This booklet consists of the constitution of the United States of America. It will students by enhancing their knowledge about government and understanding of important aspects of the constitution.
4. C ontents 3 | The Declaration of Independence 9 | The U. S. Constitution 28 | Preamble to the Bill of Rights 29 | Amendments to the U. S. Constitution 43 | Index of U. S. Constitution 48 | Significant Dates in History These documents were proofed word for word against originals housed in the National Archives in Washington, D. C. Efforts have been made to match spelling, capitalization and punctuation. The size of the booklet conforms to one produced by President Thomas Jefferson.
5. T H ETHE Declaration DECLARATION OF IINDEPENDENCE of ndependence Action of Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accord- ingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is 353
6. now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right ines- timable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dis- solutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
7. He has erected a multitude of new Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely 37 5
8. paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to dis- avow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States,
9. they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. SIGnERS OF THE UnAnIMOUS DECLARATIOn According to the Authenticated List printed by Order of Congress of January 18, 1777 Georgia Pennsylvania Button Gwinnett Robert Morris Lyman Hall Benjamin Rush George Walton Benjamin Franklin John Morton North Carolina George Clymer William Hooper James Smith Joseph Hewes George Taylor John Penn James Wilson George Ross South Carolina Edward Rutledge Delaware Thomas Heyward, Jr. Caesar Rodney Thomas Lynch, Jr. George Read Arthur Middleton Thomas McKean Massachusetts New York John Hancock William Floyd Samuel Adams Philip Livingston John Adams Francis Lewis Robert Treat Paine Lewis Morris Elbridge Gerry New Jersey Maryland Richard Stockton Samuel Chase John Witherspoon William Paca Francis Hopkinson Thomas Stone John Hart Charles Carroll of Carrollton Abraham Clark Virginia New Hampshire George Wythe Josiah Bartlett Richard Henry Lee William Whipple Thomas Jefferson Matthew Thornton Benjamin Harrison Thomas nelson, Jr. Rhode Island Francis Lightfoot Lee Stephen Hopkins Carter Braxton William Ellery Connecticut Roger Sherman Samuel Huntington William Williams 39 Oliver Wolcott 7
10. The U.S. Constitution Read It H Know It H Share It
11. THE Constitution CONSTITUTION of The OF United SSTATeS the UNITeD tates *Changed by the Fourteenth Amendment. 9
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30. preamble to the Preamble Billtoof theRBill ightsof Rights *On September 25, 1789, Congress transmitted to the state legislatures twelve proposed amendments, two of which, having to do with Congressional representation and Congressional pay, were not adopted. The remaining 28 ten amendments became the Bill of Rights.
31. AMENDMENTS TO The CONSTITUTION TOF O TThe HE UNITeD STATeS OF AMeRICA TO The CONSTITUTION OF The OF THESTATeS UNITeD UNITED STATES OF AMeRICA 29
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44. Amendment XXVI* Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age. Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Amendment XXVII** no law, varying the compensation for the ser- vices of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened. *The Twenty-Sixth Amendment was ratified July 1, 1971. **Congress submitted the text of the Twenty-Seventh Amendment to the States as part of the proposed Bill of Rights on September 25, 1789. The Amendment was not ratified together with the first ten Amendments, which became effective on December 15, 1791. The Twenty-Seventh Amendment was ratified on May 7, 1992, by the vote of Michigan.
45. index INDEX to the U.S.U.S. TO THE Constitution CONSTITUTION & AMENDMENTS and amendments 21 19 18 9 11 42 21 19-20 23 21 19-20 36 9-10,34 15,16 29 15,19 29 14 31 14 29-31 13-14 16 14 19 9-10 11 19 14 20 17 11-12,37 14 12 12-13 9 14-15,32-33 20 12 9 40 43
50. Significant Remembering DatesDates Significant April 19, 1775: Battle of Lexington, Mass. A British attack at dawn started the war for independence. July 4, 1776: Declaration of Independence adopted by Congress. October 19, 1781: Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown, Virginia, ending British military action. September 3, 1783: Treaty of Paris signed. Great Britain recognizes colonists' independence. May 25, 1787: The Constitutional Convention opens with a quorum of seven states in Philadelphia to discuss revising the Articles of Confederation. July 13, 1787: Congress passes the northwest Ordinance. September 17, 1787: All 12 state delegations approve the Constitution. Of the 42 delegates present, 39 sign it and the Convention formally adjourns. June 21, 1788: The Constitution becomes effective for the ratifying states when new Hampshire is the ninth state to ratify it. March 4, 1789: The first Congress under the Constitution convenes in new York City. April 30, 1789: George Washington is inaugurated as the first president of the United States. June 8, 1789: James Madison introduces proposed Bill of Rights in the House of Representatives. September 24, 1789: Congress establishes a Supreme Court, 13 district courts, three ad hoc cir- cuit courts, and the position of Attorney General. September 25, 1789: Congress approves 12 amendments and sends them to the states for ratification. February 2, 1790: Supreme Court convenes for the first time after an unsuccessful attempt February 1. December 15, 1791: Virginia ratifies the Bill of Rights, and 10 of the 12 proposed amendments become part of the U.S. Constitution. 45
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