A Century of Lawmaking

A Century of Lawmaking in the United States
1774-1785 https://www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html
Best source for historical, full-text for some documents, e.g. Congressional Record.

Beginning with the Continental Congress in 1774, America’s national legislative bodies have kept records of their proceedings. The records of the Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention, and the United States Congress make up a rich documentary history of the construction of the nation and the development of the federal government and its role in the national life. These documents record American history in the words of those who built our government.

Books on the law formed a major part of the holdings of the Library of Congress from its beginning. In 1832, Congress established the Law library of Congress as a separate department of the Library. It houses one of the most complete collections of U.S. Congressional documents in their original format. In order to make these records more easily accessible to students, scholars, and interested citizens, A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation brings together online the records and acts of Congress from the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention through the 43rd Congress, including the first three volumes of the Congressional Record, 1873-75.

Selected bibliography include:

General Reference
Byrd, Robert C. The Senate, 1789-1989. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1988. LC Call Number: JK1158 .B97 1988

Castel, Albert E., and Scott L. Gibson. The Yeas and the Nays: Key Congressional Decisions, 1774-1945. Kalamazoo: New Issues Press, Institute of Public Affairs, Western Michigan University, 1975. LC Call Number: JK1021 .C37

Schamel, Charles E. et al. Guide to the Records of the United States House of Representatives at the National Archives, 1789-1989. Washington, D.C.: U.S. House of Representatives, 1989. LC Call Number: CD3042.H68 U55 1989

Miller, Cynthia Pease, ed. A Guide to Research Collections of Former Members of the United States House of Representatives, 1789-1987. Washington, D.C.: The Office, 1988. LC Call Number: CD3043 .G84 1988

Nabors, Eugene. Legislative Reference Checklist: The Key to Legislative Histories from 1789-1903. Littleton, Colo.: Rothman, 1982. LC Call Number: KF49 .L43 1982

Paul, Karen Dawley. Guide to Research Collections of Former United States Senators, 1789-1995: A Listing of Archival Repositories Housing the Papers of Former Senators, Related Collections, and Oral History Interviews. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1995. LC Call Number: CD3043 .P39 1995

Coren, Robert W. et al. Guide to the Records of the United States Senate at the National Archives, 1789-1989. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Senate, 1989. LC Call Number: CD3042.S46 U54 1989

Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789

Anderson, Thornton. Creating the Constitution: The Convention of 1787 and the First Congress. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993. LC Call Number: KF4541 .A88 1993

Ashworth, Marjorie. To Create a Nation: The Constitutional Convention of 1787. McLean, Va.: Link Press, 1987. LC Call Number: KF4520 .A77 1987

Benton, Wilbourn E., ed. 1787: Drafting the U.S. Constitution. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986. LC Call Number: KF4510.A135 1986

Burnett, Edmund Cody. The Continental Congress. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1975. LC Call Number: E303 .B93 1975

Collier, Christopher, and James Lincoln Collier. Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787. New York: Random House: Reader’s Digest, 1986. LC Call Number: KF4520 .C65 1986

Henderson, H. James. Party Politics in the Continental Congress. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1987. LC Call Number: JK1033 .H43 1987

Hutson, James H., ed. Supplement to Max Farrand’s the Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987. LC Call Number: KF4510 .U547 1966 Suppl.

Jillson, Calvin, and Rick Wilson. Congressional Dynamics: Structure, Coordination, and Choice in the First American Congress, 1774-1789. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1994. LC Call Number: JK1033 .J55 1994

Levy, Leonard W., and Dennis J. Mahoney, eds. The Framing and Ratification of the Constitution. New York: Macmillan; London: Collier Macmillan, 1987. LC Call Number: KF4541 .F7 1987

Montross, Lynn. The Reluctant Rebels: The Story of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1970. LC Call Number: E303 .M82 1970

Onuf, Peter S., ed. Congress and the Confederation. New York: Garland, 1991. LC Call Number: E164.N45 1991 vol. 4 E303

Rakove, Jack N. The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982. LC Call Number: E210 .R34 1982

Scott, James Brown. James Madison’s Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 and Their Relation to a More Perfect Society of Nations. Union, N.J.: Lawbook Exchange, 2001. LC Call Number: KF4520 .S37 2001

Solberg, Winton U., ed. The Constitutional Convention and the Formation of the Union. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990. LC Call Number: KF4510 .C66 1990

Wood, Gordon S. The Making of the Constitution. Waco, Tex.: Markham Press Fund, Baylor University Press, 1987. LC Call Number: JK157 .W66 1987

Wehmann, Howard H. A Guide to Pre-Federal Records in the National Archives. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1989. LC Call Number: CD3045.W44 1989

Winthrop, Robert C. Washington, Bowdoin, and Franklin, as Portrayed in Occasional Addresses. Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1876. LC Call Number: E302.5.W79 1876 (View Page images)

1789-1800

Bell, Rudolph M. Party and Faction in American Politics: The House of Representatives, 1789-1801. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1973. LC Call Number: JK1323 1789 .B4

Bickford, Charlene Bangs, and Kenneth R. Bowling. Birth of the Nation: The First Federal Congress, 1789-1791. Madison, Wis.: Madison House, 1989. LC Call Number: JK1059 1st .B53 1989b

Bowling, Kenneth R., and Donald R. Kennon, eds. The House and Senate in the 1790s: Petitioning, Lobbying, and Institutional Development. Athens, Ohio: Published for the United States Capitol Historical Society by Ohio University Press, 2002. LC Call Number: JK1041 .H68 2002

Bowling, Kenneth R., and Donald R. Kennon, eds. Neither Separate nor Equal: Congress in the 1790s. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000. LC Call Number: JK1041 .N45 2000

Bowling, Kenneth R. Politics in the First Congress, 1789-1791. New York: Garland, 1990. LC Call Number: JK1059 1st .B68 1990

Currie, David P. The Constitution in Congress: The Federalist Period 1789-1801. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. LC Call Number: KF4541 .C834 1997

Grant De Pauw, Linda. Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, March 4, 1789-March 3, 1791. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press: LC Call Number: KF350 .D63 1972

Hoadley, John F. Origins of American Political Parties, 1789-1803. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 1986. LC Call Number: JK2260 .H63 1986

Silbey, Joel H., ed. The Congress of the United States: Its Origins and Early Development. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Carlson, 1991. LC Call Number: JK1021 .C556 1991

Swanstrom, Roy. The United States Senate, 1787-1801: A Dissertation on the First Fourteen Years of the Upper Legislative Body. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1985. LC Call Number: JK1158 .S9 1985

United States. Congress. A Second Federalist: Congress Creates a Government. Selected from the Annals of Congress by Charles S. Hyneman and George W. Carey. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1970. LC Call Number: J11 .A6 1970

Williams, Robert Percy. The First Congress, March 4, 1789-March 3, 1791: A Compilation of Significant Debates. New York: Exposition Press, 1970. LC Call Number: JK1059 1st .W5

1801-1860

Currie, David P. The Constitution in Congress: The Jeffersonians, 1801-1829. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. LC Call Number: KF4541 .C835 2001

Miller, William Lee. Arguing about Slavery: The Great Battle in the United States Congress. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1996. LC Call Number: E338 .M65 1996

Shields, Johanna Nicol. The Line of Duty: Maverick Congressmen and the Development of American Political Culture, 1836-1860. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985. LC Call Number: E338 .S535 1985

Silbey, Joel H., ed. The United States Congress in a Transitional Era, 1800-1841: The Interplay of Party, Faction, and Section. Brooklyn: Carlson, 1991. LC Call Number: JK1041 .U56 1991

Silbey, Joel H., ed. The United States Congress in a Partisan Political Nation, 1841-1896. Brooklyn: Carlson, 1991. LC Call Number: JK1041 .U55 1991

Swift, Elaine K. The Making of an American Senate: Reconstitutive Change in Congress, 1787-1841. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996. LC Call Number: JK1161 .S95 1996

1861-1875

Avins, Alfred, comp. The Reconstruction Amendments’ Debates: The Legislative History and Contemporary Debates in Congress on the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Richmond: Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government, 1967. LC Call Number: KF4756.A29 A9

Barnes, William H. History of the Thirty-ninth Congress of the United States. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969. LC Call Number: E666 .B25 1969

Benedict, Michael Les. A Compromise of Principle: Congressional Republicans and Reconstruction, 1863-1869. New York: Norton, 1974. LC Call Number: E668 .B46

Boykin, Edward. Congress and the Civil War. New York: McBride, 1955. LC Call Number: E415.7 .B65

Brock, William Ranulf. An American Crisis: Congress and Reconstruction, 1865-1867. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1963. LC Call Number: E668 .B85

Curry, Leonard P. Blueprint for Modern America: Non-Military Legislation of the First Civil War Congress. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968. LC Call Number: E459 .C96

Lucie, Patricia Allan. Freedom and Federalism: Congress and Courts, 1861-1866. New York: Garland, 1986. LC Call Number: KF8719 .L83

Maltz, Earl M. Civil Rights, the Constitution, and Congress, 1863-1869. Lawrence, Kans.: University Press of Kansas, 1990. LC Call Number: KF4757 .M29 1990

Nash, Howard Pervear. Andrew Johnson: Congress and Reconstruction. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1972. LC Call Number: E668 .N24

Seip, Terry L. The South Returns to Congress: Men, Economic Measures, and Intersectional Relationships, 1868-1879. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1983. LC Call Number: HC105.7 .S44 1983

Wilson, Henry. History of the Reconstruction Measures of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, 1865-68. Westport, Conn.: Negro Universities Press, 1970. LC Call Number: E668 .W74 1970

Younger Readers

Banks, Joan. The U.S. Constitution. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2001. LC Call Number: KF4541 .B3124 2001

Burgan, Michael. The Declaration of Independence. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2001. LC Call Number: E221 .B945 2001

Collier, Christopher, and James Lincoln Collier. Creating the Constitution, 1787. New York: Benchmark Books, 1999. LC Call Number: E303 .C59 1999

Freedman, Russell. Give me Liberty!: The Story of the Declaration of Independence. New York: Holiday House, 2000. LC Call Number: E221 .F84 2000

Fradin, Dennis B. The Signers: The 56 Stories behind the Declaration of Independence. New York: Walker & Co., 2002. LC Call Number: E221 .F83 2002

Kronenwetter, Michael. The Congress of the United States. Springfield, N.J.: Enslow, 1996. LC Call Number: JK1025 .K76 1996

Oberle, Lora Polack. The Declaration of Independence. Mankato, Minn.: Bridgestone Books, 2002. LC Call Number: E221 .O24 2002

Nardo, Don. The U.S. Congress. San Diego, Calif.: Lucent Books, 1994. LC Call Number: JK1061 .N37 1994

Ritchie, Donald A. The Congress of the United States: A Student Companion. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. LC Call Number: JK1025 .R58 2001

Weidner, Daniel W. Creating the Constitution: The People and Events that Formed the Nation. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow, 2002. LC Call Number: E303 .W44 2002

Conclusion

Notes

See Also

References and Further Reading

About the Author/s and Reviewer/s

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Law library, U.S. Constitution law resources.


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