Founding America (Barnes & Noble Classics) - Jack N. Rakove [216]
On the whole, Sir, I cannot help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility—and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.—He then moved that the Constitution be signed by the members and offered the following as a convenient form viz. “Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present the 17th. of Sepr. &c—In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names.
THE CONSTITUTION
The Constitution of the United States (September 17, 1787) PAGE 397
Concluding Resolution for Ratification (September 17, 1787) PAGE 410
George Washington: Letter of Conveyance to Congress (September 17, 1787) PAGE 411
THE DELEGATES SIGNED THE completed Constitution on September 17, 1787, took a concluding dinner at the City Tavern, and then left Philadelphia. The Constitution they had drafted was the culmination not only of four and a half months of deliberation, but of the decade of constitutional experimentation that began in 1776. The states had served as effective laboratories of liberty, and the lessons the framers drew as they reconstituted the national government came primarily from the experience of the states. Two days later, the Constitution was published in a Philadelphia newspaper, and the public debate over its ratification began.
The first official step in the process of ratification was for the convention to transmit the Constitution to Congress, which was in turn expected to ask the state legislatures to call elections for separate ratification conventions. In his letter submitting the Constitution to Congress, George Washington, the convention president, struck a note that would resound throughout the ratification campaign. Forming a more perfect union did not require writing a perfect document, Washington implied; instead, Americans had to consider the range of problems and interests the convention had to solve and accommodate.
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
SEPTEMBER 17, 1787
WE THE PEOPLE OF the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
ARTICLE. I.
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.
Section. 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 to the Age of twenty five 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. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative;