Wells Township (part 1 of 7)

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CHRONOLOGICAL History of important events, embracing a period of two hundred and fifty years, from the first settlement of the country to the present time, arranged in chronological order 228

Articles Of Confederation

[The following articles were drawn up by a committee of gentlemen, who were appointed by Congress for this purpose, June 12, 1776, and finally adopted, Nov. 15, 1777 : the committee were Messrs. Bartlett, Samuel Adams, Hopkins, Sherman, K. R. Livingston, Dickinson, M'Kean, Stone, Nelson, Howes, E. Eutledge, and Gwinnet.]

Articles Of Confederation And Perpetual Union

Between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, Neiv Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Norlh Carolina, SouthCarolina, nad Georgia,

Art. 2. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.

Art. 3. The said staters hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendsdip with each other, for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of rehgion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.

Art 4. § 1. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and inter CO Qfse among the people of the different states in this union, the free inhabitants of ep ;h of these states, paupers - vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted - shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several states ; and the people of each state shall have free ingress and egress to and from any other state, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions, as the inhabitants thereof respectively ; provided, that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported into any state, to any other state, of which the owner is an inhabitant ; provided also, that no imposition, duties, or res/riction, shall be laid by any state on the property of the United States, or either of them.

I 2. If any person, guilty of, or charged with treason, felony, or other high misdemeanor, in any state, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the United States, he shall, upon the demand of the governor or executive power of the state from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the state having jurisdiction of his offence.

Art. 5. § 1. Far the more convenient management of the general interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the legislature of each state shall direct, to m.eet in Congress on the first Monday in November in every year, with a power reserved to each state to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in their stead, for the remainder of the year.

g'2. No staie shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor more than seven members ; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years, in any term of six years; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the United States, for which he, or any other for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, or emolument, of any kind.

2 3. Each state shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of the states, and while they act as members of the committee of these states.

g 5. Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Congress, and the members of Congress shall be protected in their persons from arrests and imprisonmtents during the time of their going to and from, and attendance on Congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. ^

Art. 6. g 1. No state, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or enter into any conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty with any king, prince, or state, nor shall any person holding any office of profit or trust under the United States, or any of them, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state ; nor shall the United States in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility.

^2. No two or more states shall enter into any treaty, confederation, or alliance whatever, between them, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue. »

§ 3. No state shall lay any imposts or duties which may interfere with any stipulations in treaties entered into by the United States, in Congress assembled, with any king, prince, or state, in pursuance of any treaties already proposed by Congress to the courts of France and Spain.

2 4. No vessels of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any state, except such number only as shall be deemed necessary by the United States in Congress assembled, for the defence of such state, or its trade ; nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any state, in time of peace, except g^ic^i number only as, in the judgment of the

United States in Congress assembled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary for the defence of such state ; but every state shall always keep up a well regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutred, and shall provide and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a due number of field-pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp equipage.

g 5. No state shall engage in any war without the consent of th« United State in Congress assembled, unless such state be actually invaded by enemies, or shall have received certain advice of a resolution being formed by some nation of Indians to invade such state, and the danger is so imminent as not to admit of delay till the United States in Congress assembled can be consulted ; nor shall any state grant commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters of marque or reprisal, except it be after a declaration of war by the United States in Congress assembled, and then only against the kingdom or state, and the subjects thereof, against which war has been so declared, and under such regulations as shall be established by the United States in Congress assembled, unless such stat^ be infested by pirates, in which case vessels of war may be fitted out for that occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall continue, or until the United States in Congress assembled shall determine otherwise.

Art. 7. When land forces are raised by any state for the common defence, all officers of or under the rank of colonel, shall be appointed by the legislature of each state respectively by whom such forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such state shall direct, and all vacancies shall be filled up by the state which first made the appointment.

Art. 8. All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred for the coinmon defence or general welfare, and allowed by the United States in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several states, in proportion to the value of all land within each state, granted to or surveyed for any person, as such land and the buildings and improveznents thereon shall be estimated, according to such mode as the United States in Congress assembled shall, from time to time, direct and appoint. The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the several states within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled.

Art. 9. ^ 1. The United States in Congress assembled shall have the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war, except in the cases mentioned in the sixth article, of sending and receiving ambassadors ; entering into treaties and alliances, provided that no treaty of commerce shall be made, whereby the legislative power of the respective states shall be restrained from imposing such imposts and duties on foreigners,- as their own people are subjected to, or from prohibiting the exportation or importation of any species of goods or' commodities whatsoever ; of establishing rules for deciding iL all cases what captures on land or water shall be legal, and in what maDiier prizes taken by land or naval forces in the service of tha United States sliall be divided or appropriated ; of granting letters of marque and reprisal in times of peace ; appointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas ; and establishing courts for receiving and determining finally appeals in all cases of capture ; provided that no member of Congress shall be appointed a judge of any of the said courts.

g 2. The United States in Congress assembled shall also be the last resort on appeal in alldisputes and differences now subsisting, or that hereafter may a^-ise between two or ipore states concerning boundary, jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever ; which authority shall always be exercised in the manner following : Whenever the legislative or executive authority or lawful agent of any state in controversy with another, shall present a petition to Congress, stating the matter in question, and praying for a hearing, notice thereof shall be given by order of Congress to the legislative or executive authority of the other state in controversy, and a day assigned for the appearance of the parties by their lawful agents, who shall then be directed to appoint, by joint consent, commissioners or judges to constitute a court for hearin^^ and determining the matter in question ; but if they cannot agree, G^>n2:ress shall name three persons out of each of the United States, a<-id from the list of such persons each party shall alternately strike ot t one, the petitioners beginning, until the number shall be reduced to thirteen ; and from that number not less than seven, nor more than nine names, as Congress shall direct, shall, in the presence of Congress, be drawn out by lot; and the persons whose namies shall be so drawn, or any five of them, shall be commissioners or judges, to hear and finally determine the controversy, so always as a major part of the judges, who shall hear the cause, shall agree in the determination : and if either party shall neglect to attend at the day appointed, without showing reasons which Congress shall judge sufficient, or being present, shall refuse to strike, the Congress shall proceed to nominate three persons out of each state, and the secretary of Congress shall strike in behalf of such party absent or refusing ; and the judgment and sentence of the court, to be appointed in the manner before prescribed, shall be final and conclusive ; and if any of the parties shall refuse to submit to the authority of such court, or to appear or defend their claim or cause, the court shall nevertheless proceed to pronounce sentence, or judgment, which shall in like manner be final and decisive ; the judgment or sentence and other proceedings being in either case tiansmitted to Congress, and lodged amiong the acts of Congress, for the security of the parties concerned : provided, that every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, shall take an oath, to be administered by one of the judges of the supreme or superior court of the state ^here the cause shall be tried, " well and truly to hear and determine the matter in question, according to the best of his judgment, without favor, affection, or hope of reward." Provided, also, that no state shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States.

Articles Of Confederation

? J{. All controversies concerning the private right of soil claimed under difierent grants of two or more states, whose jurisdiction, as they may respect such lands, and the states which passed such grants are adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at the same time claimed to have originated antecedent tQ such settlement of jurisdiction, shall, on the petition of either party to the Congress of the United States, be finally determined, as near as may be, in the same manner as is before prescribed for deciding disputes respecting territorial jurisdiction between different states.

2 4. The United States in Congress assembled shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective states ; fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the United States ; regulating the trade, and managing all affairs with the Indians, not member* of any of the states ; provided that the legislative right of any state, within its own limits, be not infringed or violated ; establishing and regulating post offices from one state to another throughout all the United States, and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same, as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said office ; appointing all officers of the land forces in the service of the United States, excepting regimental officers ; appointing all the officers of the naval forces, and commissioning all officers whatever in the service of the United States ; making rules for the government and regulation of the said land and naval forces, and directing their operations.

§ 5. The United States in Congress assembled shall have authority to appoint a committee to sit in the recess of Congress, to be denominated, *' A Committee of the States,'' and to consist of one delegate from each state ; and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general affiiirs of the United States under their direction ; to appoint one of their number to preside ; provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any term of three years ; to ascertain the necessary sums of money to be raised for the service of the United States, and to appropriate and apply the same for defraying the public expenses ; to borrow money or emit bills on the credit of the United States, transmitting every half-year to the respective states an account of the sums of money so borrowed or emitted ; to build and equip a navy ; to agree upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions from each state for its quota, in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in such state, which requisition shall be binding ; and thereupon the legislature of each state shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men, clothe, arm, and equip them, in a soldier-like^ manner, at the expense of the United States ; and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped, shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in Congress ass'embled ; but if the United States in Congress assembled shall, on consideration of circums^aiices, judge proper that any state should not raise men, or should raise a smaller number tLian its quota, and that any other state should raise a greater number of men than the quota tbereof, such extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, armed, and equipped in the same manner as the quota of such state, unles's the legislature of such state shall judge that such extra number cannot be safely spared out of the same, in which case they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm, and equip, as many of such extra number as they judge can be safely spared, and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped, shall march to the place appointed, and v*^ithin the time agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled.

g 6. The United States in Congress assembled shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the defence and welfare of the United States, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit of the United States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war to be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a commander-in-chief of the army or navy, unless nine states assent to the same : nor shall a question on any other point, except for adjourning from day to day, be determined, unless by the votes of a majority of the United States in Congress assembled.

§ 7. The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any place within the United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six months, and shall publish the journal of their proceedings monthly, except such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military operations, as in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each state, on any question, shall be entered on the journal, when it is desired by any delegate ; and the delegates of a state, or any of them,, at his or their request, shall be furnished with a transcript of the said journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the legislatures of the several states.

Art. 10. The committee of the states, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States, in Congress assembled, by the consent of . nine states, shall, from time to time, think expedient to vest them with ; provided that no power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise of which, by the Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine states, in the Congress of the United States assembled, is requisite.

Art. 11. Canada acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into and entitled to all the advantages of this Union : But no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine states.

Articles Of Confederation

of the United States, in pursuance of the present confederation, ahall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States and thQ public faith are hereby solemnly pledged.

Art 13. Every state shall abide by the determination of the United States in Congress assembled, in all questions which by this confederation are submitted to them. And the articles of this confederation shall be inviolably observed by every state, and the union shall be perpetual ; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them ; unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards . confirmed by the legislature of every state. -

And whereas it hath pleased the great Grovernor of the world to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in Congress to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, Know ye, that we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do by these presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the sp-id Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained. And we do further solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress assembled, in all questions which by the said confederation are submitted to them ; and that the articles thereof shalj be inviolably observed by the states we respectively represent, and that the union shall be perpetual. In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands in Congress.

Done at Philadelphia, in the state of Pennsylvania, the 9th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1778, and in the third year of the Independence of America,

Articles Of Confederation Declaration Of Independence

^^JxiKKABLY .to the Order of the day, the Congress resolved itself ^ LwjD A coTDmittee of the whole, to take into their further consideration Itt* declaration ; and after some time the President resumed the chair, auti Mr. Harrison reported that the committee had agreed to a declaiation, wbichthey desired him to report. (The committee consisted of Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Sherman, and R. R. Livingston.)

In Con&Ress Assembled

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 a 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, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, thgin 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 ^ch government, and to piovide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to filter 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 wove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world;

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 oi representation in the legislature ; a right inestimable 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 measures

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause othefs 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 danger of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states ; for that purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners ; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

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 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 j

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 un\^orthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against th©ir country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongfst us, and ha,s endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our fronti»s, 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 ha^ve petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms ; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose c-haracter 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 attention to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts made 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 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 4he UNITED STATES OI"' 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 Britam, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full power to levy war, concj^^de peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acta and thinp which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do.

Dkclaration Of Independnce

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.

John Hancock

On the 1st of March, 1784, less than one hundred days after tho evacuation of our soil by the British army, Thomas Jefferson, from a Committee, consisting of himself, Mr. Chase, of Md., and Mr. Howell, of R. L, (a majority being from Southern States,) reported to the Continental Congress the following Ordinance for the government of all the National Territory outside the limits of the States. As mary have understood this only to apply to the North- Western Territory, we insert it in full :

" Resolved, That the territory ceded, or to he ceded by individual States to the United Stat^, whensoever the same shall have been pur chased of the Indian mnabitants and offered for sale by the United States, shall be formed into additional States, bounded in the following manner, as nearly as such cessions will admit ; that is to say, northwardly and southwardly by parallels of latitude, so that each State shall comprehend from south to north, two degrees of latitude, beginning to count from the completion of thirty-one degrees north of the equator ; [the then Southern boundary of the U. S.] but any territory northwardly of the forty-seventh degree shall make part of the State next below. And eastwardly and westwardly they shall be bounded, those on the Mississippi, by that ri^er on one side, and the meridian of the lowest point of the rapids ot the Ohio on the other : and those adjoining on the east, by the same meridian on the western side, and on the eastern by the meridian of the western cape of the mouth of the Great Kanawha. And the territory eastward of this last meridian, between the Ohio, Lake Erie, and Pennsylvania, shall be one State.

" That the settlers within the territory so to be purchased and offered for sale shall, either on their own petition or on the order of Congress, receive authority from them, with appointments of time and place, for their free males of full age to meet together for the purpose of establishing a temporary government, to adopt the constitution and laws of any one of these States, so that such laws nevertheless shall be subject to alteration^y their ordinary Legislature, and to erect, subject to a like alteration, counties or townships for the election of members for their Legis lature.

*'. That such temporary government shall only continue in force in any State until it shall have acquired twenty thousand free inhabitants, when, giving due proof thereof to Congress, they shall receive from them authority, with appointments of time and place, to call a convention of representatives to establish a permanent constitution and government for themselves : provided, That both the temporary and permanent governments be established on these principles as their basis : ject to the Govei nment of the United States in Congress assembled, and to the Articles of Confederation in ail those cases in which the original States shall be so subject.

" 3. That they shall be subject to pay a part of the Federal debts, contracted or to be contracted, to be apportioned on them by Congress, according to the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other States.

" 4. That their respective governments shall be in republican forms and shall admit no person to be a citizen who holds any hereditary title

" 5. That after the year 1800 of the Christian era, there shall he neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have been personally guilty. ' ,

" That whenever any of the said States shall have, of free inhabitants, as many as shall then be in any one of the least numerous of tha thirteen original States, such State shall be admitted by its Delegates, iato the Congress of the United States, on an equal footing with th© said original States ; after which the assent of two-thirds of the United States, in Congress assembled, - shall be requisite in all those casea wherein, by the Confederation, the assent of nine States is now required, provided the consent of nine States to such admission may bs obtained according to the eleventh of the Articles of Confederation. Until such admission by their Delegates into Congress, any of the saidl States, after the establishment of their temporary government, shall have authority to keep a sitting member in Congress, with a right of debating, but not of voting.

" That the territory northward of the forty-fifth degree, that is to Bay, of the completion of forty-five degrees from the equator, and extending to the Lake of the Woods, shall be called Sylvania ; that of the territory under the forty-fifth and forty-fourth degree, that which lies westward of Lake Michigan, shall be called Michigania ; and that which is eastward thereof, within the peninsula formed by the lakes and waters of Michigan, Huron, St. Clair, and Erie, shall be called Chersonesus, and shall include any part of the peninsula which may extend above the forty-fifth degree. Of the territory under the fortythird and forty-second degrees, that to the westward, through which the Assenisipi or Rock River runs, shall be called Assenesipia ; and that to the eastward, in which are the fountains of the Muskingum, the two Miamies of the Ohio, the Wabash, the Illinois, the Miami of the Lake, and the Sandusky river, shall be called Metropotamia. Of the territory which lies under the forty-first and fortieth degrees, the western, through which the river Illinois runs, shall be called Illinoia ; that next adjoining to the eastward, Saratoga ; and that between this last and Pennsyiyania, and extending from the Ohio to Lake Erie, shall be called Washington, Of the territory which lies under the thirtyninth and thirty -eight degree, to which shall be added so much of the point of land within the fork of the Ohio and Mississippi as Ijes un- QSi the thirty-seventh degree j that to the westward within and ad- facent to which are the confluences of the rivers Wabash, Shawanee, Tanisee, Ohio, Illinois. Mississippi, and Missouri, shall be called Polypotania ; and that to the eastward, further up the Ohio, otherwise called the Pelisipi, shall be called Pelisipia.

" That nil the preceding articles shall be formed into a charter of compact, shall be duly executed by the President of the United States, in Conq-ress aj^sembled, under his hand and the seal of the United States, «ihall be promulgated, and shall stand a>i fundamental conditions between the thirteen original States and those newly da^mhadi, unalterable but by the joint consent of the United States, in Congress assembled, and of the particular State within which such alteration is proposed to bo made."

On a test vote on adopting the anti-slavery provision above, sixteen voted aye, and seven no ; but the requisite majority of States failing to vote in the affirmative, it was lost. And three years later, the Ordinance of 1787, for the Northwestern Territory alone, was adopted.

Forty-two years afterwards, Mr. Jefferson, only six weeks before he died, wrote as follow^s, in reply to a letter asking his views in regard to the ultimate eradication of slavery from the country.

Dear Sir : The subject of your letter of April 20th, is one on w^hich I do not permit myself to exprjess an opinion, but when time, piace, and occasion, may give it some tavorable effect. A good cause is often injured more by ill-timed efforts of its friends than by the arguments of its enemies. Persuasion, perseverance, and patience are the best advocates on questions depending on the will of others. The revolution in public opinion which this case requires is not to he expected in a day, or perhaps in an age ; but time which outlives all things, will outlive this evd also. My sentiments have been forty" years before the public, and had I repeated them forty times, they would only become the more stale and thi'eadbare. Although I shall 7iot live to see them consu7iimated, they will not die with me ; but, living or dying, they will ever be in my most fervent prayers. This is written for yourself, and not for the public, in compliance .of your request of two^lineg of sentiment on the subject. Accept the assurance of my good will and respect.

Op The United States Of America

We the People of tlie United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, 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

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 Eepresentatives.

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 cifizen 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 nat taxed, three-fifths of nil 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 fivC; South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

When vacancies happen in the representation from an> State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such vacancies.

Tee Constitutiok

Sec. 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 of 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.

Is^o 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 Vv^ho shall not, vvhen elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President' pro tempore, in the absence of the Yice-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, ^f hen 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 io 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.

Sec. 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 leasi once in every year, and such Hieeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Sec. 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 busii.ess; 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 lloitse shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from tima to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in theii judgment require secrecy ; and the Yeas and Nays of the membera 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 jDhan three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Sec. 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 ia 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.

Sec. 7. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the Housa of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills.

Every bill which shall have passed ^the Rouse of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes 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 determind 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-

The Constitution, 27

To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the debts and provide *for the common defence and general welfare of the United States ; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States ;

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 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 accord ing to the discipline prescribed by Congress ;

To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over ?ucb 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, dock-yards, 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.

Sec. 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any of tlie 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 lax 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 preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce oi revenue to the ports of o^ie 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 m.oney shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law ; and a regular statement and account of the 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 oSice of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, oltice, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State.

Sec. 10. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make any thing 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 its 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 v>rar, 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 Yice-President, choser 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

The Constitution

Congress : but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust Dr profit under the United Statos, 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 votea chall 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 Ruch 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 Yice-President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by Ballot the Yice-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 inabihty to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Yice-President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and Yice-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 Iha period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, Of any of them.

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the officft of Presidenl of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defeu(J the Constitution of the United States."

Sec. 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, -^dien called into the actual service of the United States ; he may require the opinion, m 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 offences 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 b^ law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think propel in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Pleads of Departments.

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that maj happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which shall expire at the end of their next session.

Sec. 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.

Sec. 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.

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 behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compen^sation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.

Eqnitj, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority ; - to all cases ailecting 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 ditierent States, and between a State, or the citizeHlfc 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 ail 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 iury ; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimea 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.

Sec. 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only i» 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 v/ork corruption of blood, or furfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted.

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

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 fee due.

Sec. 3. New States may be admitted by the Congress into ihm CTnion ; but no De\^ State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State ; nor any State be formed by the juiictioii 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 ail 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 clamis of the United States, or of any particular State.

Sec. 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.

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 Am.endment 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, vv^ithout 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, ander 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, any thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Eepresentatives 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, sliall be bdund by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office &r public trust under the United States.

The Coxstitution

Done in Convention, by the nnauimons 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.

Geo. Washington Of The Original Constitution

IN ADDITION TO, AND AMENDMENT OF, THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PROPOSED BY CONGRESS, AND RATIFIED BY THE I.EGISLATURES OF THE SEVERAL STATES, PURSUANT TO THE FHTH ARTICLE OF THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION.

(article 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 thepressi ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

(article 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 ba infringed.

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 bs prescribed by law.

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 warrant 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.

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 offence 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.

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a epeedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which- district shall have Deen previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with the wi tresses against

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 re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

(article IX.) The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respect* ively, or to the people.

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 oi subjects of any foreign State.

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by bai> lot for President and Yice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves ; they shall name in their ballot 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 Yice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate : - The President of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Kepresentatives, 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 ; a quorum for this purpose fihkll consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the Stateaf, and a majority of all tlio States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shaJl 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 Yice- 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 h^hest 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.

The Constitution was adopted on the 17th September, 1787, by the Convention appointed in pursuance of the Resolution of the Congress of the Confederation, of the 21st February, 1787, and ratified by the Conventions of the several States, as follows :

The first ten of the Ainendments wex-e proposed on the 25th September. 1789, and ratified by the constitutiooal number of States on the 16th December, 1 791 ; the eleventh, on v'ho h^th January, 1798 ; and th« twelfth, on the 25th September, 180^.

Fokmation Of The Original Union. 3T

On Monday, the 5tli September, 1774, there were assembled at Carpenter's Hall, in the city of Philadelphia, a number of men who had been chosen and appointed by the several colonies in North America to hold a Congress for the purpose of discussing certain grievances imputed against the mother-country. This Congress resolved on the next day that each colony should have one vote only. On Tuesday, the 2d July, 177G, the Congress resolved, " That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent Btates," etc., etc. ; and on Thursday, the 4th July, the whole Declaration of Independence having been agreed upon, it was publicly read to tlie people. Shortly after, on the 9th September, it was resolved that the words " United Colonies " should be no longer used, and that the ^' Unffed States of America" should thenceforward be the style and title of the Union. On Saturday, the loth November, 1777, " Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union of the United States of America " were agreed to by the state delegates, subject to the ratification of the state legislatures severally. Eight of the states ratified these articles on the 9th July, 1778 ; one on the 21st July ; one on the 24th July ; one on the 26th November of the same year ; one on the 2 2d February, 1779 ; and the last one on the 1st March, 1781. Here was a bond of union between thirteen independent states, whose delegates in Congress legislated for the general welfare, and executed certain powers, so far as they were permitted by the articles aforesaid. The following are the names of the Presidents of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1788 :

On the 4th March, 1789, the present Constitution, whi(;h had been adopted by a convention and ratified by the requisite number of Btates, went into operation.

There were not many occasions during his public career that Washington was called upon to exercise his abilities as a writer or as orator ; but when such occasions did occur, he always acquitted hira self with a degree of perspicuity and modesty which may be said to have been characteristic of himself alone. The addresses which follow mark, as it were, four distinct epochs in the history of this unexampled man : - the first, when he accepted the command of the armies by which our national independence was achieved ; the second, when he surrendered his com.mission, after having driven the foes of freedom from his beloved country ; the third, when he assumed the responsible duties of President, in which office his high qua-lities ^or civil government were as conspicuous as had been his military talents in the field ; and fourth, when he resigned this great trust, and took leave of the people in his imperishable " Farewell Address," an inestimable legacy, which cannot be too frequently conned by every American who values his birthright.

Washington'S Election As Commnder-In-Chief

On the 15th of June, 1775, Washington was unanimously elected by Congress to " command all the Continental forces raised, or to be raised, for the defence of American liberty," and when he appeared in his place the next day, the President of that body acquainted him with his election, in a well-timed address, " and requested he would accept of that employment ;" to which Washington replied as follows -

" Mr. President : Though I am truly sensible of the high honor done me, in this appointment, yet I feel great distress, from consciousness that my abilities and military experience may not be equal to the. extensive and important trust : However, as the Congress desire it, I will enter upon the momentous duty, and exert every power I possess in their service, and for support of the glorious cause. I beg they will accept my most cordial thanks for this distinguished testimony of their approbation.

" But, lest some unlucky event should happen, unfavorable to m;^ reputation, I beg it may be remembered, by every gentleman in the room, that I, this day, declare, with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with.

"As to pay, sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress, that, as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this arduous employment, at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it. 1 will keep an exact account of my expenses. Those, I doubt not, they will discharge, and that is ali I desire."

ITie War of the Revolution havinn: terminated auspiciously, Wasbiui»-ton took leave of his ofiicors and army at Xew York, and repaired to Annapolis, Md., where Congress was then in session. On the 20th of December, 1783, he transmitted a letter to that body, apprising them of his arrival, with the intention of resigning his commission, and desiring to know whether it would be most agreeable to receive it in writing or at an audience. It was immediately resolved that a public entertainment be given him on the 22d, and that he be admitted to an audience on the 23d, at twelve o'clock. Accordingly he attended at that time, and, being seated, the President informed him that Congress were prepared to receive his comjuunications. Whereupon he arose, and spoke as follows :

" Mr. President : The great events on which my resignation depended having at length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere congratulations to Congress, and of presenting myself before them, to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country.

" Happy in the conilrmation of our independence and sovereignty, and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming a respectable nation, I resign with satisfaction the appointment I accepted with diffidence : a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so arduous a task ; which however was sup'^rseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause, the support of the supreme power of the Union, and the patronage of Heaven.

" The successful termination of the war has verified the most sanguine expectations ; and my gratitude for the interposition of Providence, and the assistance I have received from my countrymen, increases with every review of the momentous contest.

'' While I repeat my obligations to the army in general, I should do injustice to my own feelings not to acknowledge, in this place, the peculiar services and distinguished merits of the gentlemen who have been attached to my person during the war. It was impossible the choice of confidential officers to compose my family should have been more fortunate. Permit me, sir, to recommend, in particular, those who have continued in the service to the present moment, as w^orthy of the favorable notice and patronage of Congress,

*' I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last act of my official hfe by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of*^ Almighty God, and those who have the superintendence of them to his holy keeping.

" Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my com* mission, ^and take my leave of all the employments of public life."

Washington'S Inaugueal Address

In accordance with previous arrangements, General Washington met Congress in New York on the 30th of April, 1789, for the purpose of being inaugurated as the first President of the United States. The oath of office having been administered by the Chancellor of the state of New York, in presence of the Senate and House (^ Eepreseutatives the President delivered the following Inaugural Address :

" Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification wag transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my. country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes^ with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years ; a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary, as well as more dear to me, by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health, to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the othef hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into hi's qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one, who, inheriting inferior endownients from nature, and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration, ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions, all I dare aver, is, that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty . from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope, is, that if, in executing this task, 1 have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence-of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which misled me, and its consequences be judged by my country, with some share of the partiality in which they originated.

" Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe - who presides in the councils of nations - and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States, a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes ; and may enable e\'ery icstniment employed in its administration to execute with success tLe lianctions allotted to his charf^e. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that i^, expresses your sentiments not less than my own ; nor those of my fellow-citizens at large, less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the aftaira of men, more than the people of the United States. Every step by which tjiey have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency ; and m the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government, the tranquil deliberations, and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities, from which the event has resulted, cannot be compared with the means by which m.ost governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. Tliese reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none, under the influence of w^hich the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.

" By the article establishing the executive department, it is made the duty of the President - to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.' The circumstances under v/hich I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject, farther than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled ; and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstan-ces, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism, which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that, as on one side, no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views, nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests ; so, on another, that the foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality ; an.d the pre-eminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can v/in the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent lore for my country can inspire : since there is no truth more thoroaghly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happineSvS - between duty and advantage - between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimious -policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity ; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained ; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally, staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

" Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide, how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient at the present juncture, by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good ; for, I assure myself, that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective governrnxcnt, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen, and a regard for the public harmony, will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question, how far the former can be -more impregnably fortified, or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted.

" To the preceding observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Kepresentatives. It concerns myself, and will, therefore, be as brief as possible. When I wag first honored with a call into the service of m.y country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed ; and being still under the impressions v/hich produced it, I must decline, as inapplicable to myself, any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department ; and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed, may, during my continuance in it, be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.

" Having thus imparted to you my sentiments, a» they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take ray present leave ; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the human race, in humble supplication, that, since he has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding, with unparalleled unanimity, on a form of government for the security of their Union, and the advancement of their happiness, so his Divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures, on which ihe BucceM of this government must depend '

Washington'S Farewell Address

The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the Executiye Government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of tha resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country ; and that, in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence, in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal tor your future interest ; no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness . but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently v/ith motives which I w^as not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you ; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture- of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible wdth the sentiment of duty or propriety ; and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances of our country, you will net disapprove my determination to retire.

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were ' explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say, that 1 have with good intentions contributed towards the organization and administration of the Government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment w-as capable. Not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience, in my own eyes - perhaps still more in the eyes of others - has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of y'ears admonishes me, more and more, that the shade of iVtiremeut is as necessary ^ me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any cii'^umstanGes have given peculiar value to my services, they were temp >rary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suj^pend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me ; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me ; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals that, under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, w^ere liable to mislead ; amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discourai^'ing ; in situations in which, not unfrequently, w^ant of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism - the constancy of your support w^as the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans, by which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitemxcnt to unceasing vows, that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence ; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual ; that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained ; that its administration, in every department, may be stamped witn wisdom and virtue ; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these states, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as ^vill acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and the adoption of every .nation which is yet a stranger to it.

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop ; but a solicitude for your welfare, Vfhich cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of dangpr natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and v/hich appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be afforded to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them th^ disinterested w^arnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel ; nor can ] forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and Dot dissimilar occasion.

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommend<ation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.

The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so ; for it i^ a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence - the support of your tranquillity at horne, your peace abroad, of your safety^ of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But 'as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will ba taken, many artifices emploj'ed, to weaken in your rfiinds the conviction of this truth ; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed - - it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your National Union to your collective and individual happiness ; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it ; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of ' the palladium of your political safety and prosperity ; watcMng for its preservation with jealous anxiety ; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can, in any event, be abandoned ; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

I^or this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. Vv^ith slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed together ; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels and joint efforts - of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility,' are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest : here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole.

'The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds, in the productions of the latter, great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise, and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow, and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated ; and while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in like intercourse with the West^ already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communication, by land and water, will more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at b /me. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growtli an<3 comfort ; and what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it mnstj of necessity, owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions, to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find, in the united mass of means and efforts, greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations ; and what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between them^lves, which so frequently afHict neighboring countries, not tied together by the same government; which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite " foreign alliances, attachment, and intrigues, would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form, of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty ; in this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the pre servation of the other.

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt, whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere ? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation, in such a case, were criminal. We are authorized to hope, that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, wiil afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to Union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who, in any quarter, may endeavor to weaken its bands.