xviii

CONSTITUTION OF

labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom
such service or labour may be due.

New states.

SEC. 3. New states may be admitted by the congress into
this Union; but no new states 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 legislature of the states concerned as well as
of the congress.

Territory
and other

property of

U. States.

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

Claims.

constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of
the United States, or of any particular state.

Republican
form of

government

Protection
of states.

SEC. 4. The United States shall guaranty to every state in
this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect
each of them against invasion; and ou application of the legis-
lature, or of the executive, (when the legislature cannot be
convened) against domestic violence.

ARTICLE V.

Amend-
ments of
this consti-
tution.

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 seve-
ral 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 hun-
dred 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.

ARTICLE VI.

Debts of
former
government
recognized.

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 confede-
ration.

What con-
stitutes the
supreme
law.

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, any thing in the constitution or
laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.

Oath of
public offi-
cers.

The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the
members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and