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.
_Section_ 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in 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 convention 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.--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.
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.
The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of
the several state legislatures, and all executive and 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,
GEO WASHINGTON--_Presidt and deputy from Virginia_.
_New Hampshire_--John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman.
_Massachusetts_--Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King.
_Connecticut_--Wm. Saml. Johnson, Roger Sherman.
_New York_--Alexander Hamilton.
_New Jersey_--Wil: Livingston, David Brearley, Wm. Paterson.
Jona. Dayton.
_Pennsylvania_--B. Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robt. Morris,
Geo: Clymer, Tho: Fitzsimons, Jared Ingersoll,
James Wilson, Gouv: Morris.
_Delaware_--Geo: Read, Gunning Bedford, Jun'r, John
Dickinson, Richard Bassett, Jaco: Broom
_Maryland_--James M'Henry, Dan: of St. Thos. Jenifer, Danl.
Carroll.
_Virginia_--John Blair, James Madison, Jr.
_North Carolina_--Wm Blount, Rich'd Dobbs Spaight, Ho.
Williamson.
_South Carolina_--J. Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney,
Charles Pinckney, Pierce Butler
_Georgia_--William Few, Abr. Baldwin.
Attest: WILLIAM JACKSON, _Secretary_.
ARTICLES
IN ADDITION TO, AND AMENDMENT OF,
The Constitution of the United States of America,
PROPOSED BY CONGRESS, AND RATIFIED BY THE LEGISLATURES OF THE
SEVERAL STATES, PURSUANT TO THE FIFTH ARTICLE OF THE ORIGINAL
CONSTITUTION.
(_Article_ 1.) 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.
(_Article_ 2.) 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.
(_Article_ 3.) 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.
(_Article_ 4.) 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.
(_Article_ 5.) 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 a 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.
(_Article_ 6.) 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 favour, and to have the assistance of
counsel for his defence.
(_Article_ 7.) In suits at 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 re-examined
in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the
common law.
(_Article_ 8.) Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive
fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
(_Article_ 9.) The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights,
shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the
people.
(_Article_ 10.) 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.
_Article_ 11. 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.
_Article_ 12. 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 the government of the United States, directed to
the President of the Senate;--The President of the Senate shall, in
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 the President, if
such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed;
and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the
highest numbers 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. 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. But no person constitutionally
ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of
Vice-President of the United States.
_The following is prefixed to the first Ten[89] of the preceding
Amendments._
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,
Begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday, the fourth of
March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.
The Conventions of a number of the states, having at the time of their
adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent
misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and
restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of
public confidence in the government, will best insure the beneficent
ends of its institution;
_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 Articles be proposed to the
legislatures of the several states, as amendments to the Constitution
of the United States, all, or any of which articles, when ratified by
three-fourths of the said legislatures, to be valid to all intents and
purposes, as part of the said Constitution, viz.
Articles in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the
United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the
Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth article of
the original Constitution.
The first ten amendments of the Constitution were ratified by the
states as follows, viz:
By New Jersey, 20th November, 1789.
By Maryland, 19th December, 1789.
By North Carolina, 22d December, 1789.
By South Carolina, 19th January, 1790.
By New Hampshire, 25th January, 1790.
By Delaware, 28th January, 1790.
By Pennsylvania, 10th March, 1790.
By New York, 27th March, 1790.
By Rhode Island, 15th June, 1790.
By Vermont, 3 November, 1791.
By Virginia, 15 December, 1791.
* * * * *
_The following is prefixed to the Eleventh of the preceding
Amendments:_
THIRD CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
At the First Session, begun and held at the City of Philadelphia, in
the State of Pennsylvania, on Monday the second of December, one
thousand seven hundred and ninety-three.
_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 the said
legislatures, shall be valid as part of the said Constitution, viz:
* * * * *
_The following is prefixed to the Twelfth of the preceding
Amendments:_
EIGHTH CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
At the First Session, begun and held at the City of Washington, in
the Territory of Columbia, on Monday the seventeenth of October,
one thousand eight hundred and three.
_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America, in Congress assembled_, two-thirds of both Houses
concurring, That in lieu of the third paragraph of the first section
of the second article of the Constitution of the United States, the
following be proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of the
legislatures of the several states, shall be valid to all intents and
purposes, as part of the said Constitution, to wit:
* * * * *
The ten first of the preceding amendments were proposed at the first
session of the first Congress of the United States, 25 September,
1789, and were finally ratified by the constitutional number of
states, on the 15th day of December, 1791. The eleventh amendment was
proposed at the first session of the third Congress, 5 March, 1794,
and was declared in a message from the President of the United States
to both houses of Congress, dated 8th January, 1798, to have been
adopted by the constitutional number of states. The twelfth amendment
was proposed at the first session of the eighth Congress, 12 December,
1603, and was adopted by the constitutional number of states in 1804,
according to a public notice thereof by the Secretary of State, dated
25th September, of the same year.
* * * * *
⁂ _The foregoing copy of the Constitution, Amendments, &c., is printed
from an edition which "has been critically compared with the original,
and found to be correct in text, letter and punctuation;" and is so
certified by James Buchanan, Secretary of State._
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTE:
[89] Only ten of the twelve Articles of Amendment proposed by the first
Congress, were ratified by the states; the first and second in order not
being approved by the requisite number. These two were the following:
_Article the First._ After the first enumeration required by the first
Article of the Constitution, there shall be one representative for
every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred,
after which, the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that
there shall not be less than one hundred representatives, nor less
than one representative for every forty thousand persons, until the
number of representatives shall amount to two hundred, after which the
proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be
less than two hundred representatives, nor more than one
representative for every fifty thousand persons.
_Article Second._ No law, varying the compensation for the services of
the senators and representatives, shall take effect, until an election
of representatives shall have intervened.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
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 to 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 unalienable 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; and that, whenever
any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new
government, laying its foundations 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 the colonies, and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems 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 operations 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 repository 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 rights 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 dangers of
invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that
purpose obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners, refusing
to pass others to encourage their migration thither, 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 time 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 benefit of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free system of English laws 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 governments:
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, burnt 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 repeated 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 attentions to our British brethren. We
have warned them, from time to time, of the attempts, 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 of 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 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.
JOHN HANCOCK.
_New Hampshire._
JOSIAH BARTLETT,
WILLIAM WHIPPLE,
MATTHEW THORNTON.
_Massachusetts Bay._
SAMUEL ADAMS,
JOHN ADAMS,
ROBERT TREAT PAINE,
ELBRIDGE GERRY.
_Rhode Island._
STEPHEN HOPKINS,
WILLIAM ELLERY.
_Connecticut._
ROGER SHERMAN,
SAMUEL HUNTINGTON,
WILLIAM WILLIAMS,
OLIVER WOLCOTT.
_New York._
WILLIAM FLOYD,
PHILIP LIVINGSTON,
FRANCIS LEWIS,
LEWIS MORRIS.
_New Jersey._
RICHARD STOCKTON,
JOHN WITHERSPOON,
FRANCIS HOPKINSON,
JOHN HART,
ABRAHAM CLARK.
_Pennsylvania._
ROBERT MORRIS,
BENJAMIN RUSH,
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
JOHN MORTON,
GEORGE CLYMER,
JAMES SMITH,
GEORGE TAYLOR,
JAMES WILSON,
GEORGE ROSS.
_Delaware._
CÆSAR RODNEY,
GEORGE READ,
THOMAS M'KEAN.
_Maryland._
SAMUEL CHASE,
WILLIAM PACA,
THOMAS STONE,
CHARLES CARROLL, of Carrollton.
_Virginia._
GEORGE WYTHE,
RICHARD HENRY LEE,
THOMAS JEFFERSON,
BENJAMIN HARRISON,
THOMAS NELSON, JR.,
FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE,
CARTER BRAXTON.
_North Carolina._
WILLIAM HOOPER,
JOSEPH HEWES,
JOHN PENN.
_South Carolina._
EDWARD RUTLEDGE,
THOMAS HEYWARD, JR.,
THOMAS LYNCH, JR.,
ARTHUR MIDDLETON.
_Georgia._