Our Government: Local, State, and National: Idaho Edition Part 25

The United States, in Congress a.s.sembled, shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective States; fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the United States; regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the States; provided that the legislative right of any State, within its own limits, be not infringed or violated; establishing and regulating post offices from one State to another, throughout all the United States, and exacting such postage on the papers pa.s.sing through the same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said office; appointing all officers of the land forces in the service of the United States, excepting regimental officers; appointing all the officers of the naval forces, and commissioning all officers whatever in the service of the United States; making rules for the government and regulation of the said land and naval forces, and directing their operations.

The United States, in Congress a.s.sembled, shall have authority to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess of Congress, to be denominated "A Committee of the States," and to consist of one delegate from each State, and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general affairs of the United States under their direction; to appoint one of their number to preside; provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any term of three years; to ascertain the necessary sums of money to be raised for the service of the United States, and to appropriate and apply the same for defraying the public expenses; to borrow money or emit bills on the credit of the United States, transmitting every half year to the respective States an account of the sums of money so borrowed or emitted; to build and equip a navy; to agree upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions from each State for its quota, in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in such State, which requisition shall be binding; and thereupon the Legislature of each State shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm, and equip them in a soldier-like manner, at the expense of the United States; and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States, in Congress a.s.sembled; but if the United States, in Congress a.s.sembled, shall, on consideration of circ.u.mstances, judge proper that any State should not raise men, or should raise a smaller number than its quota, and that any other State should raise a greater number of men than the quota thereof, such extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, armed, and equipped in the same manner as the quota of such State, unless the Legislature of such State shall judge that such extra number cannot be safely spared out of the same, in which case they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm, and equip as many of such extra number as they judge can be safely spared, and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States, in Congress a.s.sembled.

The United States, in Congress a.s.sembled, shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the defense and welfare of the United States, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit of the United States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war to be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a commander in chief of the army or navy, unless nine States a.s.sent to the same, nor shall a question on any other point, except for adjourning from day to day, be determined, unless by the votes of a majority of the United States, in Congress a.s.sembled.

The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any place within the United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the s.p.a.ce of six months, and shall publish the journal of their proceedings monthly, except such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military operations as in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each State, on any question, shall be entered on the journal when it is desired by any delegate; and the delegates of a State, or any of them, at his or their request, shall be furnished with a transcript of the said journal except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the Legislatures of the several States.

ART. X.--The Committee of the States, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States, in Congress a.s.sembled, by the consent of nine States, shall, from time to time, think expedient to vest them with; provided that no power be delegated to the said Committee, for the exercise of which, by the Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine States in the Congress of the United States a.s.sembled is requisite.

ART. XI.--Canada, acceding to this Confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States shall be admitted into, and ent.i.tled to all the advantages of this Union; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States.

ART. XII.--All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, and debts contracted by or under the authority of Congress, before the a.s.sembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present Confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged.

ART. XIII.--Every State shall abide by the determinations of the United States, in Congress a.s.sembled, on all questions which by this Confederation are submitted to them. And the Articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures of every State.

AND WHEREAS it hath pleased the great Governor of the world to incline the hearts of the Legislatures we respectively represent in Congress to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify, the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union, know ye, that we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective const.i.tuents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained. And we do further solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective const.i.tuents, that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States, in Congress a.s.sembled, on all questions which by the said Confederation are submitted to them; and that the Articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the States we respectively represent, and that the Union shall be perpetual. In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands in Congress. Done at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, the ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord 1778, and in the third year of the Independence of America.

APPENDIX C.

REFERENCE BOOKS.

ALTON, _Among the Lawmakers_, Scribner.

ASHLEY, _The American Federal States_, Macmillan.

BREWER, _American Citizenship_, Scribner.

BROOKS, _How the Republic is Governed_, Scribner.

BRYCE, _The American Commonwealth_, Macmillan.

BURGESS, _The Middle Period_, Scribner.

_Century Book for Young Americans_, Century Co.

CONKLING, _City Government in the United States_, Appleton.

CURTIS, _The United States and Foreign Powers_, Scribner.

DEVLIN, _Munic.i.p.al Reform in the United States_, Putnam.

DOLE, _Talks About Law_, Houghton Mifflin Co.

DOLE, _Young Citizen_, Ginn.

FISKE, _Civil Government in the United States_, Houghton Mifflin Co.

FISKE, _Critical Period of American History_, Houghton Mifflin Co.

HARRISON, _This Country of Ours_, Scribner.

HART, _Formation of the Union_, Longmans, Green & Co.

HILL, _Lessons for Junior Citizens_, Ginn & Co.

HOLT, _Talks on Civics_, Macmillan.

HOXIE, _How the People Rule_, Silver, Burdett & Co.

MACY, _Our Government_, Ginn.

MARRIOTT, _Uncle Sam's Business_, Harpers.

Newspaper Almanacs.

REINSCH, _Young Citizen's Reader_, Sanborn.

ROBINSON, _Elementary Law_, Little, Brown & Co.

SLOANE, _The French War and the Revolution_, Scribner.

THWAITES, _The Colonies_, Longmans, Green & Co.

WILSON, _Division and Reunion_, Longmans, Green & Co.

INDEX

Administrative departments, city, Agriculture, department of, Alaska, Albany Congress, Amendments to the Const.i.tution, Annapolis Convention, Annapolis Naval Academy, Appointment, President's power of, Apportionment of representatives, Appropriations by Congress, Army of the United States, Articles of Confederation,

Bank, see National Banks.

Bankruptcy laws, Bills in Congress, Bonds, National,

Cabinet, Cabinet system of government, Capital, location of, Census of the United States, Charities, Circuit Courts of the United States, Citizenship, City government, Civil Service Reform, Coins and coinage, Colonial governments, Colonies made States, Commerce, department of, Commerce, power of Congress over, Committee on Rules, Committees of Correspondence, Committee system 'in Congress, Confederation, Articles of, see Articles of Confederation.

Conference committees, Congress, Continental, under the Const.i.tution, procedure in, sessions of, Const.i.tutional Convention (1787), delegates to, compromises Const.i.tution of U.S., amendments of, origin of, ratification, Consuls, Conventions, National, Copyright, County government, chap.

County type of local government, Cuba,

Debts of U.S., Diplomatic bureaus, District courts of the U.S., District of Columbia, Duties, customs,

Electoral Commission, Electors, Presidential, England, Executive departments, Ex post facto laws,

Federal republics, Finances, National, France, Franchises, Free coinage,

Gerrymander, Gold certificates, Grand jury,

_Habeas corpus_, Hawaii, Health, public, Homestead law,