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Brief History of the United States 183
SECTION III.
CLAUSE 1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed
or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the junction 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.
[Footnote: State the law with regard to the formation and admission of new states. What power has Congress
over the territory and propeity of the United States?]
CLAUSE 2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all 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 claims of the United States, or of any particular State.
SECTION IV.-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.
[Footnote: What must Congress guarantee to every state? When must Congress protect the states?]
ARTICLE V.--Power of Amendment.
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 amendment 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,
without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.
[Footnote: State the two ways in which amendments to the Constitution may be proposed. The two ways in
which they may be ratified. What restriction in this article has now lost all force? What provision for the
benefit of the smaller states is attached to this article?]
ARTICLE VI.-Miscellaneous Provisions.
CLAUSE 1. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall
be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the confederation.
[Footnote: What debts did the United States assume when the Constitution was adopted?]
CLAUSE 2. 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, anything in the Constitution or laws of
any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
[Footnote: What is the supreme law of the land? Who are required to take an oath or affirmation to support the
Constitution of the United States? Can a religious test be exacted?]
CLAUSE 3. The senators and representatives 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, shall
Brief History of the United States 184
be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a
qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.
ARTICLE VII.--Ratification of the Constitution.
The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution
between the States so ratifying the same.
[Footnote: ARTICLE VII. What was necessary for the adoption of this Constitution? (Note, p. 143.) In what
year was it adopted?]
Done in convention, by the unanimous 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.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, _President, and Deputy from Virginia._
NEW HAMPSHIRE. JOHN LANGDON, NICHOLAS GILMAN.
MASSACHUSETTS. NATHANIEL GORHAM, RUFUS KING.
CONNECTICUT. WILLIAM SAMUEL JOHNSON, ROGER SHERMAN.
NEW YORK. ALEXANDER HAMILTON.
NEW JERSEY. WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, DAVID BREARLEY, WILLIAM PATERSON, JONATHAN
DAYTON.
DELAWARE. GEORGE REED, GUNNING BEDFORD, Jr., JOHN DICKINSON, RICHARD BASSETT,
JACOB BROOM.
MARYLAND. JAMES McHENRY, DANIEL OF ST. THOMAS JENIFER, DANIEL CARROLL.
VIRGINIA. JOHN BLAIR, JAMES MADISON, Jr.
NORTH CAROLINA. WILLIAM BLOUNT, RICHARD DOBBS SPAIGHT, HUGH WILLIAMSON.
[Footnote: AMENDMENTS. (_Notes._--The first ten amendments were proposed in 1789 at the first session
of the First Congress, and in 1791 were declared adopted. They are of the nature of a Bill of Rights, and were
passed in order to satisfy those who complained that the Constitution did not sufficiently guard the rights of
the people.)]
PENNSYLVANIA. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, THOMAS MIFFLIN, ROBERT MORRIS, GEORGE
CLYMER, THOMAS FITZSIMONS, JARED INGERSOLL, JAMES WILSON. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.
SOUTH CAROLINA. JOHN RUTLEDGE, CHARLES C. PINCKNEY, CHARLES PINCKNEY, PIERCE
BUTLER.
GEORGIA. WILLIAM FEW, ABRAHAM BALDWIN.
Brief History of the United States 185
_Attest:_ WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary.
* * * * *
AMENDMENTS
To the Constitution of the United States, Ratified according to the Provisions of the Fifth Article of the
Foregoing Constitution.
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