Document 1
Source: Jay Gould, owner of the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad, transcript of his testimony about his purchase of the Kansas Pacific Railway before a congressional commission investigating railroad monopolies, 1887.
Commissioner: What is the advantage of a [railroad] consolidation . . . ?
Gould: . . .There are a great many advantages that grow out of the combination of a number of smaller [rail]roads into one strong company. In the first place, it is a great deal better for the country, because the stronger company can protect and develop the [rail]road. It can build a better [rail]road . . . and can run trains more frequently . . . ; and that builds up the country and draws in population. . . . You will always find lands selling higher along a strong [rail]road than along a weak one.

Document 2
Source: Reverend J. L. Moore, “The Florida Colored Farmers’ Alliance,” article in a Florida newspaper, 1891.
As members of the Colored Farmers’ Alliance we avowed that we were going to vote with and for the man or party that will secure for the farmer or laboring man his just rights and privileges. . . . We are aware of the fact that the laboring colored man’s interests and the laboring white man’s interests are one and the same. Especially is this true at the South. Anything that can be brought about to benefit the workingman, will also benefit the Negro. . . . So I for one have fully decided to vote with and work for that party, or those who favor the workingman, let them belong to the Democratic, or Republican, or the People’s Party. . . .

Document 3

Source: Populist (People’s) Party campaign poster, 1892. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Document 4
Source: Jane Addams, 1892 speech at the School of Applied Ethics in Massachusetts, reprinted in her 1910 memoir Twenty Years at Hull-House.
The Settlement [at Hull-House] . . . is an experimental effort to aid in the solution of the social and industrial problems which are engendered [created] by the modern conditions of life in a great city. . . . It must be grounded in a philosophy whose foundation is on the solidarity of the human race, a philosophy which will not waver. . . . The highest moralists have taught that without the advance and improvement of the whole, no man can hope for any lasting improvement in his own moral or material individual condition; and that the subjective necessity for Social Settlements is therefore identical with that necessity, which urges us on toward social and individual salvation.

Document 5
Source: Theodore Roosevelt, Progressive Party presidential candidate, The New Nationalism, 1910.
I stand for the square deal. But when I say that I am for the square deal, I mean not merely that I stand for fair play under the present rules of the game, but that I stand for having those rules changed so as to work for a more substantial equality of opportunity. . . . This means that our government, national and state, must be freed from the sinister influence or control of special interests. . . . For every special interest is entitled to justice, but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a voice on the [judicial] bench, or to representation in any public office. . . . The citizens of the United States must effectively control the mighty commercial forces which they have themselves called into being.

Document 6
Source: Florence Kelley, “Persuasion or Responsibility?,” one of a group of pamphlets called the Political Equality Series, circa 1906–1907.
According to the latest report of the Department of Education, the percent[age] of our population enrolled in the public schools has diminished during the past five years. . . . Schools cost money, and boards of education are composed chiefly of business men, men eager to keep down the taxes and willing to have children work. . . . Why are these things true? First, they are true because our industrial system calls for cheap labor. . . . Second, they are true because the mothers, the teachers, the women fitted by nature and training to guard the welfare of the children are prevented by law from electing the officers who enforce the laws.

Document 7
Source: Crystal Eastman, social activist, Work-Accidents and the Law, 1910.
“Is there any tendency on the part of the railroad management to emphasize speed and accomplishment at the expense of safety?” I had asked [a railroad worker]. “Yes,” he replied. . . . “The situation could be relieved greatly by giving the men much shorter hours, so they could work at this intense rate without becoming careless toward the end.”

Document A
Source: Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation, Virginia, 1775.
I do require every Person capable of bearing Arms, to [resort] to His MAJESTY’S STANDARD... And I do hereby further declare all indentured Servants, Negroes, or others, ([belonging] to Rebels,) free that are able and willing to bear Arms, they joining His MAJESTY’S Troops...

Document B
Source: Paul Cuffe’s Petition, Massachusetts, 1780.
. . . by Reason of long bondage and hard Slavery we have been deprived of enjoying the profits of our labor... yet many of our Color... have cheerfully entered the field of battle in the defense of the Common cause and that (as we conceive) against a similar exertion of power (in regard to taxation)...

Document C

Source: Maps showing the density of slave populations in 1790 and 1830. Note the growth of the 'Black Belt' in the Deep South.

Document D

Source: Illustration of a Methodist Meeting in Philadelphia, 1790s, showcasing the growth of independent Black religious spaces.

Document E
Source: Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, Philadelphia, 1794.
There is much gratitude due from our color towards the white people... much depends upon us for the help of our color more than we are aware; if we are lazy and idle, the enemies of freedom plead it as a cause why we ought not to be free...

Document F
Source: Venture Smith’s Narrative, 1798.
I asked my master one time if he would consent to have me purchase my freedom. He replied that he would... By cultivating this land with the greatest diligence and economy... in two years I had laid up ten pounds.

Document G
Source: The Confessions of “Ben,” a conspirator in Gabriel Prosser’s Rebellion, 1800.
. . . Mr. Prosser’s Gabriel wished to bring on the business as soon as possible... Martin said there was this expression in the Bible, delays breed danger... before he would any longer bear what he had borne, he would turn out and fight with his stick...

Document H
Source: Letter to ministers from the Vermont Colonization Society, 1820.
...whose benevolent object is, by establishing colonies on the coast of Africa, to open a door for the gradual emancipation of the slaves in our own country...

Document I
Source: Prince Hall (1797) and Hosea Easton (1820s).
[(B)lacks must] bear up under the daily insults we meet with in the streets of Boston... cuts and placards descriptive of the Negro deformity, are every where displayed.

Document J
Source: David Walker, Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, 1829.
...we must and shall be free I say, in spite of you... And woe, woe, will be to you if we have to obtain our freedom by fighting.

Document A
Source: Elbridge Gerry, letter to the Massachusetts legislature, 1787.
My principal objections to the plan [the Constitution] are, that there is no adequate provision for a representation of the people; that they have no security for the right of election... and that the system is without the security of a bill of rights.

Document B
Source: James Madison, The Federalist paper number 10, 1787.
Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction... Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests.

Document C
Source: George Washington, letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, 1788.
[The powers] are so distributed among the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches... that it can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy... there is no alternative... between the adoption of this and a recurrence to an unqualified state of Anarchy.

Document D
Source: George Mason, Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788.
The assumption of this power of laying direct taxes does, of itself, entirely change the confederation of the states into one consolidated government. This power... must carry everything before it.

Document E
Source: Alexander Hamilton, “On the Constitutionality of a National Bank,” 1791.
To establish such a right, it remains to show the relation of such an institution to one or more of the specified powers of the government... it is clearly within the provision which authorizes the making of all needful rules and regulations.

Document F
Source: Gazette of the United States (pro-Federalist), 1794.
These [Democratic-Republican] Societies... have been formed... for the sake of preserving liberty. And what is the liberty they are striving to introduce? It is the liberty of reviling the rulers... and persuading people to resist [laws].

Document G
Source: General Advertiser (anti-Federalist), 1794.
As violent means appear [to be] the desire of high toned government men, it is to be hoped that those who derive the most benefit from our revenue laws will be the [first] to march against the Western insurgents.

Document H
Source: Edward Livingston, addressing Congress on the Alien Act, 1798.
By [the Alien Act] the President alone is empowered to make the law... This comes completely within the definition of despotism—a union of legislative, executive, and judicial powers.

Document I
Source: United States Supreme Court, Marbury v. Madison, 1803.
It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is... The judicial power of the United States is extended to all cases arising under the Constitution.

Document J

Source: Map showing the United States in 1804, including the Louisiana Purchase and various territories.

Document A
Source: Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781.
Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God. . . . While we have land to labor then, let us never wish to see our citizens occupied at a work-bench. . . . let our work-shops remain in Europe.

Document B
Source: Alexander Hamilton, Report on the Subject of Manufactures, 1791.
The expediency of encouraging manufactures in the United States... appears at this time to be pretty generally admitted... Manufacturing establishments [augment] . . . the produce and revenue of the society.

Document C
Source: President Thomas Jefferson, Eighth Annual Message, 1808.
The suspension of our foreign commerce... has impelled us to apply a portion of our industry and capital to internal manufactures and improvements.

Document D

Source: Maps showing the increase in cotton spinning spindles in the North and South between 1810 and 1840.

Document E
Source: Henry Clay, campaign pamphlet, 1824.
If the Jackson Party prevail, a majority of the next Congress will be opposed to the tariff, to mechanics, to manufacturers, and domestic industry.

Document F
Source: President Andrew Jackson, message to the Senate, 1832.
...when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions... to make the rich richer... the humble members of society—the farmers, mechanics, and laborers—have a right to complain.

Document G

Source: Table showing the growth of canal and railroad mileage by region (Northeast, Midwest, South) between 1830 and 1840.

Document H
Source: Harriet H. Robinson, Early Factory Labor in New England, 1883.
In 1832, Lowell was little more than a factory village. . . . Troops of young girls came from different parts of New England... to the factories.

Document I

Source: Bar graph showing a decline from 95% rural in 1790 to 89% rural in 1840.

Document J

Source: Bar graph showing cotton rising from 39% of exports to 63% of exports by 1840.

Document A
Source: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964.
Resolved... That the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.

Document B
Source: Country Joe and the Fish, “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die,” 1965.
And it’s one, two, three, / What are we fighting for? / Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn, / Next stop is Vietnam... Be the first one on your block / To have your boy come home in a box.

Document C
Source: Martin Luther King, 1967.
It was taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem.

Document D

Source: Political cartoon showing the 'Great Society' being pulled down a cliff by the weight of 'Foreign Policy' (Vietnam).

Document E
Source: Robert F. Kennedy, 1968.
It is because we have misconceived the nature of the war. It is because we have sought to resolve by military might a conflict whose issue depends upon the will and conviction of the South Vietnamese people.

Document F
Source: James Fallows, writing about his 1969 draft board experience.
While perhaps four out of five of my friends from Harvard were being deferred, just the opposite was happening to the Chelsea boys [white working class].

Document G
Source: Richard Nixon, Address to the Nation, 1969.
And so tonight to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support. . . . North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.

Document H
Source: George McGovern, 1972.
What I propose is... refusing to maintain extra military forces that can have no other purpose than to repeat our experience in Vietnam, a venture which nearly all of us now recognize as a monstrous national blunder.

Document I
Source: The War Powers Act, 1973.
The President shall terminate any use of United States Armed Forces... unless the Congress (1) has declared war or has enacted a specific authorization for such use.