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other crimes, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

SEC. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a Member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability.

SEC. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in the aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any loss or emancipation of any slave, but such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.

SEC. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this act.

ARTICLE XV.

SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

SEC. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

CHAPTER X.

PRESIDENTS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, AND THE VARIOUS

SEATS OF GOVERNMENT FROM 1774 TO 1789.

Peyton Randolph, Virginia

Henry Middleton, South Carolina.

Peyton Randolph, Virginia.
John Hancock, Massachusetts..
Henry Laurens, South Carolina..

John Jay, New York...
Samuel Huntingdon, Connecticut.
Thomas McKean, Delaware..
John Hanson, Maryland.

Elias Boudinot, New Jersey..
Thomas Mifflin, Pennsylvania.
Richard Henry Lee, Virginia.
Nathaniel Gorham, Massachusetts
Arthur St. Clair, Pennsylvania
Cyrus Griffin, Virginia..

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1787

22d Jan., 1788

The seat of government was established as follows: At Philadelphia, Pa., commencing September 5th, 1774, and May 10th, 1775; at Baltimore, Md. December 20th, 1776; at Philadelphia, Pa., March 4th, 1777; at Lancaster, Pa., September 27th, 1777; at York, Pa., September 30th, 1777; at Philadelphia, Pa., July 2d, 1778; at Princeton, N. J., June 30th, 1783; at Annapolis, Md., November 26th, 1783; at Trenton, N. J., November 1st, 1784; and at New York City, N. Y., January 11th, 1785.

On the 4th of March, 1789, the present Constitution, which had been adopted by a convention and ratified by the requisite number of States, went into operation.

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PART SECOND.

THE GOVERNMENT UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.

The plan of this part of our work requires us to give a complete view of the government of the United States, and in such detail as to be adequate to all the purposes of the citizen and the student who wish to understand its structure and modes of working. It will be found, we think, a clear, concise, and complete account of what it is indispensable to the American to know.

There are three branches, each independent, having its sphere of general action entirely distinct, and clearly defined by the Constitution; yet working in harmony with the others, and locking in, so to speak, with them at special points, like the cogs of a system of wheels. The adjustment was more perfect than the authors of the Constitution themselves believed; probably because the spirit of the whole was in harmony with the people whose interests it was designed to guard.

These three branches are the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial. All the institutions or general subdivisions of each are given in connection, with such explanations and data as they seem to require. We commence with the Executive, as being most immediately in contact with the people at large, having a wider field, and a larger number of distinct organiza

tions and agents. This branch exhausted, we present the Legislative, and finally the Judicial, closing with such matters as belong to the government as a whole.

No human government is perfect, neither can exact and equal justice be done in every case by human laws. But the scope and design of our legislation and jurisprudence is to dispense justice to all, to place all on an equality before the laws, and to give the same rights to the rich and to the poor. No privileged class is known to our laws, and the lowest may aspire to the highest places of distinction and honor; many have done so, and have reached the most exalted positions. The fullest religious liberty is granted to all; every man may worship as he pleases, when and where he pleases, without molestation or fear. He is not, as in many other countries, taxed to support a chureh established by law. He may pay for religious purposes as much or as little as he pleases, and to any church he prefers, or he may pay nothing, and no one can call him to account or use any compulsion whatever in this

matter.

Every citizen has a vote for the choice of his rulers, and through his representatives a voice in making the laws by which he is governed.

As to his business or calling, he may do that which best suits his interests or his tastes. He may go when or where he desires, he may stay in the country or leave it without restraint or hindrance; in short, he may do whatsoever seemeth good to him, provided he does not infringe on the rights of others.

To this liberty, to these equal rights, privileges, and advantages do we attribute our rapid growth and power. The advantages and benefits of so wise, so liberal, and so beneficent a government are not unknown to the people of other countries where they do not enjoy so much freedom; and this accounts for the wonderful immigration to the United States from nearly every country in Europe. This flow has continued for more than three-quarters of a century, and is still unabated. It has added many millions to the natural increase of our population,

while very few of our own people ever leave their own country with the hope of bettering their condition, or of finding a government under which they can enjoy more liberty or better protection. To gain a clearer conception of the intimate connection between a good government and the prosperity of the country, let us, for example, place Mexico in contrast with the United States. Mexico was settled long before the United States, and in climate and mineral wealth has the advantage of us; yet the ever unsettled condition of its government, together with intolerance of any but the Catholic religion, has prevented any increase of population or any advancement in anything which gives a nation respectability, greatness, or power.

Let us draw another contrast by considering Ireland. An oppressive government has diminished the population, prevented any advancement, and impoverished the country. We might draw many such contrasts between the United States and other countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America, which would convince any one who has the power to trace causes to effects, and effects to causes, that a just and liberal government is an essential condition upon which the prosperity of any country depends.

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