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2. 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.

3. 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.

By "person held to service," is here meant a slave; and the provision is intended to enable the masters of slaves to recover them, if they escape into other states.

SECT. III.-1. 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 parts of states, without the consent of the legis latures of the states concerned, as well as of the Congress.

2. 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.

By virtue of this last passage, our territorial governments have been established. Those existing at present, are Florida, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The basis of these territorial governments was laid in an admirable ordinance, framed by Nathan Dane, of Beverly, Massachusetts, and adopted by the Continental Congress in 1787.

This ordinance has been modified by Congress from time to time, to suit the varying condition of the territories. Each of them has now a governor, appointed by the president, and a legislature, consisting of representatives chosen by the people, who make laws, appoint magistrates, &c.

This legislature appoints one delegate to the House of Representatives at Washington, who may debate questions, but cannot vote. When a territory has a population equal to the number required by the apportionment of representatives among the states for one representative, it may, on adopting a republican form of government, be admitted into the Union, by act of Congress.

It is thus that several of the states, once having been under territorial government, have become members of the Union. Ohio was admitted in 1802; Indiana in 1816; Illinois in 1818; Mississippi in 1817; Alabama in 1819; Missouri in 1820; Michigan in 1836; Louisiana in 1812; Arkansas in 1836. All these were once subject to territorial government.

SECT. IV. 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 on application of the legislature, or of the executive, (when the legislature cannot be convened,) against domestic violence.

It was by virtue of this section that Rhode Island, in 1842, called upon the President for aid in suppressing the "Dorr Insurrection," which then took place.

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, shall le deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

It is by virtue of this provision, that several amendments to the Constitution were adopted soon after its acceptance by the people. No amendments have been adopted for many years.

ARTICLE VI.

1. 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 confederation.

2. 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.

3. 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.

The provision here that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office," is designed to prevent the ascendancy of any religious sect, in the government, and the persecution of an individual for his religious opinions. In other countries, as England, France, &c., it has frequently happened that persons entertaining certain religious notions, have been entirely excluded from all offices of trust and profit. Until a very recent period, Catholics have been held ineligible to office in England; but this restriction is now removed.

ARTICLE VII.

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

It has been already stated that when the Constitution was presented to the people for their acceptance, it was immediately ratified by all the thirteen states, except North Carolina and Rhode Island. This made eleven states, two more than required by this provision.

Measures were taken in 1788 by Congress, as soon as it was ascertained that the requisite number of states had accepted the Constitution, to carry it into effect. An election was ordered, and Wednesday, the 18th of March, 1789, was the time appointed for commencing proceedings under the Constitution.

The members of Congress assembled accordingly at New York, then the seat of government, but a quorum for transacting business did not arrive till the 6th of April. On counting the votes for President, it was found that George Washing

ton was unanimously elected President, and John Adams was elected Vice President.

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Since that period, the following persons have held the office of President:

John Adams of Massachusetts,
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia,
James Madison of
James Monroe of

1797 to 1801.

1801 to 1809.

do.

1809 to 1817.

1817 to 1825.

do.

1825 to 1829. 1829 to 1837. 1837 to 1841.

John Quincy Adams of Mass.
Andrew Jackson of Tennessee,
Martin Van Buren of New York,
William Henry Harrison of Ohio, 1841
John Tyler of Virginia, (Vice
President, succeeded to the
presidency, on the death of
Harrison,)

1841.

Articles in addition to and amendment of the Constitution.

ART. 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.

This is a most important provision: it secures us against a "union of church and state," which has been one of the great evils of foreign governments. When government has undertaken to establish a particular religion, it has patronised only those who adopted its creed, and it has always persecuted those who differed from it. Thus freedom

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