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. Original and 2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and risdiction of consuls, and those in which a state shall be a party, the supreme court shall have original jurisdiction. 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 make. appellate ju the supreme court. Trial of crimes to be 3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall by jury, &c. be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the state 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. Definition of treason. declare its SECTION 3. 1. Treason against the United States shall consist 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. Congress to 2. The congress shall have power to declare the punishment of punishment. treason; but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted. Credit in one state to ARTICLE 4. 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the acts, &c. of congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings, shall be proved, and the effect thereof. another. Reciprocity of citizens. Criminala flying from one state to SECTION 2. 1. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states. 2. A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, another, to 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. be delivered up on demand. Runaways to up. 3. No person held to service or labor in one state under the laws be delivered thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor; but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. New states SECTION 3. 1. New states may be admitted by the congress into this union maydad but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of mitted into any other state, nor any state to be formed by the junction of two or the union, more states or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures &c. of the states concerned, as well as of the congress. have power 2. The congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all Congress to needful rules and regulations respecting, the territory or other property over territo belonging to the United States; and nothing in this constitution shall ry, &c. be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state. SECTION 4. of go 1. The United States shall guaranty to every state in this union a Republican republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against form of invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive guaranteed (when the legislature can not be convened) against domestic violence, &c. ARTICLE 5. to each state this consti 1. The congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it Mode of necessary, shall propose amendments to this constitution; or, on the amending application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall tution." 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 6. of former 1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the Assumption adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid against the United debts. States under this constitution, as under the confederation. the supreme state judges 2. This constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall This constibe made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall tution, &c. be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the su- law: the preme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound bound therethereby; any thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding. by. cers to take tution 3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the Certain offi members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judi- oath to sup cial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall port constibe bound by oath or affirmation, to support this constitution; but no No religious religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. ARTICLE 7. 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. test. Ratification. 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. NEW-HAMPSHIRE. John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman. MASSACHUSETTS. Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King. CONNECTICUT. William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman. NEW-YORK. Alexander Hamilton. NEW-JERSEY. William Livingston, David Brearly, William Patterson, Jonathan Dayton. PENNSYLVANIA. Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Gouverneur Morris. James Wilson, Attest, The constitution de. clared to be ratified. [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, NewJersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South-Carolina, and Georgia. Whereas the convention assembled in Philadelphia, pursuant to the resolution of congress of the 21st February, 1787, did, on the 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 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, vernment to 4th of March, Resolved, That the first Wednesday in January next be the day Federal gofor appointing electors in the several states, which before the said day go into opeshall have ratified the said constitution; that the first Wednesday in ration on the February next, be the day for the electors to assemble in their re- 1789. spective 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. 1 vol. 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 extending the ground of public confidence in the government, will best insure the beneficent 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 1. on ers of con Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, Restrictions or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of or the pow speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assem- gress. ble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. ARTICLE 2. 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 3. &c. of soldiers, &c. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house with- Quartering out the consent of the owner; nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. ARTICLE 4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, pa- Search warpers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall rants, &c. not be violated; and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, Proceedings sons charg. ed with crimes. supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ARTICLE 5. No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infaagainst per mous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service, in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of Their rights. life or limb; nor shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. Further rights. Right of trial by jury. Excessive bail, &c. Construc tion of constitution. Powers re ARTICLE 6. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence. ARTICLE 7. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved; and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. ARTICLE 8. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. ARTICLE 9. The enumeration in the constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. ARTICLE 10. The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, served to the nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. Slaits. Restriction [The following amendment was proposed at the second session of the third congress. It is printed in the laws of the United States, 1st vol. p. 73, as article 11.] ARTICLE 11. The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to of judicial extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. powers. Mode of [The three following sections were proposed as amendments at the first session of the eighth congress. They are printed in the laws of the United States as ARTICLE TWELVE.] ARTICLE 12. 1. The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by electing the ballot for president and vice-president, one of whom, at least, shall President |