John Jay

Lesson Plans | Primary Sources |

 

Lesson Plans:

The Preamble to the Constitution: How do you make a more perfect union? - Before 1789, the young nation had been ruled by the Articles of Confederation, written in 1781 in reaction to years of British rule. By 1787, however, it was clear that a more perfect Union was required; while protecting the independence of member states, the Articles of Confederation did not describe the powers of a federal chief executive or a judicial system. The creation of our Constitution and present form of government was informed by these and other considerations that arose during the years of the Confederation.

Constitution Lesson Plans - This Web site provides a lesson plan and material from a variety of electronic CQ Press sources to help instructors and students observe Constitution Day. CQ Press resources include primary sources, pro/con debates on important constitutional issues, encyclopedia articles on the Constitution, expert commentary and analysis by CQ writers, and more. In addition, this site provides links to additional free sources available on the Web and links to CQ Press books and online collections related to the Constitution.

Primary Source Documents:

The Papers of John Jay - The Papers of John Jay is an image database and indexing tool comprising some 13,000 documents (more than 30,000 page images) scanned chiefly from photocopies of original documents. Most of the source material was assembled by Columbia University's John Jay publication project staff during the 1960s and 1970s under the direction of the late Professor Richard B. Morris.

John Hancock
The Papers of John Jay
Federalist Papers