United States Historical Documents-Various

0:00This is a Libravox Recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. This reading by Michael Sherer, www.americanafonic.com Articles of Confederation 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. Article 1 The style of this Confederacy shall be the United States of America. Article 2 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.

1:06Article 3 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. Article 4 The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different states of this union. The free inhabitants of each of these states, poppers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice accepted. She'll be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several states, and the people of each state shall have 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 inhabitants thereof respectively.

2:08Provided 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. Article 5 For the more convenient management of the general interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the legislature of each state shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, in every year,

3:17with a power reserved 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 by 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 be 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 and imprisonments during the time of their going to or from, and attendants on, Congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace.

4:30Article 6 No state, 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, except of 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 and 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.

5:46No vessels of war shall be kept 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 trade. Nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any state, in time of peace, except such number only as in the judgment of the United States in Congress assembled shall be deemed requisite, to give us in the courts 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 field pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp equipage. No state shall engage in any war, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, unless such state be actually invaded by enemies, or shall have received certain advice 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 consulted.

6:55Nor shall any state grant commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters of mark or reprisal, except it be after a declaration of war by the United States 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 be established 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. Article 7. 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 of the United States.

7:55Article 8. All charges of war and all of the expenses that shall be incurred for the common defense or general welfare, and allowed by the United States in Congress assembled, shall be defraided 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 to or surveyed for any person, and such land and the buildings and imprisons shall be granted to the state of the United States. The proofments 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 and direction of the legislatures of the several states within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. Article 9. The United States in Congress assembled shall have the sole and exclusive right and power of the United States.

8:55The terming on peace and war, except in the cases mentioned in the sixth article, of sending and receiving ambassadors. Entering into treaties and alliances, provided that no treaty of commerce shall be made whereby the legislative power of the respective states shall be restrained from imposing such imposts and duties on foreigners as their own people are subjected to, or from prohibiting the exportation or importation of any species of goods or commodities whatsoever, of establishing rules for deciding in all cases what captures on land or water shall be legal, and in what manner prizes taken by land or naval forces in the service of the United States shall be divided or appropriated, of granting letters of mark and reprisal in times of peace, appointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and establishing courts for receiving and determining finally appeals in all cases of captures. The United States in Congress assembled shall also be the last resort on appeal in all disputes and differences now subsisting or that hereafter may arise between two or more states concerning boundary, jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever, which authority shall always be exercised in the manner following.

10:18So the legislative or executive authority or lawful agent of any state in controversy with another shall present a petition to Congress stating the matter in question and praying for hearing. Notice thereof shall be given by order of Congress to the legislative or executive authority of the other state in controversy, and a day assigned for the appearance of the parties by their lawful agents, who shall then be directed to a point, by joint consent, commissioners or judges to constitute a court for hearing and determining the authority of the other state in controversy. But if they cannot agree, Congress shall name three persons out of each of the United States, and from the list of such persons each party shall alternately strike out one, the petitioners beginning until the number shall be reduced to 13, and from that number not less than seven, nor more than nine names as Congress shall direct, shall in the presence of Congress be drawn out by law. And the persons whose names shall be so drawn, or any five of them shall be commissioners or judges to hear and finally determine the controversy, so always as a major part of the judges who shall hear the cause shall agree in the determination.

11:29And if either party shall neglect to attend at the day appointed, without showing reasons, which Congress shall judge sufficient, or being present shall refuse to strike, the Congress shall proceed to nominate three persons out of each state, and the Secretary of Congress shall strike in behalf of such party absent or refusing, and the judgment and sentence of the court to be appointed in the manner before prescribed shall be final and conclusive. And if any of the parties shall refuse to submit to the authority of such court, or to appear or defend their claim or cause, the court shall nevertheless proceed to pronounce sentence or judgment, which shall in like manner be final and decisive. The judgment or sentence and other proceedings being in either case transmitted to Congress, and lodged among the acts of Congress for the security of the party's concerned, provided that every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, shall take an oath, to be administered by one of the judges of the Supreme or Superior Court of the State, where the cause shall be tried.

12:31Well and truly to hear and determine the matter in question according to the best of his judgment, without favor, affection, or hope of reward, provided also that no state shall be deprived territory for the benefit of the United States. All controversies concerning the private right of soil, claimed under different grants of two or more states, whose jurisdictions, as they may respect such lands, and the states which passed such grants are adjusted, the said grants of either of them being at the same time claimed to have originated antecedent to such settlement of jurisdiction. Shall on the petition of either party to the Congress of the United States, be finally determined as near as may be in the same manner as is before prescribed for deciding disputes respecting territorial jurisdiction between different states. The United States in Congress assembled 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,

13:36throughout 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 passing through the same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the set office. Appointing all officers of the land forces in the service of the United States, accepting 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 assembled 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, to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general affairs of the United States under their direction, and 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 states.

14:55To 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 in 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 thereafter upon the legislature of each state shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men, and clothe armed equipped them in a soldier-like manner. At the expense of the United States, and the officers and men so clothe armed and equipped, shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled. But if the United States in Congress assembled shall, on consideration of circumstances, 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, officer, clothed, armed, and equipped in the same manner as the quota of such state.

16:14Unless 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, clothed, armed, and equipped as many of such extra number as they judge can be safely spared. And the officers and men, so clothe, armed, and equipped, shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled. The United States in Congress assembled shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters of mark 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 men, or allow them to be free. Or agree upon the number of vessels of war to be built or purchased, or the number of land or seaforses to be raised, nor appoint a commander-in-chief of the Army or Navy, unless nine states ascent to the same.

17:22Nor shall a question on any other point, except for a journey from day to day, be determined, unless by the votes of a majority of the United States in Congress assembled. 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 space 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 that 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 accepted to lay before the legislatures of the several states. 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 assembled, 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 assembled as requisite.

18:52Article 11 Canada, exceeding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into and entitled 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. Article 12 All bills of credit emitted, money sparrowed and debts contracted by or under the authority of Congress, before the assembling 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. Article 13 Every state shall abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress assembled, 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.

20:16And whereas it hath pleased the great governor of the world to incline the hearts of the legislatures, we respectfully represent in Congress to approve of and to authorize us to ratify the said articles of confederation and perpetual union. No ye, that we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do by these presence, in the name and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratifying to confirm each and every of the said articles of confederation and perpetual union, and all and singular the matters and things they are in contained. And we do further solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress assembled, 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 the union shall be perpetual.

21:21George Washington. This is a Libravox Recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. This reading by Michael Sherr, www.americanafonic.com. The Constitution of the United States of America, September 17, 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 our self. And our posterity to ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Article 1. Section 1. 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.

22:31Section 2. 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 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 apportioned 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 after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct.

23:35The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative, and until such enumeration shall be made, the state of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three. Massachusetts, eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, one, Connecticut, five, New York, six, New Jersey, four, Pennsylvania, eight, Delaware, one, Maryland, six, Virginia, ten, North Carolina, five, South Carolina, five, and Georgia, three. When vacancies happen in the representation for many 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 the sole power of impeachment. Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, four six years, and each senator shall have one vote.

24:40Immediately 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 thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not be 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.

25:40The Senate shall choose their other officers and also a president pro-tempory in the absence of the vice president, or when he shall exercise the office of president of the United States. The Senate shall have the 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 two-thirds 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 4 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 made any time by law make or alter such regulations except as to the places of choosing senators.

26:54The 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 5 The Congress shall be on the first Monday in December, and with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting 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 one-fifth of those present, the entered on the journal.

27:58Section 6 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. 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, accept 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 emoluments 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 continual office.

29:02Section 7 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, two-thirds 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 two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases, the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively.

30:05If any bill shall not be returned by the president within ten 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 repast by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and exercises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States, but all duties, imposts, and exercises, shall be uniform throughout the United States.

31:09To 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 an uniform rule of naturalization and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States, to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures, to provide for the punishment of counter-fitting 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, and make rules concerning captures on land and water, to raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two 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 invasion,

32:34to 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 miles square, as may by session of particular states and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the 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, dockyards 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.

33:36Section 9 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 1808, but attacks or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding $10 for each person. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. No bill of attainer or ex-post facto 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.

34:42No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law, and a regular statement in 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 the consent of the Congress, except of any present emolument office or title of any kind whatever, from any king or state. 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 attender and payment of debts, pass any bill of attainer, ex-post facto 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.

36:02No 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. Article 2. Section 1 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 in the Congress. The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for two persons of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves, and they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the 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.

37:28The president of the Senate shall, and the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. 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 votes 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 two-thirds 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 electors shall be the vice president.

38:29But 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 natural-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 to 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 Senate 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.

39:31And such officer shall act accordingly until the disability be removed or a president shall be elected. The president shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he may have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States or any of them. Before he enter on the execution of his 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, for the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Section 2. The president shall be commander in 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.

40:45He shall have power by and with the advice and consent of the Senate to make treaties, provided two-thirds 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 consuls, 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. The 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 vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session. Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.

41:51He 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 4. 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. Article 3. Section 1. 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 state of times, receive for their services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continual office.

43:01Section 2. 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 consuls, to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, to controversies to which the United States shall be a party, 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 consuls, and those in which a state shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction.

44:01In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have a pellet jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall make. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shall 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 3. Trees in 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 and open court. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainer of treason shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted.

45:05Article 4. Section 1. 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 are being made. Section 2. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of 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 that ran, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.

46:11Section 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress into 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 legislatures 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 this constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of any particular state. Section 4. 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.

47:12Article 5. The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall be met necessary, shall propose amendments to this constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which in either case shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states, or by conventions and three-fourths 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 1800 and 8 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. Article 6. All debts contracted and engagement centered into, before the adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this constitution, as under the Confederation.

48:20This 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 notwithstanding. 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. Article 7. The ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this constitution between the states so 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 whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names.

49:41Amendment 1. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Amendment 2. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. Amendment 3. No soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in the manner to be prescribed by law. Amendment 4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or things to be seized.

51:00Amendment 5. No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger. Nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Amendment 6. No criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedient public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

52:18Amendment 7. In suits at common law, where the value of controversy shall exceed $20, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, then according to the rules of the common law. Amendment 8. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Amendment 9. The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Amendment 10. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people.

53:18Amendment 11. The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens of another state. Amendment 12. The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice President. One of whom at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. They shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President. And in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President. And they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President and of all persons voted for as Vice President. And of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate.

54:19The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President. If such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately by ballot. But in choosing the President, the votes 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 two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.

55:24The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice President shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed. And if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice President. A quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the Office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States. Section 1 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2 Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

56:26Amendment 14 Section 1 All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction, the equal protection of the laws. Section 2 Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state. 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 the state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being 21 years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged except for participation in rebellion or other crime,

57:39the 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 21 years of age in such state. Section 3 No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or a lector 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 for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.

58:50But 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. Amendment 15 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. Amendment 16 The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

59:59Amendment 17 The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years, and each senator shall have one vote. The electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures. When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue rits of election to fill such vacancies, provided that the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution. Amendment 18

1:00:59Section 1 After one year from the ratification of this article, the manufacturer, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within the importation thereof in two, or the exportation thereof from the United States, and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. Section 2 The Congress and the several states shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Section 3 This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several states, as provided in the Constitution within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the states by the Congress. Amendment 19 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 sex.

1:02:02Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Amendment 20 Section 1 The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of senators and representatives at noon on the third day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified. and the terms of their successors shall then begin. Section 2 The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the third day of January, unless they shall by law appointed different day. Section 3 If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President-elect shall have died, the Vice President-elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President-elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President-elect shall act as President until the President shall have qualified.

1:03:15And the Congress may by law provide for the case where any of the President-elect or Vice President-elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected. And such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified. Section 4 The Congress, may by law, provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President, whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President, whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them. Section 5 Section 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article. Section 6 This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission.

1:04:25Amendment 21 Section 1 The 18th article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. Section 2 The transportation or importation into any state, territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating lookers, in violation of the laws thereof is hereby prohibited. Section 3 This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several states as provided in the Constitution within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the states by the Congress. Amendment 22 Section 1 No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice. And no person who has held the office of president or acted as president, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected president, shall be elected to the office of the president more than once.

1:05:33But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of president when this article was proposed by the Congress. This shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of president or acting as president during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of president or acting as president during the remainder of such term. Section 2 This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress. Amendment 23 Section 1

1:06:40This article shall be considered for purposes of the election of any president and vice president to be a electorate appointed by a state, and they shall meet in the district and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment. Section 2 The congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Amendment 24 Section 1 The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. Section 2 The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Amendment 25 Section 1 In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the

1:07:43Vice President shall become President. Section 2 Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President, who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both houses of Congress. Section 3 Whenever the President transmits to the President pro-temporary of the Senate, in the Speaker of the House of Representatives, his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as acting President. Section 4 Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the Executive Departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro-temporary of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,

1:08:46the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as acting President. Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro-temporary of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office, unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the Executive Department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro-temporary of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon, Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within 48 hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress within 21 days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or if Congress is not in session, within 21 days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his

1:09:50office. The Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as acting President, otherwise the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office. Amendment 26 Section 1 The right of citizens of the United States who are 18 years of age or older to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age. Section 2 The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Amendment 27 No law varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives shall take effect until an election of Representatives shall have intervened. End of the Constitution of the United States of America This is a Libravox Recording.

1:10:50All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. This reading by Michael Sherer, www.americanafonic.com The Declaration of Independence A declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled July 4, 1776. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain, unalienable rights, that among these are like

1:11:55life, liberty, and a pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, and accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to write themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw

1:12:58off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his ascent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his ascent should be obtained, and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right

1:13:59inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies that places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise. The state remaining in the meantime, exposed to all the danger of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states, for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

1:15:02He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his ascent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us in time of peace standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his ascent to their acts of pretended legislation, for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us, for protecting them by a mock trial from punishment, for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these

1:16:05states. For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world, for imposing taxes on us without our consent, for depriving us in many cases of the benefit of trial by jury, for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses, for abolishing the free system of English laws and enaboring province establishing their in-and-arbitraery government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies. For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the powers of our governments, for suspending our own legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives

1:17:10of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and pervade scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.

1:18:11A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting an attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts made by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our immigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and consignunity. We must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends. We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general Congress

1:19:13assembled, appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these United colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved, and that as free and independent states, they have full power to lovey war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may have right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. End of the Declaration of Independence.

1:20:17This is a Libravox Recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. This reading by Michael Sherer, www.americanafonic.com The Gettysburg Address. Our score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this

1:21:22ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated at far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here. But it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. That from these honored dead, we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

1:22:25End of the Gettysburg address.