Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted.

Number of Electoral Votes Necessary to Elect the President. The person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such a number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed;

Election of President by House of Representatives, When and How. 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.

When no Election of President by either Electors or House of Representatives, Vice-President to act as President. 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.

See Sect. 1, Par. 6, Art. II.

Number of Electoral Votes Necessary to Elect the VicePresident. 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,

Election of Vice-President by Senate, When and How.— 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.

Qualifications for Vice-President.-But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.— [Adopted in 1804.

For qualifications for President, see Sect. 1, Par. 5, Art. III., Sect. 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.

THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT.

and

1. Prohibition of Slavery.-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.

2. Power of Congress to Enforce this Amendment.— Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.-[Adopted in 1865.

FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.

Citizenship; Rights of Citizens; Representation; Disqualifications for Office; Public Debt.

1. Citizenship; Rights of Citizens (pp. 62, 92).-(a) Citizenship Defined.-All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

The determination of citizenship had hitherto been left to the States.

(b) Protection of Citizens of the United States from State Action.-No State shall make or enforce any law

which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;

For interstate privileges of citizens of a State, see Sect. 2, Par. 1, Art. IV.

(c) Protection of Life, Liberty, and Property.-Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;

For a similar prohibition on the federal government, see the Fifth Amendment.

(d) Equal Protection of the Laws.-Nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

2. (a) Apportionment of Representatives (p. 48).—Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States, according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.

(b) Reduction of Representation in Certain Cases.-But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of Electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

3. Disqualification for Public Office because of Participation in Rebellion.-No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or Elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under

the United States or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two thirds of each house, remove such disability.

4. (a) Guarantee of the Public Debt.-The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.

(b) Debt in Aid of Rebellion Illegal.—But neither the United States, nor any State, shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.

5. Power of Congress to Enforce the Fourteenth Amendment.-The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article.[Adopted in 1868.

FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.

1. Right of the Citizens of the United States to Vote Protected (p. 95).—The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

2. Power of Congress to Enforce this Amendment.-The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.-[Adopted in 1870.

ACT OF CONGRESS ADMITTING CALIFORNIA.

SEPTEMBER 9, 1850.

1. The State of California shall be one, and is hereby declared to be one, of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever.

2. The said State of California is admitted into the Union upon the express condition that the people of said State, through their Legislature, or otherwise, shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the public lands within its limits, and shall pass no law and do no act whereby the title of the United States to, and right to dispose of, the same shall be impaired or questioned; and that they shall never lay any tax, or assessment of any description whatsoever, upon the public domain of the United States; and in no case shall non-resident proprietors, who are citizens of the United States, be taxed higher than residents; and that all the navigable waters within the said State shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of said State as to the citizens of the United States, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed as recognizing or rejecting the propositions tendered by the people of California, as articles of compact in the ordinance adopted by the convention which formed the Constitution of that State.

3. All the laws of the United States which are not locally inapplicable shall have the same force and effect within the said State of California as elsewhere within the United States.