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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
A special history of the origin and establishment of the Constitution of the United States has not yet found a place in our national literature. Many years ago, I formed the design of writing such a work, for the purpose of exhibiting the deep causes which at once rendered the Convention of 1787 inevitable, and controlled or directed its course and decisions; the mode in which its great work was accomplished; and the foundations on which our national liberty and prosperity were then deliberately
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
1774-1775. Organization of the First Continental Congress.—Origin of the Union. The thirteen British colonies in North America, by whose inhabitants the American Revolution was achieved, were, at the commencement of that struggle, so many separate communities, having, to a considerable extent, different political organizations and different municipal laws: but their various populations spoke almost universally the English language. These colonies were Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Conn
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NOTE TO PAGE 33.
NOTE TO PAGE 33.
ON WASHINGTON'S APPOINTMENT AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. The circumstances which attended the appointment of Washington to this great command are now quite well known. He had been a member of the Congress of 1774, and his military experience and accomplishments, and the great resources of his character, had caused his appointment on all the committees charged with making preparations for the defence of the colonies. Returned as a delegate from Virginia to the Congress of 1775, his personal qualificati
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NOTE TO PAGE 51.
NOTE TO PAGE 51.
ON THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. The Declaration of Independence was drawn by Thomas Jefferson; and the circumstances under which he was selected for this honorable and important task have been for more than a quarter of a century somewhat in doubt, and that doubt has been increased by the recent publication of a part of the Works of Mr. John Adams. The evidence on the subject is to be derived chiefly from statements made by both of these eminent persons in their memoirs, and in a letter writ
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
July , 1776— November , 1777. Consequences of the Declaration of Independence.—Reorganization of the Continental Army.—Flight of the Congress from Philadelphia.—Plan of the Confederation proposed. When the Declaration of Independence at length came, it did not in any way change the form of the revolutionary government. It created no institution, and erected no civil machinery. Its political effect has already been described. Its moral effect, both upon the members of the Congress and upon the co
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
November , 1777— March , 1781. Adoption of the Articles of Confederation.—Cessions of Western Territory.—First Political Union of the States. We have now to examine the period which intervened between the recommendation of the Confederation by Congress, in November, 1777, and its final adoption by all the States, in March, 1781;—a period of three years and a half. The causes which protracted the final assent of the States to the new government, and the mode in which the various objections were a
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
Nature and Powers of the Confederation. The nature of the government established by the Articles of Confederation can be understood only by an analysis of their provisions. For this purpose, the instrument must here be examined with reference to three principal topics: first, the union which it established between the different members of the Confederacy; second, the form of the government which it created; and third, the powers which it conferred, or omitted to confer, upon that government. I.
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
1781-1783. Requisitions.—Claims of the Army.—Newburgh Addresses.—Peace proclaimed.—The Army Disbanded. The interval of time which extends from the adoption of the Articles of Confederation to the initiatory steps for the formation of the Constitution, must, for our purpose, be divided into two periods; that which preceded and that which followed the peace of 1783; in both of which the defects of the Confederation were rapidly developed, and in both of which efforts were made to supply those defe
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NOTE TO PAGE 185.
NOTE TO PAGE 185.
ON THE HALF-PAY FOR THE OFFICERS OF THE REVOLUTION. In Connecticut, the opposition to the plan of enabling Congress to fund the public debts arose from the jealousy with which the provision of half-pay for the officers of the army had always been regarded in that State. In October, 1783, Governor Trumbull, in an address to the Assembly declining a reëlection, had spoken of the necessity of enlarging the powers of Congress, and of strengthening the arm of the government. A committee reported an a
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NOTE TO PAGE 186.
NOTE TO PAGE 186.
ON THE NEWBURGH ADDRESSES. There was a period in this business, when the officers would have accepted from Congress a recommendation to their several States for the payment of their dues. Their committee, consisting of General McDougall, Colonel Brooks of Massachusetts, and Colonel Ogden of New Jersey, arrived in Philadelphia about the 1st of January. In their memorial to Congress, they abstained from designating the funds from which they desired satisfaction of their demands, because their grea
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
1781-1783. The proposal of the revenue system went forth to the country, although not in immediate connection, yet nearly at the same time, with those comprehensive and weighty counsels which Washington addressed to the States, when the great object for which he had entered the service of his country had been accomplished, and he was about to return to a private station. His relations to the people of this country had been peculiar. He had been, not only the leader of their armies, but, in a gre
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
January , 1784- May , 1787. Duties and Necessities of Congress.—Requisitions on the States.—Revenue System of 1783. The period which now claims our attention is that extending from the Peace of 1783 to the calling of the Convention which framed the Constitution, in 1787. It was a period full of dangers and difficulties. The destinies of the Union seemed to be left to all the hazards arising from a defective government and the illiberal and contracted policy of its members. Patriotism was general
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
1784-1787. Infractions of the Treaty of Peace. The Treaty of Peace, ratified on the 14th of January, 1784, contained provisions of great practical and immediate importance. One of its chief objects, on the part of the United States, was, of course, to effect the immediate withdrawal of the British troops, and of every sign of British authority, from the country whose independence it acknowledged. A stipulation was accordingly introduced, by which the King bound himself, with all convenient speed
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
1786-1787. No Security afforded by the Confederation to the State Governments.—Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts, and its Kindred Disturbances. No federative government can be of great permanent value, which is not so constructed that it may stand, in some measure, as the common sovereign of its members, able to protect them against internal disorders, as well as against external assaults. The Confederation undertook but one of these great duties. It was formed at a time when the war with Engla
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
Origin and Necessity of the Power to regulate Commerce. Among all the causes which led to the establishment of the Constitution of the United States, there is none more important, and none that is less appreciated at the present day, than the inability of the Confederation to manage the foreign commerce of the country. We have seen that, when the Articles of Confederation were proposed for adoption by the States, the State of New Jersey remonstrated against the absence of all provision for placi
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
1783-1787. The Public Lands.—Government of the Northwestern Territory.—Threatened Loss of the Western Settlements. The Confederation, although preceded by a cession of Western territory from the State of New York for the use of the United States, contained no grant of power to Congress to hold, manage, or dispose of such property. There had been, while the Articles of Confederation were under discussion in Congress, a proposal to insert a provision, giving to Congress the sole and exclusive righ
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
1783-1787. Decay and Failure of the Confederation.—Progress of Opinion.—Steps which led to the Convention of 1787.—Influence and Exertions of Hamilton.—Meeting of the Convention. The prominent defects in the Confederation, which have been described in the previous chapters, and which were so rapidly developed after the treaty of 1783, made it manifest, that a mere league between independent States, with no power of direct legislation, was not a government for a country like this, in a time of pe
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
The Framers of the Constitution.—Washington, President of the Convention. The narrative to which the reader has thus far attended must now be interrupted for a while, that he may pause upon the threshold of an assembly which had been summoned to the grave task of remodelling the constitution of this country, and here consider the names and characters of the men to whom its responsible labors had been intrusted. The civil deeds of statesmen and lawgivers, in establishing and forming institutions,
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
Hamilton. Next to the august name of the President should be mentioned that great man who, as a statesman, towered above all his compeers, even in that assembly of great men,—Alexander Hamilton. This eminent person is probably less well known to the nation at the present day, than most of the leading statesmen of the Revolution. There are causes for this in his history. He never attained to that high office which has conferred celebrity on inferior men. The political party of which he was one of
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
Madison. From Hamilton we naturally turn to his associate in the Federalist,—James Madison, afterwards fourth President of the United States,—whose faithful and laborious record has preserved to us the debates of the Convention. Mr. Madison was thirty-six years old when he entered that assembly. His previous life had fitted him to play a conspicuous and important part in its proceedings. He was born in 1751, of a good family, in Orange County, Virginia, and was educated at Princeton College in N
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
Franklin. The Convention was graced and honored by the venerable presence of Dr. Franklin, then President of the State of Pennsylvania, and in his eighty-second year. He had returned from Europe only two years before, followed by the admiration and homage of the social, literary, and scientific circles of France; laden with honors, which he wore with a plain and shrewd simplicity; and in the full possession of that predominating common-sense, which had given him, through a long life, a widely ex
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
Gouverneur Morris. This brilliant, energetic, and patriotic statesman was born in the Province of New York, at Morrisania,—the seat of his family for several generations,—in the year 1752. He was educated for the bar; but in 1775, at the age of three-and-twenty, he was elected a member of the Provincial Congress of New York, in which he became at once distinguished. When the recommendation of the Continental Congress to the Colonies, to organize new forms of government, was received, he took a l
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
King. Rufus King, celebrated as a jurist, a statesman, an orator, and a diplomatist, was sent to the Convention by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Born in her District of Maine, in 1755, and graduated at Harvard College in 1777, he came very early into public life, and was rarely out of it until his death, which occurred in 1827, in the seventy-third year of his age. His first public service was in the year 1778, as a volunteer in the expedition against the British in Rhode Island, in which h
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, the eldest son of a chief justice of that Colony, distinguished both as a soldier and a civilian, was educated in England, and read law at the Temple. He returned to his native province in 1769, and commenced the practice of his profession; which, like many of the young American barristers of that day, he was obliged to abandon for the duties of the camp, when the troubles of the Revolution began. He became colonel of th
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
Wilson. James Wilson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the early Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, was one of the first jurists in America during the latter part of the last century. He was born in Scotland about the year 1742. After studying at Glasgow, St. Andrews, and Edinburgh, he emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1766. He became, soon after his arrival, a tutor in the Philadelphia College, in which place he acquired great distinction as a classical scholar.
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
Randolph. Edmund Randolph, a "child of the Revolution," [451] was Governor of Virginia at the time of the Federal Convention. Probably it was on account of his position as the chief magistrate of the State that he was, by the general consent of his colleagues, selected to bring forward the Virginia plan of government, which was submitted at an early period of the deliberations, and which became, after great modifications, the nucleus of the Constitution. At an early age, in August, 1775, this ge
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
Conclusion of the Present Volume. The limits of this volume do not admit of a farther description of the Framers of the Constitution. The nine persons of whom some account has been given were the most important members of the Convention, and those who exercised the largest influence upon its decisions. But the entire list embraced other men of great distinction and ability, celebrated, before and since the Convention, in that period of the political history of America which commenced with the Re
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IN CONGRESS.
IN CONGRESS.
Circular Letter of Congress recommending the Adoption of the Articles of Confederation. In Congress, Yorktown , November 17th, 1777. Congress having agreed upon a plan of confederacy for securing the freedom, sovereignty, and independence of the United States, authentic copies are now transmitted for the consideration of the respective legislatures. This business, equally intricate and important, has in its progress been attended with uncommon embarrassments and delay, which the most anxious sol
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NEW JERSEY.
NEW JERSEY.
To the United States in Congress assembled: The Representation of the Legislative Council and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey showeth :— That the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, proposed by the honorable the Congress of the said States, severally for th
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DELAWARE.
DELAWARE.
Resolutions passed by the Council of the State of Delaware, January 23, 1779, respecting the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, and concurred in by the House of Assembly, January 28, 1779, previous to their passing a Law to empower their Delegates to sign and ratify the said Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. Resolved , That the paper laid before Congress by the delegate from Delaware, and read, be filed; provided, that it shall never be considered as admitting any claim
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MARYLAND.
MARYLAND.
Friday, May 21, 1779. The delegates of Maryland informed Congress that they have received instructions respecting the Articles of Confederation, which they are directed to lay before Congress, and have entered on their Journals. The instructions, being read, are as follows:— Instructions of the General Assembly of Maryland, to George Plater, William Paca, William Carmichael, John Henry, James Forbes, and Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Esquires. Gentlemen ,— Having conferred upon you a trust of th
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IN CONGRESS.
IN CONGRESS.
Saturday, April 1, 1780. The committee to whom was referred the act of the legislature of the State of New York, entitled, "An Act to facilitate the completion of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union among the United States of America," report,— That, having met on the business, but not being able to agree to any resolution thereon, desire to be discharged; which act is in the words following, viz.: — An Act to facilitate the Completion of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual
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MARYLAND.
MARYLAND.
Monday, February 12, 1781. The delegates of Maryland laid before Congress a certified copy of an act of the legislature of that State, which was read as follows: — An Act to empower the Delegates of this State in Congress to subscribe and ratify the Articles of Confederation. Whereas it hath been said that the common enemy is encouraged, by this State not acceding to the Confederation, to hope that the union of the sister States may be dissolved; and therefore prosecute the war in expectation of
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ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION AND PERPETUAL UNION
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION AND PERPETUAL UNION
Between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Art. 1. The style of this Confederacy shall be "The United States of America." Art. 2. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress
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MEMBERS OF THE CONVENTION WHICH FORMED THE CONSTITUTION.[457]
MEMBERS OF THE CONVENTION WHICH FORMED THE CONSTITUTION.[457]
Those with numbers before their names signed the Constitution. Those without numbers attended, but did not sign. The dates denote the first day of their attendance. Those in italics never attended. New Hampshire. Massachusetts. Rhode Island. [No appointment.] Connecticut. New York. New Jersey. Pennsylvania. Delaware. Maryland. Virginia. North Carolina. South Carolina. Georgia....
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END OF VOL. I.
END OF VOL. I.
[1] In citing the "Madison Papers," I have constantly referred to the edition contained in the fifth (supplementary) volume of Mr. Jonathan Elliot's "Debates," &c., because it is more accessible to general readers. The accuracy of that publication, and its full and admirable Index, make it a very important volume to be consulted in connection with the subject of this work. In this relation, I may suggest the desirableness of a new and carefully revised edition of the Journals of the old
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
Preliminary Considerations. — Organization of the Convention. — Position of the States. — Rule of Investigation. After long wanderings through the struggles, the errors, and the disappointments of the earlier years of our constitutional history, I now come to consider that memorable assembly to which they ultimately led, in order to describe the character of an era that offered the promise of a more vigorous nationality, and presented the alternative of final dissolution. How the people of the U
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TABLE
TABLE
EXHIBITING THE POPULATIONS OF THE THIRTEEN STATES, ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1790. N. B.—In this abstract Maine is not included in Massachusetts, nor Kentucky and Tennessee in the States from which they were severed. Total population of the eight States in 1790, in which slavery had been or has since been abolished, 1,845,595. Total population of the five States in 1790, in which slavery existed, and still exists, 1,793,407....
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
Construction of the Executive and the Judiciary. The construction of a national executive, although not surrounded by so many inherent practical difficulties as the formation of the legislative department, was likely to give rise to a great many opposite theories. The questions, of how many persons the executive ought to consist, in what mode the appointment should be made, and what were to be its relations to the legislative power, were attended with great diversities of opinion. The question w
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
Admission of New States. — Guaranty of Republican Government. — Power of Amendment. — Oath to Support the New System. — Ratification. Having settled a general plan for the organization of the three great departments of government, the committee next proceeded to provide for certain other objects of primary importance, the necessity for which had been demonstrated by the past history of the Confederacy. The first of these was the admission of new States into the Union. It had long been apparent,
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
Issue between the Virginia and the New Jersey Plans. — Hamilton's Propositions. — Madison's View of the New Jersey Plan. The nature of the plan of government thus proposed—called generally in the proceedings of the Convention the Virginia plan—may be perceived from the descriptions that have now been given of the design and scope of its principal features, and of the circumstances out of which they arose. It purported to be a supreme and a national government; and we are now to inquire in what s
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
Conflict between the National and Federal Systems. — Division of the Legislature into Two Chambers. — Disagreement of the States on the Nature of Representation in the Two Branches. — Threatened Dissolution of the Union. We are now approaching a crisis in the action of the Convention, the history of which is full of instruction for all succeeding generations of the American people. We have witnessed the formation of a minority of the States, whose bond of connection was a common opposition to th
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
First Grand Compromises of the Constitution. — Population of the States adopted as the Basis of Representation in the House. — Rule for Computing the Slaves. — Equality of Representation of the States adopted for the Senate. As the States were now exactly divided on the question whether there should be an equality of votes in the second branch of the legislature, some compromise seemed to be necessary, or the effort to make a constitution must be abandoned. A conversation as to what was expedien
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
Powers of Legislation. — Constitution and Choice of the Executive. — Constitution of the Judiciary. — Admission of New States. — Completion of the Engagements of Congress. — Guaranty of Republican Constitutions. — Oath to Support the Constitution. — Ratification. — Number of Senators. — Qualifications for Office. — Seat of Government. Of the remaining subjects comprehended in the report of the committee of the whole, it will only be necessary here to make a brief statement of the action of the C
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
Report of the Committee of Detail. — Construction of the Legislature. — Time and Place of its Meeting. Having now reached that stage in the process of framing the Constitution at which certain principles were confided to a committee of detail, the reader will now have an opportunity to observe the farther development and application of those principles, the mode in which certain chasms in the system were supplied, and the final arrangements which produced the complete instrument that was submitt
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
Report of the Committee of Detail, continued. — The Powers of Congress. — The Grand Compromises of the Constitution respecting Commerce, Exports, and the Slave-Trade. In the examination which has thus far been made of the process of forming the Constitution, the reader will have noticed the absence of any express provisions concerning the regulation of commerce, and the obtaining of revenues. A system of government had been framed, embracing a national legislature, in which the mode of represent
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
Report of the Committee of Detail, Continued. — The Remaining Powers of Congress. — Restraints Upon Congress and Upon the States. In the last preceding chapter, the reader has traced the origin of the revenue and commercial powers, and of certain restrictions applied to them in the progress of those great compacts, by means of which they became incorporated into the Constitution. We have now to examine some other qualifications which were annexed to those powers after the first draft of the inst
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
Report of the Committee of Detail, continued. — Supremacy of the National Government. — Definition and Punishment of Treason. Among the resolutions sent to the committee, there were four which had reference to the supremacy of the government of the United States. They declared that it ought to consist of a supreme legislative, executive, and judiciary;—that its laws and treaties should be the supreme law of the several States, so far as they related to the States or their citizens and inhabitant
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
Report of the Committee of Detail, continued. — Election and Powers of the President. In describing the manner in which the Constitution and powers of the Senate were finally arranged, I have already had occasion to state, that, after the report of the committee of detail came in,—vesting the appointment of the President in the national legislature, creating a term of seven years, and making the incumbent ineligible a second time,—a direct election by the people was negatived by a large majority
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
Report of the Committee of Detail, continued. — Formation of the Judicial Power. There now remains to be described the full conception and creation of the third department of the government, its judicial power. The distribution of the powers of government, when its subjects are to sustain no relation to any other sovereignty than that whose fundamental laws it is proposed to ordain, is a comparatively easy task. In such a government, when the theoretical division into the legislative, executive,
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
Report of the Committee of Detail, continued. — Effect of Records. — Inter-State Privileges. — Fugitives from Justice and from Service. We now come to a class of provisions designed to place the people of the separate States in more intimate relations with each other, by removing, in some degree, the consequences that would otherwise flow from their distinct and independent jurisdictions. This was to be done by causing the rights and benefits resulting from the laws of each State to be, for some
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
Report of the Committee of Detail, concluded. — Guaranty of Republican Government and Internal Tranquillity. — Oath to support the Constitution. — Mode of Amendment. — Ratification and Establishment of the Constitution. — Signing by the Members of the Convention. The power and duty of the United States to guarantee a republican form of government to each State, and to protect each State against invasion and domestic violence, had been declared by a resolution, the general purpose of which has be
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
General Reception of the Constitution. — Hopes of a Reunion with Great Britain. — Action of the Congress. — State of Feeling in Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, South Carolina, Maryland, and New Hampshire. — Appointment of their Conventions. The national Convention was dissolved on the 14th of September. The state of expectation and anxiety throughout the country during its deliberations, and at the moment of its adjournment, will appear from a few leading facts and ideas, which illustrate the
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
Ratifications of Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut, without Objection. — Close of the Year 1787. — Beginning of the Year 1788. — Ratification of Massachusetts, the sixth State, with Propositions of Amendment. — Ratification of Maryland, without Objection. — South Carolina, the eighth State, adopts, and proposes Amendments. The first State that ratified the Constitution, although its convention was not the first to assemble, was Delaware. It was a small, compact communi
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
Ratifications of New Hampshire, Virginia, and New York, with Proposed Amendments. South Carolina was the eighth State that had ratified the Constitution, and one other only was required for its inauguration. In this posture of affairs the month of May in the year 1788 was closed. An intense interest was to be concentrated into the next two months, which were to decide the question whether the Constitution was ever to be put into operation. The convention of Virginia was to meet on the 2d, and th
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
Action of North Carolina and Rhode Island. — Conclusion. Thus had eleven States, at the end of July, 1788, unconditionally adopted the Constitution; five of them proposing amendments for the consideration of the first Congress that would assemble under it, and one of the five calling for a second general convention to act upon the amendments desired. Two other States, however, North Carolina and Rhode Island, still remained aloof. The legislature of North Carolina, in December, 1787, had ordered
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NOTE ON THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.
NOTE ON THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.
(See page 344, ante .) When writing this volume, I prepared an elaborate note, for the purpose of proving that the Ordinance of 1787 was drawn up by Nathan Dane. The subsequent publication by Mr. Charles King, of New York, of an autograph letter of Mr. Dane's to his father, the Hon. Rufus King, written a few days after the passage of the Ordinance, put an end to all possibility of controversy on this subject, and made it unnecessary for me to burden my readers with a discussion of Mr. Dane's cla
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FIRST DRAFT OF THE CONSTITUTION, AS REPORTED BY THE COMMITTEE OF DETAIL.
FIRST DRAFT OF THE CONSTITUTION, AS REPORTED BY THE COMMITTEE OF DETAIL.
In Convention. —Mr. Rutledge delivered in the report of the committee of detail, as follows,—a printed copy being at the same time furnished to each member:— We, the people of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, do ordain, declare, and establish the following Constitution for the government of ourselves and our posterity:— Ar
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CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.[463]
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.[463]
We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, 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. 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 Representati
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ARTICLES IN ADDITION TO, AND AMENDMENT OF, THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
ARTICLES IN ADDITION TO, AND AMENDMENT OF, THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
PROPOSED BY CONGRESS, AND RATIFIED BY THE LEGISLATURES OF THE SEVERAL STATES, PURSUANT TO THE FIFTH ARTICLE OF THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. [465] (ARTICLE 1.) 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 2.) A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security
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