thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military operations, as in their judgment require secresy; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each State on any question, shall be entered on the journal when it is desired by any delegate; and the delegates of a State or any of them, at his or their request, shall be furnished with a transcript of the said journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the Legislatures of the several States.

ARTICLE 10. The committee of the States, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States, in Congress assembled, by the consent of nine States, shall from time to time think expedient to vest them with; provided that no power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise of which, by the articles of confederation, the voice of nine States, in the Congress of the United States assembled, is requisite.

ARTICLE 11. Canada, acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to, all the advantages of this union; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States..

ARTICLE 12. All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, and debts contracted, by or under the authority of Congress, before the assembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged.

ARTICLE 13. Every State shall abide by the decision of the United States, in Congress assembled, on all questions which, by this confederation, are submitted to them. And the articles of this confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterward confirmed by the Legislature of every State.

Congress directed these Articles to be submitted to the Legislatures of the several States, and, if approved of by them, they were advised to authorize their delegates to ratify the same in Congress, by affixing their names thereto.

Notwithstanding there was a general feeling that something must be speedily done, the State Legislatures were slow to adopt the articles. In the first place, they did not seem to accord with the prevailing sentiments of the people, as set forth in the Declaration of Independence; and in many things that Declaration and the Articles of Confederation were manifestly at variance. The former was based upon declared right; the foundation of the latter was asserted power. The former was based upon a superintending Providence, and the inalienable rights of man; the latter resting upon the "sovereignty of declared power; one ascending from the foundation of human government, to the laws of nature and of nature's God, written upon the heart of man; the other resting upon the basis of human institutions, and prescriptive law, and colonial charters."1 Again, the system of representation proposed was highly objectionable, because

1 John Quincy Adams's Jubilee Discourse, 1839.

each State was entitled to the same voice in Congress, whatever might be the difference in population. But the most objectionable feature of all was, that the limits of the several States, and also in whom was vested the control or possession of the crown-lands, was not only unadjusted, but wholly unnoticed. These and other defects caused most of the States to hesitate, at first, to adopt the Articles, and several of them for a long time utterly refused to accept them.

On the 22d of June, 1778, Congress proceeded to consider the objections of the States to the Articles of Confederation, and on the 27th of the same month, a form of ratification was adopted and ordered to be engrossed upon parchment, with a view that the same should be signed by such delegates as were instructed so to do by their respective Legislatures.

On the 9th of July, the delegates of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina signed the Articles. The delegates from New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland were not yet empowered to ratify and sign. Georgia and North Carolina were not represented, and the ratification of New York was conditioned that all the other States should ratify. The delegates from North Carolina signed the articles on the 21st of July; those of Georgia on the 24th of the same month;, those of New Jersey, on the 26th of November; and those of Delaware, on the 22d of February and fifth of May, 1779. Maryland still firmly refused to ratify, until the question of the conflicting claims of the Union and of the separate States to the crown-lands should be fully adjusted. This point was finally settled by cessions of claiming States to the United States, of all unsettled and unappropriated lands for the benefit of the whole Union. This cession of the crown-lands to the Union originated the Territorial System, and the erection of the North-western Territory into a distinct government, similar to the existing States, having a local Legislature of its own. The insuperable objection of Maryland having been removed by the settlement of this question, her delegates signed the Articles of Confederation on the 1st day of March, 1781, four years and four months after they were adopted by Congress.' By this act of Maryland, they became the organic law of the Union, and on the 2d of March Congress assembled under the new powers.

1 The following are the names of the delegates from the several States appended to the Articles of Confederation:

New Hampshire, Josiah Bartlett, John Wentworth, Jr.

Massachusetts Bay, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Francis Dana, James Lovell, Samuel Holten.

Rhode Island, William Ellery, Henry Marchant, John Collins.

Connecticut, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, Oliver Wolcott, Titus Hosmer, Andrew Adams. New York, James Duane, Francis Lewis, William Duer, Gouverneur Morris.

New Jersey, John Witherspoon, Nathaniel Scudder.

Pennsylvania, Robert Morris, Daniel Roberdeau, Jonathan Bayard Smith, William Clingan, Joseph Reed.

Delaware, Thomas M'Kean, John Dickenson, Nicholas Van Dyke.

Maryland, John Hanson, Daniel Carroll.

Virginia, Richard Henry Lee, John Banister, Thomas Adams, John Harvie, Francis Lightfoot Lee. North Carolina, John Penn, Cornelius Harnett, John Williams.

South Carolina, Henry Laurens, William Henry Drayton, Jonathan Matthews, Richard Hutson, Thomas Heyward, Jr.

Georgia, John Walton, Edward Telfair, Edward Langworthy.

Objects.

Jesepwttery

WE the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, 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.

Legislative Powers.

1

SECTION 1. 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.

! In 1853, the writer made a very careful copy of the Constitution of the United States, from the original in the State Department at Washington city, together with the autographs of the members of the Convention who signed it. In orthography, capital letters, and punctuation, the copy here

atives.

SECTION 2. The House of Representatives shall be com- House of Representposed 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.

resentatives.

resentatives.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have Qualifications of Repattained to 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 that State in which he shall be chosen. Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned Apportionment of Repamong 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, and Georgia three.

3

given may be relied upon as correct, it having been subsequently carefully compared with a copy published by Mr. Hickey, in his useful little volume, entitled The Constitution of the United States of America, etc., and attested, on the 20th of July, 1846, by Nicholas P. Trist, chief clerk of the State Department. Most of the notes are from the National Calendar, a work published in 1828, by Peter Force, of Washington city, and carefully prepared by him. The most prominent American writers upon constitutional law, are the late Justice Story and Chancellor Kent. Joseph Story was born at Marblehead, Massachusetts, in September, 1779, and was educated at Harvard University. He studied law; and soon, on entering upon his practice, took a prominent position. He was a member of his State Legislature, and of the Federal Congress, and was chiefly instrumental in effecting the repeal of the Embargo Act [page 403]. He was only thirty-two years of age when President Madison made him an associate of the Supreme Court of the United States. From that time he discarded politics. In commercial and constitutional law he was peerless. His Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, published in three volumes, in 1833, will ever be a standard work. Judge Story died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in September, 1845, at the age of sixty-six years. His own words, applied to another, may be appropriately said of him: "Whatever subject he touched was touched with a master's hand and spirit. He employed his eloquence to adorn his learning, and his learning to give solid weight to his eloquence. He was always instructive and interesting, and rarely without producing an instantaneous conviction. A lofty ambition of excellence, that stirring spirit which breathes the breath of Heaven, and pants for immortality, sustained his genius in its perilous course."

1 The constitutional provision, that direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States, according to their respective numbers, to be ascertained by a census, was not intended to restrict the power of imposing direct taxes to States only. -—Loughborough vs. Blake, 5 Wheaton, 319. 2 Slaves. Every five slaves are accounted three persons, in making the apportionment.

3 See laws United States, vol. ii., chap. 124; iii., 261; iv., 332. Acts of 17th Congress, 1st session, chap. x.; and of the 22d and 27th Congress.

Vacancies how filled.

Speaker, how appointed.

Number of Senators from each State.

Classification of Senators.

Qualification of Senators.

Presiding officer of the
Senate.

Senate a court for

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeach

ment.

SECTION 3. 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.1

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 of 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.

No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to 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.

The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

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.

The Senate shall have full power to try all impeachments: trial of 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.

Judgment in case of conviction.

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.

1 Sec art. v., clause 1.