Historic Free Speech Documents

• Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798
• An Apology for Printers (Benjamin Frankin, 1731)
• Areopagitica (John Milton, 1644)
• Articles of Confederation (1781)
• Bill of Rights (1791)
• Cato's Letters (No. 15 on Freedom of Speech, 1720)
• Charter of Massachusetts Bay (1629)
• Charters of Freedom (National Archives)
• Commentaries on the Laws of England (Sir William Blackstone, 1765-1769)
• Communication Acts of 1934 (1934)
• Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms (July 6, 1775)
• Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)
• Democracy in America (Alexis DeTocqueville, 1835-1839)
• Documents from the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention (1774-1789)
• The Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
• English Bill of Rights (1689)
• Espionage Act of 1917
• Federal Judiciary Act (1789)
• The Federalist Papers (1787-1788)
• Free Speech in a Time of War (Robert M. LaFollette, 1917)
• Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln, 1863)
• Kentucky Resolution (1799)
• Lee Resolution (1776)
• Liberty of the Press (Thomas Paine, 1806)
• Magna Carta (1215)
• Marbury v. Madison (1803)
• Mayflower Compact (1620)
• On Liberty (John Stuart Mill, 1859)
• On the Liberties of the Commons (Peter Wentworth, 1576)
• Resolutions of the Stamp Act (1765)
• Sedition Act of July 14, 1798
• Smith Act of 1940
• Treatise on Toleration (Voltaire, 1763)
• United States Constitution (1787; Avalon Project)
• United States Constitution (1787; Legal Information Institute)
• Virginia Resolution (1798)
• Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty (1779-1786) (Thomas Jefferson)

Document Collections

• American Memory (Library of Congress)
• Avalon Project (Yale Law School)
• A Chronology of United States Historical Documents (University of Oklahoma College of Law)
• Core Documents of U.S. Democracy (Government Printing Office)
• The Founders' Constitution (University of Chicago Press and the Liberty Fund)
• Primary Documents in American History (Library of Congress)
• Our Documents (National History Day, National Archives and Records Administration, and USA Freedom Corps)

Thomas L. Tedford and Dale A. Herbeck Freedom of Speech in the United States, 6th ed. State College, PA: Strata Publishing, Inc., 2009 www.bc.edu/free_speech