[Born to Conserve]

No reason to not go directly to the original sources.

The Articles of Confederation
The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution

Anything about William Penn

Anything about The Scottish Enlightenment

There are tons of OLD sources.

[fuzzthatwuz]

Just one of a “ton of old sources”: DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, Alexis de Tocqueville. Your recommendations are spot on.

[zeugma]

Might I also mention that any source that doesn’t give due credit to John Locke isn’t worth wasting time with.