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THE CONSTITUTION
of the
UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA
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106th Congress Document
2d Session HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES No. 106-214
THE
CONSTITUTION
OF THE
UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA
As Amended
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Unratified Amendments
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Analytical Index
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PRESENTED BY MR. HYDE
January 31, 2000 <bullet> Ordered to be printed
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON: 2000
House Doc. 106-214
The printing of the revised version of The Constitution of
the United States of America As Amended (Document Size) is
hereby ordered pursuant to H. Con. Res. 221 as passed on
January 31, 2000, 106th Congess, 2nd Session. This document was
compiled at the direction of Chairman Bill Thomas of the Joint
Committee on Printing, and printed by the U.S. Government
Printing Office.
CONTENTS
Foreword by Hon. Henry Hyde...................................... v
Historical Note.................................................. vii
Text of the Constitution......................................... 1
Amendments....................................................... 13
Proposed Amendments not ratified................................. 29
Index to the Constitution and amendments......................... 33
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FOREWORD
By Hon. Henry Hyde, Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of
Representatives
It is a great honor to present to the American people this
new annotated edition of our Constitution--the founding
document of our Republic.
It is not too much to say that this document (together with
the Declaration of Independence) is the product of the greatest
assemblage of political geniuses in modern history. It
establishes and defines the three branches of our Government,
the Legislative, the Executive and the Judiciary, and, as a
government of enumerated powers, reserves those powers not
granted to the Federal government to the people themselves.
On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln at Gettysburg best
described the kind of government our Founders and Framers have
given us--``a government of the people, by the people, and for
the people.'' The liberty we all enjoy in the United States is
our legacy from them.
Part of the Constitution's brilliance is its brevity and
flexibility. Our forefathers understood that it would be
necessary, due to changing times and circumstances, for the
people, through their elected federal and state representatives
to amend this fundamental document from time to time. Due to
this foresight, the Constitution now contains twenty seven
amendments which have been ratified by the states, and have
become a part of the basic law of the land. In addition, this
publication provides information on proposed amendments
approved by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress but not
ratified by three-fourths of the states.
It is very important that our Constitution be made
accessible to as many Americans as possible, therefore, we have
provided for this special reprinting.
As we enter the new millennium, it is essential that our
people read and understand the powers and limitations of our
government, and the people's role in that government.
Our Constitutional Democracy is an ongoing experiment in
self-government. Although strong, it must not be taken for
granted. It will remain vibrant, a beacon on the hill to many
millions of people around the world as long as the American
people remain vigilant and dedicated to the basic principles
upon which it rests. Thus, as we set a course for the 21st
Century, let us keep faith with our forefathers and mothers, by
rededicating ourselves to the defense of constitutional
government and thus secure freedom for ourselves and our
children for generations to come.
HISTORICAL NOTE
----------
The Delegates who convened at the Federal Convention on May
25, 1787, quickly rejected the idea of revising the Articles of
Confederation and agreed to construct a new framework for a
national government. Throughout the summer months at the
Convention in Philadelphia, delegates from 12 States debated
the proper form such a government should take, but few
questioned the need to establish a more vigorous government to
preside over the union of States. The 39 delegates who signed
the Constitution on September 17, 1787, expected the new
charter to provide a permanent guarantee of the political
liberties achieved in the Revolution.
Prior to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, an
Articles of Confederation, drafted by the Continental Congress
and approved by 13 States, provided for a union of the former
British colonies. Even before Maryland became the last State to
accede to the Articles in 1781, a number of Americans,
particularly those involved in the prosecution of the
Revolutionary War, recognized the inadequacies of the Articles
as a national government. In the 1780s these nationally-minded
Americans became increasingly disturbed by the Articles'
failure to provide the central government with authority to
raise revenue, regulate commerce, or enforce treaties.
Despite repeated proposals that the Continental Congress
revise the Articles, the movement for a new national government
began outside the Congress. Representatives of Maryland and
Virginia; meeting at Mt. Vernon to discuss trade problems
between the two States, agreed to invite delegates from all
States to discuss commercial affairs at a meeting in Annapolis,
Maryland, in September 1786. Although delegates from only five
States reached the Annapolis Convention, that group issued a
call for a meeting of all States to discuss necessary revisions
of the Articles of Confederation. Responding to this call and
the endorsement of the Continental Congress, every State except
Rhode Island selected delegates for the meeting in the State
House at Philadelphia.
The document printed here was the product of nearly 4
months of deliberations in the Federal Convention at
Philadelphia. The challenging task before the delegates was to
create a republican form of government that could encompass the
13 States and accommodate the anticipated expansion to the
West. The distribution of authority between legislative,
executive, and judicial branches was a boldly original attempt
to create an energetic central government at the same time that
the sovereignty of the people was preserved.
The longest debate of the Convention centered on the proper
form of representation and election for the Congress. The
division between small States that wished to perpetuate the
equal representation of States in the Continental Congress and
the large States that proposed representation proportional to
population threatened to bring the Convention proceedings to a
halt. Over several weeks the delegates developed a complicated
compromise that provided for equal representation of the States
in a Senate elected by State legislature and proportional
representation in a popularly-elected House of Representatives.
The conflict between large and small States disappeared in
the early years of the republic. More lasting was the division
between slave and free States that had been a disturbing
undercurrent in the Convention debates. The Convention's
strained attempt to avoid using the word slavery in the
articles granting recognition and protection to that
institution scarcely hid the regional divisions that would
remain unresolved under the terms of union agreed to in 1787.
The debates in the State ratification conventions of 1787
and 1788 made clear the need to provide amendments to the basic
framework drafted in Philadelphia. Beginning with
Massachusetts, a number of State conventions ratified the
Constitution with the request that a bill of rights be added to
protect certain liberties at the core of English and American
political traditions. The First Congress approved a set of
amendments which became the Bill of Rights when ratified by the
States in 1791. The continuing process of amendment, clearly
described in the note of the following text, has enabled the
Constitution to accommodate changing conditions in American
society at the same time that the Founders' basic outline of
national government remains intact.
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES \1\
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We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect
Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide
for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure
the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do
ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of
America.
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.
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\1\ This text of the Constitution follows the engrossed copy signed by
Gen. Washington and the deputies from 12 States. The small superior
figures preceding the paragraphs designate clauses, and were not in the
original and have no reference to footnotes.
The Constitution was adopted by a convention of the States on September
17, 1787, and was subsequently ratified by the several States, on the
following dates: Delaware, December 7, 1787; Pennsylvania, December 12,
1787; New Jersey, December 18, 1787; Georgia, January 2, 1788;
Connecticut, January 9, 1788; Massachusetts, February 6, 1788;
Maryland, April 28, 1788; South Carolina, May 23, 1788; New Hampshire,
June 21, 1788.
Ratification was completed on June 21, 1788.
The Constitution was subsequently ratified by Virginia, June 25, 1788;
New York, July 26, 1788; North Carolina, November 21, 1789; Rhode
Island, May 29, 1790; and Vermont, January 10, 1791.
In May 1785, a committee of Congress made a report recommending an
alteration in the Articles of Confederation, but no action was taken on
it, and it was left to the State Legislatures to proceed in the matter.
In January 1786, the Legislature of Virginia passed a resolution
providing for the appointment of five commissioners, who, or any three
of them, should meet such commissioners as might be appointed in the
other States of the Union, at a time and place to be agreed upon, to
take into consideration the trade of the United States; to consider how
far a uniform system in their commercial regulations may be necessary
to their common interest and their permanent harmony; and to report to
the several States such an act, relative to this great object, as, when
ratified by them, will enable the United States in Congress effectually
to provide for the same. The Virginia commissioners, after some
correspondence, fixed the first Monday in September as the time, and
the city of Annapolis as the place for the meeting, but only four other
States were represented, viz: Delaware, New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania; the commissioners appointed by Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, North Carolina, and Rhode Island failed to attend. Under the
circumstances of so partial a representation, the commissioners present
agreed upon a report, (drawn by Mr. Hamilton, of New York) expressing
their unanimous conviction that it might essentially tend to advance
the interests of the Union if the States by which they were
respectively delegated would concur, and use their endeavors to procure
the concurrence of the other States, in the appointment of
commissioners to meet at Philadelphia on the Second Monday of May
following, to take into consideration the situation of the United
States; to devise such further provisions as should appear to them
necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal Government adequate
to the exigencies of the Union; and to report such an act for that
purpose to the United States in Congress assembled as, when agreed to
by them and afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures of every State,
would effectually provide for the same.
Congress, on the 21st of February, 1787, adopted a resolution in favor
of a convention, and the Legislatures of those States which had not
already done so (with the exception of Rhode Island) promptly appointed
delegates. On the 25th of May, seven States having convened, George
Washington, of Virginia, was unanimously elected President, and the
consideration of the proposed constitution was commenced. On the 17th
of September, 1787, the Constitution as engrossed and agreed upon was
signed by all the members present, except Mr. Gerry of Massachusetts,
and Messrs. Mason and Randolph, of Virginia. The president of the
convention transmitted it to Congress, with a resolution stating how
the proposed Federal Government should be put in operation, and an
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