communist Manifesto |
by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels |
| The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class
struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-
master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant
opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open
fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution
of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. |
|
The Constitution of the United States of America |
by Various |
| We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish the Constitution of the United States of America. |
|
The Constitution of the United States of America |
| Complete text of Constitution with amendments, including my favorite, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." |
|
The Declaration of Independence |
| When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. |
|
The Federal Papers, No.1 |
by Alexander Hamilton |
| General Introduction For the Independent Journal.
|
|
The Federalist Papers |
by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, et al. |
| To the People of the State of New York: AFTER an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the subsisting federal government, you 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.
|
|
The Fifth Modernization |
by Wei Jingsheng |
| We need no gods or emperors. We do not believe in the existence of any savior. We want to be masters of the world and not instruments used by autocrats to carry out their wild ambitions. We want a modern lifestyle and democracy for the people. Freedom and happiness are our sole objectives in accomplishing modernization. Without this fifth modernization all others are merely another promise. |
|
The Fundamental Orders of 1639 |
| We the Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield are now cohabiting and dwelling in and upon the River of Connectecotte and the lands thereunto adjoiningdo therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one Public State or Commonwealth and do for ourselves and our successors and such as shall be adjoined to us at any time hereafter, enter into Combination and Confederation together. |
|
The German Surrender Documents - WWII |
| We the undersigned, acting by authority of the German High Command,
hereby surrender unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied
Expeditionary Forces and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command all
forces on land, sea and in the air who are at this date under German
control. |
|
The Japanese Surrender Documents - WWII |
by Various Authors |
| We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and of all Japanese armed forces and all armed forces under the Japanese control wherever situated. |
|
The Mayflower Compact, 1620 |
| Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the 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 Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid. |
|
The Monroe Doctrine, 1823 |
by President Monroe |
| It is impossible that the allied powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can anyone believe that our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that we
should behold such interposition in any form with indifference. |
|
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave |
by Himself |
| Frederick Douglass was born in slavery as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey near Easton in Talbot County, Maryland. He was not sure of the exact year of his birth, but he knew that it was 1817 or 1818. As a young boy he was sent to Baltimore, to be a house servant, where he learned to read and write, with the assistance of his master's wife. In 1838 he escaped from slavery and went to New York City, where he married Anna Murray, a free colored woman whom he had met in Baltimore. Soon thereafter he changed his name to Frederick Douglass. |
|
The National Motto - In God We Trust |
| The Origins of the National Motto |
|
The Northwest Ordinance, 1787 |
| For the prevention of crimes and injuries, the laws to be adopted or made shall have force in all parts of the district, and for the execution of process, criminal and civil, the governor shall make proper divisions thereof; and he shall proceed from time to time as circumstances may require, to lay
out the parts of the district in which the Indian titles shall have been extinguished, into counties and townships. |
|
The Ohio State Flag |
by Jerry Murphy |
| The Ohio Flag was first publicly displayed in 1901 at the Ohio Building of the Buffalo Pan American Exposition. It had no legal status, however, until the following year. |
|
The Paris Peace Treaty of 1783 |
| His Brittanic Majesty acknowledges the said United States to be free sovereign and independent states, that he treats with them as such, and for himself, his heirs, and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety, and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof. |
|
The Prince |
by Nicolo Machiavelli |
| Men are still the dupes of their simplicity and greed, as they were in the days of Alexander VI. The cloak of religion still conceals the vices which Machiavelli laid bare in the character of Ferdinand of Aragon. Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be--and are ruined. In politics there are no perfectly safe courses; prudence consists in choosing the least dangerous ones. |
|
The Proclamation of Neutrality - 1793 |
by George Washington |
| The duty and interest of the United States require, that they should with sincerity and good faith adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerant Powers. |
|
The Soviet Constitution of 1918 |
by The Fifth All-Russia Congress of Soviets |
| Here we see a copy of the Soviet Constitution, which along with other things, promised elections and equal voting rights. Just goes to show you can't believe everything you read... |
|
The Treaty of Greenville, 1795 |
| A treaty of peace between the United States of America, and the tribes of Indians called the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanees, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pattawatimas, Miamis, Eel Rivers, Weas, Kickapoos, Piankeshaws, and Kaskaskias. |
|
The Universal Bill of Rights |
| This Universal Bill of Rights is promulgated under the authority of the Universal Supreme Law; the Law of God; the Law of Nature; the Law of the Constitution; and the Law of Common Sense. |
|
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights |
by Various Authors |
| All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one
another in a spirit of brotherhood. |
|
The Virginia Declaration of Rights |
by George Mason |
| That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. |
|
USA PATRIOT Act |
| The complete text of H.R. 3162, Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism, aka the USA PATRIOT Act, as passed by the United States Congress. The final legislation includes a few changes: most notably, a sunset on the electronic surveillance provisions, and an amendment providing judicial oversight of law enforcement's use of the FBI's Carnivore system. However, it retains provisions vastly expanding government investigative authority, especially with respect to the Internet. |
|
What Needs to be Done in America |
by Ross Perot |
| A statement released by Ross Perot's 1992 Presidential campaign on "What Needs to be Done in America." |