Introduction to The Constitutional Sources Project

The Constitutional Sources Project is creating ConSource, the first, comprehensive, online library of Constitution-related source materials. The project provides the public with free online access to the Constitution as well as authoritative transcripts and high-quality digital images of original documents directly relating to the Constitution. This new medium will give the Founders, Reconstructionists, and original Feminists a voice in the classroom and courtroom, providing everyone from the sixth grader to the Supreme Court justice the best history of the Constitution. The Constitutional Sources Project was incorporated in May 2005 as a 501(c)3 non-profit, public charity and is headquarterd in Washington, D.C.

ConSource is the only online library to house a complete set of James Madison’s handwritten notes of the Constitutional Convention, the Federalist Papers, the Anti and Pro-Federalist Papers, the state ratification debates for seven states, and the legislative history of the Bill of Rights. Over the next year, ConSource will add Constituiton-related papers written by George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin. In the past 30 years, Congress has spent over $72 million to transcribe these papers, together with those of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Yet based on a survey performed by The Constitutional Sources Project in 2006 of 201 publicly-funded libraries at the city, state, and university level, not one had a complete collection of these books. ConSource will make all of these sources available on ConSource.

America’s national treasures that are and will be housed on ConSource are scattered across multiple institutions, states, and even countries. In addition to the vast holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress, there are over 400 private archives in the U.S., France, and England that house early American documents relating to the Constitution. One of the largest private holders of early American documents, The Pennsylvania Historical Society, houses over 19 million document collections containing over 1 billion pages.

America’s Lack of Knowledge of the Constitution is Shocking

Only 6% of Americans can name all four rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. (24% cannot name even one. 27% can only name one. 43% can name two or three.)

62% cannot name all three branches of the Federal government.

Only 7% can correctly identify the Constitutional Convention delegates as the authors.

4 in 5 do not know how many amendments there are to the Constitution. 1 in 5 do not know that the President is Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.

84% believe that the U.S. Constitution is the document that states that “all men are created equal,” thus confusing it with the Declaration of Independence.

32% believe that John Hancock had a hand in drafting the Constitution.

(Source: The National Constitution Center Survey, http://www.constitutioncenter.org/CitizenAction/CivicResearchResults/NCCNationalPoll/index.shtml)