1700s Politics Audiobook 📖 The Original U.S. Constitution

This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit librivox.org. The Constitution of the United States of America. 1787. We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, 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 one, section one. 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 two. 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 electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to the age of 25 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. Representatives and direct taxes shall be aortioned among the several states which may be included within this union according to their respective numbers 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 of the first reading of the Congress of the United States and within every subsequent term of 10 years in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every 30,000 but each state shall have at least one representative and until such enumeration can be made, the state of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three. Massachusetts 8, Rhode Island and Providence plantations 1, Connecticut 5, New York 6, New Jersey 4, Pennsylvania 8, Delaware 1, Maryland 6, Virginia 10, North Carolina 5, South Carolina 5, and Georgia 3. When vacancies happen in the representation for any state, the executive authority thereof shall issue rits of election to fill such vacancies. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers and shall have sole power of impeachment. Section three. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state chosen by the legislature thereof for six years, and each senator shall have one vote. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of 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. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of 30 years, and had been 9 [clears throat] 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. The vice president of the United States shall be president of the senate but shall have no vote unless they be equally divided. The senate shall choose their other officers and also a president prom in the absence of the vice president or when he shall exercise the office of the president of the United States. The Senate shall have sole power to try all impeachments. 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 twothirds of the members present. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, 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 four. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof, but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. 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 five. Each house shall be the judge of 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. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and with the concurrence of 2/3, expel a member. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, accepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy, and the yays and nays of the members of either house on any question shall, at the desire of 1/5if of those present, be entered on the journal. Neither house during the session of Congress shall without consent of the other adjourn for more than 3 days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. Section six, the senators and representatives shall receive a 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 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 and returning from the same, and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place. No senator or representative shall during the time for which he was elected be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the imolments 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 continuence in office. Section seven. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the United States. If he approve, he shall sign it. But if not, he shall return it with his objections to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, twothirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent together with the objections to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by twothirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases, the votes of both houses shall be determined by yays and nays, and the names of persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house, respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the president within 10 days, Sundays accepted, 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. 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 twothirds of the Senate and the House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. Section eight. The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, impost, and excises to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States. But all duties imposed in excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. To borrow money on the credit of the United States, to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states and with the Indian tribes, to establish a uniform rule of naturalization and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States, to coin money, regulate the value thereof and a foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures. to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States. To establish post offices and post roads, to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries, to constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas and offenses against the law of nations. to declare war, grant letters of mark and reprisal, make rules concerning captures on land and water. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for longer term than 2 years. To provide and maintain a navy. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces, to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions. to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states, respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia, according to the discipline prescribed by Congress, to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such district not exceeding 10 mi square, as may by session of particular states, in the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, stockyards, and other needful buildings, and to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States or in any department or officer thereof. Section N. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1,88. What a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation not exceeding $10 for each person. The privilege of the writ of habius corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. No bill of attainer or exposfacto law shall be passed. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another. Nor shall vessels bound to or from one state be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall without consent of Congress except of any present imalment office or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince or foreign state. Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation, grant letters of mark and reprisal, coin money, emit bills of credit, make anything but gold and silver coin a tendering payment of debts, pass any bill of attainer, exposfacto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. No state shall without the consent of Congress lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws. And the net produce of all duties and imposts laid by any state on imports or exports shall be for the use of the Treasury of the United States. And all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress. No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, or engage in war unless actually invaded or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. End of article one. Read by Christ McQuillin, Tokyo, Japan, 11th of November, 2005. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit librivox.org. The Constitution of the United States of America. Article 2. Section one. The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years and together with the vice president chosen for the same term be elected as follows. Each state shall appoint in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct a number of electors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled in the Congress. But no senator or representative or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States shall be appointed an elector. The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for two persons of whom one at least shall not lie an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the [clears throat] 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 certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number, the person having the greatest number of votes shall be the president. If such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if there be more than one who have such majority and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for president. And if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list, the said house shall in like manner choose 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 twothirds of the states and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the president, the person having the greatest number of votes of the elector shall be the vice president. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the vice president. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors and the day on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same throughout the United States. No person except a naturalb born citizen or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this constitution shall be eligible to the office of president. Neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained the age of 35 years and been 14 years a resident within the United States. In case of the removal of the president from office or of his death, resignation or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the vice president, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the president and vice president, declaring what officer shall then act as president, and such officer shall accordingly until the disability be removed, or a president shall be elected. The president shall at stated times receive for his services as a compensation which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected. And he shall not receive within that period any other imolment from the United States or any of them. Before he enter on the execution of office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation. I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Section two, the president shall be commanderin-chief of the Army and Navy of the United States and of the militia of the several states when called into the actual service of the United States. He may require the opinion in writing of the principal officer in each of the executive departments upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices. And he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States except in cases of impeachment. He shall have power by and with the advice and consent of the Senate to make treaties provided twothirds of the senators present concur. and he shall nominate and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consoles, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law. But 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. Section three. He shall from time to time give to 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 the officers of the United States. Section four. 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. End of article 2. Read by Christa McQuillin, Tokyo, Japan, 11th of November, 2005. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit librivox.org. The Constitution of the United States of America, Article 3, Section One. 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 of compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuence in office. Section two, 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 consoles. To all cases of admirality and maritime jurisdiction, to all controversies in which the United States shall be a party. to all 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 consoles, and those in which a state shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appallet jurisdiction both as to law and fact with such exceptions and under such regulations as Congress shall make. The trial of all crimes except in cases of impeachment shall be by jury, and such trials shall be held in the state where the said crimes 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. Section three. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or on confession in open court. The Congress shall have the power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainer of treason shall work corruption of blood or forfeite except during the life of the person attained. End of article 3. Read by Christine McQuillin, Tokyo, Japan, 11th of November, 2005. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit librivox.org. The Constitution of the United States of America. Article 4, Section One. 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. Section two, the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of the 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 upon the claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. Section three. New states may be admitted by the Congress to 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 legislators 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 its Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of any particular state. Section four. 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. End of article 4. Read by Christ McQuillin. Tokyo, Japan, 11th of November 2005. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit librivox.org. The Constitution of the United States of America, Article 5. The Congress, whenever 2/3 of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or on the application of the legislators of two/3s of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which in either case shall be valid to all intents and purposes. as a part of this constitution when ratified by the legislators of 3/4s of the several states or by conventions in 3/4s 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 1,88 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. End of article 5. Read by Christa McQuillin, Tokyo, Japan, 11th of November, 2005. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit librivox.org. The Constitution of the United States of America, Article 6. 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. 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 not withstanding. 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. End of article 6. Read by Christa McQuillin, Tokyo, Japan. 11th of November, 2005. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit librivox.org. The Constitution of the United States of America. Article 7. The ratifications of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of the Constitution between the states. ratifying the same done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present the 17th day of September in the year of our Lord 1787 and of the independence of the United States of America the 12th in witness thereof we have here unto subscribed our names George Washington president and deputy from Virginia New Hampshire John Langden Nicholas Gilman Massachusetts Nathaniel Goram Rufus King Connecticut, William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman, New York, Alexander Hamilton, New Jersey, William Livingston, David Brerley, William Patterson, Jonah Dayton. Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Climber, Thomas Bitsimmons, Jared Ingles, James Wilson, Governor Morris. Delaware. George Reed Gunning Bedford Jr. John Dickinson Richard Basset Jacob Broom Maryland James Mckenry Dan of St. Thomas Jennifer Daniel Carroll Virginia John Blair James Madison Jr. North Carolina, William Blount, Richard Dob Spate, Hugh Williamson, South Carolina, Jay Rutled, Charles Coatsworth, Pikney, Charles Pikney, Pierce Butler, Georgia, William F, Abraham Baldwin. Attested William Jackson, Secretary. Read by Christ McQuillin, Tokyo, Japan, 11th of November, 2005.