Resources

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, 1721)
• Charter of Massachusetts Bay (1629)
• Charters of Freedom (National Archives)
• Commentaries on the Laws of England (Sir William Blackstone, 1765-1769)
• Communications Act of 1934 (1934)
• Constitution of the United States (National Archives)
• Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms (1775)
• Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)
• Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
• English Bill of Rights (1689)
• Espionage Act of 1917, Amendment
• Federal Judiciary Act (1789)
• The Federalist Papers (1787-1788)
• Free Speech in Wartime (Robert M. LaFollette, 1917)
• Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln, 1863)
• Interactive Constitution (National Constitution Center)
• 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)
• Sedition Act of 1798
• Smith Act of 1940
• United States Constitution (1787; Avalon Project)
• United States Constitution (1787; National Archives)
• Virginia Resolution (1798)
• Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty (1779-1786) (Thomas Jefferson)

Document Collections

• Avalon Project (Yale Law School)
• Core Documents of U.S. Democracy (Government Printing Office)
• Documents from the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention (1774-1789)
• The Founders' Constitution (University of Chicago Press and the Liberty Fund)
• Primary Documents in American History (Library of Congress)
• Voices of Democracy (Center for Political Communication and Civic Leadership at the University of Maryland and the Center for Democratic Deliberation at the Pennsylvania State University)

Thomas L. Tedford and Dale A. Herbeck Freedom of Speech in the United States, 9th ed. State College, PA: Strata Publishing, Inc., 2024 http://tedford-herbeck-free-speech.com