WE, the People (a) of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure 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 I.SECTION 1.

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 representatives.

SECTION 2.

Legislative

powers.

Members of

the house of representatives

1. 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 how chosen. electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature.

2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.

3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states (b) which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, (c) which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty

(a) The Constitution of the United States was ordained and established not by the United States in their sovereign capacities, but as declared in the above preamble, by the people of the United States. It was not necessarily carved out of existing state sovereignties, nor a surrender of powers already existing in the state governments. These powers remained unaltered and unimpaired except so far as granted by the people to the government of the United States.-Martin v. Hunter's lessee, 1 Wheat. 324. See also McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316.

(b) The above provision, that direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states, was not intended to restrict the power of imposing direct taxes to states only, but such tax may

Qualification of members of house of representatives.

Apportionment of repre

sentatives and direct taxes.

Census, when to be taken.

be imposed on the District of Columbia and the Territories of the United States, though congress is not bound so to extend it.-Loughborough v. Blake, 5 Wheat. 318. See note (f) section 8, of this article.

(c) On the passage of the first apportionment bill in 1791, it was determined, that the population of each state, and not the total population of the Union, must afford the data, by which the number of representatives was to be fixed. No allowance can be made for fractions in the states, beyond the settled proportionA former bill which allowed representatives for fractions, was returned by President Washington as unconstitutional.—5 Marshall's life of Washington, 324.

thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the state of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three; Massachusetts eight; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one; Connecticut five; New York six; New Jersey four; Pennsylvania eight; Delaware one; Maryland six; Virginia ten; North Carolina five; South Carolina five; and Georgia three.

4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any state, Vacancies the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill up how filled. such vacancies.

House repre5. The house of representatives shall choose their speaker and sentatives pow- other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. er to impeach.

SECTION 3.

1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senate, how senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and each senator shall have one vote.

chosen.

classed.

2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of Senators 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.

Vacancies in recess, how to be filled.

3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to Qualification the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen.

of senator.

4. The Vice President of the United States shall be president of Vice President. the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 5. The senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president pro tempore, in the absence of the vice president, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States.

Senate choose their officers.

ments.

6. The senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. Try impeach- When 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.

7. Judgment in case of impeachment shall not extend further Judgment on than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy impeachments. any office of honour, 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.

SECTION 4.

Manner of electing mem

1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legis- bers of congress lature thereof; but the congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. 2. The congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

SECTION 5.

1. 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 business; 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.

2. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behaviour, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. (d)

3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either house, on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal.

(d) No power is expressly given by the constitution to punish for contempts to either house of congress, except when committed by their own members, but such power is held to result by implication. Accordingly, on the 28th of December, 1795, on information given by several members in their places, of an attempt to corrupt them by one Robert Randall, it was resolved, that the speaker issue his warrant to take said Randall into custody, and that he should be kept subject to the further order and direction of the house: He was accordingly taken into custody and detained until the 6th of January, when the house resolved that he should be reprimanded by the speaker, and committed to the custody of the sergeant at arms, until the further order of the house. He was ordered to be released on the 13th of the same month upon payment of costs.-1 Tucker's Black. 201.

2. There is not a grant of powers in the constitution which does not draw after it others, not expressed but vital to their exercise; not substantive and independent but auxiliary and subordinate. To an action of trespass brought against the sergeant at arms of the house of representatives for assault and battery and false imprisonment, it is a legal justification to plead that

Congress to assemble anuually.

Elections how judged.

Quorum of

senate & house of representatives.

Rules.

Journals by each house.

the plaintiff was arrested under a warrant which issued by direction of the house of representatives, and conveyed to the bar of the house, where on his trial he was found guilty and ordered to be reprimanded by the speaker and discharged; and, after being reprimanded, was discharged from custody.-Anderson v. Dunn, 6 Wheat. 204.

3. Under the above clause, Wm. Blount was expelled from the senate of the United States on the 8th of July, 1797, for attempting to seduce from his duty an United States' Indian interpreter, and to employ him as an engine to alienate the affections and confidence of the Indians from the public officers residing among them.-1 Hall's Law Journal, 465. Sergeant's Con. Law, 301. 4. John Smith, a senator from the state of Ohio, was indicted, in 1807, for treason; the indictment was abandoned owing to the acquittal of Burr, the principal in the transaction, because the same decision would prevent a conviction on it. The report of the committee made in this case on 31st of December, 1807, concludes with a resolution to expel Smith from the senate, "for participation in the conspiracy of Aaron Burr, against the peace, union and liberty of the people of the United States."-1 Hall's Law Jour. 459. Sergeant's Con. Law, 302.

4. Neither house, during the session of congress, shall, without Adjournment. the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting.

Arrests.

SECTION 6.

1. The senators and representatives shall receive a compensation 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 Privileges. 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 or returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which Exclusion he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the cmoluments 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. (e)

from office.

SECTION 7.

1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the house of Revenue bills representatives; but the senate may propose or concur with amendhow passed. ments, as on other bills.

formalities.

President.

2. Every bill which shall have passed the house of representatives Bills, their and the senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve, he shall sign it; but Where to be if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which returned by the it shall have originated, who shall enter the objection at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such re-conTwo-thirds sideration, two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it may pass bills, shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be re-considered, and if approved by twothirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases,

he objecting.

(e) Jesse B. Thomas a senator from Illinois, having been appointed in 1821, by Mr. Crawford -secretary of the treasury, under an act passed previous to his election, to examine the books of the officers of the land offices, and to ascertain the balance in the hands of the receivers, for which he received the usual compensation, a question was made as to the compatibility of the two stations under the above clause of the constitution, and in April, 1822, a committee of the house of representatives made a report on the subject, expressing the opinion that the duty of examining the land offices was not such an office as was contemplated by the latter part of the above clause, and was not incompatible with the trust of senator. The committee in support of

their opinion, refer to the appointment of Mr. Tracy a senator, by President Adams in the year 1800, to the duty of inspecting the ports on the northern and north western frontier; to that of Mr. Dawson a member of the house of representatives, under the administration of Mr. Jefferson to carry a treaty to France; to that of Mr. Smith a senator from Tennessee, to treat with the Indians, and to that of Mr. Worthington a senator, and Mr. Morrow a representative from Ohio, under the administration of President Madison, to negociate with the Indians; in all which instances the persons employed received a compensation for their services and retained their seats in congress.-Sergeant's Con. Law, 304.

the votes of both houses shall be determined 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 When bills shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays to be returned. 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.

3. 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-thirds of the senate and house of representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.

SECTION 8.

The congress shall have power

1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and gencral welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises, shall be uniform throughout the United States: (f)

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States: (g) 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, (h) and with the Indian tribes:

(ƒ) A tax on carriages is not a direct tax, requiring to be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers as prescribed in Art. 1. § 2, ¶ 3, of the constitution, but may be laid uniformly throughout the United States in pursuance of the above clause.-Hylton v. United States, 3 Dall. 171. See note (b) sec. 2, of this article.

(g) A tax imposed by a law of any state of the United States, or under the authority of such a law, on stock issued for loans made to the United States held by the citizens of such state, is unconstitutional.--Weston, &c. v. The City Council of Charleston, 2 Peters, 449.

(h) The power to regulate commerce extends to every species of commercial intercourse between the United States and foreign nations, and among the several states, and includes the power to regulate navigation. The acts, therefore, of the legislature of the state of New York, granting to Robt. R. Livingston and Robt. Fulton the exclusive navigation of all the waters within the jurisdiction of that state, with boats moved by fire or steam, for a term of years, being in collision with the acts of congress which regulate the

VOL. I.

Orders, reso

lutions & votes, to be approved by President.

Congress to lay taxes, &c.

Borrow money.

To regulato commerce, &c.

coasting trade, are repugnant to the above clause of the constitution, so far as they prohibit vessels licensed according to those acts from navigating said waters by means of fire or steam.— -Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1 to 216.

2. State inspection laws, health laws and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a state, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to congress. Ibid.

3. If congress had passed any act, in execution of the above power, the object of which was to control state legislation over small navigable creeks, into which the tide ebbs and flows, the court would not feel much difficulty in saying that a state law coming in conflict with such act, would be void. But until that is done, the act of assembly of the state of Delaware, by which the construction of a dam was authorized across a creek up which the tide flows for some distance, does not come in conflict with the constitution of the United States or any law in pursuance thereof, and is a matter of which the supreme court can take no cognizance.-Willson v. The Black Bird Creek Marsh Company, 2 Peters, 251.

4