The Daring Book for Girls - Andrea J. Buchanan [100]
AMENDMENT IV
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 persons or things to be seized.
AMENDMENT V
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 VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and 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.
AMENDMENT VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, 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, than according to the rules of the common law.
AMENDMENT VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
AMENDMENT IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
AMENDMENT X
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.
Seventeen amendments follow these. The last, ratified in 1992, made it harder for our Senators and Representatives to raise their own salaries. This amendment has a long and intriguing history; it was first submitted in 1779 as part of a heated debate about states rights! Amendments are first passed by a two-thirds majority of the full Congress—the Senate and the House of Representatives. Then they must be approved, or ratified, by the legislatures of seventy-five percent of the states. This often means years of spirited discussion for each attempt to pass a new amendment.
The history of the amendments highlights our nation’s most impassioned debates. In 1868, the thirteenth amendment abolished slavery. Two years later, the fifteenth guaranteed that our right to vote could not be denied on account of our race, color, or having previously been a slave. The eighteenth amendment made it illegal to manufacture alcohol—and ushered in the prohibition years (which ended two years later, when the amendment was repealed).
In 1920, the nineteenth amendment marked a significant event for girls and women in America when, after 141 years of male-only elections, women were granted the right to vote. Just afterward, Alice Paul, one of the suffragettes, or activists on behalf of women’s voting, or suffrage, presented to Congress an amendment to supply equal rights to women. It wasn’t until the 1970s, however, that both houses of Congress sent this amendment to the states to ratify. Although the Equal Rights Amendment came close to approval by thirty-eight of our fifty states, the necessary three-quarters, it was defeated.
The Three Sisters
THE THREE SISTERS aren’t actually real girls, but they support one another, as sisters should. So named by the innovative Iroquois (the Native American tribe also called the Haudenosaunee), the Three Sisters are corn, beans, and squash.