Danielle Allen

Up until now, only one large-format ceremonial parchment manuscript was known to exist, that one is in the National Archives and was produced in 1776. This one was produced a decade later, with the signed parchment as its source.

This parchment manuscript illuminates in one stroke how the Federalists and anti-Federalists debated the question of whether the new republic was founded on the authority of a single, united sovereign people or on the authority of 13 separate state governments.