ARTICLE XII.

1. 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 as 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 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.

2. 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.

3. But no person constitutionally inelligible to the office of President, shall be elligible to that of Vice President of the United States.

I.

ARTICLE XIII.

Neither slavery or 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.

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

ARTICLE XIV.

I. 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.

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 representatives 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.

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 and comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two thirds of each House, remove such disability.

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.

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

ARTICLE XV.

I. 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.

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

ENABLING ACT.

AN ACT

TO ENABLE THE PEOPLE OF COLORADO TO FORM A CONSTITUTION AND STATE GOVERNMENT, AND FOR THE ADMISSION OF THE SAID STATE INTO THE UNION, ON AN EQUAL FOOTING WITH THE ORIGINAL STATES.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled:

That the inhabitants of the territory of Colorado included in the boundaries hereinafter designated, be, and they are hereby authorized to form for themselves, out of said territory, a State government, with the name of the State of Colorado; which State, when formed, shall be admitted into the Union upon an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatsoever, as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 2. That the said State of Colorado shall consist of all the territory included within the following boundaries, to wit: commencing on the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude where the twenty-fifth meridian of longitude west from Washington crosses the same; thence north, on said meridian, to the forty-first parallel of north latitude; thence along said parallel west to the thirty-second meridian of longitude west from Washington; thence south on said meridian, to the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude; thence along said thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude, to the place of beginning. SEC. 3. That all persons qualified by law to vote for representatives to the general assembly of said territory, at the date of the passage of this act, shall be qualified to be elected, and they are. hereby authorized to vote for and choose representatives to form a convention, under such rules and regulations as the governor of said territory, the chief justice, and the United States attorney thereof may prescribe; and also to vote upon the acceptance or rejection of such constitution as may be formed by said convention, under such rules and regulations as said convention may prescribe; and

the aforesaid representatives to form the aforesaid convention shall be apportioned among the several counties in said territory in proportion to the vote polled in each of said counties at the last general election as near as may be; and said apportionment shall be made for said territory by the governor, United States district attorney, and chief justice thereof, or any two of them; and the governor of said territory shall, by proclamation, order an election of the representatives aforesaid, to be held throughout the territory at such time as shall be fixed by the governor, chief justice and United States attorney, or any two of them; which proclamation shall be issued within ninety days next after the first day of September, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, and at least thirty days prior to the time of said election; and such election shall be conducted in the same manner as is prescribed by the laws of said territory regulating elections therein, for members of the house of representatives; and the number of members to said convention shall be the same as now constitutes both branches of the legislature of the aforesaid territory.

That the members of the convention thus elected shall meet at the capital of said territory, on a day to be fixed by said governor, chief justice, and United States attorney, not more than sixty days subsequent to the day of election, which time of meeting shall be contained in the aforesaid proclamation mentioned in the third section of this act, and after organization, shall declare, on behalf of the people of said territory, that they adopt the Constitution of the United States; whereupon the said convention shall be, and is hereby authorized, to form a Constitution and State government for said territory; Provided, That the Constitution shall be republican in form, and make no distinction in civil or political rights on account of race or color, except Indians not taxed, and not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence; And, Provided further, That said convention shall provide by an ordinance irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of said State; First, That perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and no inhabitant of said State shall ever be molested in person or property, on account of his or her mode of religious worship; Secondly, That the people inhabiting said territory do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within said Territory, and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States; and