pointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law or in the heads of departments.

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may 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 of 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. ARTICLE III.

Sec. 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 compensation which shall not be diminished during their continuance office.

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Sec. 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases affecting 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 different States, and between a state, or the citizens 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 a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all 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 jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crime 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 in levying war against them, or in adhering to their ene

Sec. 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.

Sec. 2. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.

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 be due.

Sec. 3. 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 part of States, without the consent of the Legislature of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

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.

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.

ARTICLE V.

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,

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.

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 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.

The ratification of the convention of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. 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.

GEO. WASHINGTON, President and Deputy from Virginia. New-Hampshire

JOHN LANGDON,
NICHOLAS GILMAN.

Massachusetts

NATHANIEL GORHAM, RUFUS KING. Connecticut

WM. SAML. JOHNSON, ROGER SHERMAN. New-York

ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

(The first ten amendments were proposed at the first session of the Ist Congress of the United States, which was begun and held at the city of New-York on March 4. 1789, and were adopted by the requisite number of States.-1 vol. Laws of U. S.. p. 72.)

(The preamble and resolution following preceded the original proposition of the amendments, and, as they have been supposed by a high equity judge (8 Wendell's Reports, p. 100) to have an important bearing on the construction of those amend-ments, they are here inserted. They will be found in the journals of the first session of the Ist Congress.)

Congress of the United States begun and held at the city of New-York, on Wednesday, the 4th of March, 1789. The conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution expressed a desire, in order to prevent mis-construction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added; and as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in twoCongress assembled, thirds of both houses concurring. That the following articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of said Constitution, namely: 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 the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

larly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. ARTICLE V.

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. ARTICLE VI.

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 defence.

ARTICLE XI.

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. ARTICLE XII.

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 persons voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the persons 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 list 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 vote 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 VicePresident 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.

ARTICLE XIII.

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.

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

ARTICLE XIV.

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.

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Sec. 2. Representatives shall portioned 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, Represertatives 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 male citizens shall bear to the whole number of

male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Sec. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President or Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as 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.

(Note.-On June 7, 1898, President McKinley approved of an act of Congress which declared that "the disabilities imposed by Section 3, XIVth Amendment of the Constitution, heretofore incurred, are hereby removed.")

Sec. 4. The validity of the public debt

THE AMERICAN FLAG The official National ensign contains 45 stars in a blue field, arranged in 6 rows the 1st, 3d and 5th rows having 8 stars each, and the others having 7 stars each. The garrison flag of the Army is made of bunting, 36 feet fly and 20 feet hoist; thirteen stripes, and in the upper quarter, next the staff, is the field or "union" of stars, equal to the number of States, on blue field, over one-third length of the flag, extending to. the lower edge of the fourth red stripe from the top. The storm flag is 20 feet by 10 feet, and the recruiting flag 9 feet 9 inches by 4 feet 4 inches.

The "American Jack" is the "union" of the flag, its name originating with the "union" of the English flag at the blending of St. Andrew's Saltier with St. George's Cross.

The "narrow pennant" or "whip" has the union composed of thirteen white stars in horizontal line on a blue field, onefourth the length of the pennant, the re

PRESIDENT: LAW The act of Congress approved January 19, 1886, providing for the performance of the duties of the office of President in case of the removal, death, resignation or inability both of the President and VicePresident, is as follows:

"That in case of removal, death, resignation, or inability of both the President and Vice-President of the United States, the Secretary of State; or, if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation or inability, then the Secretary of the Treasury; or if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation or inability, then the Secretary of War; or if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation or inability, then the Attorney-General; or if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation or inability, then the Postmaster-General; or if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation or inability, then the Secretary of the Navy; or if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation or inability, then the Secretary of the Interior; or if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation or inability, then the *Secretary of Agriculture shall act as President until the disability of the Presi

of the United States, authorized by law. including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing the 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.

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

ARTICLE XV.

Section 1. The right of the 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.

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

OR NATIONAL ENSIGN. maining three-fourths of a red and a white stripe, each of the same breadth at any part of the taper, with the red uppermost.

The Revenue Marine Service flag, created by Act of Congress, March 2, 1799, was originally prescribed to "consist of sixteen perpendicular stripes, alternate red and white, the union of the ensign bearing the arms of the United States in dark blue on a white field." The sixteen stripes represented the number of States which had been admitted to the Union at that time, and no change has been made since. Prior to 1871 it bore an eagle in the union of the pennant, which, was then substituted by thirteen blue stars in a white field, but the eagle and stars are still retained in the flag.

June 14, the anniversary of the adoption of the "Stars and Stripes," is celebrated as Flag Day in many of the States, especially by the children of the public schools.

AS то

SUCCESSION. dent or Vice-President is removed or a President shall be elected; Provided, That whenever the powers and duties of the office of President of the United States shall devolve upon any of the persons named herein, if Congress be not then in session, or if it would not meet in accordance with law within twenty days thereafter it shall be the duty of the person upon whom said powers and duties shall devolve to issue a proclamation convening Congress in extraordinary session, giving twenty days' notice of the time of meeting.

"Sec. 2. That the preceding section shall only be held to describe and apply to such officers as shall have been appointed by the advice and consent of the Senate to the offices therein named, and such as are eligible to the office of President under the Constitution, and not under impeachment by the House of Representatives of the United States at the time the powers and duties of the office shall devolve upon them respectively."

*The provision that the Secretary of Agriculture may perform the duties of President became a law by the act of Congress of February, 1889, which authorized such an officer in the Cabinet,

The following are the salient points of the New-York State Constitution adopted by the Constitutional Convention September 29, 1894, and ratified by vote of the people in November following. It took effect January 1, 1895:

PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE I.

No member of the State shall be disfranchised or deprived of any of the rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof, unless by the law of the land, or the judg ment of his peers.

Trial by jury in all cases in which it has been heretofore used shall remain inviolate forever, but a jury trial may be waived by the parties in all civil cases in the manner to be prescribed by law.

The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed; no person shall be rendered incompetent to be a witness on account of his opinions on matters of religious belief. But the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be construed so as to excuse acts of licentiousness or justify practices inconsistent with the peace and safety of the State.

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 its suspension.

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

No person shall be held to answer for a capital or infamous crime (except in specified cases) unless on presentment or indictment of a grand jury, and in any trial in any court whatever the party accused shall be allowed to appear and defend in person and with counsel. No person shall be subject to be twice put in jeopardy for the same offence; be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself; be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public uses without just compensation.

When private property is taken for any public use the compensation to be made therefor, when such compensation is not made by the State, shall be ascertained by a jury, or by a commission. Private roads may be opened in a manner to be prescribed by law, but in every case the necessity of the road and the amount of damage to be sustained by its opening shall be first determined by a jury of freeholders.

Every citizen may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right. In all criminal prosecutions or indictments for libels, if it shall appear to the jury that the matter charged as libellous is true and was published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted.

No law shall be passed abridging the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government, or any department thereof; nor shall any divorce be granted otherwise than by due judicial proceedings; nor shall any lottery or the sale of lottery tickets, pool selling, book

making or any other kind of gambling be authorized or allowed within this State.

The people of the State, in their right of sovereignty, are deemed to possess the original and ultimate property in and to all lands within the jurisdiction of the State; and all lands the title to which shall fail, from defect of heirs, shall revert, or escheat to the people.

No lease or grant of agricultural land, for a longer period than twelve years, hereafter made, in which shall be reserved any rent or service of any kind, shall be valid.

Section 16 provides that all laws repugnant to this Constitution are abrogated.

PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE II.

Every male citizen of the age of twentyone years, who shall have been a citizen for ninety days, an inhabitant of the State one year next preceding an election, for the last four months a resident of the county, and for the last thirty days a resiIdent of the election district in which he may offer his vote, shall be entitled to vote in that district; provided that in time of war no elector in actual military service of the State, or of the United States, shall be deprived of his vote by reason of his absence from such election district. No person who shall receive, accept, or offer to receive, or pay, offer or promise to pay, contribute, offer or promise to contribute to another, to be paid or used, any money or other valuable thing as a compensation or reward for the giving or withholding a vote at an election, or who shall make any promise to influence the giving or withholding any such vote, or who shall make or become directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager depending upon the result of any election, shall vote at such election. The Legislature shall enact laws excluding from the right of suffrage all persons convicted of bribery or of any infamous crime.

For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence, by reason of his presence or absence, while employed in the service of the United States; nor while engaged in the navigation of the waters of the State or of the United States, or of the high seas; nor while a student of any seminary of learning; nor while kept at any almshouse, or other asylum or institution wholly or partly supported at public expense, or by charity; nor while confined in any public prison.

In

Registration of voters is required. cities and villages having 5,000 inhabitants or more, according to the last preceding State enumeration, voters shall be registered upon personal application only: but voters not residing in such cities and villages shall not be required to apply in person for registration at the first meeting of the officers having charge of the registry of voters. The registration must be completed at least ten days before each election.

The next section provides that all elections by the citizens, except for such town officers as may by law be directed to be otherwise chosen. shall be by ballot, by such other method as may be prescribed

or