for North Carolina,

....

.....

.; for Delaware, for Virginia,

....

;

for New

;

for

;

......

; for South Carolina, .; for Georgia, ... ; and the Legislature shall hereinafter regulate the number of Delegates by the number of inhabitants, according to the provisions hereinafter made, at the rate of one for every ........ thousand. All money bills of every kind shall originate in the House of Delegates; and shall not be altered by the Senate. The House of Delegates shall exclusively possess the power of impeachment, and shall choose its own officers; and vacancies therein shall be supplied by the executive authority of the States in the representation from which they shall happen.

Connecticut; York;

......

453

from

from among from among

from

..... from among those of New from among those of New Jersey; from among those of Pennsylvania; from among those of Delaware; from among those of Maryland; among those of Virginia; those of North Carolina; those of South Carolina; and among those of Georgia. The Senators chosen from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, shall form one class; those from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, one class; and those from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, one class. The House of Delegates shall number these classes one, two, and three; and fix the times of their service by lot. The first class shall serve for years; the second for

Each State shall prescribe the time and manner of holding elections by the people for the House of Delegates; and the House of Delegates shall be the judges of the elections, returns, and qualifications of their members.

In each House a majority shall constitute a quorum to do business. Freedom of speech and debate in the Legislature shall not be impeached, or questioned, in any place out of it; and the members of both Houses shall in all cases, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be free from arrest during their attendance on Congress, and in going to and returning from it. Houses shall keep Journals of their proceedings, and publish them, except on secret occasions; and the Yeas and Nays may be entered thereon at the desire of one of the members present. Neither House, without the consent of the other, shall adjourn for more than

........

........

to any place but where they are sitting.

Both

days, nor

The members of each House shall not be eligible to, or capable of holding any office under the Union, during the time for which they have been respectively elected; nor the members of the Senate

454

for one year after. The members of each House shall be paid for their services by the States which they represent. Every bill which shall have passed the Legislature shall be presented to the President of the United States for his revision; if he approves it, he shall sign it; but if he does not approve it, he shall return it, with his objections, to the House it originated in; which House, if two thirds of the members present, notwithstanding the President's objections, agree to pass it, shall send it to the other House, with the President's objections; where if two thirds of the members present also agree to pass it, the same shall become a law; and all bills sent to the President, and not returned by him within days, shall be laws, unless the Legislature, by their adjournment prevent their return; in which case they shall not be laws.

........

To provide such dockyards and arsenals, and erect such fortifications as may be necessary for the United States, and to exercise exclusive jurisdiction therein;

To appoint a Treasurer, by ballot;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To establish post and military roads;

To establish and provide for a national university at the seat of government of the United States;

To establish uniform rules of naturalization; To provide for the establishment of a seat of government for the United States, not exceeding miles square, in which they shall have

exclusive jurisdiction;

To make rules concerning captures from an enemy;

To declare the law and punishment of piracies

and felonies at sea, and of counterfeiting coin, and of all offences against the laws of nations; To call forth the aid of the militia to execute the laws of the Union, enforce treaties, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions;

And to make all laws for carrying the foregoing powers into execution.

The Legislature of the United States shall have the power to declare the punishment of treason, which shall consist only in levying war against the United States, or any of them, or in adhering to their enemies. No person shall be convicted of treason but by the testimony of two witnesses.

The proportion of direct taxation shall be regulated by the whole number of inhabitants of every description; which number shall, within .... years after the first meeting of the Legislature, and within the term of every

........

year after, be taken in the manner to be prescribed by the Legislature.

No tax shall be laid on articles exported from the States; nor capitation tax but in proportion to the census before directed.

All laws regulating commerce shall require the assent of two thirds of the members present in each House. The United States shall not grant any title of nobility. The Legislature of the United States shall pass no law on the subject of religion; nor touching or abridging the liberty of the press; nor shall the privilege of writ of Habeas Corpus ever be suspended, except in case of rebellion or invasion.

All acts made by the Legislature of the United States, pursuant to this Constitution, and all treaties made under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and all judges shall be bound to consider them as such in their decisions.

years; and shall be re-eligible. He shall from time to time give information to the Legislature of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration the measures he may think necessary. He shall take care that the laws of the United States be duly executed. He shall commission all the officers of the United States; and, except as to ambassadors, other ministers, and judges of the Supreme Court, he shall nominate, and with the consent of the Senate, appoint, all other officers of the United States. He shall receive public ministers from foreign nations; and may correspond with the Executives of the different States. He shall have power to grant pardons and reprieves, except in impeachments. He shall be Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States; and shall receive a compensation which shall not be increased or diminished during his continuance in office. At entering on the duties of his office, he shall take an oath faithfully to execute the duties of a President of the United States. He shall be removed from his office on impeachment by the House of Delegates, and conviction in the Supreme Court of treason, bribery or corruption. In case of his removal, death, resignation or disability, the President of the Senate shall exercise the duties of his office until another President be chosen. And in case of the death of the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Delegates shall do so.

ARTICLE IX.

The Legislature of the United States shall have the power, and it shall be their duty, to establish such courts of law, equity, and admiralty, as shall be necessary.

The judges of the courts shall hold their offices during good behaviour; and receive a compensation, which shall not be increased or diminished during their continuance in office. One of these courts shall be termed the Supreme Court; whose jurisdiction shall extend to all cases arising under the laws of the United States, or affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to the trial of impeachment of officers of the United States; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. In cases of impeachment affecting ambassadors and other public ministers, this jurisdiction shall be original; and in all other cases appellate.

All criminal offences, except in cases of im. peachment, shall be tried in the State where they shall be committed. The trials shall be open and public, and shall be by jury.

ARTICLE X.

455

No State shall grant letters of marque and reprisal, or enter into a treaty, or alliance, or confederation; nor grant any title of nobility; nor without the consent of the Legislature of the United States, lay any impost on imports; nor keep troops or ships of war in time of peace; nor enter into compacts with other States or foreign powers; nor emit bills of credit; nor make anything but gold, silver, or copper, a tender in payment of debts; nor engage in war except for selfdefence when actually invaded, or the danger of invasion be so great as not to admit of a delay until the Government of the United States can be informed thereof. And to render their prohibitions effectual, the Legislature of the United States shall have power to revise the laws of the several States that may be supposed to infringe the powers exclusively delegated by this Constitution to Congress, and to negative and annul such as do.

456

ARTICLE XVI.

If two thirds of the Legislature of the States apply for the same, the Legislature of the United States shall call a convention for the purpose of amending the Constitution or, should Congress, with the consent of two thirds of each House, propose to the States amendments to the same, agreement of two thirds of the Legislatures of the States shall be sufficient to make the said amendments parts of the Constitution.

The ratification of the ......

conventions of States shall be sufficient for organizing

this Constitution. Ordered that the said draft be referred to the Committee of the Whole appointed to consider the state of the American Union.

The Virginia plan was referred to the committee of the whole and debated and amended with great care during the next two weeks.* On May 30 discussion began, when Randolph moved that "A national government ought to be established consisting of supreme legislative, executive, and judiciary." C. C. Pinckney said that this was beyond the power of the Convention, as they were supposed only to revise the existing Articles of Confederation.‡ The premacy of the Federal government was then questioned, but Madison said that a National government ought to be established and not a "federal one

su

among sovereign states." It was decided that the States should give way to the Federal government when their powers conflicted, six States (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia,

Bancroft, vol. vi., pp. 215-230.

Hunt's ed. of Madison's Writings, vol. iii.,

p. 37.

Hunt, Madison's Journal, vol. i., p. 33.

|| Gilpin, Madison Papers, vol. ii., p. 752.

North Carolina and South Carolina) voting in favor of this, while Connecticut voted against and New York was divided.*

The New Jersey delegation was seated the next day (May 31) and then the third resolution, that the national legislature should consist of two branches, was passed, Pennsylvania alone dissenting, probably because of complaisance to Franklin's known partiality to a single house.† The fourth resolution, regarding the popular election of representatives, provoked an animated discussionElbridge Gerry, Roger Sherman, Martin, Rutledge and the two Pinckneys speaking against it, and George Mason, Madison, Hamilton, Wilson, and Dickinson in favor. Gerry said: "The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue but are the dupes of pretended patriots," but Wilson said, Without the confidence of the people no government, least of all a republican government, can long subsist. The election of the first branch by the people is not the corner-stone only but the foundation of the fabric," while Hamilton added the weight of his influence by saying: "It is essential to the democratic

rights of the community that the first branch be directly elected by the

* Hunt, Madison's Journal, vol. i., p. 36; MeLaughlin, The Confederation and the Constitution, pp. 195-196; Curtis, Constitutional History, vol. i., p. 333, note. p. 39.

Hunt, Madison's Journal, vol. i.,

457

people." Mason argued that the larger branch "ought to know and sympathize with every part of the community; and ought therefore to be taken not only from different parts of the whole republic but also from different districts of the larger members of it."* Sounder

question

opinion prevailing, the resolution was finally passed by the vote of six States (Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia) to two (New Jersey and South Carolina), with Connecticut and Delaware divided.† The following three three days were spent in discussing the question as to whether there should be a single executive or more than one; some of the delegates advocating three. Rutledge, Sherman, and Wilson argued in favor of a single executive, Randolph urged that "the great requisites for the executive department - vigor, dispatch and responsibility"

would be
be found

better in three men than in one, while Gerry favored an executive council "in order to give weight and inspire confidence." But by a vote of seven States to three a single executive was decided upon.

On June 2 it was
On June 2 it was

Fiske, Critical Period, pp. 242-243; Hunt, Madison's Journal, vol. i., pp. 40-42.

† McMaster, vol. i., pp. 440-441; Curtis, Constitutional History, vol. i., p. 336, note; Hunt, Madison's Journal, vol. i., p. 42.

Hunt, Madison's Journal, vol. i., pp. 49-52, 62, 66 et seq.; Fiske, Critical Period, pp. 277–278. New York, Delaware and Maryland voted no. Curtis, Constitutional History, vol. i., p. 351; Hunt, Madison's Journal, p. 69.

decided that the executive should be chosen by the National legislature for a term of seven years, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia voting in the affirmative, while Pennsylvania and Maryland voted in the negative."

On May 31 a resolution was adopted bestowing on the National legislature the right to negative such laws as might in its opinion contravene the Articles of Union or any treaties subsisting under the authority of the Union.† This was decided by a vote of nine States (Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia), Connecticut being divided. So rapidly did the work of the Convention go forward that by June 5 a large portion of the Virginia plan had been adopted in committee. On the following day the manner of choosing the members of the first branch of the legislature again came up for discussion. Charles Pinckney declared in favor of election by the State legislature, but this was negatived by a vote of eight States (Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia) against three (Connecticut, New Jersey and