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108th Congress          HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES              Document
1st Session                                                 No. 108-95



 
          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. NEY

           June 20, 2003    <bullet>    Ordered to be printed

                              UNITED STATES
                       GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
                            WASHINGTON: 2003
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 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing 
                                 Office
 Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov  Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800;  DC area 
                             (202) 512-1800
     Fax: (202) 512-2250  Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-001
                           ISBN 0-16-051424-X


House Doc. 108-95

    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. 139 as passed on June 
20, 2003, 108th Congress, 1st Session. This document was 
compiled at the direction of Chairman Robert Ney of the Joint 
Committee on Printing, and printed by the U.S. Government 
Printing Office.

                                CONTENTS

Historical Note..................................................     v
Text of the Constitution.........................................     1
Amendments.......................................................    13
Proposed Amendments not ratified.................................    29
Index to the Constitution and amendments.........................    33
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                            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\

                              ----------                              

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 
explanatory letter. Congress, on the 28th of September, 1787, directed 
the Constitution so framed, with the resolutions and letter concerning 
the same, to ``be transmitted to the several Legislatures in order to 
be submitted to a convention of delegates chosen in each State by the 
people thereof, in conformity to the resolves of the convention.''
                                   * * * * *                              
On the 4th of March, 1789, the day which had been fixed for commencing 
the operations of Government under the new Constitution, it had been 
ratified by the conventions chosen in each State to consider it, as 
follows: 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; 
Virginia, June 25, 1788; and New York, July 26, 1788.
                                   * * * * *                              
The President informed Congress, on the 28th of January, 1790, that 
North Carolina had ratified the Constitution November 21, 1789; and he 
informed Congress on the 1st of June, 1790, that Rhode Island had 
ratified the Constitution May 29, 1790. Vermont, in convention, 
ratified the Constitution January 10, 1791, and was, by an act of 
Congress approved February 18, 1791, ``received and admitted into this 
Union as a new and entire member of the United States.''
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    Section. 2. \1\ 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.
    \2\ 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.
    \3\ 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.\2\ 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.
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                                   * * * * *                              
\2\ The part of this clause relating to the mode of apportionment of 
representatives among the several States has been affected by section 2 
of amendment XIV, and as to taxes on incomes without apportionment by 
amendment XVI.
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    \4\ When vacancies happen in the Representation from any 
State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of 
Election to fill such Vacancies.
    \5\ The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker 
and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of 
Impeachment.
    Section. 3. \1\ The Senate of the United States shall be 
composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the 
Legislature thereof.\3\ for six Years; and each Senator shall 
have one Vote.
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                                   * * * * *                              
\3\ This clause has been affected by clause 1 of amendment XVII.
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    \2\ 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 

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