This collection of documents relating to the development of American democratic in- stitutions is divided into three sections. The first part includes a series of laws or related documents running from the Magna Carta through the American Constitution. The second includes three famous addresses by American's two most famous Presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The final section includes two pamphlets on American democracy: Thomas Pane's Common Sense and General Smith's Views, a summary of Joseph Smith's political views distributed during his 1844 Presidential bid. This book is in the Deseret Alphabet, a phonetic alphabet for the writing of English developed in the mid-19th century at the University of Deseret (now University of Utah).