(360 B.C.) The Republic - Plato

(46 B.C.) Cicero's Brutus - Cicero

(1517) Discourses on Livy - Machiavelli

(1553) The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude - Étienne de La Boétie

(1690) Two Treatises of Government - Locke

(1698) Discourses Concerning Government - Algernon Sydney

Sidney's Discourses and Locke's Second Treatise were recommended by Jefferson and Madison as containing the "general principles of liberty and the rights of man, in nature and society"

(1748) The Spirit of Laws - Montesquieu

(1748) The Principles of Natural and Politic Law - Burlamaqui

(1758) The Law of Nations - Vattel

(1764-1769) The Writings of Samuel Adams

(1765-1769) Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England

(1766) The Declaratory Act

(1770) The Writings of John Adams V1-2

The Writings of John Adams V3-4

The Writings of John Adams V5-7

The Writings of John Adams V8-10

(1771-1788) The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

(1772) The Votes and Proceedings of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants

(1774) Novanglus - John Adams. The Principle Controversy between Great Britain and Her Colonies

(1776) Common Sense - Thomas Paine

The pamphlet Common Sense appeared on the very day that the King of England's speech reached the United States, in which the Americans were denounced as rebels and traitors, and in which speech it was asserted to be the right of the legislature of England to bind the Colonies in all cases whatsoever.

(1776-1783) The Crisis - Thomas Paine

(1780) Journal of the Convention for Framing the Massachusetts Bay Constitution

(1785) Remarks concerning the Government and Laws of the United States of America: in Four Letters addressed to Mr. Adams

(1787) The Anti-Federalist (audio)

(1787) The Federalist (text) The Federalist (audio)

(1781-1826) The Declaration of Independence and Letters by Thomas Jefferson

(1788) The Debates in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Virginia

on the adoption of the Federal Constitution

(1788) Speech delivered at the Virginia Convention debate of the ratification of the Constitution - Patrick Henry

(1789) James Madison Speech to the First Congress - Madison's proposed Amendments to the Constitution

(1791-92) The Rights of Man - Thomas Paine

(1792) A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal - Thomas Paine

(1792) Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States of America - James Wilson, Thomas McKean

As far as I know this is the first legal treatise written on the subject of the U.S. Constitution.

(1794-95) Age of Reason Pt. I, II and III - Thomas Paine

(1796) Washington's Farewell Address

(1800) The Origin and Principles of the America and French Revolutions Compared

(1804) The Works of the Honourable James Wilson - Wilson signed the DoI and the federal Constitution, appointed to the Supreme Court by Washington

(1805) The Dangers of American Liberty - Fisher Ames

(1820) The Republican Part I & II Part III - Wiliam Jarvis

“I thank you, Sir, for the copy of your Republican which you have been so kind as to send me… looking over it cursorily I see much in it to approve, and shall be glad if it shall lead our youth to the practice of thinking on such subjects and for themselves…”   Thomas Jefferson

(1820) Construction Construed, and Constitutions Vindicated - John Taylor

(1823) New Views of the Constitution of the United States - John Taylor of Caroline

(1829) The annals of America - Abiel Holmes

From the Discovery to the year 1826

(1830) The Letters of Algernon Sydney, In Defense of Civil Liberty - Judge Spencer Roane's letters to the Richmond Enquirer, 1818-19

(1831) Essays on the American System, its Principle and Object - Spencer Roane

(1833) Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States - Joseph Story  

* [see 1868 - A Brief Inquiry....]

(1835) Democracy in America - Volume I - de Tocqueville

(1837) Introduction to American law - Designed as a First Book for Students

(1839) The Jubilee of the Constitution: A Discourse - John Quincy Adams

(1840) Democracy in America - Volume II - de Tocqueville

(1849) On the Duty of Civil Disobedience - H.D. Thoreau

(1850) The Law - Frederick Bastiat

(1859) The Government Class Book - Designed for the Instruction of Youth

(1860) Diary of the American Revolution. From Newspapers and Original Documents - Frank Moore

(1861) Ancient Law, its connection with the early history of society and its relation to modern ideas - Sir Henry Sumner Maine

(1861) Memoir, Letters, and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville, 2 vols. 

(1862) Considerations on Representative Government - John Stuart Mill

* (published 1868) A Brief Enquiry into the True Nature and Character of our Federal Government - Judge Abel Upshur (highly recommended reading - Frog )

A critical review of Judge Story's Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. 

(1872) A Manual of American Ideas - DESIGNED For the Use of Schools, For the Instruction of Foreigners seeking Naturalization and For the Use of Voters

(1875) History of the United States of America: - George Bancroft

History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent

covers America in depth up to 1789.

(1883) Social Statics - Herbert Spencer

(1885) Popular Government - Sir Henry Sumner Maine

(1888) The American Commonwealth, 2 vols. - James Bryce

(1889) The Old South Leaflets Seventh Series

The Old South Lectures for Young People were instituted in the summer of 1883, as a means of promoting a more serious and intelligent attention to historical studies, especially studies in American history, among the young people of Boston.

(1890) The Unwritten Constitution of the United States- Christopher Tiedeman

(1890) Life of the Hon. Thomas McKean - Roberdeau Buchanan

(1891) The Theory of the Social Compact and its Influence upon the American Revolution

(published 1891) A Fragment on Government - Jeremy Bentham (first published in 1776)

(1892) Essays on the Constitution of the United States, published during its discussion by the people 1787-1788 - Paul L. Ford

(1894) Sources of the Constitution of the United States - C. Ellis Stevens

(published 1903) The Complete ANAS of Thomas Jefferson

(1905) The John P. Branch historical papers of Randolph-Macon College-           Collected works of Judge S. Roane

(1908) The Mystery of the Pinckney Draught

(1963) Burke, Paine, and the Rights of Man - R.R. Fennessy

(1981) 5000 YEAR LEAP - AUDIO VERSION