Electronic Bookshelf/Electronic Bookshelf.iso/govern/histdocs/artconf.txt

Text File | 1991-08-26 | 8.0 KB | 161 lines

             *** ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION ***

To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned
Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send greeting.
Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the
states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts-bay Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina and Georgia.

I        The Stile of this Confederacy shall be
         "The United States of America".

II       Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and
independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right,
which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated
to the United States, in Congress assembled.

III      The said States hereby severally enter into a firm
league of friendship with each other, for their common defense,
the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general
welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all
force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them,
on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other
pretense whatever.

IV       The better to secure and perpetuate mutual
friendship and intercourse among the people of the different
States in this Union, the free inhabitants of ea,z
these
States, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted,
shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free
citizens in the several States; and the people of each State
shall free ingress and regress to and from any other State,
and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce,
subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions as
the inhabitXM
thereof respectively, provided that such
restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal
of property imported into any State, to any other State, of
which the owner is an inhabitant; provided also that no
imposition, duties or restriction shall be laid by any State,
on the property of the United States, or either of them.

If any person guilty of, or charged with, treason, felony,
or other high misdemeanor in any State, shall flee from
justice, and be found in any of the United States, he shall,
upon demand of the Governor or executive power of the State
from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the
State having jurisdiction of his offense.

Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States
to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts
and magistrates of every other State.

V        For the most coK9%9Q
management of the general èinterests of the United States, delegates shall "YXXK+l+

}appointed in such manner as the legislatures of each State
shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in
November, in every year, with a powerreserved to each State
to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within
the year, and to send others in their stead for the remainder
of the year.

No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two,
nor more than seven members; and no person shall be capable
of being a delegate for more than three years in any term
of six years; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be
capable of holding any office under the United States,
for which he, or another for his benefit, receives any
salary, fees or emolument of any kind.

Each State shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting
of the States, and while they act as members of the
committee of the States.

In determining questions in the United States in Congress
assembled, each State shall have one vote.
Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be
impeached or questioned in any court or place out
of Congress, and the members of Congress shall be protected
in their persons from arrests or imprisonments, during the
time of their going to and from, and attendence on Congress,
except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace.

VI       No *WQ1 without the consent of the United States
in Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive
any embassy from, or enter into any conference, agreement,
alliance or treaty with any King, Prince or State; nor shall
any person holding any office of profit or trust under the
United States, or any of them, accept any present, emolument,
office or title of any kind whatever from any King, Prince or
foreign State; nor shall the United States in Congress
assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility.
No two or more States shall enter into any treaty,
confederation or alliance whatever between them, without
the consent of the United States in Congress assembled,
specifying accurately the purposes for which the same is
to be entered into, and how long it shall continue.

No State shall lay any imposts or duties, which may interfere
with any stipulations in treaties, entered into by the United
States in Congress assembled, with any King, Prince or State,
in pursuance of any treaties already proposed by Congress,
to the courts of France and Spain.

No vessel of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any State,
except such number only, as shall be deemed necessary by the
United States in Congress assembled, for the defense of such
State, or its \{:ee; nor shall any body of forces be kept up
by any State in time of peace, except such number only, as in èthe judgement of the United States in Congress assembled,
 to garrison the forts necessary for
the defense of such State; but every State shall always keep up
a well-regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed
and accoutered, and shall provide and constantly have ready
for use, in public stores, a due number of filed pieces and tents,
and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition and camp equipage.

~'#rNo State shall engage in any war without the consent of the
United States in Congress assembled, unless such State be
actually invadedmenY++M1 or shall have received certain
a0dvice of a resolution being formed by some nation of Indians
to invade such State, and the danger is so imminent as not
to admit of a delay till the United States in Congress assembled
can be conW5hted; nor shall any State grant commissions to any
ships or vessels of war, nor letters of marque or reprisal,
except it be aftY2V
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in Congress assembled, and then only against the Kingdom or
State and the subjects thereof, against which war has been
so declared, and under such regulations as shall g5Y.W    1ished
by the United States in Congress assembled, unless such State
be infested by pirates, in which case vessels of war may be
fitted out for that occasion, and kept so long as the danger
shall continue, or until the United States in Congress
assembled shall determine otherwise.

VII       When land forces are raised by any State for the
common defense, all officers of or under the rank of colonel,
shall be appointed by the legislature of each State respectively,
by whom such forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such
State shall direct, and all vacancies shall be filled up by the
State which first made the appointment.

VIII      All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall
be incurred for the common defense or general welfare, and
allowed by the United States in Congress assembled, shall be
defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by
the several States in proportion to the value of all land within
each State, granted or surveyed for any person, as such land
and the buildings and improvements thereon shall be estimated
according to such mode as the United States in Congress
assembled, shall from time to time direct and appoint.

The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and
levied by the authority a
direction of the legislatures
of the several States within the time agreed upon by the