“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
One of the most important foundational documents in American history, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 is one that most people never learn about. Following principles outlined by Thomas Jefferson in 1784, it included a precursor to the bill of rights four years before...
The first attempt in history to include anti-slavery, free-soil provisions into a national constitutional instrument was written by Thomas Jefferson. Most historians teach us about the slave-owning of Jefferson – which is important history, but they ignore this...
Today in 1865, the legislature of Delaware refused to ratify the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution – which intended to end slavery and indentured servitude in all the states. Some politicians within the state, namely James Bayard and his supporters,...