36

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

SECTION 2.-Representatives shall be apportioned 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, Representatives 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 such male citizens. shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

SECTION 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a 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. SECTION 4.—The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred Get a ondes He Gaden J ༢ ་

for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing 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.

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

ARTICLE XV.

ARTICLES

SECTION 1.—The right of 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.

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

4

чти

ག་ མས་ ས་

EXPOSITION OF THE CONSTITUTION.

ITS ORIGIN.

The Union of the Colonies.

1. THE impolitic course of Great Britain towards her North American colonies led to that correspondence, and, finally, to that union between them, which has proved, in large measure, the source of their power and prosperity. Accustomed, however, anterior to the Revolution, to a separate, independent existence, each colony having its distinct government, they still maintained that separate political existence, notwithstanding they united their counsels and resources for the common defence and general welfare.

The Stamp-act Congress.

2. The attempt of England to derive a revenue from the colonies by means of a tax on stamps, led a

39

majority, namely, nine of the colonial assemblies, to send delegates to a Congress which assembled at New York, in October, 1765, to consult together, and make a common representation to implore relief. The determined attitude of the colonies on this occasion, and their resolute denial and resistance to the assumed right of taxation, induced Parliament to repeal the obnoxious act.

3..But little more than a year elapsed, however, before the project of taxation was again revived, and early in the year 1767 Parliament passed another act, with the avowed object of deriving a revenue from America. This measure re-opened the fountain of discontent and controversy, and led to that resistance on the one hand, and those attempts at coercion on the other, which at last resulted in open war, and the dismemberment of the British Empire.

The Continental Congress.

4. On the 5th of September, 1774, delegates from all the colonies, except Georgia, assembled at Phila delphia to deliberate upon the state of public affairs, and devise and recommend measures of relief. The method of voting in this Congress was by colonies, that is, each colony had one vote. In pursuance of their authority, they adopted resolutions defining their rights and the foundation of them. They de