Free Republic

It was billed as a land of promise — a place where free Black Americans could obtain more political rights and a better quality of life. Liberia did not receive its name until 1824, but the territory that became its capital city was purchased on Dec. 15, 1821. Almost exactly 200 years later, a Liberian historian has discovered that original purchase agreement — a document missing since 1835 that sheds light on the acquisition of the only U.S. colony in Africa.

An impassioned letter penned by George Washington in 1787 about the strengths of the newly written U.S. Constitution was sold at auction in New York on Friday for a record price of $3.2 million. Christie's had estimated that the letter, written from Mount Vernon, could fetch up to $2.5 million at auction, but some experts doubted it would bring that much in the poor economy. The previous auction record for a Washington document was set in 2002, when one of his military reports fetched $834,500, the auction house said. The letter's "hammer" price Friday was $2.8 million, but the buyer's...

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- More than 200 years after they were written, about 5,000 previously unpublished documents of the founders of the United States -- including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison -- are now available to the public at no cost. The Documents Compass group of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities at the University of Virginia has spent much of the past year proofreading and transcribing thousands of pages of letters and other papers. The documents are available online for free at the University of Virginia Press' digital imprint called Rotunda. "It's an exciting project," said Penelope Kaiserlian, director...

A rare copy of the United States Declaration of Independence worth thousands of pounds has been discovered in Britain. The document, which is in perfect condition, is believed to be one of only 200 ever printed and was found among files at the National Archives in Kew. An American antiquarian bookseller carrying out research found the Dunlap print of the declaration which was printed on July 4, 1776. The discovery brings the total of known surviving copies worldwide to 26. The last discovery of a Dunlap print was at a flea market in 1989, and it sold at auction in...

RICHMOND, Va. – A rare 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence belongs to a Virginia technology entrepreneur, not the state of Maine, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled Friday. Richard Adams Jr. of Fairfax County purchased the document from a London book dealer in 2001 for $475,000. But the state of Maine claimed it belongs to the town of Wiscasset, where it was kept by the town clerk in 1776. Virginia's high court said that a lower court did not err in its ruling in Adams' favor because Maine didn't prove the document was ever an official town record and...

In his Saturday remarks during his campaign train ride, President-elect Barack Obama issued some soaring rhetoric about the state of the country today. At least the Old Media thought it was soaring rhetoric, anyway. Typically, the media was overawed by his mellifluous tones, of course. But during these remarks in Baltimore Obama made a startling suggestion. He said we need a "new Declaration of Independence." Apparently the original one isn't good enough for the new president, but it also seems a silly rhetorical flourish. After all, what is it that we are declaring independence from this time? Recall that the...

Ever since the document was examined several weeks ago, it's been a mystery. Initially, it appeared to be a reproduction of the terms and conditions of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender in Appomattox, Va., in 1865. But staff members of the Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum in Center City - who came upon the document while preparing for the museum's relocation - soon noticed pen indentations in the paper, and darker and lighter ink strokes consistent with handwriting. They also found a notation in a 1935 museum inventory identifying the document as an "original." Could this artifact, crudely...

Declaration falls through the cracksThe Supreme Court's rare copy is safely tucked away, then forgotten for seven years, a spokeswoman says. By Steve Chawkins, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 19, 2008 When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to locate a rare, vintage copy of the nation's founding document, try looking behind the filing cabinet. That was a lesson learned the hard way at the Supreme Court, where a 185-year-old facsimile of the Declaration of Independence gathered dust for seven years, tucked behind the office furniture, a court spokeswoman acknowledged this week. Commissioned by John Quincy...

[This article is based on the book, 'Restoring the Original Bible' by Dr. Ernest L. Martin, ASK Publications, Portland, Oregon, 1994] Our Bibles Are Different You may be not be surprised to learn that the Bibles that the Christians use today (also in the past centuries) are not the same as the original Bible known to the Jewish world and to the early Christians. First, we use translations, not the original tongues (Hebrew and Greek); second, there are minor textual variations; and third, we do not have the original autographs.What should surprise you (unless you have read on Bible's...

NEW YORK -- A rare 710-year-old copy of the Magna Carta, among the most important historical documents ever to hit the auction block, sold for US$21.3 million Tuesday at Sotheby's. The document was bought by a Washington businessman who said he was determined to see it remain in the United States, where it has been on display at the National Archives and Records Administration since 1988. The last remaining copy in the United States and the last in private hands, the Magna Carta, one of 17 known to exist, was sold by The Perot Foundation, created by billionaire former U.S....

Anyone else see this auction? The Emancipation Proclamation SIGNED by Abraham Lincoln apparently there were about 100 of these made, is this real? going for 1.5 million right now (of course i cant afford it!)

This Day In History | General Interest September 25 1789 Bill of Rights passes Congress The first Congress of the United States approves 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and sends them to the states for ratification. The amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were designed to protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens, guaranteeing the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and exercise of religion; the right to fair legal procedure and to bear arms; and that powers not delegated to the federal government were reserved for the states and the people. Influenced by the English Bill of Rights...

Settlement Vindicates Use of Historical Religious Documents in Classroom By Jim Brown August 17, 2005 (AgapePress) - A settlement has been reached in a case involving a California elementary school teacher who was barred from distributing American history documents because they contained references to God and religion. The Alliance Defense Fund and the Cupertino School District have reached a settlement in which the district has agreed to no longer censor teacher Steven Williams because he is a Christian. Officials at Stevens Creek Elementary had prohibited Williams from providing fifth-grade students with supplemental readings such as William Penn's Frame of Government...

A manuscript containing the oldest known Biblical New Testament in the world is set to enter the digital age and become accessible online. A team of experts from the UK, Europe, Egypt and Russia is currently digitising the parchment known as the Codex Sinaiticus, believed originally to have been one of 50 copies of the scriptures commissioned by Roman Emperor Constantine after he converted to Christianity. The Bible, which is currently in the British Library in London, dates from the 4th Century. "It is a very distinctive manuscript. No other manuscript looks like this," Scot McKendrick, the head of the...

RALEIGH, N.C. - An original copy of the Bill of Rights that was given to North Carolina by George Washington back in 1789 was returned to the state Thursday, culminating a bitter legal tug-of-war over the historic document. Gov. Mike Easley accepted the weathered document after a judge ordered federal marshals to turn it over to the state — the first time North Carolina has had possession of the document since the end of the Civil War. "North Carolina's stolen Bill of Rights may have been out of state for nearly 140 years, but never out of mind," Easley said...

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America 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. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted on Sun, Jul. 04, 2004 The Declaration of Independence IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776 A DECLARATION By the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, In General Congress assembled 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 Conventions of a number of the States having, at the time of adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added, and as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution; Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Monday, December 1, is the final day of voting in the national civics initiative sponsored by the National Archives, in partnership with National History Day and U.S. News & World Report. You don't have to be 18 to have your vote count in The People's Vote: 100 Documents That Shaped America. The program encourages Americans of all ages and educational backgrounds to vote for 10 documents from the list of 100 milestones chosen by historians and the National Archives. At a special ceremony on September 17, 2003, with President George W. Bush, the Archivist...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush, lawmakers and the chief justice of the United States celebrated the rededication Wednesday of the original Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence, which were locked away for two years of preservation work.</p> <p>"Our founding fathers developed a form of representative government that served as a shining example to the rest of world," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., at an unveiling of a new exhibit inside the National Archives.. "And this experiment in self-rule has stood the test of time."</p>