Just as surely as the ideals embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are essential components of America's identity, the documents themselves are likewise irreplaceable treasures. Illustrated with 16 pages of photographs, Stephen Puleo's vividly written history follows the wandering paths of our premier artifacts and the concepts they contain, from the Declaration and Constitution being smuggled out of Washington in 1814, just days before the British burned the capital, to their covert relocation shortly after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. Here too is an account of Lincoln's defining speech and its mixed reception, and how his handwritten draft was nearly lost.