OF THE UNITED STATES - GovInfo

110TH CONGRESS

DOCUMENT

1st Session " HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ! No. 110?50

THE

CONSTITUTION

OF THE

UNITED STATES

OF AMERICA

As Amended

Unratified Amendments

Analytical Index

E P LURIBU

NUM

S

PRESENTED BY MR. BRADY OF PENNSYLVANIA

July 25, 2007 ? Ordered to be printed

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 2007

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore. Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC area (202) 512-1800

Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402-001 [ISBN 978?0?16?079091?1]

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House Doc. 110?50 The printing of the revised version of The Constitution of the

United States of America As Amended (Document Size) is hereby ordered pursuant to H. Con. Res. 190 as passed on July 25, 2007, 110th Congress, 1st Session. This document was compiled at the direction of Chairman Robert A. Brady of the Joint Committee on Printing, and printed by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

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CONTENTS Historical Note ......................................................................................................... v Text of the Constitution .......................................................................................... 1 Amendments ............................................................................................................ 13 Proposed Amendments Not Ratified ...................................................................... 29 Index to the Constitution and Amendments ......................................................... 33

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The Delegates who convened at the Federal Convention on May 25, 1787, quickly rejected the idea of revising the Articles of Confederation and agreed to construct a new framework for a national government. Throughout the summer months at the Convention in Philadelphia, delegates from 12 States debated the proper form such a government should take, but few questioned the need to establish a more vigorous government to preside over the union of States. The 39 delegates who signed the Constitution on September 17, 1787, expected the new charter to provide a permanent guarantee of the political liberties achieved in the Revolution.

Prior to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, drafted by the Continental Congress and approved by 13 States, provided for a union of the former British colonies. Even before Maryland became the last State to accede to the Articles in 1781, a number of Americans, particularly those involved in the prosecution of the Revolutionary War, recognized the inadequacies of the Articles as a national government. In the 1780s these nationally-minded Americans became increasingly disturbed by the Articles' failure to provide the central government with authority to raise revenue, regulate commerce, or enforce treaties.

Despite repeated proposals that the Continental Congress revise the Articles, the movement for a new national government began outside the Congress. Representatives of Maryland and Virginia, meeting at Mt. Vernon to discuss trade problems between the two States, agreed to invite delegates from all States to discuss commercial affairs at a meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, in September 1786. Although delegates from only five States reached the Annapolis Convention, that group issued a call for a meeting of all States to discuss necessary revisions of the Articles of Confederation. Responding to this call and the endorsement of the Continental Congress, every State except Rhode Island selected delegates for the meeting in the State House at Philadelphia.

The document printed here was the product of nearly four months of deliberations in the Federal Convention at Philadelphia. The challenging task before the delegates was to create a republican form of government that could encompass the 13 States and accommodate the anticipated expansion to the West. The distribution of authority between legislative, executive, and judicial branches was a boldly original attempt to create an energetic central government at the same time that the sovereignty of the people was preserved.

The longest debate of the Convention centered on the proper form of representation and election for the Congress. The division between small States that wished to perpetuate the equal representation of States in the Continental Congress and the large States that proposed representation proportional to population threatened

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