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 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 III I. 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 overact, 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 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. EXTICA SECTION 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 labour 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 labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due. SECTION III 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 IV 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 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 twothirds 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 VI 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 f/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 The ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. 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, Go. WASHINGTON, President, and Deputy from Virginia. 305 GOUVERNEUR MORRIS TO WASHINGTON 1 PHILADELPHIA, 30 October 1787. His Excellency Gen'l Washington. DEAR SIR, Shortly after your departure from this place, I went to my farm and returned hither last Sunday evening. Living out of the busy world I had nothing to say worth your attention, or I would earlier have given you the trouble you now experience. Altho not very inquisitive about political opinions, I have not been quite inattentive. The States eastward of New York appear to be almost unanimous in favor of the new Constitution; for I make no account of the dissentients in Rhode Island. Their preachers are advocates for the adoption, and this circumstance coinciding with the steady support of the property and other abilities of the country makes the current set strongly, and I trust irresistibly, that way. Jersey is so near unanimity in her favorable opinion, that we may count with certainty on something more than votes should the state of affairs hereafter require the application of pointed arguments. New York, hemmed in between the warm friends of the Constitution, could not easily (unless supported by powerful States) make any important struggle, even tho her citizens were unanimous, which is by no means the case. Parties there are nearly balanced. If the assent or dissent of the New York Legislature were to decide on the fate of America there would still be a chance, tho I believe the force of Government would preponderate and effect a rejection. But the Legislature cannot assign to the people any good reason for not trusting them with a decision on their own affairs, and must therefore agree to a convention. In the choice of a convention it is not improbable that the fœderal party will prove strongest, for persons of every distinct and opposite interests have joined on this subject. With respect to this State I am far from being decided in my opinion that they will consent. True it is that the city and its neighbourhood are enthusiastic in the cause; but I dread the cold and sour temper of the back counties, and still more the wicked industry of those who have long habituated themselves to live on the public, and cannot bear the idea of being removed from the power and 'Washington manuscripts, Library of Congress. profit of State Government, which has been and still is the means of supporting themselves, their families and dependents; and (which perhaps is more grateful) of depressing and humbling their political adversaries. What opinions prevail more southward I cannot guess. You are in condition better than any other person to judge of a great and important part of that country. Í have observed that your name to the new Constitution has been of infinite service. Indeed I am convinced that if you had not attended the Convention, and the same paper had been handed out to the world, it would have met with a colder reception, with fewer and weaker advocates, and with more and more strenuous opponents. As it is, should the idea prevail that you would not accept of the Presidency, it would prove fatal in many parts. Truth is, that your great and decided superiority leads men willingly to put you in a place which will not add to your personal dignity, nor raise you higher than you already stand: but they would not willingly put any other person in the same situation, because they feel the elevation of others as operating (by comparison) the degredation of themselves. And however absurd this idea, you will agree with me the men must be sophers, and least of all things as reasonable creatures; seeing that in effect they reason not to direct but to excuse their conduct. Thus much for the public opinion on these subjects, which must not be neglected in a country where opinion is everything. I will add my conviction that of all men you are the best fitted to fill that office. Your cool steady temper is indispensibly necessary to give firm and manly tone to the new Government. To constitute a well poised political machine is the task of no common workman; but to set it in motion requires still greater qualities. When once agoing it will proceed a long time from the original impulse. Time gives to primary institutions the mighty power of habit; and custom, the law both of wise men and of fools, serves as the great commentator of human establishments, and like other commentators as frequently obscures as it explains the real. No Constitution is the same on paper and in life. The exercise of authority depends on personal character; and the whip and reins by which an able charioteer governs unruly steeds |