AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

Amendment I (1791)

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II (1791)

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 be infringed.

Amendment III (1791)

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 be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV (1791)

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 warrants 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.

Amendment V (1791)

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 offense 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.

Amendment VI (1791)

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right
to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state
and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which
district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and
to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation;
to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have
compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor,
and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Amendment VII (1791)

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
reexamined in any court of the United States, than according
to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII (1791)

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines
imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX (1791)

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

Amendment X (1791)

The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are
reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Amendment XI (1798)

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 or subjects of any foreign state.

Amendment XII (1804)

The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote
by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at
least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with
themselves; they shall name in their ballots 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 Vice-President, and of the number of votes for
each, which lists 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
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 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. And if the House of
Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the
right of choice shall 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 Vice-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 highest 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.

Amendment XIII (1865)

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except
as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any
place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XIV (1868)

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States,
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state
shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges
or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any
state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without
due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction
the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several
states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole
number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But
when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors
for President and Vice President of the United States,
Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers
of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied
to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one
years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way
abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime,
the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the
proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear
to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age
in such state.

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in
Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold
any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under
any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member
of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a
member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial
officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United
States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against
the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But
Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove
such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States,
authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of
pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection
or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United
States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation
incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United
States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave;
but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held
illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by
appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Amendment XV (1870)

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any
state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XVI (1913)

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on
incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment
among the several states, and without regard to any census
of enumeration.

Amendment XVII (1913)

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two
Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for
six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors
in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for
electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the
Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs
of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, that the
legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof
to make temporary appointments until the people fill the
vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the
election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes
valid as part of the Constitution.

Amendment XVIII (1919)

Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this
article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating
liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation
thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the
jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Section 2. The Congress and the several states shall have concurrent
power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall
have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the
legislatures of the several states, as provided in the Constitution,
within seven years from the date of the submission hereof
to the states by the Congress.

Amendment XIX (1920)

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on
account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.

Amendment XX (1933)

Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall
end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of
Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January,
of the years in which such terms would have ended if this
article had not been ratified; and the terms of their
successors shall then begin.

Section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every
year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of
January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term
of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice
President elect shall become President. If a President shall not
have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his
term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify,
then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a
President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law
provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a
Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall
then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act
shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until
a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the
death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives
may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have
devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the
persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever
the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day
of October following the ratification of this article.

Section 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall
have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the
legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within
seven years from the date of its submission.

Amendment XXI (1933)

Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the
Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2. The transportation or importation into any state,
territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or
use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws
thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall
have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by
conventions in the several states, as provided in the
Constitution, within seven years from the date of the
submission hereof to the states by the Congress.

Amendment XXII (1951)

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the
President more than twice, and no person who has held the
office of President, or acted as President, for more than two
years of a term to which some other person was elected President
shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.
But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office
of President when this article was proposed by the Congress,
and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office
of President, or acting as President, during the term within
which this article becomes operative from holding the office of
President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall
have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the
legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven
years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress.

Amendment XXIII (1961)

Section 1. The District constituting the seat of government
of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the
Congress may direct:

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to
the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to
which the District would be entitled if it were a state, but in
no event more than the least populous state; they shall be in
addition to those appointed by the states, but they shall be
considered, for the purposes of the election of President and
Vice President, to be electors appointed by a state; and they
shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided
by the twelfth article of amendment.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XXIV (1964)

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote
in any primary or other election for President or Vice President,
for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or
Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by
the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any
poll tax or other tax.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XXV (1967)

Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office
or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall
become President.

Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the
Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President
who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of
both Houses of Congress.

Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President
pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to
discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he
transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary,
such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice
President as Acting President.

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of
either the principal officers of the executive departments
or of such other body as Congress may by law provide,
transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the
Speaker of the House of Representatives their written
declaration that the President is unable to discharge the
powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall
immediately assume the powers and duties of the office
as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro
tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives his written declaration that no inability
exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office
unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal
officers of the executive department or of such other body as
Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the
President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the
House of Representatives their written declaration that the
President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his
office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling
within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session.
If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the
latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session,
within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble,
determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President
is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,
the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as
Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the
powers and duties of his office.

Amendment XXVI (1971)

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who
are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE:

In Congress, July 4, 1776,
THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them
with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the
pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them
shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established
should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw
off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such
is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former
Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great
Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all
having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny
over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a
candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till
his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has
utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the
right of Representation in the Legislature, a right 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 dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing
with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause
others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable
of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their
exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the
dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States;
for that purpose obstructing the Laws of Naturalization of
Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations
hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his
Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure
of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms
of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without
the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and
superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction
foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws;
giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any
Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring
Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and
enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example
and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into
these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws,
and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his
Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns,
and destroyed the Lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign
mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny,
already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely
paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the
Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high
Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners
of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the
merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for
Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have
been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character
is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit
to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attention to our British brethren.
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their
legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We
have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and
settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and
magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common
kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably
interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been
deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must,
therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our
Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind,
Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America,
in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of
the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name,
and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly
publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right
ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved
from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political
connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and
ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent
States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract
Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things
which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of
this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our
Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

JOHN HANCOCK, President

Attested, CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary

New Hampshire
JOSIAH BARTLETT
WILLIAM WHIPPLE
MATTHEW THORNTON

Massachusetts-Bay
SAMUEL ADAMS
JOHN ADAMS
ROBERT TREAT PAINE
ELBRIDGE GERRY

Rhode Island
STEPHEN HOPKINS
WILLIAM ELLERY

Connecticut
ROGER SHERMAN
SAMUEL HUNTINGTON
WILLIAM WILLIAMS
OLIVER WOLCOTT

Georgia
BUTTON GWINNETT
LYMAN HALL
GEO. WALTON

Maryland
SAMUEL CHASE
WILLIAM PACA
THOMAS STONE
CHARLES CARROLL
OF CARROLLTON

Virginia
GEORGE WYTHE
RICHARD HENRY LEE
THOMAS JEFFERSON
BENJAMIN HARRISON
THOMAS NELSON, JR.
FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE
CARTER BRAXTON.

New York
WILLIAM FLOYD
PHILIP LIVINGSTON
FRANCIS LEWIS
LEWIS MORRIS

Pennsylvania
ROBERT MORRIS
BENJAMIN RUSH
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
JOHN MORTON
GEORGE CLYMER
JAMES SMITH
GEORGE TAYLOR
JAMES WILSON
GEORGE ROSS

Delaware
CAESAR RODNEY
GEORGE READ
THOMAS M'KEAN

North Carolina
WILLIAM HOOPER
JOSEPH HEWES
JOHN PENN

South Carolina
EDWARD RUTLEDGE
THOMAS HEYWARD, JR.
THOMAS LYNCH, JR.
ARTHUR MIDDLETON

New Jersey
RICHARD STOCKTON
JOHN WITHERSPOON
FRANCIS HOPKINS
JOHN HART
ABRAHAM CLARK