only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

The congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.

ARTICLE IV.

SEC. 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.

SEC. 2. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.

A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime.

No person held to service or labour in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due.

SEC. 3. New states may be admitted by the congress into this union; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the congress.

The congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules 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.

SEC. 4. The United States shall guaranty 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 amend

ments, 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 conventions 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. GEORGE WASHINGTON, President, and deputy from Virginia.

JARED INGERSOLL,

Delaware,

Maryland,

Virginia,

North Carolina,

South Carolina,

Georgia, Attest,

GEORGE CLYMER,

THOMAS FITZSIMONS,

JAMES WILSON,

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.

GEORGE READ,

GUNNING BEDFORD jun.,

JOHN DICKINSON,

RICHARD BASSETT,

JACOB BROOM.

JAMES M' HENRY,

DANIEL OF ST. THO. JENIFER,

DANIEL CARROLL.

JOHN BLAIR,

JAMES MADISON jun.

WILLIAM BLOUNT,

RICHARD DOBBS SPAIGHT,
HU. WILLIAMSON.

J. RUTLEDGE,

C. COTESWORTH PINCKNEY,
CHARLES PINCKNEY,

PIERCE BUTLER.

WILLIAM FEW,

ABRAHAM BALDWIN.

WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary.

IN CONVENTION,

Monday, September 17, 1787.

PRESENT

The states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Mr. Hamilton from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

RESOLVED, That the preceding constitution be laid before the United States in congress assembled; and that it is the opinion of this convention, that it should afterwards be submitted to a convention of delegates, chosen in each state by

the people thereof, under the recommendation of its legislature, for their assent and ratification; and that each convention assenting to, and ratifying the same, should give notice thereof to the United States in congress assembled.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this convention, that as soon as the conventions of nine states shall have ratified this constitution, the United States in congress assembled should fix a day on which electors should be appointed by the states which shall have ratified the same, and a day on which the electors should assemble to vote for the president, and the time and place for commencing proceedings under this constitution; that after such publication, the electors should be appointed, and the senators and representatives elected; that the electors should meet on the day fixed for the election of the president, and should transmit their votes, certified, signed, sealed, and directed, as the constitution requires, to the secretary of the United States in congress assembled; that the senators and representatives should convene at the time and place assigned; that the senators should appoint a president of the senate, for the sole purpose of receiving, opening, and counting the votes for president; and that after he shall be chosen, the congress, together with the president, should, without delay, proceed to execute this constitution.

By the unanimous order of the convention.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, President. WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary.

IN CONVENTION,

"SIR,

September 17, 1787. "We have now the honour to submit to the consideration of "the United States in congress assembled that constitution "which has appeared to us the most advisable.

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"The friends of our country have long seen and desired, "that the power of making war, peace, and treaties; that of levying money and regulating commerce; and the corre"spondent executive and judicial authorities, should be fully "and effectually vested in the general government of the un"ion: but the impropriety of delegating such extensive trust "to one body of men is evident. Hence results the necessity "of a different organization.

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"It is obviously impracticable in the federal government of "these states, to secure all rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the interest and safety "of all. Individuals entering into society must give up a share "of liberty to preserve the rest. The magnitude of the sac"rifice must depend as well on situation and circumstance, as "on the object to be obtained. It is at all times difficult to "draw with precision the line between those rights which must "be surrendered, and those which may be reserved; and on

"the present occasion this difficulty was increased by a difference among the several states as to their situation, extent, "habits, and particular interests.

"In all our deliberations on this subject, we kept steadily in "our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of every "true American, the consolidation of our union, in which is "involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our na"tional existence. This important consideration, seriously "and deeply impressed on our minds, led each state in the "convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude, "than might have been otherwise expected; and thus the con"stitution, which we now present, is the result of a spirit of "amity, and of that mutual deference and concession which "the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensa"ble.

"That it will meet the full and entire approbation of every "state, is not perhaps to be expected; but each will doubtless "consider, that had her interests been alone consulted, the consequences might have been particularly disagreeable or inju"rious to others: that it is liable to as few exceptions as "could reasonably have been expected, we hope and believe: "that it may promote the lasting welfare of that country so "dear to us all, and secure her freedom and happiness, is our "most ardent wish.

"With great respect, we have the honour to be, sir, your excellency's most obedient and humble servants." GEORGE WASHINGTON, President, by unanimous order of the convention.

His excellency the PRESIDENT Of Congress.

AMENDMENTS.

[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, congress, at the session begun and held at the city of New York, on Wednesday, the 4th of March, 1789, proposed to the legislatures of the seve ral states twelve amendments, ten of which only were adopted. They are the ten first following.]

ARTICLE I.

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 II.

A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the pcople to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.