U.S. Government and Government Resources

American Political Development
Created by the Miller Center for Public Affairs' American Political Development Program and the American Political
History Initiative. The site proposes to serve as a resource for the "interdisciplinary study of the deep historical roots of politics in the United States." There are biographical ewssaays about presidents, first ladies, and Cabinet members. Oral histories, presidential tapes and the texts of speeches are also valuable resources.

Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Government
This is a wonderful resource constructed by the Yale law School. More than 3500 full text documents on US legal, economic, and political history. The documents are divided into 5 time periods.

Legal Information Institute
Developed by the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School, this site allows you to easily search Supreme Court decisions in a variety of different ways. You can also search for opinions by state courts and federal courts.

A Century of Lawmaking
Another excellent site from the American Memory collection. You can search records, debates, bills, and proceedings of America's national legislative bodies beginning with the 1774 Continental Congress and continuing through the 42nd Congress in 1873. Special presentations include "Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784 to 1894" and "The Impeachment Trial of President Andrew Johnson."

U.S. Census Bureau
An enormous amount of  historic and current economic, demographic, and geographic information.

The Supreme Court Historical Society
This site provides biographical sketches, timelines of the court and the major decisions during the tenure of each Chief Justice.

FirstGov.gov
A central site to find  local, state, and national government information. For specific information about the different branches of government look at The White House, House of Representatives, Senate, and the Supreme Court.

American Presidency Project
This site has a wide range of materials - presidential communications, election data, speeches, party platforms etc... There are audio and video clips from late 1800s to the present. The PBS webpage on The Presidents  is geared toward teaching the history of the American presidency. Biographies provide links to primary documents.