Pennsylvania B. Franklin Geo. Clymer Geo: Read Gunning Bedford Jun John Dickinson Richard Bassett Jaco: Broom Maryland James McHenry Dan of St. Thos. Jenifer Danl. Carroll Virginia John Blair South Carolina be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in 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 VI 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 previously 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 process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. ARTICLE VII In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined 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, the nor prohibited by it to States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. ARTICLE XI 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 XII The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President and for all persons voted for as Vice President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of government of the United States, directed to the president of the Senate;- The president of the Senate shall, in 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 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 Vice President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice President shall be the Vice 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, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States. SECTION I. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS ARTICLE XIII 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. SECTION 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. ARTICLE XIV SECTION I. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immuni ties 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. SECTION 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 when the right to vote at any election for the choice of clectors for President and Vice President of the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the 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. ог as an SECTION 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, 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. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for SECTION 4. 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. SECTION 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. 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 by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Constitutional Amendments, History of. As shown in a preceding article (see CONSTITUTION, FRAMING OF THE), very few of the States liked the Constitution as a form of government at all, and fewer still were satisfied with it as an instrument. North Carolina had refused to ratify without amendments and a "bill of rights" affixed-a declaration of the fundamental rights of human beings to which immense importance was attached by the mass at that time; Massachusetts and New Hampshire ratified with an appended urgent recommendation of certain amendments; New York first ratified subject to the right to secede if her amendments were not accepted within six years, and finally changed "on condition" to "in full confidence." The mass of amendments proposed in the first Congress was enormous; 103 from the States themselves, and 42 from minorities in other States, besides long bills of rights from New York and Virginia. Some of them were duplicates, but the total was very great; the House rejected them all and agreed on 17 articles in their place. The Senate cut them down to 12 and both Houses passed them; the first two failed of ratification by the States, the remaining 10 were accepted and went into force 15 Dec. 1791. The text of the Amendments is to be found with the body of the Constitution.⚫ The First Amendment (Article I.) was violated by the government within a few years in the Sedition Act (see ALIEN ACTS), and had no effect in accomplishing its AND SEDITION defeat, which was effected by a party revolution. Nor has it prevented "gag laws," or exclusion obnoxious. Public opinion in these respects has from the mails of whatever has been thought been found more efficient than the Constitution. General warrants were a principal grievance of the British customs laws, a fact which explains Article IV. "Life or limb" in Article V. is a curious anachronism; modern laws do not prescribe the rack as a punishment. Probably the drafters of this provision used a current phrase without stopping to analyze its meaning. The provision of Article VI. against changing the venue was doubtless suggested by the attempts to take Americans to England for trial. The intrepid jumble of possible and impossible dangers of Articles VII.-X., inclusive, reminiscences of 17th-century persecutions and 18thcentury customs laws, of the times of King John and those of George III., of grievances unthinkable except under foreign rule and of others likely enough under their own, of local provisions and world-wide provisions, is amusingly characteristic of the period and the people; perhaps rather, any period and any people. The Amendments inspired the champions of a strong government with great weariness and disgust; but they are not all anachronisms or idle precautions. The Tenth especially (added by Massachusetts) has in practice restrained the action of the government greatly, especially in guiding the constructions of the supreme court; and certain provisions of the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh have been great public safeguards, by no means out of date even yet. See CHISHOLM V. GEORGIA, for the circumstances under which the Eleventh Amendment, put in force 8 Jan. 1798, was passed. Maryland had been sued by a private citizen, and submitted; Georgia was sued, refused to plead, and threatened with death any one who served a writ in the suit; and she and Virginia pressed through an amendment forbidding such suits by individuals against States, but not vice versa. The gist of Article XII. is the naming of the candidates for President and Vice-President separately; the lack of which provision brought about a discreditable intrigue, and results political and personal by no means forgotten. (See ELECTORAL SYSTEM; JEFFERSON-BURR IMBROGLIO.) Before this, the highest candidate was President and the next highest VicePresident; but now came an election which showed not merely the possibility of a tie, but the certainty of one, between the two candidates of the same party from mere party loyalty. Yet plain as this seems, the Amendment failed in the first Congress where it was introduced, CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS, PROPOSED passed the House 12 Dec. 1803, only by the Speaker's casting vote, was ratified by the bare three fourths of the States necessary, and declared in force 25 Sept. 1804. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware (Federalist States), rejected it. The emancipation proclamation had freed only the slaves within the States technically in revolt. In those where the Union forces alone had prevented it, as Maryland, or a powerful minority of Union men plus resolute Union commanders, as Missouri, and generally in the Border States, the slaves were still private property, nearly 1,000,000 in number. Movements to compensate the owners were abortive, partly because the owners would not listen to such proposals; and the Thirteenth Amendment was introduced for entire emancipation without payment. Its phraseology is essentially that of the Ordinance of 1787 (q.v.), repeated in the Missouri Compromise and the Wilmot Proviso (q.v.). It passed the Senate 8 April 1864, 38 to 6, and the House 15 June 95 to 66, but the latter was not the needed two thirds. In the next session the House passed it, and it was ratified by 31 States, and proclaimed in force 18 Dec. 1865. The Fourteenth Amendment, in part a rephrasing of the Fifth, arose out of the first Civil Rights Bill (q.v.), which was pronounced nonenforceable as contrary to the decision of the supreme court in the Dred Scott Case (q.v.), that negroes were not citizens. As this decision was law until distinctly reversed, the Amendment was drawn, the first clause clearing away that decision. The other sections were: (1) A bribe to the South to give the negro the vote; (2) to give the negroes a clear field by debarring the Confederate leaders from it; (3) obvious. It passed both houses in June 1866, by overwhelming votes, but a long struggle ensued over ratification. The old Confederate States rejected it, to which Congress retorted by the Reconstruction Act of 2 March 1867, constituting provisional governments in those States till they had ratified the Amendment, and they did so. Maryland, Delaware, and Kentucky also rejected it; and New Jersey and Ohio were captured by the Democrats and rescinded their ratifications, though it was doubtful whether this could be done. But finally 33 States ratified without them, and the Amendment was declared in force 28 July 1868. inclusive were declared in force 15 Dec. 1791. XI. was declared in force 8 Jan. 1798. XII., regulating elections, was ratified by all the States except Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, which rejected it. It was declared in force 28 Sept. 1804. XIII. The emancipation amendment was ratified by 31 of the 36 States; rejected by Delaware and Kentucky, not acted on by Texas; conditionally ratified by Alabama and Mississippi. Proclaimed 18 Dec. 1865. XIV. Reconstruction amendment was ratified by 23 Northern States; rejected by Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and 10 Southern States, and not acted on by California. The 10 Southern States subsequently ratified under pressure. Proclaimed 28 July 1868. XV. Negro citizenship amendment was not acted on by Tennessee, rejected by California, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, and Oregon: ratified by the remaining 30 States. New York rescinded its ratification, 5 Jan. 1870. Proclaimed 30 March 1870. Constitutional Amendments, Proposed. From the first Congress to the present time more than two thousand amendments to the Constitution of the United States have been proposed, embracing at least fifteen hundred subjects; but from all the proposed amendments and the frequent and sometimes heated discussions regarding them only fifteen have thus far been made an integral part of the great document. The first ten amendments were prepared by the first Congress in 1789 as necessary supplements, and were declared in force 15 Dec. 1791. They were designed as restraints on the Federal government and not on the States. The five following amendments were declared in force, respectively, as follows: XI, 8 Jan. 1798; XII, 28 Sept. 1804; XIII. 18 Dec. 1865; XIV, 28 July 1868; XV, 30 March 1870. (See CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS, HISTORY OF.) Since the Fifteenth no other amendments have been added to the Constitution. But in The suggestions for new amendments have come from many and various sources. In the early days of the republic some of the decisions of Chief Justice Marshall caused the States to ask for amendments. and it is from State legislators that the majority of requests for changes in the Constitution have emanated. President Madison's time, one of his vetoes caused an effort to enlarge the powers of ConThe Fifteenth Amendment was practically a gress on the subject, and the frequent vetoes substitute for the second section of the Four of President Jackson were productive of many teenth, which was found valueless. In one reproposed amendments. Some of the enemies of spect it was weaker than the other, which prePresident Tyler and, later, of other presidents. scribed a penalty for the offense, while this opposed second and third term ambition by prescribed none; but its specification of the attempting to legislate the one-term idea into negroes as the class not to be excluded, and the law of the land. Resolutions and memorialtheir race or color or former slavery as not legal ization of various bodies and movements, as grounds for disfranchisement, gave it apparently well as personal initiative have been responsible a clearer legal footing. In fact, however, it has for many proposed changes. Many were confibeen found as little worth as the other. It dent for instance, that slavery and seccession passed both Houses in February 1869, by im- could be settled by constitutional amendment; mense majorities, was ratified by 30 out of 37 that prohibition, woman suffrage and other reStates, and declared in force 30 March 1870. forms should be brought about by this method; New York fell into the hands of the Democrats and practical innovations, like postponing the and rescinded its vote; a notice was filed in the time of the inauguration of the President to a State Department, which reported that the State date more seasonable for the outdoor cere"claimed" to have rescinded its ratification, but mony, have been suggested by the score if not paid no further attention to it. It is more than hundreds, some of them even getting as far as doubtful if such action of a State has the least to secure many votes in Congress; but in the validity. last forty years only two, and those very Ratification of the Amendments.-I. to X. recently, have gone to the country for formal CONSTITUTIONS-CONSTITUTION, THE ratification. It is significant of the growing popular demand for changes in the Constitution, that nearly a third of the two thousand propositions for amendments have been made in the last twenty-five years. The two amendments which Congress has formally laid before the country for ratification are those for an Income Tax and the election of United States Senators by popular vote instead of by the legislatures. It was in July 1909 that Congress sent to the States for legislative action the following proposed amendment: Article XVI. The Congress shall have power to levy and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source decreed, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. The demand for this amendment grew out of a decision of the Supreme Court in 1895 that the income-tax clause of the WilsonGorman Act was unconstitutional, the Court holding that a tax from the income on land must be apportioned to the States according to population; by the proposed amendment it is held that a tax on income can be levied "without regard to any census or enumeration," thus obviating the objections of the Supreme Court. The clause "from whatever source derived" has given rise to much discussion, especially since Governor Hughes expressed his belief, in a special message to the New York Legislature, that it would limit the borrowing power of the States by making it possible for Congress to lay a tax on the income from State and municipal bonds. Senator Root and other constitutional lawyers, however, argue that Congress would not be required to levy on such bonds, and "in the exercise of its discretionary power would not be likely to do so." Legal precedents, moreover, would undoubtedly lead the courts to forbid taxation of such bonds by Congress. On July 1912, the legislatures of thirty States had declared in favor of the Income Tax amendment; seven States had refused to ratify; and eleven States yet remained in which the vote was, for different reasons, not complete or decisive, or had not yet been taken. The votes of thirty-six States are now necessary to complete the ratification and make the amendment a part of the Constitution. For many years efforts have been made to secure a change in the law regarding the election of United States Senators, The first Congressional resolution calling for such a change was offered in 1826, but up to 1911 all such proposals, coming invariably from the House, were promptly smothered in the Senate. Within the last twenty years, for instance, such House action was taken at least four times-in 1894, 1898, 1900 and 1902-but in each case the Senate refused to concur. However, public opinion proved at last irresistible, and the question was finally forced to the front. On 14 May 1912, the Senate agreed, with the House, to submit to the vote of the legislatures an amendment (which, if adopted and if the Income Tax amendment is ratified, will be the "Seventeenth,") providing for the direct election of Senators to the Senate of the United States. It is cast in such form as to preserve federal control over Senatorial elections. Constitutions, State, First Formation of. The colonies at the Revolution were living under a great variety of governmental instruments, and some of them under none. For example, New Hampshire and Delaware were not separate colonies by any formal grant or charter; the former existed only by the royal will, and was a semi-appendage of Massachusetts, the two often having the same governor; the latter was in theory only three counties of Pennsylvania, and had always the same governor. Pennsylvania and Delaware had proprietary governments; New Jersey a crown government, but the old proprietary instrument of government, "the Concessions"; Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, crown governments, and royal charters; Connecticut and Rhode Island pure self-governing charters. All of course had the rights of English freemen, and popular assemblies. When the Revolution broke out, these instruments, except in the last two cases, and measurably in Massachusetts, would no longer serve for the new needs as members of an independent republic, and must have great modification or entire reconstruction. New Hampshire, living on sufferance with no government at all, was naturally the first to act, adopting a constitution 5 Jan. 1776; South Carolina followed 26 March; Virginia 20 June; New Jersey 2 July; Delaware 21 September, seizing the opportunity for independence; Pennsylvania 28 September; Maryland 11 November; North Carolina 18 December; Georgia 5 Feb. 1777; New York 20 April. Some of these constitutions were adopted by the provincial congresses, the rest by conventions called by the congresses. None of them were submitted to popular ratification: the adopting bodies themselves had no basis but popular desire and consent, and the people asked nothing better than to have them assume the power. But in the other New England colonies there was no such haste, for their bodies of law were satisfactory enough. Even the Massachusetts General Court did not replace the royal charter by a constitution till 28 Feb. 1778, and when it was submitted to popular vote it was rejected; another, drawn up by John Adams, wais adopted by a convention 2 March 1780, and ratified. The two colonies already under pure democratic charters took no steps to alter them: no alteration was needed. In fact, Connecticut remained under the charter of 23 April 1662, which by statute of 1776 was enacted to be the Constitution of the State, until 1818, when a strong democratic movement took the reins of power from the hands of the local aristocracies which mainly exercised it; while Rhode Island remained under the charter of 14 March 1643, renewed 1663, until 1842, two thirds of a century after the Revolution, when the great disfranchised mass revolted against the former oligarchy (see DORR REBELLION), and forced it to include them. See also UNITED STATES THE FORMATION OF STATE CONSTITUTIONS; UNITED STATES STATE CONSTITUTIONS. Constitution, The, or Old Ironsides (from the slightness of the injury her huli received in the fight with the Guerrière), one of the most famous vessels of the American navy, now fixed in Boston harbor. She was a 44-gun frigate of 1,576 tons; one of the six war vessels ordered by Congress early in 1794, on account of the Algerian piracies (see BARBARY POWERS, U. S. WARS AND TREATIES WITH THE). These were CONSTITUTION, THE built not on contract, but by the day, under the eyes of practised commanders, and embodied the latest experience of all nations; and were the supreme types of their class on the globe. The Constitution was built at Boston by George Cloghorne and Mr. Hartley, at a cost of $302,719, and was launched 20 Sept. 1797. An English officer in 1815 said she was one of the finest frigates, if not the very finest, he ever set foot on. She took part in the war of 1800 with the French in the West Indies, as Commodore Talbot's flag-ship; her first lieutenant was Isaac Hull, by whose seamanship she beat an English frigate several miles in a day's race, and who in a boat from her captured a French privateer at Hayti. In 1803 she went to the Mediterranean as Preble's flag-ship, and took part in the operations against the pirates,-notably the recapture of the Philadelphia (see DECATUR, STEPHEN), and the bombardment of Tripoli August-September 1804. It was while sailing to relieve her that the Chesapeake (q.v.) was so bloodily raided by the Leopard. In 1811, when on an errand to England under Hull, then captain, two English frigates undertook to repeat the Leopard's performance wich her; but Hull outsailed the one and closed with the other, daunting the latter into drawing off, to the great disappointment of the Constitution's crew. When the War of 1812 broke out Hull started to join the New York squadron with her, 12 July; was cut off by a British squadron, including the Guerrière, but in a wonderful chase of three nights and two days outmanœuvred and escaped it. The Navy Department was exceedingly afraid of an ships and its own, was barely shamed out of keeping the latter all in port to prevent their capture, and had instructed Hull not to risk an engagement with a superior force; it had resolved to supersede him by Bainbridge, and had sent him word to remain in Boston till further orders; but he had foreboded some mischief and, 2 August, to avoid receiving undesirable orders, slipped out of Boston with his ship. A high authority says that had his ship been captured or unsuccessful, he would have been hanged or shot for disobedience of orders. Sailing for the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence in hope of prizes, but disappointed, he stood south for Bermuda; but on the 19th, about 100 miles east of Boston came (without recognizing her) upon the Guerrière. Its captain, Dacres, had met Hull before and bet a hat with him as to the results of a mutual fight, and had left the squadron precisely in order to capture in single combat the vessel which had eluded the whole body. The Constitution had 55 guns firing 700 pounds of metal, the Guerrière 49 guns firing 597; the crews were respectively 468 and 263. The frequent statement that the Guerrière was a rotten and worn-out ship is, however, a fiction. After maneuvering for position, about 5.45 P.M. the Constitution steered straight for the enemy, but reserved her fire; the Guerrière kept up a hot fire, wounding several men; at 40 yards Hull let fly his whole broadside, with the accuracy of American naval gunnery and with fearful destruction. By 6.10 the Guerrière's main yard was shot away and the rigging, sails, and hull badly damaged; just then the mizzenmast was shot through and fell dragging in the sea, acting as a rudder and making the helmi useless. The Constitution came encounter between British about and raked her hampered foe with two terrible broadsides, and the two shortly met. Both wished to board, but the rolling prevented it; the rigging, however, was filled with sharpshooters who swept the decks, badly wounding several officers of both, including Dacres, and killing one of the Constitution's. At 6.22 the Guerrière's foremast came down and carried the mainmast with it, with all the yards and rigging; and the dismasted wreck rolled in the trough of the sea perfectly helpless. Hull took possession, refusing to accept Dacres' sword, but asking for the hat. The Guerrière had lost 15 killed and 63 wounded; the Constitution, seven killed and seven wounded. The Guerrière was sinking and could not be towed into port; she was therefore blown up. Hull sailed into Boston with his prisoners, to such an ovation as few men have ever earned in so short a time. In less than 25 minutes of actual fighting he had lifted the despised American navy and nation to an equality with the proudest of the world; and drew from Great Britain such an explosion of rage and humiliation as it has never known before or since. Hull generously gave up the command, to give a chance to other officers, they being more plentiful than frigates; and the Constitution was made Bainbridge's flag-ship for a cruise against English commerce in the East Indies. On 29 Dec. 1812 it encountered the Java, Capt. Lambert, off the coast of Brazil, and at 2.10 P.M. joined action. The Constitution had 54 guns, with 787 pounds of metal; the Java 47, with 568 pounds. The crews were 480 and 426. One of the fiercest of naval battles ensued for wheel was shot away at the outset, making its nearly two hours, in which the Constitution's navigation difficult, and the English vessel was the better sailer anyway. But the American gunnery was incomparably more intelligent, and improved every opportunity for raking broadsides, while the British did not. As soon as the Constitution came to close quarters, she inflicted ruinous damage and frightful slaughter. The Java's jib-boom and bowsprit were soon shot away, and the running rigging made useless; at 3.05 P.M. the foremast was carried away, shattering the forecastle and main deck, and making several guns inaccessible; soon afterward the maintopmast fell, and in a short time the gaff and spanker boom. Bainbridge had been twice badly wounded, and now Lambert was fatally shot. At 3.30 the Java's fire slackened, and the Constitution poured in broadsides almost unanswered; at 3.55 the former's mizzenmast went; at 4.05 the fire had wholly ceased, half the guns were useless, and the mainmast was tottering and had to be cut away. This closed the action, and the Java struck. She had lost 60 killed and 101 wounded, against the Constitution's 9 killed and 25 wounded. The Java was so utter a ruin that she could only be got into the nearest port (Bahia), and was blown up. The Constitution was taken into Boston for repairs; but before they were completed, Boston was closely blockaded, and she did not escape till New Year's Day 1814, under Capt. Charles Stewart. In a cruise to the West Indies, Capt. Stewart captured four prizes, with 24 guns and 76 men; one of them was the 14-gun schooner Picton. Again blockaded by a powerful British squad |