8. No perfon shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a prefentment or indictment by a grand jury, except in cafes arifing in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual fervice, in time of war, or public danger: nor fhall any person be subject for the fame offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor fhall be compelled in any criminal cafe, to be a witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due procefs of law: nor fhall private property be taken for public use, without just compenfation. 9. In all criminal profecutions, the accufed fhall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury, of the state and district, wherein the crime fhall have been committed; which district shall have been previously ascertained by law; and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accufation; to be confronted with the witneffes against him; to have compulsory procefs for obtaining witneffes in his favor; and to have the affistance of counsel for his defence. 10. In fuits at common law, where the value in controverfy fhall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury fhall be preserved: and no fact tried by jury, fhall be otherwife re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of common law. Exceffive bail fhall not be required; nor exceffive fines imposed; nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 11. The enumeration, in the conftitution, of certain rights, fhall not be construed to deny or difparage others, retained by the people. The powers, not delegated to the United States, by the conftitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. Atteft. FREDERICK A. MUHLENBERG, fpeaker of the house of reprefentatives. JOHN ADAMS, vice-prefident of the United States, and prefident of the fenate. JOHN BECKLEY, clerk of the house of representatives. EIGHTH CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, At the first feffion, begun and held at the city of Washington, in the territory of Columbia, on Monday, the feventeenth of October, one thoufand eight hundred and three. 1. (1803.) RESOLVED by the fenate and house of reprefentatives of the United States of America in Congress affembled, two thirds of both houfes concurring, That in lieu of the third paragraph of the first section of the second ar ticle of the conftitution of the United States, the following be proposed as an amendment to the conftitution of the United States, which when ratified by three fourths of the legiflatures of the feveral ftates, fhall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the faid conftitution, to wit: 2. The electors fhall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for prefident and vice-prefident, one of whom, at least, fhall not be an inhabitant of the fame ftate with themselves; they fhall name in their ballots the person voted for as prefident, and in diftinct ballots the perfon voted for as vice-prefident; .3. And they fhall make diftinct lifts of all perfons voted for as prefident, and of all perfons voted for as vice-prefident, and of the number of votes for each, which lifts they fhall fign and certify, and tranfmit fealed to the feat of government of the United States, directed to the prefident of the fenate; 4. The prefident of the fenate fhall, in the presence of the senate and house of reprefentatives, open all the certificates, and the votes fhall then be counted; 5. The perfon having the greatest number of votes for prefident, fhall be the prefident, if fuch number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have fuch majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the lift of those voted for as prefident, the house of reprefentatives fhall choose immediately, by ballot, the prefident. But in choofing the prefident, the votes fhall be taken by states, the reprefentation from each ftate having one vote; a quorum for this purpofe fhall confift of a member or members from two thirds of the ftates, and a majority of all the states thall be neceffary to a choice. 7. And if the houfe of reprefentatives fhall not choose a prefident, whenever the right of choice fhall devolve on them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the vice-prefident fhall act as prefident, as in the cafe of the death or other conftitutional difability of the prefident. 8. The perfon having the greatest number of votes as vice-prefident, fhall be the vice-prefident, if fuch number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no perfon have a majority, then from the two higheft numbers on the lift, the fenate shall choose the vice-prefident a quorum for the purpose shall confift of two-thirds of the whole number of fenators, and a majority of the whole number fhall be neceffary to a choice. 9. But no perfon conftitutionally inelligible to the office of prefident fhall be eligible to that of vice-prefident of the United States. Atteft. JOHN BECKLEY, clerk to the houfe of reprefentatives of the United States. SAMUEL A. OTIS, fecretary to the fenate of the United States. PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S INAUGURAL SPEECH.. 1. FELLOW citizens of the fenate and of the house of reprefentatives-Among the viciffitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was tranfmitted by your order, and received on the fourteenth day of the prefent month. 2. On the one hand, I was fummoned by my country, whofe voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chofen with the fondeft predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decifion, as the afylum of my declining years: 3. A retreat which was rendered every day more neceffary as well as more dear to me, by the addition of hab it to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. 4. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being fufficient to awaken in the wifest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful fcrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with defpondence one who, inheriting inferior endowments from nature, and unpractifed in the duties of civil adminiftration, ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies: 5. In this conflict of emotions, all I dare aver is, that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a juft appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be effected. 6. All I dare hope is, that, if in accepting this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former inftances, or by an affectionate fenfibility to this tranfcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens; and have thence too little confulted my incapacity, as well as difinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me; 7. My ERROR will be palliated by the motives which mifled me, and its confequences be judged by my country with fome fhare of the partiality in which they originated. 8. Such being the impreffions under which I have, in obedience to the public fummons, repaired to the prefent station; it will be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent fupplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe; who prefides in the couneils of nations; and whofe providential aids can fupply ev ery human defect, that his benediction may confecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States, a government inftituted by themselves for thefe effential purpofes; and may enable every inftrument employed in its administration, to execute with fuccefs, the functions allotted to his charge. 9. In tendering this homage to the great Author of every public and private good, I affure myself that it expreffes your fentiments not less than my own; nor those of my fellow-citizens at large, less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invifible hand which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States. 10, Every ftep by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been diftinguished by fome token of providential agency; .. 11. And in the important revolution juft accomplished in the fyftem of their united government, the tranquil de liberations and voluntary confent of fo many diftinct communities, from which the event has refulted, cannot be compared with the means by which most governments have been established, without fome return of pious gratitude along with an humble anticipation of the future bleflings which the past feem to prefage. 12. These reflections, arifing out of the prefent crifis, have forced themselves too ftrongly on my mind to be fuppreffed. You will join with me, I truft, in thinking that there are none, under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more aufpiciously commence. 13. By the article establishing the executive department, it is made the duty of the prefident to 'recommend to your confideration, fuch measures as he fhall judge necessary and expedient. The circumftances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that fubject, farther than to refer to the great conftitutional charter under which you are affembled, and which, in defining your powers, defignates the objects to which your attention is to be given. 14. It will be more confiftent with thofe circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to fubftitute in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism, which adorn the characters selected to devife and adopt them. 15. In these honorable qualifications, I behold the fureft pledges that, as on one fide, no local prejudices or attachments, no feparate views or party animofities, will mifdirect the comprehenfive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great affemblage of communities and interefts: 16. So, on another, that the foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality; and the pre-eminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the |