The Founding

Mercer University's Thomas and Ramona McDonald Center for America's Founding Principles exists to encourage the study of the texts and ideas that have been instrumental in shaping the regime of the United States of America. This short volume includes four texts that not only articulate the regime's highest ideals, but provide a lasting framework for governance, and offer a glimpse of the centuries-long struggle to realize those ideals more fully. Together, the Declaration of Independence, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the United States Constitution, and Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address serve as an introduction to a regime committed to the ideals of individual liberty, human equality, the rule of law, government by consent, and popular sovereignty. Citizens and students alike can benefit from this handy primer on American ideals and institutions.