David Brearley’s annotated printed draft of the Constitution preserves the crossed-out words and handwritten changes made during the final days of the Constitutional Convention. The document reveals that America’s new federal government was created through continuous debate, compromise and revision.

The Treaty of Paris ended the American War for Independence while recognizing the thirteen former colonies as free, sovereign and independent states. Its language reveals how different the original confederation was from the federal nation established under the Constitution.

In 1778, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and other Continental officers signed oaths renouncing King George III. These documents reveal how American allegiance originally meant loyalty to free, independent and sovereign states—not yet to one consolidated nation.