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what stands as the eleventh amendment of the Constitution was proposed by Congress, but from various delays on the part of the State legislatures, it was not ratified until the end of the year 1797. At the first session of the eighth Congress, in 1803, the twelfth amendment was proposed, and became part of the Constitution in 1804.

We must here conclude our hasty and imperfect outline of the history of free government in England and of its establishment in the United States. We have traced the long and doubtful battle of the manly spirit of the Saxon race against a haughty subjugating power. We have seen it groaning under the yoke of feudal despotism. We have seen the Norman masters joining with their Saxon subjects in resisting the abominable tyrannies of regal power. We have traced the rise of a free representative assembly of the commons as an equal, in the English Parliament, with the House of Peers, and even with the crown. We have contrasted the opposite and hostile institutions of trial by jury and the king's court of Star Chamber. We have seen the folly of an idle and unwise attempt at summary and forced emancipation, in the natural extinction of Saxon slavery in England. We have witnessed the tremendous struggle of prerogative with freedom in the Stuart reigns, and the complete and permanent establishment of English liberty by the revolution which dethroned that most unhappy race. In all this survey of the steps by which the English Constitution has been brought into its present noble form, we have set up conspicuously the landmarks of our English forefathers Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, the Bill of Rights, and Act of Settlement-those glorious monuments of the determined progress of a generous race, which are our boast no less than the glory of our brethren on the other side of the Atlantic-we have set up as beacon lights to point the way of safety or destruction. We have shown the earnestness with which their guarantees were claimed by our colonial ancestors in their controversy with the mother country, and that the denial of them by the Parliament was the sole cause of the American Revolution. We have traced the progress of the Union from the first assembling of colonial delegates in Philadelphia to the final ratification of the Constitution by the legislatures of thirteen

sovereign and independent States. And here the first part of our task ends. The discussion of the principles inherent in free government in general, as well as the particular provisions of our own incomparable system, we reserve to the next portion of our work. We give no theory of the Constitution. On that subject let our fathers speak, while we in reverence listen to their words of wisdom, some of which we shall present hereafter. It affords no happy augury of the impending future of our country that so many and conflicting theories of the intention of the Constitution have been published by so many men, both wise and unwise.

It is impossible to close this outline of the features of the past without a dark foreboding of the coming future. We started with the wisdom of a thousand years to guide us. In three quarters of a century we have outlived our own free institutions. In three years we have perhaps destroyed them. It requires a stout heart to pursue the theme. What will be the future of America, or how the pen of the historian will trace the swiftly coming destinies of us and our posterity, what human wisdom can foretell? No other people ever yet surrendered liberty to power and afterwards regain. ed it, without suffering a fearful retribution, to be expiated only by unmeasured torrents of its noblest blood. It is hoping much to dream that we alone of all the world can pass unscathed though the appalling circumstances that surround us. Perhaps before these lines shall issue from the press, the muse of history may have recorded the destruction of the liberties of a free people by its own hand.

Constitution

OF THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

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 Representatives.

SECTION. 2. 'The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

'No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made

within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Verginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

"When vacancies happen in the Representation from any state, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

"The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.

SECTION. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and cach Senator shall have one Vote.

*Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one-third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.

"No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

"The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided. "The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.

"The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside. And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

'Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and Disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honour, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indiotment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

SECTION. 4. 'The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the places of chusing Senators.

"The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.

SECTION. 5. 'Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.

"Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. SECTION. 6. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and

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