3 American History Leaflets. COLONIAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL. No. 8.-MARCH, 1893. EXACT TEXT OF THE CONSTITUTION ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTS, 1787-1870. From the original manuscripts. The impulse to form a new Constitution for the United States of Amermay be traced as far back as 1780, before the Articles of Confederation d been fully ratified (see Leaflet No. 20). Various attempts were also ade from 1781 to 1784 to secure specific amendments (see Leaflet No. ). The first legal step, however, toward our present Constitution was e passage of a resolution by Congress, February 21, 1787, recommending special Convention to revise the Articles of Confederation and report to ongress. Accordingly the Federal Convention assembled in Philadelphia nd drew up the text of the Constitution in a session from May 25 to Sepember 17, 1787. For the general form given to the Constitution no one stitution of three small cumentary N. Thorpe Eldridge & which is One Hunthe United ext of the n journal, taken by Debates, Clliot, and Hamilton, criticisms stitution. be menrinted in Bancroft, ry of the Period of itution; 16-524; ederain by ›f the rience edera and >ns to ›n for person is responsible: the most active men were James Madison, Edmund Randolph, James Wilson, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton. After agreeing on the general principles of the Constitution, a Committee of Detail was appointed, July 24, 1787, of which Rutledge, of South Carolina, was chairman. The report of this committee contains in general outline the Constitution as we have it; but on September 8, a Committee of Style was appointed, which included Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris and James Madison. To Gouverneur Morris is due the precise language of the instrument, and to his clear and terse expression we owe the lucidity and accuracy of phrase which characterize the United States Constitution. The original engrossed copy, with the signatures of a part of the members of the Convention, is preserved in the office of the Secretary of State in Washington. The originals of the fifteen Constitutional amendments are in the rolls of the Statutes, deposited in the State Department. The text below, both of the Constitution and the Amendments, is the result of careful comparison by one of the editors with the original manuscripts, February 10, 11, 1893; and it is intended to be absolutely exact in word, spelling, capitalization and punctuation. A few headings and paragrapn numbers, inserted by the editor for convenience of reference, are indicated by brackets: [ ] Those parts of the Constitution which were temporary in their nature, or which have been superseded or altered by later amendments, are included within the heavy brackets: [ ] The legal authority from which the Constitution springs is not the resolutions of Congress, nor the roll of the document itself with its signatures, but the subsequent ratification of the Constitution by the thirteen original States of the Union, from 1787 to 1790; and the ratification of the fifteen Constitutional amendments by three-fourths or more of the legislatures of the States in the Union at the times when the several amendments were pending. Among other so-called verbatim texts are those in the Revised Statutes of the United States; Manual of the Senate; Manual of the House of Representatives; Robert Desty, The Constitution of the United States, with Notes (San Francisco, 1887); William Hickey, Constitution of the United States, (Philadelphia, 1847), erroneously certified to as verbatim by James Buchanan, Secretary of State. In Albert Bushnell Hart's Introduction to the Study of Federal Government, (Boston, 1891,) the Revised Statutes text of the Constitution is shown in analytic form, and parallel with other Federal constitutions. All the above texts are more or less inaccurate, and ordinary texts- frequently deviate widely from the originals. BIBLIOGRAPHY-CALL. 3 The State Department, in 1891, issued an edition, The Constitution of the United States with the Amendments, which has but two or three small errors; another State Department edition is printed in the Documentary History of the Constitution, Part III, pp. 3-21. Prof. Francis N. Thorpe has published a convenient vest-pocket edition (Philadelphia, Eldridge & Brother, 1895), which he has compared with the original, and which is nearly correct. In Carson's History of the Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Promulgation of the Constitution of the United States (Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1889), is a fac-simile of the text of the Constitution. The best contemporary account of the Convention is its own journal, published in Elliot's Debates, vol. I. and the notes of debates taken by Madison and printed in Gilpin's Madison Papers and in Elliot's Debates, vol. V. Other proceedings and memoranda may be found in Elliot, and there are brief references in the works of Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison and Jefferson. P. L. Ford has reprinted contemporary criticisms in his Essays on the Constitution and Pamphlets on the Constitution. Elliot contains the debates in most of the States. Of the numerous secondary accounts of the Convention may be mentioned: G. T. Curtis' History of the Constitution, II., 232–604 (reprinted in vol. I. of his Constitutional History, chs. xv.-xxxvi.); George Bancroft, History of the Constitution, II., (reprinted in vol. VI. of his History of the United States, Author's Last Revision); John Fiske, Critical Period of American History, 183-350; J. H. Robinson, Sources of the Constitution; J. B. McMaster, History of the People of the United States, I., 416-524; R. Hildreth, History of the United States, III., 482–546. FEB. 21, 1787.-CALL BY CONGRESS. Whereas there is provision in the Articles of Confederation & perpetual Union for making alteration therein by the Assent of a Congress of the United States and of the legislatures of the several States; And whereas experience hath evinced that there are defects in the present Confederation, as a mean to remedy which several of the States and particularly the State of New York by express instructions to their delegates in Congress have suggested a convention for the purposes expressed in the following resolution and such Convention appearing to be the most probable mean of establishing in these States a firm national government Resolved That in the opinion of Congress it is expedient that on the second Monday in May next a Convention of delegates who shall have been appointed by the several states be held at Philadelphia for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as shall when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the states render the federal constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government & the preservation of the Union -Manuscript Journal of Congress, Vol. 38. [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 Tranquility, 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. I. 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. [§ 1.] The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the *There is no title in the original manuscript. PREAMBLE—ART. I. SECT. 3, ¿ I 5 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.* [$ 2.] 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. [$ 3.] 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, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.]‡ [S4] When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies. [$ 5.] The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. SECTION. 3. [$ 1.] The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote. * Modified by Fourteenth Amendment. |