THE MAGNA CARTA (The Great Charter):

THE MAGNA CARTA (The Great Charter):

Preamble:

John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord

of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count

of Anjou, to the archbishop, bishops, abbots, earls,

barons, justiciaries, foresters, sheriffs, stewards,

servants, and to all his bailiffs and liege subjects,

greetings. Know that, having regard to God and for the

salvation of our soul, and those of all our ancestors

and heirs, and unto the honor of God and the advancement

of his holy Church and for the rectifying of our

realm, we have granted as underwritten by advice of our

venerable fathers, Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury,

primate of all England and cardinal of the holy Roman

Church, Henry, archbishop of Dublin, William of London,

Peter of Winchester, Jocelyn of Bath and Glastonbury,

Hugh of Lincoln, Walter of Worcester, William of

Coventry, Benedict of Rochester, bishops; of Master

Pandulf, subdeacon and member of the household of our

lord the Pope, of brother Aymeric (master of the

Knights of the Temple in England), and of the

illustrious men William Marshal, earl of Pembroke,

William, earl of Salisbury, William, earl of Warenne,

William, earl of Arundel, Alan of Galloway (constable

of Scotland), Waren Fitz Gerold, Peter Fitz Herbert,

Hubert De Burgh (seneschal of Poitou), Hugh de Neville,

Matthew Fitz Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset,

Philip d'Aubigny, Robert of Roppesley, John Marshal,

John Fitz Hugh, and others, our liegemen.

In the first place we have granted to God, and

by this our present charter confirmed for us and our

heirs forever that the English Church shall be free,

and shall have her rights entire, and her liberties

inviolate; and we will that it be thus observed; which

is apparent from this that the freedom of elections,

which is reckoned most important and very essential

to the English Church, we, of our pure and

unconstrained will, did grant, and did by our charter

confirm and did obtain the ratification of the same

from our lord, Pope Innocent III, before the quarrel

arose between us and our barons: and this we will

observe, and our will is that it be observed in good

faith by our heirs forever. We have also granted to

all freemen of our kingdom, for us and our heirs

forever, all the underwritten liberties, to be had

and held by them and their heirs, of us and our heirs

forever.

If any of our earls or barons, or others

holding of us in chief by military service shall have

died, and at the time of his death his heir shall be

full of age and owe "relief", he shall have his

inheritance by the old relief, to wit, the heir or heirs

of an earl, for the whole baroncy of an earl by L100;

the heir or heirs of a baron, L100 for a whole barony;

the heir or heirs of a knight, 100s, at most, and

whoever owes less let him give less, according to

the ancient custom of fees.

If, however, the heir of any one of the

aforesaid has been under age and in wardship, let him

have his inheritance without relief and without fine

when he comes of age.

The guardian of the land of an heir who is thus

under age, shall take from the land of the heir nothing

but reasonable produce, reasonable customs, and

reasonable services, and that without destruction or

waste of men or goods; and if we have committed the

wardship of the lands of any such minor to the sheriff,

or to any other who is responsible to us for its

issues, and he has made destruction or waster of what

he holds in wardship, we will take of him amends, and

the land shall be committed to two lawful and discreet

men of that fee, who shall be responsible for the

issues to us or to him to whom we shall assign them;

and if we have given or sold the wardship of any such

land to anyone and he has therein made destruction or

waste, he shall lose that wardship, and it shall be

transferred to two lawful and discreet men of that

fief, who shall be responsible to us in like manner

as aforesaid.

The guardian, moreover, so long as he has the

wardship of the land, shall keep up the houses, parks,

fishponds, stanks, mills, and other things pertaining

to the land, out of the issues of the same land; and

he shall restore to the heir, when he has come to full

age, all his land, stocked with ploughs and wainage,

according as the season of husbandry shall require,

and the issues of the land can reasonable bear.

Heirs shall be married without disparagement,

yet so that before the marriage takes place the nearest

in blood to that heir shall have notice.

A widow, after the death of her husband, shall

forthwith and without difficulty have her marriage

portion and inheritance; nor shall she give anything

for her dower, or for her marriage portion, or for the

inheritance which her husband and she held on the day

of the death of that husband; and she may remain in

the house of her husband for forty days after his

death, within which time her dower shall be assigned

to her.

No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long

as she prefers to live without a husband; provided

always that she gives security not to marry without

our consent, if she holds of us, or without the

consent of the lord of whom she holds, if she holds

of another.

Neither we nor our bailiffs will seize any

land or rent for any debt, as long as the chattels of

the debtor are sufficient to repay the debt; nor shall

the sureties of the debtor be distrained so long as the

principal debtor is able to satisfy the debt; and if

the principal debtor shall fail to pay the debt, having

nothing wherewith to pay it, then the sureties shall

answer for the debt; and let them have the lands and

rents of the debtor, if they desire them, until they

are indemnified for the debt which they have paid for

him, unless the principal debtor can show proof that

he is discharged thereof as against the said sureties.

If one who has borrowed from the Jews any sum,

great or small, die before that loan be repaid, the

debt shall not bear interest while the heir is under

age, of whomsoever he may hold; and if the debt fall

into our hands, we will not take anything except the

principal sum contained in the bond.

And if anyone die indebted to the Jews, his

wife shall have her dower and pay nothing of that debt;

and if any children of the deceased are left under

age, necessaries shall be provided for them in keeping

with the holding of the deceased; and out of the

residue the debt shall be paid, reserving, however,

service due to feudal lords; in like manner let it be

done touching debts due to others than Jews.

No scutage not aid shall be imposed on our

kingdom, unless by common counsel of our kingdom,

except for ransoming our person, for making our eldest

son a knight, and for once marrying our eldest

daughter; and for these there shall not be levied more

than a reasonable aid. In like manner it shall be

done concerning aids from the city of London.

And the city of London shall have all it

ancient liberties and free customs, as well by land as

by water; furthermore, we decree and grant that all

other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall have

all their liberties and free customs.

And for obtaining the common counsel of the

kingdom anent the assessing of an aid (except in the

three cases aforesaid) or of a scutage, we will cause

to be summoned the archbishops, bishops, abbots,

earls, and greater barons, severally by our letters;

and we will moveover cause to be summoned generally,

through our sheriffs and bailiffs, and others who hold

of us in chief, for a fixed date, namely, after the

expiry of at least forty days, and at a fixed place;

and in all letters of such summons we will specify

the reason of the summons. And when the summons has

thus been made, the business shall proceed on the day

appointed, according to the counsel of such as are

present, although not all who were summoned have come.

We will not for the future grant to anyone

license to take an aid from his own free tenants,

except to ransom his person, to make his eldest son a

knight, and once to marry his eldest daughter; and on

each of these occasions there shall be levied only a

reasonable aid.

No one shall be distrained for performance

of greater service for a knight's fee, or for any

other free tenement, than is due therefrom.

Common pleas shall not follow our court, but

shall be held in some fixed place.

Inquests of novel disseisin, of mort

d'ancestor, and of darrein presentment shall not be

held elsewhere than in their own county courts, and

that in manner following; We, or, if we should be out

of the realm, our chief justiciar, will send two

justiciaries through every county four times a year,

who shall alone with four knights of the county chosen

by the county, hold the said assizes in the county

court, on the day and in the place of meeting of that

court.

And if any of the said assizes cannot be

taken on the day of the county court, let there remain

of the knights and freeholders, who were present at the

county court on that day, as many as may be required

for the efficient making of judgments, according as the

business be more or less.

A freeman shall not be amerced for a slight

offense, except in accordance with the degree of the

offense; and for a grave offense he shall be amerced

in accordance with the gravity of the offense, yet

saving always his "contentment"; and a merchant in the

same way, saving his "merchandise"; and a villein shall

be amerced in the same way, saving his "wainage" if

they have fallen into our mercy: and none of the

aforesaid amercements shall be imposed except by the

oath of honest men of the neighborhood.

Earls and barons shall not be amerced except

through their peers, and only in accordance with the

degree of the offense.

A clerk shall not be amerced in respect of

his lay holding except after the manner of the others

aforesaid; further, he shall not be amerced in

accordance with the extent of his ecclesiastical

benefice.

No village or individual shall be compelled

to make bridges at river banks, except those who from

of old were legally bound to do so.

No sheriff, constable, coroners, or others of

our bailiffs, shall hold pleas of our Crown.

All counties, hundred, wapentakes, and

trithings (except our demesne manors) shall remain at

the old rents, and without any additional payment.

If anyone holding of us a lay fief shall die,

and our sheriff or bailiff shall exhibit our letters

patent of summons for a debt which the deceased owed

us, it shall be lawful for our sheriff or bailiff to attach

and enroll the chattels of the deceased, found upon the

lay fief, to the value of that debt, at the sight of

law worthy men, provided always that nothing whatever

be thence removed until the debt which is evident

shall be fully paid to us; and the residue shall be

left to the executors to fulfill the will of the

deceased; and if there be nothing due from him to us,

all the chattels shall go to the deceased, saving to

his wife and children their reasonable shares.

If any freeman shall die intestate, his

chattels shall be distributed by the hands of his

nearest kinsfolk and friends, under supervision of the

Church, saving to every one the debts which the

deceased owed to him.

No constable or other bailiff of ours shall

take corn or other provisions from anyone without

immediately tendering money therefor, unless he can

have postponement thereof by permission of the seller.

No constable shall compel any knight to give

money in lieu of castle-guard, when he is willing to

perform it in his own person, or (if he himself cannot

do it from any reasonable cause) then by another

responsible man. Further, if we have led or sent him

upon military service, he shall be relieved from guard

in proportion to the time during which he has been on

service because of us.

No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or other

person, shall take the horses or carts of any freeman

for transport duty, against the will of the said

freeman.

Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take, for

our castles or for any other work of ours, wood which

is not ours, against the will of the owner of that

wood.

We will not retain beyond one year and one

day, the lands those who have been convicted of felony,

and the lands shall thereafter be handed over to the

lords of the fiefs.

All kydells for the future shall be removed

altogether from Thames and Medway, and throughout all

England, except upon the seashore.

The writ which is called praecipe shall not

for the future be issued to anyone, regarding any

tenement whereby a freeman may lose his court.

Let there be one measure of wine throughout

our whole realm; and one measure of ale; and one

measure of corn, to wit, "the London quarter"; and one

width of cloth (whether dyed, or russet, or

"halberget"), to wit, two ells within the selvedges;

of weights also let it be as of measures.

Nothing in future shall be given or taken for

a writ of inquisition of life or limbs, but freely it

shall be granted, and never denied.

If anyone holds of us by fee-farm, either

by socage or by burage, or of any other land by knight's

service, we will not (by reason of that fee-farm,

socage, or burgage), have the wardship of the

heir, or of such land of his as if of the fief of that

other; nor shall we have wardship of that fee-farm,

socage, or burgage, unless such fee-farm owes knight's

service. We will not by reason of any small serjeancy

which anyone may hold of us by the service of

rendering to us knives, arrows, or the like, have

wardship of his heir or of the land which he holds

of another lord by knight's service.

No bailiff for the future shall, upon his

own unsupported complaint, put anyone to his "law",

without credible witnesses brought for this purposes.

No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned

or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor

will we go upon him nor send upon him, except by the

lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

To no one will we sell, to no one will we

refuse or delay, right or justice.

All merchants shall have safe and secure exit

from England, and entry to England, with the right to

tarry there and to move about as well by land as by

water, for buying and selling by the ancient and right

customs, quit from all evil tolls, except (in time of

war) such merchants as are of the land at war with us.

And if such are found in our land at the beginning of

the war, they shall be detained, without injury to

their bodies or goods, until information be received by

us, or by our chief justiciar, how the merchants of our

land found in the land at war with us are treated; and

if our men are safe there, the others shall be safe in

our land.

It shall be lawful in future for anyone

(excepting always those imprisoned or outlawed in

accordance with the law of the kingdom, and natives of

any country at war with us, and merchants, who shall be

treated as if above provided) to leave our kingdom and

to return, safe and secure by land and water, except

for a short period in time of war, on grounds of public

policy- reserving always the allegiance due to us.

If anyone holding of some escheat (such as the

honor of Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster,

or of other escheats which are in our hands and are

baronies) shall die, his heir shall give no other

relief, and perform no other service to us than he

would have done to the baron if that barony had been

in the baron's hand; and we shall hold it in the same

manner in which the baron held it.

Men who dwell without the forest need not

henceforth come before our justiciaries of the forest

upon a general summons, unless they are in plea, or

sureties of one or more, who are attached for the forest.

We will appoint as justices, constables,

sheriffs, or bailiffs only such as know the law of the

realm and mean to observe it well.

All barons who have founded abbeys, concerning

which they hold charters from the kings of England, or

of which they have long continued possession, shall

have the wardship of them, when vacant, as they ought

to have.

All forests that have been made such in our

time shall forthwith be disafforsted; and a similar

course shall be followed with regard to river banks

that have been placed "in defense" by us in our time.

All evil customs connected with forests and

warrens, foresters and warreners, sheriffs and their

officers, river banks and their wardens, shall

immediately by inquired into in each county by twelve

sworn knights of the same county chosen by the honest

men of the same county, and shall, within forty days of

the said inquest, be utterly abolished, so as never to

be restored, provided always that we previously have

intimation thereof, or our justiciar, if we should not

be in England.

We will immediately restore all hostages and

charters delivered to us by Englishmen, as sureties of

the peace of faithful service.

We will entirely remove from their

bailiwicks, the relations of Gerard of Athee (so that

in future they shall have no bailiwick in England);

namely, Engelard of Cigogne, Peter, Guy, and Andrew of

Chanceaux, Guy of Cigogne, Geoffrey of Martigny with

his brothers, Philip Mark with his brothers and his

nephew Geoffrey, and the whole brood of the same.

As soon as peace is restored, we will banish

from the kingdom all foreign born knights, crossbowmen,

serjeants, and mercenary soldiers who have come with

horses and arms to the kingdom's hurt.

If anyone has been dispossessed or removed by

us, without the legal judgment of his peers, from his

lands, castles, franchises, or from his right, we will

immediately restore them to him; and if a dispute arise

over this, then let it be decided by the five and

twenty barons of whom mention is made below in the

clause for securing the peace. Moreover, for all

those possessions, from which anyone has, without the

lawful judgment of his peers, been disseised or

removed, by our father, King Henry, or by our brother,

King Richard, and which we retain in our hand (or which

as possessed by others, to whom we are bound to warrant

them) we shall have respite until the usual term of

crusaders; excepting those things about which a plea

has been raised, or an inquest made by our order,

before our taking of the cross; but as soon as we return

from the expedition, we will immediately grant full

justice therein.

We shall have, moreover, the same respite and

in the same manner in rendering justice concerning the

disafforestation or retention of those forests which

Henry our father and Richard our brother afforested,

and concerning the wardship of lands which are of the

fief of another (namely, such wardships as we have

hitherto had by reason of a fief which anyone held of

us by knight's service), and concerning abbeys founded

on other fiefs than our own, in which the lord of the

fee claims to have right; and when we have returned,

or if we desist from our expedition, we will

immediately grant full justice to all who complain of

such things.

No one shall be arrested or imprisoned upon

the appeal of a woman, for the death of any other than

her husband.

All fines made with us unjustly and against

the law of the land, and all amercements, imposed

unjustly and against the law of the land, shall be

entirely remitted, or else it shall be done concerning

them according to the decision of the five and twenty

barons whom mention is made below in the clause for

securing the pease, or according to the judgment of

the majority of the same, along with the aforesaid

Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, if he can be

present, and such others as he may wish to bring with

him for this purpose, and if he cannot be present the

business shall nevertheless proceed without him,

provided always that if any one or more of the

aforesaid five and twenty barons are in a similar

suit, they shall be removed as far as concerns this

particular judgment, others being substituted in

their places after having been selected by the rest

of the same five and twenty for this purpose only, and

after having been sworn.

If we have disseised or removed Welshmen from

lands or liberties, or other things, without the

legal judgment of their peers in England or in Wales,

they shall be immediately restored to them; and if a

dispute arise over this, then let it be decided in the

marches by the judgment of their peers; for the

tenements in England according to the law of England,

for tenements in Wales according to the law of Wales,

and for tenements in the marches according to the law

of the marches. Welshmen shall do the same to us and

ours.

Further, for all those possessions from which

any Welshman has, without the lawful judgment of his

peers, been disseised or removed by King Henry our

father, or King Richard our brother, and which we

retain in our hand (or which are possessed by others,

and which we ought to warrant), we will have respite

until the usual term of crusaders; excepting

those things about which a plea has been raised or an

inquest made by our order before we took the cross; but

as soon as we return (or if perchance we desist from

our expedition), we will immediately grant full

justice in accordance with the laws of the Welsh and in

relation to the foresaid regions.

We will immediately give up the son of

Llywelyn and all the hostages of Wales, and the

charters delivered to us as security for the peace.

We will do towards Alexander, king of Scots,

concerning the return of his sisters and his hostages,

and concerning his franchises, and his right, in the

same manner as we shall do towards our owher barons of

England, unless it ought to be otherwise according to

the charters which we hold from William his father,

formerly king of Scots; and this shall be according to

the judgment of his peers in our court.

Moreover, all these aforesaid customs and

liberties, the observances of which we have granted

in our kingdom as far as pertains to us towards our

men, shall be observed b all of our kingdom, as well

clergy as laymen, as far as pertains to them towards

their men.

Since, moveover, for God and the amendment

of our kingdom and for the better allaying of the

quarrel that has arisen between us and our barons,

we have granted all these concessions, desirous that

they should enjoy them in complete and firm endurance

forever, we give and grant to them the underwritten

security, namely, that the barons choose five and

twenty barons of the kingdom, whomsoever they will,

who shall be bound with all their might, to observe and

hold, and cause to be observed, the peace and liberties

we have granted and confirmed to them by this our

present Charter, so that if we, or our justiciar, or

our bailiffs or any one of our officers, shall in

anything be at fault towards anyone, or shall have

broken any one of the articles of this peace or of

this security, and the offense be notified to four

barons of the foresaid five and twenty, the said

four barons shall repair to us (or our justiciar, if

we are out of the realm) and, laying the transgression

before us, petition to have that transgression

redressed without delay. And if we shall not have

corrected the transgression (or, in the event of our

being out of the realm, if our justiciar shall not

have corrected it) within forty days, reckoning from

the time it has been intimated to us (or to our

justiciar, if we should be out of the realm), the

four barons aforesaid shall refer that matter to the

rest of the five and twenty barons, and those five

and twenty barons shall, together with the community

of the whole realm, distrain and distress us in all

possible ways, namely, by seizing our castles,

lands, possessions, and in any other way they can,

until redress has been obtained as they deem fit,

saving harmless our own person, and the persons of our

queen and children; and when redress has been obtained,

they shall resume their old relations towards us. And

let whoever in the country desires it, swear to obey

the orders of the said five and twenty barons for the

execution of all the aforesaid matters, and along with

them, to molest us to the utmost of his power; and we

publicly and freely grant leave to everyone who wishes

to swear, and we shall never forbid anyone to swear.

All those, moveover, in the land who of themselves and

of their own accord are unwilling to swear to the

twenty five to help them in constraining and molesting

us, we shall by our command compel the same to swear to

the effect foresaid. And if any one of the five and

twenty barons shall have died or departed from the

land, or be incapacitated in any other manner which

would prevent the foresaid provisions being carried

out, those of the said twenty five barons who are left

shall choose another in his place according to their

own judgment, and he shall be sworn in the same way as

the others. Further, in all matters, the execution of

which is entrusted,to these twenty five barons, if

perchance these twenty five are present and disagree

about anything, or if some of them, after being

summoned, are unwilling or unable to be present, that

which the majority of those present ordain or command

shall be held as fixed and established, exactly as if

the whole twenty five had concurred in this; and the

said twenty five shall swear that they will faithfully

observe all that is aforesaid, and cause it to be

observed with all their might. And we shall procure

nothing from anyone, directly or indirectly, whereby any

part of these concessions and liberties might be

revoked or diminished; and if any such things has been

procured, let it be void and null, and we shall never

use it personally or by another.

And all the will, hatreds, and bitterness that

have arisen between us and our men, clergy and lay,

from the date of the quarrel, we have completely

remitted and pardoned to everyone. Moreover, all

trespasses occasioned by the said quarrel, from Easter

in the sixteenth year of our reign till the restoration

of peace, we have fully remitted to all, both clergy

and laymen, and completely forgiven, as far as

pertains to us. And on this head, we have caused to

be made for them letters testimonial patent of the

lord Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, of the lord

Henry, archbishop of Dublin, of the bishops aforesaid,

and of Master Pandulf as touching this security and

the concessions aforesaid.

Wherefore we will and firmly order that

the English Church be free, and that the men in our

kingdom have and hold all the aforesaid liberties,

rights, and concessions, well and peaceably, freely

and quietly, fully and wholly, for themselves and their

heirs, of us and our heirs, in all respects and in all

places forever, as is aforesaid. An oath, moreover,

has been taken, as well on our part as on the art of

the barons, that all these conditions aforesaid shall

be kept in good faith and without evil intent. Given

under our hand - the above named and many others being

witnesses - in the meadow which is called Runnymede,

between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of

June, in the seventeenth year of our reign.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF

THE 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 defense, 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 1. 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. The House of Representatives shall be composed of

members chosen every second year by the 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.

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.

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.

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any state,

the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election

to fill such vacancies.

The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and

other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment.

Section 3. 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.

Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of

the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be

into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class

shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the

second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and the third

class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may

be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by

resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any

state, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until

the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies.

No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the

age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United

States and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that

state for which he shall be chosen.

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the

Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a

President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President,

or when he shall exercise the office of President of the

United States.

The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.

When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or

affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried,

the Chief Justice shall preside: And no person shall be convicted

without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.

Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than

to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy

any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but

the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to

indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law.

Section 4. The times, places and manner of holding elections

for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each

state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any

time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the

places of choosing Senators.

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and

such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless

they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section 5. Each House shall be the judge of the elections,

returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority

of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller

number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to

compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and

under such penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish

its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence

of two thirds, expel a member.

Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from

time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in

their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the

members of either House on any question shall, at the desire

of one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal.

Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without

the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor

to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Section 6. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a

compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and

paid out of the treasury of the United States. They shall in all

cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be

privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session

of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from

the same; and for any speech or debate in either House, they

shall not be questioned in any other place.

No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which

he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the

authority of the United States, which shall have been created,

or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such

time: and no person holding any office under the United States,

shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office.

Section 7. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the

House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur

with amendments as on other Bills.

Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives

and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to

the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign

it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections to that

House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the

objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider

it. If after such reconsideration two thirds of that House shall

agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the

objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be

reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it

shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both Houses

shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the

persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the

journal of each House respectively. If any bill shall not be

returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted)

after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a

law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress

by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it

shall not be a law.

Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of

the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary

(except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to

the President of the United States; and before the same shall

take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by

him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of

Representatives, according to the rules and limitations

prescribed in the case of a bill.

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect

taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and

provide for the common defense and general welfare of the

United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall

be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the

several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform

laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin,

and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities

and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing

for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right

to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the

high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and

make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to

that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land

and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws

of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia,

and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the

service of the United States, reserving to the states

respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the

authority of training the militia according to the discipline

prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over

such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by

cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress,

become the seat of the government of the United States, and to

exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent

of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for

the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and

other needful buildings;--And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for

carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other

powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the

United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

Section 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any

of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall

not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand

eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such

importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person.

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be

suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the

public safety may require it.

No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in

proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed

to be taken.

No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state.

No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or

revenue to the ports of one state over those of another: nor

shall vessels bound to, or from, one state, be obliged to enter,

clear or pay duties in another.

No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence

of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and

account of receipts and expenditures of all public money shall

be published from time to time.

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States:

and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them,

shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any

present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever,

from any king, prince, or foreign state.

Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or

confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money;

emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a

tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post

facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or

grant any title of nobility.

No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any

imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be

absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection laws: and

the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any state

on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of

the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the

revision and control of the Congress.

No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty

of tonnage, keep troops, or ships 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

such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.

Article II

Section 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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

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.

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."

Section 2. 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

offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

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.

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. 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. 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. 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 behaviour, and shall, at stated times, receive for

their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished

during their continuance in office.

Section 2. 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.

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.

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. 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.

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. 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. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all

privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.

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.

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. 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.

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. 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 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 VI

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.

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, anything in the Constitution or laws

of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

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

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,

G. Washington-Presidt. and deputy from Virginia

New Hampshire: John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman

Massachusetts: Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King

Connecticut: Wm: Saml. Johnson, Roger Sherman

New York: Alexander Hamilton

New Jersey: Wil: Livingston, David Brearly, Wm. Paterson,

Jona: Dayton

Pennsylvania: B. Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robt. Morris,

Geo. Clymer, Thos. FitzSimons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson,

Gouv Morris

Delaware: Geo: Read, Gunning Bedford jun, John Dickinson,

Richard Bassett, Jaco: Broom

Maryland: James McHenry, Dan of St Thos. Jenifer, Danl Carroll

Virginia: John Blair--, James Madison Jr.

North Carolina: Wm. Blount, Richd. Dobbs Spaight, Hu Williamson

South Carolina: J. Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney,

Charles Pinckney, Pierce Butler

Georgia: William Few, Abr Baldwin

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION IF THE UNITED STATES

Amendment I (1791)

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 the

right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition

the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II (1791)

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.

Amendment III (1791)

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.

Amendment IV (1791)

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 or affirmation, and

particularly describing the place to be searched, and the

persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V (1791)

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 in the land or naval forces,

or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war

or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the

same offense to 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.

Amendment VI (1791)

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.

Amendment VII (1791)

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.

Amendment VIII (1791)

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines

imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX (1791)

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall

not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X (1791)

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.

Amendment XI (1798)

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.

Amendment XII (1804)

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 of 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 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 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.

Amendment XIII (1865)

Section 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.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this

article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XIV (1868)

Section 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 state 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.

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 electors

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.

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, 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.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States,

authorized by law, including debts incurred for 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.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by

appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Amendment XV (1870)

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.

Amendment XVI (1913)

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on

incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment

among the several states, and without regard to any census

of enumeration.

Amendment XVII (1913)

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two

Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for

six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors

in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for

electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the

Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs

of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, that the

legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof

to make temporary appointments until the people fill the

vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the

election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes

valid as part of the Constitution.

Amendment XVIII (1919)

Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this

article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating

liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation

thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the

jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Section 2. The Congress and the several states shall have concurrent

power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall

have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the

legislatures of the several states, as provided in the Constitution,

within seven years from the date of the submission hereof

to the states by the Congress.

Amendment XIX (1920)

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 sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by

appropriate legislation.

Amendment XX (1933)

Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall

end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of

Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January,

of the years in which such terms would have ended if this

article had not been ratified; and the terms of their

successors shall then begin.

Section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every

year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of

January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term

of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice

President elect shall become President. If a President shall not

have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his

term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify,

then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a

President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law

provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a

Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall

then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act

shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until

a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the

death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives

may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have

devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the

persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President

whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day

of October following the ratification of this article.

Section 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall

have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the

legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within

seven years from the date of its submission.

Amendment XXI (1933)

Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the

Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2. The transportation or importation into any state,

territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or

use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws

thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall

have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by

conventions in the several states, as provided in the

Constitution, within seven years from the date of the

submission hereof to the states by the Congress.

Amendment XXII (1951)

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the

President more than twice, and no person who has held the

office of President, or acted as President, for more than two

years of a term to which some other person was elected President

shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office

of President when this article was proposed by the Congress,

and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office

of President, or acting as President, during the term within

which this article becomes operative from holding the office of

President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall

have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the

legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven

years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress.

Amendment XXIII (1961)

Section 1. The District constituting the seat of government

of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the

Congress may direct:

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to

the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to

which the District would be entitled if it were a state, but in

no event more than the least populous state; they shall be in

addition to those appointed by the states, but they shall be

considered, for the purposes of the election of President and

Vice President, to be electors appointed by a state; and they

shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided

by the twelfth article of amendment.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this

article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XXIV (1964)

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote

in any primary or other election for President or Vice President,

for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or

Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by

the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any

poll tax or other tax.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this

article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XXV (1967)

Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office

or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall

become President.

Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the

Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President

who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of

both Houses of Congress.

Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President

pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of

Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to

discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he

transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary,

such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice

President as Acting President.

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of

either the principal officers of the executive departments

or of such other body as Congress may by law provide,

transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the

Speaker of the House of Representatives their written

declaration that the President is unable to discharge the

powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall

immediately assume the powers and duties of the office

as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro

tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of

Representatives his written declaration that no inability

exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office

unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal

officers of the executive department or of such other body as

Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the

President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the

House of Representatives their written declaration that the

President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his

office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling

within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session.

If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the

latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session,

within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble,

determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President

is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,

the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as

Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the

powers and duties of his office.

Amendment XXVI (1971)

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who

are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or

abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this

article by appropriate legislation.

THE BILL OF RIGHTS

THE BILL OF RIGHTS

Amendment 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 the

right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition

the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II

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.

Amendment III

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.

Amendment 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 or affirmation, and

particularly describing the place to be searched, and the

persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V

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 in the land or naval forces,

or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war

or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the

same offense to 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.

Amendment 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.

Amendment 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.

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines

imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall

not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment 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.

MY ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY

Douglass, Frederick. "My Escape from Slavery."

The Century Illustrated Magazine 23, n.s. 1 (Nov. 1881): 125-131.

MY ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY

In the first narrative of my experience in slavery, written nearly

forty years ago, and in various writings since, I have given

the public what I considered very good reasons for withholding

the manner of my escape. In substance these reasons were, first,

that such publication at any time during the existence of slavery

might be used by the master against the slave, and prevent

the future escape of any who might adopt the same means that I did.

The second reason was, if possible, still more binding to silence:

the publication of details would certainly have put in peril

the persons and property of those who assisted. Murder itself was

not more sternly and certainly punished in the State of Maryland

than that of aiding and abetting the escape of a slave.

Many colored men, for no other crime than that of giving aid to

a fugitive slave, have, like Charles T. Torrey, perished in prison.

The abolition of slavery in my native State and throughout the country,

and the lapse of time, render the caution hitherto observed

no longer necessary. But even since the abolition of slavery,

I have sometimes thought it well enough to baffle curiosity

by saying that while slavery existed there were good reasons

for not telling the manner of my escape, and since slavery

had ceased to exist, there was no reason for telling it.

I shall now, however, cease to avail myself of this formula, and,

as far as I can, endeavor to satisfy this very natural curiosity.

I should, perhaps, have yielded to that feeling sooner, had there been

anything very heroic or thrilling in the incidents connected with

my escape, for I am sorry to say I have nothing of that sort to

tell; and yet the courage that could risk betrayal and the bravery

which was ready to encounter death, if need be, in pursuit of

freedom, were essential features in the undertaking.

My success was due to address rather than courage, to good luck

rather than bravery. My means of escape were provided for me by the

very men who were making laws to hold and bind me more securely in

slavery.

It was the custom in the State of Maryland to require the free

colored people to have what were called free papers.

These instruments they were required to renew very often,

and by charging a fee for this writing, considerable sums from

time to time were collected by the State.

In these papers the name, age, color, height, and form of the freeman

were described, together with any scars or other marks upon his

person which could assist in his identification. This device in some

measure defeated itself--since more than one man could be found to

answer the same general description.

Hence many slaves could escape by personating the owner of one set

of papers; and this was often done as follows:

A slave, nearly or sufficiently answering the description set forth in the

papers, would borrow or hire them till by means of them

he could escape to a free State, and then, by mail or otherwise,

would return them to the owner.

The operation was a hazardous one for the lender as well as for the

borrower. A failure on the part of the fugitive to send back the papers

would imperil his benefactor, and the discovery of the papers in

possession of the wrong man would imperil both the fugitive and his

friend.

It was, therefore, an act of supreme trust on the part of a freeman of

color thus to put in jeopardy his own liberty that another might be free.

It was, however, not unfrequently bravely done, and was seldom

discovered.

I was not so fortunate as to resemble any of my free acquaintances

sufficiently to answer the description of their papers.

But I had a friend--a sailor--who owned a sailor's protection,

which answered somewhat the purpose of free papers--describing his

person, and certifying to the fact that he was a free American sailor.

The instrument had at its head the American eagle, which gave

it the appearance at once of an authorized document.

This protection, when in my hands, did not describe

its bearer very accurately. Indeed, it called for a man

much darker than myself, and close examination of it would

have caused my arrest at the start.

In order to avoid this fatal scrutiny on the part of railroad

officials, I arranged with Isaac Rolls, a Baltimore hackman,

to bring my baggage to the Philadelphia train just on the moment

of starting, and jumped upon the car myself when the train was in

motion. Had I gone into the station and offered to purchase a ticket,

I should have been instantly and carefully examined, and undoubtedly

arrested.

In choosing this plan I considered the jostle of the train, and the natural

haste of the conductor, in a train crowded with passengers, and relied

upon my skill and address in playing the sailor, as described in my

protection, to do the rest.

One element in my favor was the kind feeling which prevailed

in Baltimore and other sea-ports at the time, toward "those who go

down to the sea in ships." "Free trade and sailors' rights" just then

expressed the sentiment of the country. In my clothing I was rigged out

in sailor style.

I had on a red shirt and a tarpaulin hat, and a black cravat tied

in sailor fashion carelessly and loosely about my neck. My knowledge

of ships and sailor's talk came much to my assistance, for I knew a

ship from stem to stern, and from keelson to cross-trees, and could

talk sailor like an "old salt."

I was well on the way to Havre de Grace before

the conductor came into the negro car to collect tickets and examine

the papers of his black passengers. This was a critical moment in the

drama. My whole future depended upon the decision of this conductor.

Agitated though I was while this ceremony was proceeding, still,

externally, at least, I was apparently calm and self-possessed.

He went on with his duty--examining several colored passengers

before reaching me. He was somewhat harsh in tome and peremptory

in manner until he reached me, when, strange enough, and to my

surprise and relief, his whole manner changed. Seeing that I did not

readily produce my free papers, as the other colored persons in the

car had done, he said to me, in friendly contrast with his bearing

toward the others:

"I suppose you have your free papers?"

To which I answered:

"No sir; I never carry my free papers to sea with me."

"But you have something to show that you are a freeman, haven't

you?"

"Yes, sir," I answered; "I have a paper with the American Eagle on it,

and that will carry me around the world."

With this I drew from my deep sailor's pocket my seaman's protection,

as before described. The merest glance at the paper satisfied him,

and he took my fare and went on about his business. This moment

of time was one of the most anxious I ever experienced.

Had the conductor looked closely at the paper, he could not

have failed to discover that it called for a very different-looking

person from myself, and in that case it would have been his duty

to arrest me on the instant, and send me back to Baltimore

from the first station.

When he left me with the assurance that I was all right, though much

relieved, I realized that I was still in great danger: I was still in

Maryland, and subject to arrest at any moment. I saw on the train

several persons who would have known me in any other clothes,

and I feared they might recognize me, even in my sailor "rig,"

and report me to the conductor, who would then subject me

to a closer examination, which I knew well would be fatal to me.

Though I was not a murderer fleeing from justice, I felt perhaps

quite as miserable as such a criminal. The train was moving

at a very high rate of speed for that epoch of railroad travel,

but to my anxious mind it was moving far too slowly. Minutes were

hours, and hours were days during this part of my flight.

After Maryland, I was to pass through Delaware--another slave State,

where slave-catchers generally awaited their prey, for it was not in the

interior of the State, but on its borders, that these human hounds were

most vigilant and active.

The border lines between slavery and freedom were the dangerous

ones for the fugitives. The heart of no fox or deer, with hungry hounds

on his trail in full chase, could have beaten more anxiously or noisily

than did mine from the time I left Baltimore till I reached Philadelphia.

The passage of the Susquehanna River at Havre de Grace was at that

time made by ferry-boat, on board of which I met a young colored man

by the name of Nichols, who came very near betraying me. He was a

"hand" on the boat, but, instead of minding his business, he insisted

upon knowing me, and asking me dangerous questions as to where I

was going, when I was coming back, etc.

I got away from my old and inconvenient acquaintance as soon as I

could decently do so, and went to another part of the boat. Once

across the river, I encountered a new danger.

Only a few days before, I had been at work on a revenue cutter,

in Mr. Price's ship-yard in Baltimore, under the care of Captain

McGowan. On the meeting at this point of the two trains, the one going

south stopped on the track just opposite to the one going north,

and it so happened that this Captain McGowan sat at a window where

he could see me very distinctly, and would certainly have recognized

me had he looked at me but for a second.

Fortunately, in the hurry of the moment, he did not see me; and the

trains soon passed each other on their respective ways. But this was

not my only hair-breadth escape. A German blacksmith whom I knew

well was on the train with me, and looked at me very intently, as if he

thought he had seen me somewhere before in his travels. I really

believe he knew me, but had no heart to betray me. At any rate,

he saw me escaping and held his peace.

The last point of imminent danger, and the one I dreaded most,

was Wilmington. Here we left the train and took the steam-boat

for Philadelphia. In making the change here I again apprehended

arrest, but no one disturbed me, and I was soon on the broad and

beautiful Delaware, speeding away to the Quaker City.

On reaching Philadelphia in the afternoon, I inquired of a colored man

how I could get on to New York. He directed me to the William-street

depot, and thither I went, taking the train that night.

I reached New York Tuesday morning, having completed the journey in

less than twenty-four hours.

My free life began on the third of September, 1838. On the morning

of the fourth of that month, after an anxious and most perilous but safe

journey, I found myself in the big city of New York, a FREE MAN--

one more added to the mighty throng which, like the confused waves

of the troubled sea, surged to and fro between the lofty walls of

Broadway.

Though dazzled with the wonders which met me on every hand, my

thoughts could not be much withdrawn from my strange situation. For

the moment, the dreams of my youth and the hopes of my manhood

were completely fulfilled.

The bonds that had held me to "old master" were broken. No man

now had a right to call me his slave or assert mastery over me. I was

in the rough and tumble of an outdoor world, to take my chance with

the rest of its busy number.

I have often been asked how I felt when first I found myself on free soil.

There is scarcely anything in my experience about which I could not

give a more satisfactory answer. A new world had opened upon me. If

life is more than breath and the "quick round of blood," I lived more in

that one day than in a year of my slave life.

It was a time of joyous excitement which words can but tamely

describe. In a letter written to a friend soon after reaching New York, I

said: "I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions."

Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted; but

gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil.

During ten or fifteen years I had been, as it were, dragging a heavy

chain which no strength of mine could break; I was not only a slave, but

a slave for life. I might become a husband, a father, an aged man, but

through all, from birth to death, from the cradle to the grave, I had felt

myself doomed.

All efforts I had previously made to secure my freedom had not only

failed, but had seemed only to rivet my fetters the more firmly, and to

render my escape more difficult.

Baffled, entangled, and discouraged, I had at times asked myself

the question, May not my condition after all be God's work,

and ordered for a wise purpose, and if so, Is not submission my duty?

A contest had in fact been going on in my mind for a long time,

between the clear consciousness of right and the plausible make-

shifts of theology and superstition. The one held me an abject

slave--a prisoner for life, punished for some transgression in

which I had no lot nor part; and the other counseled me to manly

endeavor to secure my freedom. This contest was now ended; my

chains were broken, and the victory brought me unspeakable joy.

But my gladness was short-lived, for I was not yet out of the reach

and power of the slave-holders. I soon found that New York was not

quite so free or so safe a refuge as I had supposed, and a sense of

loneliness and insecurity again oppressed me most sadly.

I chanced to meet on the street, a few hours after my landing, a fugitive

slave whom I had once known well in slavery. The information

received from him alarmed me.

The fugitive in question was known in Baltimore as "Allender's Jake,"

but in New York he wore the more respectable name of "William

Dixon." Jake, in law, was the property of Doctor Allender, and Tolly

Allender, the son of the doctor, had once made an effort to recapture

MR. DIXON, but had failed for want of evidence to support his claim.

Jake told me the circumstances of this attempt, and how narrowly

he escaped being sent back to slavery and torture. He told me that

New York was then full of Southerners returning from the Northern

watering-places; that the colored people of New York were not to be

trusted; that there were hired men of my own color who would betray

me for a few dollars; that there were hired men ever on the lookout for

fugitives; that I must trust no man with my secret; that I must not think

of going either upon the wharves or into any colored boarding-house,

for all such places were closely watched; that he was himself unable

to help me; and, in fact, he seemed while speaking to me to fear lest

I myself might be a spy and a betrayer. Under this apprehension,

as I suppose, he showed signs of wishing to be rid of me,

and with whitewash brush in hand, in search of work, he soon

disappeared.

This picture, given by poor "Jake," of New York, was a damper

to my enthusiasm. My little store of money would soon be exhausted,

and since it would be unsafe for me to go on the wharves for work,

and I had no introductions elsewhere, the prospect for me was far

from cheerful. I saw the wisdom of keeping away from the ship-yards,

for, if pursued, as I felt certain I should be, Mr. Auld, my "master,"

would naturally seek me there among the calkers.

Every door seemed closed against me. I was in the midst of an

ocean of my fellow-men, and yet a perfect stranger to every one. I was

without home, without acquaintance, without money, without credit,

without work, and without any definite knowledge as to what course to

take, or where to look for succor.

In such an extremity, a man had something besides his new-born

freedom to think of. While wandering about the streets of New York,

and lodging at least one night among the barrels on one of the

wharves, I was indeed free--from slavery, but free from food and

shelter as well.

I kept my secret to myself as long as I could, but I was compelled at

last to seek some one who would befriend me without taking

advantage of my destitution to betray me.

Such a person I found in a sailor named Stuart, a warm-hearted and

generous fellow, who, from his humble home on Centre street, saw me

standing on the opposite sidewalk, near the Tombs prison. As he

approached me, I ventured a remark to him which at once enlisted his

interest in me. He took me to his home to spend the night, and in the

morning went with me to Mr. David Ruggles, the secretary of the New

York Vigilance Committee, a co-worker with Isaac T. Hopper, Lewis

and Arthur Tappan, Theodore S. Wright, Samuel Cornish, Thomas

Downing, Philip A. Bell, and other true men of their time.

All these (save Mr. Bell, who still lives, and is editor and publisher of a

paper called the "Elevator," in San Francisco) have finished their work

on earth. Once in the hands of these brave and wise men, I felt

comparatively safe.

With Mr. Ruggles, on the corner of Lispenard and Church streets,

I was hidden several days, during which time my intended wife came

on from Baltimore at my call, to share the burdens of life with me.

She was a free woman, and came at once on getting the good news

of my safety. We were married by Rev. J. W. C. Pennington, then a

well-known and respected Presbyterian minister. I had no money with

which to pay the marriage fee, but he seemed well pleased with our

thanks.

Mr. Ruggles was the first officer on the "Underground Railroad"

whom I met after coming North, and was, indeed, the only one with

whom I had anything to do till I became such an officer myself.

Learning that my trade was that of a calker, he promptly decided

that the best place for me was in New Bedford, Mass.

He told me that many ships for whaling voyages were fitted out there,

and that I might there find work at my trade and make a good living.

So, on the day of the marriage ceremony, we took our little luggage

to the steamer John W. Richmond, which, at that time, was one of the

line running between New York and Newport, R. I. Forty-three years

ago colored travelers were not permitted in the cabin, nor allowed

abaft the paddle-wheels of a steam vessel.

They were compelled, whatever the weather might be,--whether cold

or hot, wet or dry,-- to spend the night on deck. Unjust as this

regulation was, it did not trouble us much; we had fared much harder

before. We arrived at Newport the next morning, and soon after an

old fashioned stage-coach, with "New Bedford" in large yellow letters

on its sides, came down to the wharf.

I had not money enough to pay our fare, and stood hesitating what to

do. Fortunately for us, there were two Quaker gentlemen who were

about to take passage on the stage,-- Friends William C. Taber and

Joseph Ricketson,--who at once discerned our true situation, and, in a

peculiarly quiet way, addressing me, Mr. Taber said: "Thee get in." I

never obeyed an order with more alacrity, and we were soon on our

way to our new home.

When we reached "Stone Bridge" the passengers alighted for

breakfast, and paid their fares to the driver. We took no breakfast,

and, when asked for our fares, I told the driver I would make it right

with him when we reached New Bedford.

I expected some objection to this on his part, but he made none.

When, however, we reached New Bedford, he took our baggage,

including three music-books,--two of them collections by Dyer,

and one by Shaw,--and held them until I was able to redeem them

by paying to him the amount due for our rides. This was soon done,

for Mr. Nathan Johnson not only received me kindly and hospitably,

but, on being informed about our baggage, at once loaned me the two

dollars with which to square accounts with the stage-driver.

Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Johnson reached a good old age, and now rest

from their labors. I am under many grateful obligations to them.

They not only "took me in when a stranger" and "fed me when hungry,"

but taught me how to make an honest living. Thus, in a fortnight

after my flight from Maryland, I was safe in New Bedford, a citizen of

the grand old commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Once initiated into my new life of freedom and assured by Mr.

Johnson that I need not fear recapture in that city, a comparatively

unimportant question arose as to the name by which I should be

known thereafter in my new relation as a free man. The name given

me by my dear mother was no less pretentious and long than

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. I had, however, while living in

Maryland, dispensed with the Augustus Washington, and retained only

Frederick Bailey.

Between Baltimore and New Bedford, the better to conceal myself

from the slave-hunters, I had parted with Bailey and called myself

Johnson; but in New Bedford I found that the Johnson family was

already so numerous as to cause some confusion in distinguishing

them, hence a change in this name seemed desirable.

Nathan Johnson, mine host, placed great emphasis upon

this necessity, and wished me to allow him to select a name for me.

I consented, and he called me by my present name--the one by which

I have been known for three and forty years--Frederick Douglass.

Mr. Johnson had just been reading the "Lady of the Lake,"

and so pleased was he with its great character that he wished me

to bear his name.

Since reading that charming poem myself, I have often thought that,

considering the noble hospitality and manly character of Nathan

Johnson--black man though he was--he, far more than I, illustrated the

virtues of the Douglas of Scotland.

Sure am I that, if any slave-catcher had entered his domicile

with a view to my recapture, Johnson would have shown himself like

him of the "stalwart hand."

The reader may be surprised at the impressions I had in some way

conceived of the social and material condition of the people at the

North. I had no proper idea of the wealth, refinement, enterprise,

and high civilization of this section of the country.

My "Columbian Orator," almost my only book, had done nothing

to enlighten me concerning Northern society. I had been taught

that slavery was the bottom fact of all wealth. With this foundation

idea, I came naturally to the conclusion that poverty must be the

general condition of the people of the free States.

In the country from which I came, a white man holding no slaves was

usually an ignorant and poverty-stricken man, and men of this class

were contemptuously called "poor white trash."

Hence I supposed that, since the non-slave-holders at the South were

ignorant, poor, and degraded as a class, the non-slave-holders at the

North must be in a similar condition.

I could have landed in no part of the United States where I should have

found a more striking and gratifying contrast, not only to life generally

in the South, but in the condition of the colored people there, than in

New Bedford.

I was amazed when Mr. Johnson told me that there was nothing in the

laws or constitution of Massachusetts that would prevent a colored

man from being governor of the State, if the people should see fit to

elect him. There, too, the black man's children attended the public

schools with the white man's children, and apparently without objection

from any quarter.

To impress me with my security from recapture and return to slavery,

Mr. Johnson assured me that no slave-holder could take a slave out of

New Bedford; that there were men there who would lay down their

lives to save me from such a fate.

The fifth day after my arrival, I put on the clothes of a common laborer,

and went upon the wharves in search of work. On my way down Union

street I saw a large pile of coal in front of the house of Rev. Ephraim

Peabody, the Unitarian minister. I went to the kitchen door and asked

the privilege of bringing in and putting away this coal. "What will you

charge?" said the lady. "I will leave that to you, madam." "You may

put it away," she said.

I was not long in accomplishing the job, when the dear lady

put into my hand TWO SILVER HALF-DOLLARS. To understand the

emotion which swelled my heart as I clasped this money, realizing that

I had no master who could take it from me,--THAT IT WAS MINE-

-THAT MY HANDS WERE MY OWN, and could earn more of the

precious coin,--one must have been in some sense himself a slave.

My next job was stowing a sloop at Uncle Gid. Howland's wharf with a

cargo of oil for New York. I was not only a freeman, but a free

working-man, and no "master" stood ready at the end of the week to

seize my hard earnings.

The season was growing late and work was plenty. Ships were being

fitted out for whaling, and much wood was used in storing them.

The sawing this wood was considered a good job. With the help

of old Friend Johnson (blessings on his memory) I got a saw and

"buck," and went at it.

When I went into a store to buy a cord with which

to brace up my saw in the frame, I asked for a "fip's" worth of cord.

The man behind the counter looked rather sharply at me, and said with

equal sharpness, "You don't belong about here." I was alarmed,

and thought I had betrayed myself. A fip in Maryland was

six and a quarter cents, called fourpence in Massachusetts.

But no harm came from the "fi'penny-bit" blunder, and I confidently

and cheerfully went to work with my saw and buck. It was new

business to me, but I never did better work, or more of it, in the same

space of time on the plantation for Covey, the negro-breaker, than I

did for myself in these earliest years of my freedom.

Notwithstanding the just and humane sentiment of New Bedford

three and forty years ago, the place was not entirely free from

race and color prejudice. The good influence of the Roaches,

Rodmans, Arnolds, Grinnells, and Robesons did not pervade all

classes of its people. The test of the real civilization of the

community came when I applied for work at my trade, and then my

repulse was emphatic and decisive.

It so happened that Mr. Rodney French, a wealthy and enterprising

citizen, distinguished as an anti-slavery man, was fitting out a vessel

for a whaling voyage, upon which there was a heavy job of calking and

coppering to be done. I had some skill in both branches, and applied

to Mr. French for work. He, generous man that he was, told me he

would employ me, and I might go at once to the vessel.

I obeyed him, but upon reaching the float-stage, where others [sic]

calkers were at work, I was told that every white man would leave the

ship, in her unfinished condition, if I struck a blow at my trade upon

her.

This uncivil, inhuman, and selfish treatment was not so shocking

and scandalous in my eyes at the time as it now appears to me.

Slavery had inured me to hardships that made ordinary trouble sit

lightly upon me. Could I have worked at my trade I could have

earned two dollars a day, but as a common laborer I received but

one dollar.

The difference was of great importance to me, but if

I could not get two dollars, I was glad to get one; and so I went

to work for Mr. French as a common laborer. The consciousness

that I was free--no longer a slave--kept me cheerful under this,

and many similar proscriptions, which I was destined to meet in

New Bedford and elsewhere on the free soil of Massachusetts.

For instance, though colored children attended the schools,

and were treated kindly by their teachers, the New Bedford Lyceum

refused, till several years after my residence in that city,

to allow any colored person to attend the lectures delivered in its

hall. Not until such men as Charles Sumner, Theodore Parker,

Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Horace Mann refused to lecture in their

course while there was such a restriction, was it abandoned.

Becoming satisfied that I could not rely on my trade in New

Bedford to give me a living, I prepared myself to do any kind of

work that came to hand. I sawed wood, shoveled coal, dug cellars,

moved rubbish from back yards, worked on the wharves, loaded and

unloaded vessels, and scoured their cabins.

I afterward got steady work at the brass-foundry owned by Mr.

Richmond. My duty here was to blow the bellows, swing the crane, and

empty the flasks in which castings were made; and at times this was

hot and heavy work. The articles produced here were mostly for ship

work, and in the busy season the foundry was in operation night and

day. I have often worked two nights and every working day of the

week.

My foreman, Mr. Cobb, was a good man, and more than once

protected me from abuse that one or more of the hands was disposed

to throw upon me. While in this situation I had little time for mental

improvement. Hard work, night and day, over a furnace hot enough to

keep the metal running like water, was more favorable to action than

thought; yet here I often nailed a newspaper to the post near my

bellows, and read while I was performing the up and down motion of

the heavy beam by which the bellows was inflated and discharged.

It was the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, and I look back to it

now, after so many years, with some complacency and a little wonder

that I could have been so earnest and persevering in any pursuit other

than for my daily bread. I certainly saw nothing in the conduct of those

around to inspire me with such interest: they were all devoted

exclusively to what their hands found to do. I am glad to be able to say

that, during my engagement in this foundry, no complaint was ever

made against me that I did not do my work, and do it well. The

bellows which I worked by main strength was, after I left, moved by a

steam-engine.

Douglass, Frederick. "Reconstruction."

Atlantic Monthly 18 (1866): 761-765.

RECONSTRUCTION

The assembling of the Second Session of the Thirty-ninth Congress

may very properly be made the occasion of a few earnest words

on the already much-worn topic of reconstruction.

Seldom has any legislative body been the subject of a solicitude

more intense, or of aspirations more sincere and ardent.

There are the best of reasons for this profound interest.

Questions of vast moment, left undecided by the last session of

Congress, must be manfully grappled with by this. No political

skirmishing will avail. The occasion demands statesmanship.

Whether the tremendous war so heroically fought and so victoriously

ended shall pass into history a miserable failure, barren of permanent

results,-- a scandalous and shocking waste of blood and treasure,--a

strife for empire, as Earl Russell characterized it, of no value to liberty

or civilization, --an attempt to re-establish a Union by force, which

must be the merest mockery of a Union,--an effort to bring under

Federal authority States into which no loyal man from the North may

safely enter, and to bring men into the national councils who deliberate

with daggers and vote with revolvers, and who do not even conceal

their deadly hate of the country that conquered them; or whether, on

the other hand, we shall, as the rightful reward of victory over treason,

have a solid nation, entirely delivered from all contradictions and

social antagonisms, based upon loyalty, liberty, and equality, must be

determined one way or the other by the present session of Congress.

The last session really did nothing which can be considered final as to

these questions. The Civil Rights Bill and the Freedmen's Bureau Bill

and the proposed constitutional amendments, with the amendment

already adopted and recognized as the law of the land, do not reach

the difficulty, and cannot, unless the whole structure of the government

is changed from a government by States to something like a despotic

central government, with power to control even the municipal

regulations of States, and to make them conform to its own despotic

will.

While there remains such an idea as the right of each State to control

its own local affairs,-- an idea, by the way, more deeply rooted in the

minds of men of all sections of the country than perhaps any one other

political idea,--no general assertion of human rights can be of any

practical value.

To change the character of the government at this point is neither

possible nor desirable. All that is necessary to be done is to make the

government consistent with itself, and render the rights of the States

compatible with the sacred rights of human nature.

The arm of the Federal government is long, but it is far too short

to protect the rights of individuals in the interior of distant States.

They must have the power to protect themselves, or they will go

unprotected, spite of all the laws the Federal government can put upon

the national statute-book.

Slavery, like all other great systems of wrong, founded in the depths

of human selfishness, and existing for ages, has not neglected its own

conservation. It has steadily exerted an influence upon all around

it favorable to its own continuance. And to-day it is so strong that it

could exist, not only without law, but even against law.

Custom, manners, morals, religion, are all on its side everywhere

in the South; and when you add the ignorance and servility

of the ex-slave to the intelligence and accustomed authority

of the master, you have the conditions, not out of which slavery

will again grow, but under which it is impossible for the Federal

government to wholly destroy it, unless the Federal government

be armed with despotic power, to blot out State authority,

and to station a Federal officer at every cross-road.

This, of course, cannot be done, and ought not even if it could.

The true way and the easiest way is to make our government entirely

consistent with itself, and give to every loyal citizen the elective

franchise, --a right and power which will be ever present, and will form

a wall of fire for his protection.

One of the invaluable compensations of the late Rebellion

is the highly instructive disclosure it made of the true source

of danger to republican government. Whatever may be tolerated

in monarchical and despotic governments, no republic is safe

that tolerates a privileged class, or denies to any of its citizens

equal rights and equal means to maintain them. What was theory

before the war has been made fact by the war.

There is cause to be thankful even for rebellion. It is an impressive

teacher, though a stern and terrible one. In both characters it has

come to us, and it was perhaps needed in both. It is an instructor

never a day before its time, for it comes only when all other means

of progress and enlightenment have failed.

Whether the oppressed and despairing bondman, no longer able to

repress his deep yearnings for manhood, or the tyrant, in his pride and

impatience, takes the initiative, and strikes the blow for a firmer hold

and a longer lease of oppression, the result is the same,--society is

instructed, or may be.

Such are the limitations of the common mind, and so thoroughly

engrossing are the cares of common life, that only the few among

men can discern through the glitter and dazzle of present prosperity

the dark outlines of approaching disasters, even though they may

have come up to our very gates, and are already within striking

distance.

The yawning seam and corroded bolt conceal their defects from the

mariner until the storm calls all hands to the pumps. Prophets, indeed,

were abundant before the war; but who cares for prophets while

their predictions remain unfulfilled, and the calamities of which

they tell are masked behind a blinding blaze of national prosperity?

It is asked, said Henry Clay, on a memorable occasion,

Will slavery never come to an end? That question, said he,

was asked fifty years ago, and it has been answered by fifty years

of unprecedented prosperity. Spite of the eloquence of the earnest

Abolitionists,--poured out against slavery during thirty years,--

even they must confess, that, in all the probabilities of the case,

that system of barbarism would have continued its horrors far beyond

the limits of the nineteenth century but for the Rebellion,

and perhaps only have disappeared at last in a fiery conflict,

even more fierce and bloody than that which has now been

suppressed.

It is no disparagement to truth, that it can only prevail

where reason prevails. War begins where reason ends.

The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.

What that thing is, we have been taught to our cost. It remains now

to be seen whether we have the needed courage to have that cause

entirely removed from the Republic.

At any rate, to this grand work of national regeneration and entire

purification Congress must now address Itself, with full purpose that

the work shall this time be thoroughly done.

The deadly upas, root and branch, leaf and fibre, body and sap, must

be utterly destroyed. The country is evidently not in a condition to

listen patiently to pleas for postponement, however plausible, nor will it

permit the responsibility to be shifted to other shoulders. Authority

and power are here commensurate with the duty imposed. There are

no cloud-flung shadows to obscure the way.

Truth shines with brighter light and intenser heat at every moment,

and a country torn and rent and bleeding implores relief

from its distress and agony.

If time was at first needed, Congress has now had time.

All the requisite materials from which to form an intelligent

judgment are now before it. Whether its members look at the origin,

the progress, the termination of the war, or at the mockery of

a peace now existing, they will find only one unbroken chain of

argument in favor of a radical policy of reconstruction.

For the omissions of the last session, some excuses may be allowed.

A treacherous President stood in the way; and it can be easily seen

how reluctant good men might be to admit an apostasy which involved

so much of baseness and ingratitude.

It was natural that they should seek to save him by bending to him

even when he leaned to the side of error. But all is changed now.

Congress knows now that it must go on without his aid, and even

against his machinations.

The advantage of the present session over the last is immense.

Where that investigated, this has the facts. Where that walked by

faith, this may walk by sight. Where that halted, this must go forward,

and where that failed, this must succeed, giving the country whole

measures where that gave us half-measures, merely as a means of

saving the elections in a few doubtful districts.

That Congress saw what was right, but distrusted the enlightenment of

the loyal masses; but what was forborne in distrust of the people must

now be done with a full knowledge that the people expect and require

it.

The members go to Washington fresh from the inspiring presence of

the people. In every considerable public meeting, and in almost every

conceivable way, whether at court-house, school-house, or cross-

roads, in doors and out, the subject has been discussed, and the

people have emphatically pronounced in favor of a radical policy.

Listening to the doctrines of expediency and compromise with pity,

impatience, and disgust, they have everywhere

broken into demonstrations of the wildest enthusiasm when a brave

word has been spoken in favor of equal rights and impartial suffrage.

Radicalism, so far from being odious, is not the popular passport to

power.

The men most bitterly charged with it go to Congress with the

largest majorities, while the timid and doubtful are sent by lean

majorities, or else left at home. The strange controversy between the

President and the Congress, at one time so threatening, is disposed

of by the people.

The high reconstructive powers which he so confidently,

ostentatiously, and haughtily claimed, have been disallowed,

denounced, and utterly repudiated; while those claimed by Congress

have been confirmed.

Of the spirit and magnitude of the canvass nothing need be said.

The appeal was to the people, and the verdict was worthy of the

tribunal.

Upon an occasion of his own selection, with the advice and approval

of his astute Secretary, soon after the members of the Congress had

returned to their constituents, the President quitted the executive

mansion, sandwiched himself between two recognized heroes,--men

whom the whole country delighted to honor,--and, with all the

advantage which such company could give him, stumped the country

from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, advocating everywhere his policy

as against that of Congress.

It was a strange sight, and perhaps the most disgraceful exhibition

ever made by any President; but, as no evil is entirely unmixed,

good has come of this, as from many others. Ambitious,

unscrupulous, energetic, indefatigable, voluble, and plausible,--a

political gladiator, ready for a "set-to" in any crowd,--he is beaten in

his own chosen field, and stands to-day before the country as a

convicted usurper, a political criminal, guilty of a bold and persistent

attempt to possess himself of the legislative powers solemnly secured

to Congress by the Constitution.

No vindication could be more complete,

no condemnation could be more absolute and humiliating.

Unless reopened by the sword, as recklessly threatened in some

circles, this question is now closed for all time.

Without attempting to settle here the metaphysical and somewhat

theological question (about which so much has already been said and

written), whether once in the Union means always in the Union,-

-agreeably to the formula.

Once in grace always in grace,-- it is obvious to common sense that

the rebellious States stand to- day, in point of law, precisely where

they stood when, exhausted, beaten, conquered, they fell powerless

at the feet of Federal authority. Their State governments were

overthrown, and the lives and property of the leaders of the Rebellion

were forfeited. In reconstructing the institutions of these shattered and

overthrown States, Congress should begin with a clean slate, and

make clean work of it.

Let there be no hesitation. It would be a cowardly deference

to a defeated and treacherous President, if any account were made of

the illegitimate, one-sided, sham governments hurried into existence

for a malign purpose in the absence of Congress. These pretended

governments, which were never submitted to the people, and from

participation in which four millions of the loyal people were excluded

by Presidential order, should now be treated according to their true

character, as shams and impositions, and supplanted by true and

legitimate governments, in the formation of which loyal men, black and

white, shall participate.

It is not, however, within the scope of this paper to point out

the precise steps to be taken, and the means to be employed.

The people are less concerned about these than the grand end to be

attained.

They demand such a reconstruction as shall put an end to the present

anarchical state of things in the late rebellious States,--where frightful

murders and wholesale massacres are perpetrated in the very

presence of Federal soldiers.

This horrible business they require shall cease. They want a

reconstruction such as will protect loyal men, black and white, in their

persons and property; such a one as will cause Northern industry,

Northern capital, and Northern civilization to flow into the South, and

make a man from New England as much at home in Carolina as

elsewhere in the Republic. No Chinese wall can now be tolerated.

The South must be opened to the light of law and liberty, and this

session of Congress is relied upon to accomplish this important work.

The plain, common-sense way of doing this work, as intimated

at the beginning, is simply to establish in the South one law,

one government, one administration of justice, one condition

to the exercise of the elective franchise, for men of all races

and colors alike. This great measure is sought as earnestly

by loyal white men as by loyal blacks, and is needed alike by both.

Let sound political prescience but take the place of an

unreasoning prejudice, and this will be done.

Men denounce the negro for his prominence in this discussion;

but it is no fault of his that in peace as in war, that in

conquering Rebel armies as in reconstructing the rebellious States,

the right of the negro is the true solution of our national

troubles. The stern logic of events, which goes directly to the

point, disdaining all concern for the color or features of men,

has determined the interests of the country as identical with

and inseparable from those of the negro.

The policy that emancipated and armed the negro--now seen to

have been wise and proper by the dullest--was not certainly more

sternly demanded than is now the policy of enfranchisement.

If with the negro was success in war, and without him failure,

so in peace it will be found that the nation must fall or flourish

with the negro.

Fortunately, the Constitution of the United States knows no distinction

between citizens on account of color. Neither does it know any

difference between a citizen of a State and a citizen of the United

States. Citizenship evidently includes all the rights of citizens,

whether State or national. If the Constitution knows none,

it is clearly no part of the duty of a Republican Congress

now to institute one.

The mistake of the last session was the attempt to do this very thing,

by a renunciation of its power to secure political rights to any class of

citizens, with the obvious purpose to allow the rebellious States to

disfranchise, if they should see fit, their colored citizens. This

unfortunate blunder must now be retrieved, and the emasculated

citizenship given to the negro supplanted by that contemplated in the

Constitution of the United States, which declares that the citizens of

each State shall enjoy all the rights and immunities of citizens of the

several States,--so that a legal voter in any State shall be a legal voter

in all the States.