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Further powers and duties.

Now the
Prefident,
&c. may be
removed

wise provided for, and which shall be established by law. But the Congress may, by law, vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which shall expire at the end of their next session.

SECT. III. He shall, from time to time, give to the Congress information of the state of the Union,and recommend to their consideration such measures, as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and, in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors, and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.

SECT. IV. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, from office. or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

ARTICLE III.

Of the jadiSECT. I. The judicial power of the United States shall cial power. be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior Concerning courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour, and the judges. shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.

Extent of

power.

SECT. II. The judicial power shall extend to all casesin the judicial law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more states, between a state and citizens of another state, between citizens of different states, between citizens of the same state claiming 'lands under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects.

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public minisOf original and appel- ters and consuls, and those in which a state shall be parlate jurifdic-ty, the supreme court shall have original jurisdiction.

tion of the fupreme

In

all the other cases before 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 nake.

(xi)

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, Oftmals for shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the state crimes. where the said 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.

SECT. III. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering Of treafon. 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.

SECT. I. Full faith and credit shall be given in each of records, state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings &c. 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.

SECT. II. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to Of citizenall privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states. fhip. A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in Of fugitive 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.

criminals.

No person held to service or labour in one state, under Of perfons the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in conse- beld to fer quence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged vice. from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be

due.

SECT. III. New states may be admitted by the Con- of new gress into this Union; but no new state shall be formed fates. 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.

States.

Form of re

The Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make of the tes all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory, or ritory of the other property, belonging to the United States; and nothing United in this Constitution shall be so construed, as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state. SECT. IV. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on appli- guaranteed cation of the legislature, or of the executive (when the to the fevelegislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence. ral fas.

publican

government

Of amend

ARTICLE V.

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall ments to the deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Conconftitution. stitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two

Of former debts.

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:

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.

Force of the This Constitution, and the laws of the United States conftitution, which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties laws, and 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.

treaties of the United States.

cal teft.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and Cf a politi- 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 req ired as a qualification to any office,or public trust, under the United States.

Of a religious test.

Of the ratification of the Conftitution.

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.

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TH

CONVENTION,

Monday, September 17, 1787.

HAT 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 as

sembled.

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.

SIR,

WE

IN CONVENTION,

September 17, 1787.

E have now the honor to submit to the considera. tion of the United States, in Congress assembled, that Constitution which has appeared to us the most advisable.

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 correspondent executive and judicial authorities, should be fully and effectually vested in the general government of the Union but the impropriety of delegating such extensive trust to one body of men, is evident. Hence results the necessity of a different organization.

:

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 sacrifice 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 national existence. This important consideration, se

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