C. For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world. d. For imposing taxes on us without our consent. e. For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury. f. For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses. g. For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring 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. h. For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments. i. For suspending our own legislature and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 14. He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us. 15. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 16. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 17. 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 hands. 18. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored 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 our 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 disavow 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 the 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, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and 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. The foregoing declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed and signed by the following members : New Hampshire Robert Treat Paine Rhode Island Stephen Hopkins Connecticut Roger Sherman Samuel Huntington William Williams Oliver Olcott New York William Floyd John Hancock New Jersey Richard Stockton John Witherspoon Francis Hopkinson Abraham Clark John Hart Pennsylvania Robert Morris Delaware Maryland Samuel Chase William Paca Virginia George Wythe Richard Henry Lee Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Harrison Thomas Nelson, Jun. Francis Lightfoot Lee Carter Braxton North Carolina William Hooper Joseph Hewes John Penn South Carolina Edward Rutledge Thomas Heyward, Jun Thomas Lynch, Jun. Arthur Middleton Georgia Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall George Walton Thomas Stone Charles Carroll of Car. rollton C With regard to the members of the Senate, the Constitution provides for. With regard to the President, the Constitution provides for: Manner of election. Qualifications Distribution. The census. A presiding officer. House of Representatives. President. President's Cabinet. Federal Judges. Federal Courts. By the people of the several states. Twenty-five years old. Seven years a citizen of the Live in state where chosen. Members elect the Speaker. Power to impeach Federal officers. Number. Manner of election. Qualifications. Presiding officer. Two from each state. By the state legislatures.' Thirty years of age. Nine years a citizen of the United Live in state where elected. Term of office. Manner of election { Qualifications. Oath of office. Four years. By presidential electors chosen by Thirty-five years of age. Fourteen years' residence in To support the Constitution of 1 Amendments, Article XVII. Their appointment. {By President with the Their number. Their term of office. One Supreme Court. consent of the Senate. Fixed by Congress. During good behavior. Inferior courts to be established by Congress. Time of meeting. Quorum. Every year on first Monday of December. Majority. Each house determine its rules of procedure. Neither house may adjourn for more than three The method of passing laws. To lay taxes.1 To borrow money. To regulate commerce. To pass laws to regulate To coin money. Naturalization of foreigners. To fix standard of weights and measures. To provide for patents and copyrights. To raise and support armies. To maintain a navy. To provide for a standing army. To admit new states. To pass laws necessary to carrying out the above powers. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES1 PREAMBLE We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, 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 THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT THE CONGRESS: ITS DIVISIONS AND POWERS SECTION I. 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. THE HOUSE: ITS COMPOSITION AND POWERS SEC. 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 choose 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. THE SENATE: ITS COMPOSITION AND POWERS SEC. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state [chosen by the legislature thereof2], for six years; and each senator shall have one vote. 1 In the use of punctuation and capitals this draft is modern. The phrase in brackets has been set aside by the XVIIth Amendment. |