Question

type your response in the box. jacob is required to use primary sources for a research paper about the us constitution. he found a book containing photocopies of original handwritten letters by thomas jefferson. the following paragraph is taken from a letter that thomas jefferson wrote to james madison in 1787 about the us constitution. why would the book be considered a primary source? use evidence from the letter to support your answer. i will now add what i do not like. first the omission of a bill of rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction against monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land and not by the law of nations. to say, as mr. wilson does that a bill of rights was not necessary because all is reserved in the case of the general government for which is not given, while in the particular ones all is given which is not reserved, might do for the audience to whom it was addressed, but is surely a gratis dictum, opposed by strong inferences from the body of the instrument, as well as from the omission of the clause of our present confederation which had declared that in express terms. it was a hard conclusion to say because there has been no uniformity among the states as to the cases triable by jury, because some have been so incautious as to abandon this mode of trial, therefore the more prudent states shall be reduced to the same level of calamity. it would have been much more just & wise to have concluded the other way that as most of the states had judiciously preserved this palladium, those who had wandered should be brought back to it, and to have established general right instead of general wrong. let me add that a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth general or particular and what no

Explanation:

A primary source is an original document or object from the time period being studied. The photocopies of Thomas Jefferson's hand - written letters from 1787 about the US Constitution are original materials from that era. In the letter, Jefferson expresses his views on the omission of a bill of rights in the Constitution, providing firsthand insights into the thoughts of a key figure during the Constitution's formation.

Answer:

The book is considered a primary source because it contains photocopies of original hand - written letters by Thomas Jefferson from 1787 about the US Constitution, providing firsthand, original information from the time period of the Constitution's creation. The content of the letter, such as Jefferson's views on the bill of rights, is evidence of its primary - source nature.