Resource Center OLLibrary
|
12 |
|
of war in time of peace, enter into any
agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power,
or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in much imminent
danger as will not admit of delay.
SECTION 1. 1. The executive
power shall be vested in a President of the United States of
America.
He shall hold his office during the term of four years and,
together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be
elected as follows:
2. Each state shall appoint,
in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number
of
electors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives
to which the state may be entitled in the Congress; but no
senator, or representative, or person holding an office of trust
or profit under the United States shall be appointed an
elector.
[3. The electors shall
meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two
persons, of 
whom
one, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with
themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted
for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they shall
sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the
government of the United States, directed to the president of the
Senate. The president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the
senate and house of representatives, open all the certificates,
and the 
votes
shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of
votes shall be the president, if such number be a majority of the
whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one
who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then
the house of representatives shall immediately choose, by ballot,
one of them for president; and if no person have a majority, then,
from the five highest on the list, the said house shall, in like
manner, choose the president. But, in choosing the president, the
votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state
having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a
member or members from two thirds of the states, and a majority of
all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case,
after the choice of the president, the person having the greatest
number of votes of the electors shall be the vice-president. But,
if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the
Senate shall choose from them, by ballot, the
vice-president.]1
4.
The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors and
the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be
the same throughout the United States.2
5. No person, except a
natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the
time of 
the
adoption of this constitution, shall be eligible to the office of
president, neither shall any person be eligible to that office who
shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been
fourteen years a resident within the United States.
6. In case of the removal of
the president from office, or of his death, resignation, or
inability
to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same
shall devolve on the vice-president; and the Congress may, by law,
provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability,
both of the president and vice-president,3 declaring
what officer shall then act as president; and such officer shall
act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a president
shall be elected.
1 This clause, within brackets, has been superseded by the 12th Amendment. See p. 16.
2 The regular time for choosing electors is the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November preceding the expiration of a presidential term The day on which they shall give their votes is the first Wednesday of the December following; and the votes shall be counted and declared in Congress (see Amendments to the Constitution, Art. XII., p. 16,) the second Wednesday of the following February.
3 In this case "the president of the senate pro tempore, and in case there shall be no president of the senate, then the speaker of the house of representatives for the time being, shall act as president of the United States, until the disability be removed or a president shall be elected." And the secretary of state shall notify the executives of the different states to cause the first Wednesday of the December next preceding the expiration of a presidential term.
|
|
13 |
7. The President shall, at
stated times, receive for his services a compensation, which shall
neither
be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall
have been elected; and he shall not receive within that period any
other emolument from the United States, or any of
them.1
8. Before he enter on the
execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or
affirmation:--
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will
faithfully execute the office of President of the United States,
and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend
the Constitution of the United States."
SEC. 11. 1. The president
shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United
States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into
the actual service of the United 
States;
he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer,
in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to
the duties of their respective offices; and he shall have power to
grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United
States, except in cases of impeachment.
2. He shall have power, by
and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties,
provided
two thirds of the senators present concur; and he shall nominate
and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall
appoint, ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges
of the supreme court, and all other officers of the United States,
whose appointments are not herein otherwise 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.
3. 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.
SEC. III. 1. 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,2 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.
SEC. IV. 1. 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, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
SECTION I. 1. The judicial
power of the United States shall 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 courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior;
and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a
compensation which shall not be diminished during their
continuance in office.
SEC. II. 1. The judicial
power shall extend to all cases in 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
1 The salary of the president, from the beginning of the government to 1873, was $25,000 a year. It was then raised to, and still continues at, $50,000. That of the vice-president is &8,000 a year.
2 It is the custom of the president to comply with this requisition in a message to Congress at the opening of each session. Washington and John Adams made their messages in person to both houses of Congress assembled in convention. Jefferson introduced the present practice of sending to the two houses a written message by his private secretary.
|
14 |
|
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.
2. In all cases affecting
ambassadors, other public ministers, and 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.
3. The trial of all crimes,
except in cases of impeachment, shall 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.
SEC. III. 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.
2. 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.
SECTION I. 1. Full faith and
credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records,
and
judicial proceedings 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.
SEC. II. 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, 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.
3. No person held to service
or labor in one state, under the laws 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.
SEC. III. 1. New states may
be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new 
states
shall be formed 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.
2. The Congress shall have
power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations
respecting,
the territory or other property belonging to the United States;
and nothing in this constitution shall be so construed as to
prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular
state.
SEC. IV. 1. 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 application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the
legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence.
1. The Congress, whenever
two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall
propose
amendments to this constitution; or, on the application of the
legislatures of two 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;
|
|
15 |
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.
1. 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.
2. This constitution, and the
laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance
thereof,
and all treaties 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.
3. The senators and
representatives before mentioned, and 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
required as a qualification to any office or public trust under
the United States.
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.1
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.2
GEO.
WASHINGTON,
Presidt. and deputy from Virginia.
|
|
|
|
|
John Langdon, |
B. Franklin, |
John Blair |
|
Nicholas Gilman. |
Thomas Mifflin, |
James Madison, Jr. |
|
Robt. Morris, |
||
|
|
Gen: Clymer, |
|
|
Nathaniel Gorham, |
The: Fitzsimons, |
|
|
Rufus King. |
Jared Ingersoll, |
Wm. Blount, |
|
James Wilson, |
Rich'd Dobbs Spaight, |
|
|
|
Gouv: Morris. |
Hu. Williamson. |
|
Wm. Saml. Johnson, |
||
|
Roger Sherman. |
|
|
|
Geo: Read, |
J. Rutledge, |
|
|
|
Gunning Bedford, Jun'r, |
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, |
|
Alexander Hamilton. |
John Dickinson, |
Charles Pinckney, |
|
Richard Bassett, |
Pierce Butler. |
|
|
|
Jaco: Broom. |
|
|
Wil. Livingston, |
||
|
David Brearley, |
|
|
|
Wm. Paterson, |
James M'Henry, |
William Few, |
|
Joint. Dayton. |
Dan: of St. Thos. Jenifer, |
Abr. Baldwin. |
|
Daul. Carron. |
Attest: WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary.
1 See p. 1,50, ¶ 5, and note 1.
2 The number of delegates chosen to the convention was sixty-five; ten did not attend; sixteen declined signing the Constitution, or left the convention before it was ready to be signed. Thirty-nine signed.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
© 1999, 2000, 2001 for NEGenWeb Project by Ted & Carole Miller