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[Illustration: Engd. by H.B. Hall, from the original Painting by
Stuart.]
KEY-NOTES
OF
AMERICAN LIBERTY;
COMPRISING
THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECHES, PROCLAMATIONS, AND
ACTS OF CONGRESS, FROM THE FOUNDATION
OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE
PRESENT TIME.
WITH A
HISTORY OF THE FLAG,
BY A DISTINGUISHED HISTORIAN.
Illustrated.
NEW YORK:
E.B. TREAT & CO.
654 BROADWAY.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: R.C. TREAT and C.W. LILLEY.
B.C. BAKER, DETROIT, MICH. L.C. BRAINARD, ST. LOUIS, MO.
A.O. BRIGGS, CLEVELAND, O. M. PITMAN & CO., BOSTON, MASS.
A.L. TALCOTT, PITTSBURG, PA.
ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
E.B. TREAT.
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.
MACDONALD & STONE, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS, 43 CENTRE STREET, N.Y.
PREFACE.
This book appeals to the patriotic sentiments of all classes of readers.
In its pages will be found those words of burning eloquence which
lighted the fires of the American Revolution, stirring the hearts of our
fathers to do battle for our independence; the words of wisdom which
brought our ship of state safely through the storms of strife into the
calms of peace, and all of the most important speeches and proclamations
of our statesmen which guided our country during critical periods of our
political life. It is a book of our country as a whole; all must read it
with emotions of gratitude and pride at the grandeur and stability of
our institutions as exemplified by the eloquent words of the statesmen
and leading spirits of the great Republic.
First in its pages, appropriately, will be found the "Declaration of
Independence," the great corner stone of American liberty; and as a
fitting close, one of our most distinguished historians has furnished a
"History of the Flag,"--the Flag of the Union, the sacred emblem around
which are clustered the memories of the thousands of heroes who have
struggled to sustain it untarnished against both foreign and domestic
foes. To the Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United
States, and Washington's Farewell Address--truly "Key Notes to American
Liberty"--have been added many important proclamations and congressional
acts of a later day, namely: President Jackson's famous Nullification
Proclamation to South Carolina, The Monroe Doctrine, Dred Scott
Decision, Neutrality laws, with numerous documents, state papers and
statistical matter growing out of the late Rebellion; all of which will
be read with new and ever increasing interest. And as long as our
Republic endures, these pages will be cherished as the representative of
all that is great and good in our country; and will prove incentives to
our children to follow in the footsteps of the patriots by whose genius
and valor our institutions have been cherished and preserved, and
liberty, like water made to run throughout the land free to all.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 9
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, 18
AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION, 39
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ABOLISHING SLAVERY, 44
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS OF THE XXXIXTH CONGRESS, 48
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787, 51
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1793, 52
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1850, 55
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE, 67
THE STATES OF THE UNION, WITH THE DATE OF THEIR
ADMISSION, 69
INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, 70
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS, 77
PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION TO SOUTH
CAROLINA, 105
MONROE DOCTRINE, 144
DRED SCOTT DECISION, 146
PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED
STATES, WITH THE POPULAR VOTE FOR EACH, 154
POPULAR NAMES OF STATES, 166
BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION, 167
NEUTRALITY LAW OF THE UNITED STATES, 168
POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 176
SLAVE POPULATION IN THE U.S. IN 1860, 177
STATISTICS OF SLAVERY BEFORE THE REVOLUTION, 178
SPEECH OF HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS,--HIS LAST
WORDS FOR THE UNION, 179
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S FIRST CALL FOR TROOPS, 186
TOTAL NUMBER OF TROOPS CALLED INTO SERVICE DURING
THE REBELLION, 188
RESOLUTIONS OF THE N.Y. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, 189
BLOCKADE PROCLAMATION, BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN, 194
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, 197
CONFISCATION ACT, 201
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN, 204
BALANCE SHEET OF THE GOVERNMENT, BEFORE AND SINCE
THE WAR, 1859 AND 1865, 221
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S SECOND AND LAST INAUGURAL
ADDRESS, 222
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY, 226
PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S AMNESTY PROCLAMATION, 232
PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S PEACE PROCLAMATION, 237
THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL, 239
FREEDMEN'S BUREAU BILL, 248
PROVOST MARSHAL-GENERAL'S REPORT, OF THE KILLED AND
WOUNDED DURING THE REBELLION, 261
THE UNITED STATES ARMY, SHOWING THE NUMBER OF MEN
FURNISHED FROM EACH STATE DURING THE REBELLION, 265
HISTORY OF THE FLAG, 266
Key-Notes of American Liberty.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
_By the Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled._
A DECLARATION.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal
station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a
decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident:--that all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among
men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that
whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is
the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a
new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind
are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But
when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism,
it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and
to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the
patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity
which constrains them to alter their former system of government. The
history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment
of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be
submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for
the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should
be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend
to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
representation in the legislature--a right inestimable to them, and
formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records,
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his
measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with
manly firmness, his invasions on the right of the people.
He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others
to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of
annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise;
the State remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the danger of
invasion from without and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that
purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing
to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the
conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent
to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their
offices and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of
officers, to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the
consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to
the civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to
our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to
their acts of pretended legislation,--
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders
which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free system of English law in a neighboring province,
establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its
boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for
introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and
altering fundamentally the forms of our government:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection,
and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and
destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries, to
complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun,
with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized
nation.
He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas,
to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their
friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to
bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages,
whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all
ages, sexes, and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in
the most humble terms; our petitions have been answered only by repeated
injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may
define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have
warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their legislature to
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of
the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured
them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations,
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We
must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our
separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in
war--in peace, friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in
General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world
for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the
authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and
declare that these United Colonies are, and of good right ought to be,
free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance
to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and
the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and
that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war,
conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all
other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for
the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection
of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
fortunes, and our sacred honor.
Signed by order and in behalf of the Congress.
JOHN HANCOCK, _President_.
Attested, CHARLES THOMPSON, _Secretary_.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. PENNSYLVANIA.
Josiah Bartlett, Robert Morris,
William Whipple, Benjamin Rush,
Matthew Thornton. Benjamin Franklin,
John Morton,
MASSACHUSETTS BAY. George Clymer,
James Smith,
Samuel Adams, George Taylor,
John Adams, James Wilson,
Robert Treat Paine, George Ross.
Eldridge Gerry.
DELAWARE.
RHODE ISLAND, ETC.
Caesar Rodney,
Stephen Hopkins, George Read,
William Ellery. Thomas M'Kean.
CONNECTICUT. MARYLAND.
Roger Sherman, Samuel Chase,
Samuel Huntington, William Paca,
William Williams, Thomas Stone,
Oliver Wolcott. Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
NEW YORK. VIRGINIA.
William Floyd, George Wythe,
Philip Livingston, Richard Henry Lee,
Francis Lewis, Thomas Jefferson,
Lewis Morris. Benjamin Harrison,
Thomas Nelson, jr.,
NEW JERSEY. Francis Lightfoot Lee,
Carter Braxton.
Richard Stockton,
John Witherspoon,
Francis Hopkinson,
John Hart,
Abraham Clark.
NORTH CAROLINA. Thomas Heyward, jr.,
Thomas Lynch, jr.,
William Hooper, Arthur Middleton.
Joseph Hewes,
John Penn. GEORGIA.
SOUTH CAROLINA. Button Gwinnett,
Lyman Hall,
Edward Rutledge, George Walton.
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity,
provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do
ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of
America.
ARTICLE I.
Sec. I.--All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a
Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House
of Representatives.
Sec. II.--1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members
chosen every second year by the people of the several States; and the
electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for
electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature.
2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained the
age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of the State
in which he shall be chosen.
3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the
several States which may be included within this Union, according to
their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the
whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a
term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all
other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years
after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within
every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law
direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every
thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one representative;
and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of _New Hampshire_
shall be entitled to choose three; _Massachusetts_, eight; _Rhode Island
and Providence Plantations_, one; _Connecticut_, five; _New York_, six;
_New Jersey_, four; _Pennsylvania_, eight; _Delaware_, one; _Maryland_,
six; _Virginia_, ten; _North Carolina_, five; _South Carolina_, five;
_Georgia_, three.
4. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State, the
executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such
vacancies.
5. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other
officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment.
Sec. III.--1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two
senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six
years; and each senator shall have one vote.
2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first
election, they shall be divided, as equally as may be, into three
classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated
at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the
expiration of the fourth year, and the third class at the expiration of
the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second year; and
if vacancies happen, by resignation or otherwise, during the recess of
the legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary
appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then
fill such vacancies.
3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained the age of
thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and
who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he
shall be chosen.
4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the
Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.
5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president
pro tempore in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall
exercise the office of President of the United States.
6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When
sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the
President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall
preside; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of
two-thirds of the members present.
7. Judgment, in cases of impeachment, shall not extend further than to
removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office
of honor, trust, or profit under the United States; but the party
convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment,
trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law.
Sec. IV.--1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for
Senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the
legislature thereof; but the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or
alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators.
2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year; and such
meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by
law appoint a different day.
Sec. V.--1. Each house shall be judge of the elections, returns, and
qualifications of its own members; and a majority of each shall
constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn
from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of
absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each house
may provide.
2. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its
members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of
two-thirds, expel a member.
3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to
time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment,
require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either house on
any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be
entered on the journal.
4. Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the
consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other
place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting.
Sec. VI.--1. The senators and representatives shall receive a compensation
for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the
treasury of the United States. They shall, in all cases except treason,
felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their
attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to or
returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either house
they shall not be questioned in any other place.
2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was
elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the
United States which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof
shall have been increased, during such time; and no person holding any
office under the United States shall be a member of either house during
his continuance in office.
Sec. VII.--1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of
Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments,
as on other bills.
2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and
the Senate shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President
of the United States; if he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he
shall return it with his objections, to that house in which it shall
have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their
journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration,
two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent,
together with the objections, to the other house; and if approved by
two-thirds of that house it shall become a law. But in all such cases
the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays; and the
name of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on
the journals of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be
returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it
shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like
manner as if he had signed it, unless Congress, by their adjournment,
prevent its return; in which case it shall not be a law.
3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the
Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a
question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the
United States, and before the same shall take effect shall be approved
by him, or, being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of
the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and
limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.
Sec. VIII.--The Congress shall have power--
1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; to pay the
debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the
United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform
throughout the United States:
2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States:
3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several
States, and with the Indian tribes:
4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on
the subject of bankruptcies, throughout the United States:
5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and
fix the standard of weights and measures:
6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and
current coin of the United States:
7. To establish post offices and post roads:
8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for
limited times, to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their
respective writings and discoveries:
9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court:
10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high
seas, and offences against the law of nations:
11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules
concerning captures on land and water:
12. To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to that
use shall be for a longer term than two years:
13. To provide and maintain a navy:
14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and
naval forces:
15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the
Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions:
16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and
for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the
United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of
the officers, and the authority of training the militia, according to
the discipline prescribed by Congress:
17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over
such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of
particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of
government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all
places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the State in
which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals,
dock yards, and other needful building: And,
18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying
into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this
Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any
department or officer thereof.
Sec. IX.--1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the
States, now existing, shall think proper to admit, shall not be
prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred
and eight; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not
exceeding ten dollars for each person.
2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended,
unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may
require it.
3. No bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, shall be passed.
4. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion
to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.
5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any States. No
preference shall be given, by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to
the ports of one State over those of another; nor shall vessels bound
to or from one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in
another.
6. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of
appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the
receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from
time to time.
7. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States; and no
person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without
the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office,
or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State.
Sec. X.--1. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or
confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit
bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in
payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or
impairing the obligation of contracts; or grant any title of nobility.
2. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any imposts or
duties on imports or exports, except what maybe absolutely necessary for
executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties and
imposts laid by any State on imports or exports shall be for the use of
the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject
to the revision and control of the Congress. No State shall, without the
consent of Congress, lay any duty on tonnage, keep troops or ships of
war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another
State or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually
invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.
ARTICLE II.
Sec. I.--1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the
United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of
four years, and, together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same
term, be elected as follows:
2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof
may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators
and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress;
but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust
or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.
3. [Annulled. See Amendments, Art. 12.]
4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the
day on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same
throughout the United States.
5. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United
States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be
eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be
eligible to that office who shall not have attained the age of
thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United
States.
6. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death,
resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of said
office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President; and the Congress
may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or
inability both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what
officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act
accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be
elected.
7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a
compensation which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the
period for which he shall have been elected; and he shall not receive,
within that period, any other emolument from the United States, or any
of them.
8. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the
following oath or affirmation:--
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the
office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my
ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United
States."
Sec. II.--1. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy
of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when
called into the actual service of the United States: he may require the
opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive
departments upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective
offices; and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for
offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present
concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of
the Senate shall appoint, ambassadors, other public ministers, and
consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the
United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for,
and which shall be established by law. But the Congress may, by law,
vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in
the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of
departments.
3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may
happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which
shall expire at the end of the next session.
Sec. III.--He shall, from time to time, give to the Congress information of
the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such
measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on
extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and in
case of disagreement between them with respect to the time of
adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper;
he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take
care that the laws are faithfully executed; and shall commission all the
officers of the United States.
Sec. IV.--The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the
United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and
conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
ARTICLE III.
Sec. I.--The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one
Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may, from
time to time, ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and
inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and
shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation which
shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.
Sec.II.--1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity
arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and
treaties made, or which shall be made under their authority; to all
cases affecting ambassadors, and other public ministers, and consuls; to
all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to
which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two
or more States; between a State and citizens of another State; between
citizens of different States; between citizens of the same State,
claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State, or
the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens, or subjects.
2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and
consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court
shall have original jurisdiction. In all other cases before mentioned,
the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and
fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations, as the Congress
shall make.
3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by
jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where such crimes shall
have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the trial
shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have
directed.
Sec. III.--1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in
levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them
aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the
testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or confessions in open
court.
2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason;
but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or
forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted.
ARTICLE IV.
Sec. I.--Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public
acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the
Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts,
records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.
Sec. II.--1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges
and immunities of citizens in the several States.
2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime,
who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on
demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be
delivered up to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the
crime.
3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall
be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may
be due.
Sec. III.--1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union;
but no new State shall shall be formed or erected within the
jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the junction
of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the
legislature of the States concerned, as well as of the Congress.
2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful
rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property
belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall
be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of
any particular State.
Sec. IV.--The United States shall guaranty to every State of this Union a
republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against
invasion, and, on application of the legislature, or of the executive,
(when the legislature cannot be convened,) against domestic violence.
ARTICLE V.
The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the
application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States,
shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case,
shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this
Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the
several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one
or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress;
provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one
thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first
and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that
no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage
in the Senate.
ARTICLE VI.
1. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the
adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United
States under this Constitution as under the confederation.
2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be
made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law
of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby; any
thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary
notwithstanding.
3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of
the several State legislatures, and all executive and all judicial
officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be
bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no
religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office
or public trust under the United States.
ARTICLE VII.
The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient
for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so
ratifying the same.
Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present,
the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one
thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of
the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof, we
have hereunto subscribed our names.
GEORGE WASHINGTON,
_President, and Deputy from Virginia._
NEW HAMPSHIRE. DELAWARE.
John Langdon, George Read,
Nicholas Gilman. Gunning Bedford, jr.,
John Dickinson,
MASSACHUSETTS. Richard Bassett,
Jacob Broom.
Nathaniel Gorham,
Rufus King. MARYLAND.
James McHenry,
CONNECTICUT. Daniel of St. Tho. Jenifer,
Daniel Carroll.
Wm. Samuel Johnson,
Roger Sherman. VIRGINIA.
NEW YORK. John Blair,
James Madison, jr.
Alexander Hamilton.
NORTH CAROLINA.
NEW JERSEY.
William Blount,
William Livingston, Rich. Dobbs Spaight,
David Brearley, Hugh Williamson.
William Patterson,
Jonathan Dayton. SOUTH CAROLINA.
PENNSYLVANIA. John Rutledge,
Benjamin Franklin, Charles C. Pinckney,
Thomas Mifflin, Charles Pinckney,
Robert Morris, Pierce Butler.
George Clymer,
Thomas Fitzsimons, GEORGIA.
Jared Ingersoll,
James Wilson, William Few,
Gouverneur Morris. Abraham Baldwin.
Attest, WILLIAM JACKSON, _Secretary_.
AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.
ART. I.--Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
ART. II.--A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a
free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be
infringed.
ART. III.--No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to
be prescribed by law.
ART. IV.--The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall
not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause,
supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place
to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
ART. V.--No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury,
except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia
when in actual service, in time of war or public danger; nor shall any
person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of
life or limb; nor shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be
witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for
public use without just compensation.
ART. VI.--In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the
right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and
district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district
shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the
nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses
against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his
favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.
ART. VII.--In suits of common law, where the value in controversy shall
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved;
and no fact, tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court
of the United States than according to the rules of the common law.
ART. VIII.--Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines
imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
ART. IX.--The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall
not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
ART. X.--The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
States respectively, or to the people.
ART. XI.--The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed
to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against
one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or
subjects of any foreign State.
ART. XII.--The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote
by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall
not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name
in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct
ballots the person voted for as Vice-President; and they shall make
distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all
persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for
each; which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, to
the seat of government of the United States, directed to the president
of the Senate. The president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the
Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the
votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of
votes for President shall be President, if such number be a majority of
the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such a
majority, then from the persons having the highest number, not exceeding
three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of
Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But,
in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the
representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this
purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the
States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice.
And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President,
whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth
day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as
President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional
disability of the President.
2. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President
shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole
number of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then
from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose the
Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of
the whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole number shall
be necessary to a choice.
3. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President
shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
ARTICLE V. of the Constitution of the United States clearly and
distinctly sets forth the mode and manner in which that instrument may
be amended, as follows:
"The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the
application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States,
shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which in either case
shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this
Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the
several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one
or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress."
In accordance with this article of the Constitution, the following
resolution was proposed in the Senate, on February 1, 1864, adopted
April 8, 1864, by a vote of 38 to 6, and was proposed in the House June
15, 1864, adopted Jan. 31, 1865, by a vote of 119 to 56:
_Resolved_, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America, in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses
concurring, that the following article be proposed to the Legislatures,
of the several States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the United
States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures,
shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as a part of the said
Constitution, namely:
Art. XIII. 1st. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction.
The amendment was now sent by the Secretary of State to the Governors of
the several States for ratification by the Legislatures; a majority vote
in three-fourths being required to make it a law of the land.
On Dec. 18, 1865, Secretary Seward officially announced to the country
the ratification of the Amendment as follows:
_To all to whom these presents may come, Greeting:_
_Know ye_, That, whereas the Congress of the United States, on the 1st
of February last, passed a resolution, which is in the words following,
namely:
"A resolution submitting to the Legislatures of the several States a
proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States."