Manual of the Constitution of the United States of America

Front matter

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Contents

Chaptee Tage

The Coxstitution 1

I. Postulate 27

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, tlie 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.

[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.

[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 oi 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, 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.

[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.

[8.] Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation : —

[9.] " 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.

Section 2

[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.

Section 3

[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; 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.

Section 4. •

[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.

ARTICLE III.

Section 1

[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.

Section 2

[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 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.

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.

[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.

ARTICLE IV.

Section 1. [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.

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, 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.

Section 3.

[1.] New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union ; but no new State 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.

Section 4. [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.

ARTICLE V.

[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 : 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 VL

[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.

ARTICLE VII.

[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.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.

ARTICLE I.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

ARTICLE IL

A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

ARTICLE IIL

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner ; nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

ARTICLE IV.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons,

houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches

and seizures, shall not be violated ; and no warrants

shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath i

i

or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be J

searched, and the persons or things to be seized. .1

; ARTICLE V. j

i

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or |

otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment |

or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising m |

the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual j

service, in time of war or public danger ; nor shall any ;

person be subject for the same offence to be twice put J

in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled, in j

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. ;

ARTICLE VL :

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 pre- '■

viously 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 pro- i

cess for obtaining witnesses in his favor ; and to have the '

assistance of counsel for his defence. i

ARTICLE VIL j

In suits at common law, where the value in contro- ,

versy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by j 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 VIII.

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

ARTICLE IX.

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

ARTICLE X.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

ARTICLE XL

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to 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.

ARTICLE XIL

1. The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Yice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves ; they shall name in the ballots the person voted for as President, and, in distinct ballots, the person voted for as Yice-President ; and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Yice-President, 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 for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person have such a majority, then, from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, 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. And, if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Yice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.

2. The person having the greatest number of votes as Yice-President, shall be the Yice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person have a majority, then, from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President. A quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators : a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice.

3. But no person, constitutionally ineligible to the office of President, shall be eligible to that of Vice- President of the United States.

ARTICLE XIII.

1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

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

ARTICLE XIV.

1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the States wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed ; but, wlienever the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Yice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, 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.

3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Yice-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.

4. The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by law, including debts incurred for the 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 aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave ; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.

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

MANUAL OF THE CONSTITUTION.

Chapter I. Postulate

§ 1. I]sr entering upon the study of the Constitution of the United States, two princij^les should be firmly established in the mind of the student: first, that it is "the supreme law of the land;" and, second, that it constitutes a government for the purpose, and of course with the power and duty, of executing it. The first is proclaimed by the Constitution itself, in these precise words, and will not be denied or doubted.^ The second rests on the same unquestionable authority, though more circuitously and indirectly asserted.

§ 2. It is a just principle, that " every government ought to possess the means of executing its own provisions, by its own authority." ^ There

1 " We must either admit the proposition, or deny the authority." — Webster.

28 POSTULATE.

must necessarily be a constitutional mode of giving construction and efficacy to all constitutional provisions. The first three Articles of the Constitution provide for the three several departments of what it repeatedly calls "the government of the United States," assigning appropriate powers and duties to each. The executive department is expressly required to " take care that the laws be faithfully executed," including the Constitution itself, — the fundamental and " supreme law," — and all other law ; and to make oath that he "will faithfully execute the office." The legislative department is authorized "to make all laws Viecessary and proper for carrying into execution" the powers vested in the executive or any other department of the government. The judicial department, or "the judicial power^ shall extend to all cases in law or equity arising under this Constitution ; " that is, from any action or omission of the Government or by its authority, and which may involve the meaning and construction of every sentence in the Constitution. As every power conferi'ed necessarily involves a duty, here is ample provision made for the complete execution of every part and parcel of the Constitution. It does not cover the aggregate merely; but every word, sentence, and portion of it in detail, from "We, the people," to the end of Article YII., and all the Amendments.

§ 3. This duty of the government was first

POSTULATE. 29

directly promulgated by the convention who formed the instrument. In their resolution for jDutting the Constitution into operation, after providing for the choice of the first President and members of Congress, they say that they shall " proceed to execute this Constitution." It was recognized and acted upon by the first President and Congress, in the enactment of the first statute ever made under the Constitution. The sixth Article of the Constitution, requiring certain oaths to be taken by officers of the general and local governments, assigned no special duty to the government in general, or to Congress in particular, respecting its execution. IS'evertheless, they made this statute for the express purpose of executing it; and it has been approved and practised upon, by all classes of the government and people, as long as the government has stood, and is still in force. The same duty has also been repeatedly exercised in the enactment of divers other laws, similarly called for, though not specially authorized, and expressly approved and sanctioned by the adjudications of the Supreme Court. A law is a rule of conduct, and a supreme law is above all other law. A law without a sanction is no law, and a rule neither followed nor retributed is void. Hence the necessity which compelled the American people to make in their government an agent, with power to execute the sujireme law, and every part of it, — in the language of

30 POSTULATE.

the "Federalist,"^ "a common government, with powers equal to its objects;" having constitutional power to give effect to all constitutional provisions.

§ 4. With these two im^Dortant principles thoroughly imbibed, and constantly held in view, the true character of the Constitution, and the extent of the powers of the government, will be more easily investigated, and more readily understood. I enter into no analysis or vindication of these principles, because they are considered as purely elementary and fundamental ; as incontrovertible maxims, if not self-evident truths, without which there can be no government. If the Constitution is not law, or if the government is not bound, has not the right and duty, to execute it, there is nothing left that is worth a discussion.

CHAPTER 11.

THE GOVERNMENT.

§ 5. The first clause of the Constitution is not only the first in the order of its arrangement, but the first in the importance and significance of its contents. It is a declaration of the authority by which it was made, the purposes for which it was made, the fundamental law by which these purposes are to be executed, and the country and nation to which they are applied. It is, in fact, the essence and epitome of the whole instrument, by which the government is ordained and created, and its purposes, authority, and duty established. It is in these comprehensive and emphatic words: "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."

§ 6. This enacting clause, though standing at the head, and being introductory to all the rest, was really one of the last that was incorporated in the Constitution. The circumstances out of which it grew, the accretions by which from time to time it was accumulated, the alterations and variations through which it passed in the process, and the time and manner of its incorporation in its present shape as a part of the instrument, are interesting facts in its history, and well accord with the importance of its present position as the leading, enacting, and most mandatory section of the Constitution.

§ 7. The principal materials out of which the Constitution was compiled, so far as they were not original with the convention, were found embodied, classified, and commingled with others, in at least seven different formal instruments. Saying nothing of the JSTew-England Confederacy of 1643, the Albany Plan of Union of 1754, or the plan proposed by Dr. Franklin to Congress in 1775, there was, '1st, The Articles of Confederation of 1781, to which the attention of the convention was directly called by the terms of their appointment ; 2d, A set of resolutions, introduced, on consultation with his associates, by Mr. Randolph, and called the Virginia Plan; 3d, A Constitution in form, drawn up by Mr. Charles Pinckney, and called the South- Carolina Plan; 4th, A set of resolutions, drawn up on consultation, and introduced by Mr. Patterson, and called the ^New- Jersey Plan; 5th, Ml". Hamilton's draft of a Constitution in form, exjDOunded by him to the convention in his speech of June 18, 1787; 6th, The first draft made under the orders of the convention by their Committee of Detail; and, 7th, The final draft made by their Committee of Revision. Each new draft had the benefit of the substance and of the discussion of all the preceding-.

§ 8. The first sentence of the Articles of Confederation was in these words: "Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the States of l^^ew Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, Isew York, 'Ngw Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, l^orth Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia." It was a mere naked title to the instrument, and proceeded "Article I." &c. to "Article XIII." The Yirginia Plan was a set of resolutions, numbered one to fifteen, without title or prelude of any sort. The South-Carolina Plan was a draft of a Federal government, and began with these words : " AYe, the people of the States of 'New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia", JN^orth Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, do ordain, declare, and establish the following Constitution for the government of ourselves and posterity." The ^NTew- Jersey Plan, like the Yirginia, was a mere set of resolutions, numerically arranged, without title or prelude. Mr. Hamilton's draft began in these words : " The people of the United States of America do ordain and establish this Constitution, for the government of themselves and their posterity." The Yirginia Plan was made the text for the proceedings of the convention for about two months, during which time it had been debated and altered, till the twenty-sixth day of July, 1787, when, in the form of twenty-three distinct resolutions adopted by the convention, it was referred to the Committee of Detail " for the purpose of reporting a Constitution conformably to the proceedings aforesaid." The South-Carolina and the I*^ew- Jersey Plans were at the same time referred to the same Committee, without being specially considered by the convention. After an adjournment for ten days, the convention received the report of the Committee of Detail, which formed a new text for the subsequent debates and proceedings of the convention.