fore mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.

for

crimes to be

3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall Trial be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said by jury, &c. crimes shall have been committed; but, when not committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed.

SECTION 3.

treason.

1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levy- Definition of ing 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.

declare its

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

ARTICLE IV.

SECTION 1.

1. Full faith and credit shall be given, in each state, to the lic acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other state. the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the thereof.

SECTION 2.

One state to

pub- credit the And public acts, which other. effect

&c., of an

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

of citizens.

flying from

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

delivered up

be delivered

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

SECTION 3.

may be ad

Union,

1. New states may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; New states but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction mitted into of any other state, nor any state be formed by the junction of two the or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the Legislatures of the states concerned, as well as of the Congress. 2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all Congress to needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other over

have power terri

tory, &e.

Republican form of government

guaranteed

property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this con. stitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state.

SECTION 4.

1. The United States shall guarantee, to every state in this Union, a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them to each state, against invasion; and, on application of the Legislature, or of the executive, (when the Legislature cannot be convened,) against domestic violence.

&c.

ARTICLE V.

Mode

amending

tion.

of 1. The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem this constitu- 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 amendments, 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.

Assumption of former

ARTICLE VI.

1. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before debts. the adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this constitution, as under the confederation. This consti- 2. This constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall the supreme be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall the be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the su bound there-preme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound by. thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.

law:

state judges

Certain offi- 3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the cers to take members of the several state Legislatures, and all executive and juport consti- dicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states,

oath to sup

tution. shall be bound, by oath or affirmation, to support this constitution: No religious but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

test.

Ratification.

ARTICLE VII.

1. 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,

[The following extract from the journals of Congress, shows the adoption of the constitution, and the time when it took effect.]

IN CONGRESS.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1788.

On the question to agree to the following proposition, it was resolved in the affirmative by the unanimous votes of nine states, viz.: of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The constideclared to be ratified.

Whereas, The convention, assembled in Philadelphia pursuant to. the resolution of Congress of the 21st February, 1787, did, on the tution 17th of September in the same year, report to the United States in Congress assembled, a constitution for the people of the United States; whereupon Congress, on the 28th of the same September, did resolve unanimously "that the said report, with the resolutions and letter accompanying the same, be transmitted to the several Legislatures, in order to be submitted to a convention of delegates,

Federal gov

ernment to

ration

on

chosen in each state by the people thereof, in conformity to the resolves of the convention made and provided in that case:" And, whereas, The constitution so reported by the convention, and by Congress transmitted to the several Legislatures, has been ratified in the manner therein declared to be sufficient for the establishment of the same, and such ratifications, duly authenticated, have been received by Congress, and are filed in the office of the secretary; therefore,

Resolved, That the first Wednesday in January next be the day go into ope- for appointing electors in the several states, which, before the said the 4th of day, shall have ratified the said constitution; that the first WedMarch, 1789. nesday in February next be the day for the electors to assemble in their respective states, and vote for a president; and that the first Wednesday in March next, be the time, and the present seat of Congress the place, for commencing proceedings under the said constitution.

AMENDMENTS

TO THE

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

[The following amendments were proposed at the first session of the first Congress of the United States, which was begun and held at the city of New York, on the 4th of March, 1789, and were adopted by the requisite number of states. Vol. I, Laws U. S., p. 72.]

[The following preamble and resolution preceded the original proposition of the amendments; and, as they have been supposed, by a high equity judge, (8th Wendell's Reports, p. 100.) to have an important bearing on the construction of those amendments, they are here inserted. They will be found in the journals of the first session of the first Congress.

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,

Begun and held at the city of New York, on Wednesday, the 4th of March, 1789.
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; and, as ex-
tending the ground of public confidence in the government will best insure the benefi-
cent ends of its institution-

Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both houses concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several states, as amendments to the constitution of the United States; all or any of which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the said constitution, namely:]

ARTICLE I.

ers of

pow

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of re- Restrictions ligion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the on the onfreedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peace- gress. ably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

ARTICLE II.

people to

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

ARTICLE III.

&c.

soldiers,

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, Quartering without the consent of the owner; nor in time of war, but in a &. manner to be prescribed by law.