Chapter XCVI: Section 2 (1)

[§ 1.]
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges
and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

[Footnote: Extended by Fourteenth Amendment.]

[§ 2.]
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.

[§ 3.]
[No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the
Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of
any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service
or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to
whom such Service or Labour may be due.]

[Footnote: Superseded by Thirteenth Amendment.]

_Section_ 3.
[§ 1.]
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.

[§ 2.]
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.

Article V.
The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it
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 in 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 One thousand eight hundred and eight 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.

[Footnote: "[no amendment…]" is a Temporary provision.]

Article VI.
[§ 1.]
All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the
Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the
United States under this Constitution, as under the
Confederation.

[Footnote: Extended by Fourteenth Amendment, Section 4.]

[§ 2.]
This 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, any Thing in the Constitution or
Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

[§ 3.]
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 VII.
The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be
sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between
the States so ratifying the Same.

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DONE in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States
present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our
Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the
Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth In
Witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our names.

Go WASHINGTON—Presidt and deputy from Virginia.

DELAWARE.
Geo: Read
John Dickinson
Gunning Bedford jun
Richard Bassett
Jaco: Broom

NEW HAMPSHIRE.
John Langdon
Nicholas Gilman

MASSACHUSETTS.
Nathaniel Gorham
Rufus King

MARYLAND.
James McHenry
Dan of St. Thos. Jenifer
Danl Carroll

CONNECTICUT.
Wm. Sami. Johnson
Roger Sherman

VIRGINIA.
John Blair
James Madison Jr.

NEW YORK.
Alexander Hamilton

NORTH CAROLINA.
Wm. Blount
Richd. Dobbs Spaight
Hu Williamson

NEW JERSEY.
Wil: Livingston
Wm: Paterson.
David Brearley
Jona: Dayton

SOUTH CAROLINA.
J. Rutledge,
Charles Pinckney
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Pierce Butler.

PENNSYLVANIA.
B Franklin
Thos. Fitz Simons
Thomas Mifflin
Jared Ingersoll
Robt. Morris
James Wilson.
Geo. Clymer
Gouv Morris

GEORGIA.
William Few
Abr Baldwin

[Footnote: These signatures have no other legal force than
that of attestation.]

ARTICLES in addition to and Amendment of the Constitution of
the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and
ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant
to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

[Footnote: This heading appears only in the joint resolution
submitting the first ten amendments.]

[Article 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.

[Article II.]
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.

[Article III.]
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 a
manner to be prescribed by law.

[Article 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.

[Article 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 offence 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.

[Article 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 defence.

[Article 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
re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according
to the rules of the common law.

[Article VIII.]
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines
imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

[Article IX.]
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall
not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the
people.

[Article 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.

[Footnote: Amendments First to Tenth appear to have been in
force from November 3, 1791. (See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D.
1791.)]

[Article XI.]
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 or Subjects of any Foreign
State.

[Footnote: Proclaimed to be in force January 8, 1798.]

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[Article XII.]
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 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;—The 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, 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. 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.—The 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.

[Footnote: Proclaimed to be in force September 25, 1804.]

Article XIII.
_Section_ 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof 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.

[Footnote: Proclaimed to be in force December 18, 1865.
[See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (JANUARY).]]

Article XIV.
_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, excluding Indians not taxed.
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 a State, or the members of the
Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants
of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of
the United States, or in any way abridged, except for
participation in rebellion, or other crime, the 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 twenty-one years of age in such State.

_Section_ 3.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or
elector 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. But 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.

[Footnote: Proclaimed to be in force July 28. 1868.
[See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865-1866
(DECEMBER-APRIL); 1866 (JUNE),
and 1866-1867 (OCTOBER-MARCH).]]

Article XV.
_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."

[Footnote: Proclaimed to be in force March 30, 1870.
[See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1869-1870.]]

----------CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: End------

CONSTITUTION OF VENEZUELA.

The following text is taken from Bulletin No. 34 of the Bureau
of the American Republics:

Article I.
The States that the constitution of March 28, 1864, declared
independent and united to form the Venezuelan Federation, and
that on April 27, 1881, were denominated Apure, Bolivar,
Barquisimeto, Barcelona, Carabobo, Cojedes, Cumamá, Falcón,
Guzmán Blanco, Guárico, Gunynna, Guzmán, Maturin, Nuevn
Esparta, Portuguesa, Táchira, Trujillo, Yaracay, Zamora, and
Zulia are constituted into nine grand political bodies, viz:
The State of Bermudez, composed of Barcelona, Cumaná, and
Maturin; the State of Miranda, composed of Bolivar, Guzman
Blanco, Guárico, and Nueva Esparta; the State of Carabobo,
composed of Carabobo and Nirgua; the State of Zamora, composed
of Cojedes, Portuguesa, and Zamora; the State of Lara,
composed of Barquisimeto and Yaracuy, except the department of
Nirgua; the State of Los Andes, composed of Guzman, Trujillo,
and Táchira; the State of Bolivar, composed of Guayana and
Apure; the State of Zulia, and also the State of Falcón. And
they are thus constituted to continue one only nation, free,
sovereign, and independent, under the title of the United
States of Venezuela.

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Article. 2.
The boundaries of these great States are determined by those
that the law of April 28, 1856, that arranged the last
territorial division, designated for the ancient provinces
until it shall be re-formed.

Article. 3.
The boundaries of the United States of the Venezuelan
Federation are the same that in 1810 belonged to the old
Captaincy-General of Venezuela.

Article. 4.
The States that are grouped together to form the grand
political bodies will be called Sections. These are equal
among themselves; the constitutions prescribed for their
internal organism must be harmonious with the federative
principles established by the present compact, and the
sovereignty not delegated resides in the State without any
other limitations than those that devolve from the compromise
of association.

Article. 5.
These are Venezuelans, viz:

1st, All persons that may have been or may be born on
Venezuelan soil, whatever may be the nationality of their
parents;

2d, The children of a Venezuelan father or mother that may
have been born on foreign soil, if they should come to take up
their domicile in the country and express the desire to become
citizens;

3d, Foreigners that may have obtained naturalization papers; and,

4th, Those born or that shall be born in any of the
Spanish-American republics or in the Spanish Antilles,
provided that they may have taken up their residence in the
territory of the Republic and express a willingness to become
citizens.

Article. 6.
Those that take up their residence and acquire nationality in
a foreign country do not lose the character of Venezuelans.

Article. 7.
Males over twenty-one years of age are qualified Venezuelan
citizens, with only the exceptions contained in this
constitution.

Article. 8.
All Venezuelans are obliged to serve the nation according to
the prescriptions of the laws, sacrificing his property and
his life, if necessary, to defend the country.

Article. 9.
Venezuelans shall enjoy, in all the States of the Union, the
rights and immunities inherent to their condition as citizens
of the Federation, and they shall also have imposed upon them
there the same duties that are required of those that are
natives or domiciled there.

Article. 10.
Foreigners shall enjoy the same civil rights as Venezuelans
and the same security in their persons and property. They can
only take advantage of diplomatic means in accordance with
public treaties and in cases when right permits it.

Article. 11.
The law will determine the right applicable to the condition
of foreigners, according as they may be domiciled or in
transit.

Article. 12.
The States that form the Venezuelan Federation reciprocally
recognize their respective autonomies; they are declared equal
in political entity, and preserve, in all its plenitude, the
sovereignty not expressly delegated in this constitution.

Article. 13.
The States of the Venezuelan Federation oblige themselves:

1st, To organize themselves in accord with the principles of
popular, elective, federal, representative, alternative, and
responsible government;

2d, To establish the fundamental regulations of their interior
regulation and government in entire conformity with the
principles of this constitution;

3d, To defend themselves against all violence that threatens
the sectional independence or the integrity of the Venezuelan
Federation;

4th, To not alienate to a foreign power any part of their
territory, nor to implore its protection, nor to establish or
cultivate political or diplomatic relations with other
nations, since this last is reserved to the Federal power;

5th, To not combine or ally themselves with another nation,
nor to separate themselves to the prejudice of the nationality
of Venezuela and her territory;

6th, To cede to the nation the territory that may be necessary
for the Federal district;

7th, To cede to the Government of the Federation the territory
necessary for the erection of forts, warehouses, shipyards,
and penitentiaries, and for the construction of other edifices
indispensable to the general administration;

8th, To leave to the Government of the Federation the
administration of the Amazonas and Goajira territories and
that of the islands which pertain to the nation, until it may
be convenient to elevate them to another rank;

9th, To reserve to the powers of the Federation all
legislative or executive jurisdiction concerning maritime,
coastwise, and fluvial navigation, and the national roads,
considering as such those that exceed the limits of a State
and lead to the frontiers of others and to the Federal
district;

10th, To not subject to contributions the products or articles
upon which national taxes are imposed, or those that are by
law exempt from tax before they have been offered for
consumption;

11th, To not impose contributions on cattle, effects, or any
class of merchandise in transit for another State, in order
that traffic may be absolutely free, and that in one section
the consumption of others may not be taxed;

12th, To not prohibit the consumption of the products of other
States nor to tax their productions with greater general or
municipal taxes than those paid on products raised in the
locality;

13th, To not establish maritime or territorial custom-houses
for the collection of imports, since there will be national
ones only;

14th, To recognise the right of each State to dispose of its
natural products;

15th, To cede to the Government of the Federation the
administration of mines, public lands, and salt mines, in
order that the first may be regulated by a system of uniform
working and that the latter may be applied to the benefit of
the people;

16th, To respect the property, arsenals, and forts of the
nation;

17th, To comply with and cause to be complied with and
executed the Constitution and laws of the federation and the
decrees and orders that the federal power, the tribunals, and
courts may expedite in use of their attributes and legal
faculties;

18th, To give entire faith to and to cause to be complied with
and executed the public acts and judicial procedures of the
other States;

19th, To organize their tribunals and courts for the
administration of justice in the State and to have for all of
them the same substantive civil and criminal legislation and
the same laws of civil and criminal procedure;

20th, To present judges for the court of appeals and to submit
to the decision of this supreme tribunal of the States;

21st, To incorporate the extradition of criminals as a
political principle in their respective Constitutions;

22d, To establish direct and public suffrage in popular
elections, making it obligatory and endorsing it in the
electoral registry. The vote of the suffragist must be cast in
full and public session of the respective board; it will be
inscribed in the registry books that the law prescribes for
elections, which can not be substituted in any other form, and
the elector, for himself or by another at his request in case
of impediment or through ignorance, will sign the memorandum
entry of his vote, and without this requisite it can not be
claimed that in reality he has voted;

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23d, To establish a system of primary education and that of
arts and trades;

24th, To reserve to the powers of the Federation the laws and
provisions necessary for the creation, conservation, and
progress of general schools, colleges, or universities
designed for the teaching of the sciences;

25th, To not impose duties upon the national employés, except
in the quality of citizens of the State and insomuch as these
duties may not be incompatible with the national public
service;

26th, To furnish the proportional contingent that pertains to
them to compose the national public forces in time of peace or
war;

27th, To not permit in the States of the Federation forced
enlistments and levies that have or may have for their object
an attack on liberty or independence or a disturbance of the
public order of the Nation, of other States, or of another
Nation;

28th, To preserve a strict neutrality in the contentions that
may arise in other States;

29th, To not declare or carry on war in any case, one State
with another;

30th, To defer and submit to the decision of the Congress or
the High Federal Court in all the controversies that may arise
between two or more States when they can not, between
themselves and by pacific measures, arrive at an agreement.
If, for any cause, they may not designate the arbiter to whose
decision they may submit, they leave it, in fact, to the High
Federal Court;

31st, To recognize the competency of Congress and of the court
of appeals to take cognizance of the causes that, for treason
to the country or for the infraction of the Constitution and
laws of the Federation, may be instituted against those that
exercise executive authority in the States, it being their
duty to incorporate this precept in their constitutions. In
these trials the modes of procedure that the general laws
prescribe will be followed and they will be decided in
consonance with those laws;

32d, To have as the just income of the States, two-thirds of
the total product of the impost collected as transit tax in
all the custom-houses of the Republic and two-thirds of that
collected from mines, public lands, and salt mines
administered by the Federal Power and to distribute this
income among all the States of the Federation in proportion to
the population of each;

33d, To reserve to the Federal Power the amount of the third
part of the income from transit tax, the production of mines,
public lands, and salt mines, to be invested in the
improvement of the country;

34th, To keep far away from the frontier those individuals
that, through political motives, take refuge in a State,
provided that the State interested requests it.

Article. 14.
The nation guarantees to Venezuelans:

1st, The inviolability of life, capital punishment being
abolished in spite of any law that establishes it;

2d, Property, with all its attributes, rights and privileges,
will only be subjected to contributions decreed by legislative
authority, to judicial decision, and to be taken for public
works after indemnity and condemnation;

3d, The inviolability and secrecy of correspondence and other
private papers;

4th, The domestic hearth, that can not be approached except to
prevent the perpetration of crime, and this itself must be
done in accordance with law;

5th, Personal liberty, and consequently
(1) forced recruiting for armed service is abolished,
(2) slavery is forever proscribed,
(3) slaves that tread the soil of Venezuela are free, and
(4) nobody is obliged to do that which the law does not
command, nor is impeded from doing that which it does not
prohibit;

6th, The freedom of thought, expressed by word or through the
press, is without any restriction to be submitted to previous
censure. In cases of calumny or injury or prejudice to a third
party, the aggrieved party shall have every facility to have
his complaints investigated before competent tribunals of
justice in accordance with the common laws;

7th, The liberty of traveling without passport, to change the
domicil, observing the legal formalities, and to depart from
and return to the Republic, carrying off and bringing back his
or her property;

8th, The liberty of industry and consequently the
proprietorship of discoveries and productions. The law will
assign to the proprietors a temporary privilege or the mode of
indemnity in case that the author agrees to its publication;

9th, The liberty of reunion and assembling without arms,
publicly or privately, the authorities being prohibited from
exercising any act of inspection or coercion;

10th, The liberty of petition, with the right of obtaining
action by resolution; petition can be made by any functionary,
authority or corporation. If the petition shall be made in the
name of various persons, the first five will respond for the
authenticity of the signatures and all for the truth of the
assertions;

11th, The liberty of suffrage at popular elections without any
restriction except to males under eighteen years of age;

12th, The liberty of instruction will be protected to every
extent. The public power is obliged to establish gratuitous
instruction in primary schools, the arts, and trades;

13th, Religious liberty;

14th, Individual security, and, therefore
(1) no Venezuelan can be imprisoned or arrested in
punishment for debts not founded in fraud or crime;
(2) nor to be obliged to lodge or quarter soldiers in his
house;
(3) nor to be judged by special commissions or tribunals,
but by his natural judges and by virtue of laws dictated
before the commission of the crime or act to be judged;
(4) nor to be imprisoned nor arrested without previous
summary information that a crime meriting corporal
punishment has been committed, and a written order from the
functionary that orders the imprisonment, stating the cause
of arrest, unless the person may be caught in the
commission of the crime;
(5) nor to be placed in solitary confinement for any cause;
(6) nor to be obliged to give evidence, in criminal causes,
against himself or his blood relations within the fourth
degree of consanguinity or against his relations by
marriage within the second degree, or against husband or
wife;
(7) nor to remain in prison when the reasons that caused
the imprisonment have been dissipated;
(8) nor to be sentenced to corporal punishment for more
than ten years;
(9) nor to remain deprived of his liberty for political
reasons when order is reestablished.

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Article. 15.
Equality: in virtue of which
(1) all must be judged by the very same laws and subject to
equal duty, service and contributions;
(2) no titles of nobility, hereditary honors, and
distinctions will be conceded, nor employments or offices
the salaries or emoluments of which continue after the
termination of service;
(3) no other official salutation than "citizen" and "you"
will be given to employés and corporations. The present
enumeration does not impose upon the States the obligation
to accord other guarantees to their inhabitants.

Article 16.
The laws in the States will prescribe penalties for the
infractions of these guarantees, establishing modes of
procedure to make them effective.

Article 17.
Those who may issue, sign, or execute, or order executed any
decrees, orders, or resolutions that violate or in any manner
infringe upon the guarantees accorded to Venezuelans are
culpable and must be punished according to the law. Every
citizen is empowered to bring charges.

Article 18.
The National Legislature will be composed of two chambers, one
of Senators and another of Deputies.

Article 19.
The States will determine the mode of election of Deputies.

Article 20.
To form the Chamber of Deputies, each State will name, by
popular election in accordance with paragraph 22 of Article 13
of this Constitution, one Deputy for each thirty-five thousand
inhabitants and another for an excess not under fifteen
thousand. In the same manner it will elect alternates in equal
number to the principals.

Article 21.
The Deputies will hold office for four years, when they will
be renewed in their entirety.

Article 22.
The prerogatives of the chamber of Deputies are:

First, to examine the annual account that the President of the
United States of Venezuela must render;

Second, to pass a vote of censure of the Ministers of the
Cabinet, in which event their posts will be vacant;

Third, to hear charges against the persons in charge of the
office of the National Executive for treason to the country,
for infraction of the constitution, or for ordinary crimes;
against the ministers and other National employés for
infraction of the Constitution and laws and for fault in the
discharge of their duties according to article 75 of this
constitution and of the general laws of the Republic. This
attribute is preventative and neither contracts nor diminishes
those that other authorities have to judge and punish.

Article 23.
When a charge is instituted by a Deputy or by any corporation
or individual the following rules will be observed:

(1) there will be appointed, in secret session, a commission
of three deputies;

(2) the commission will, within three days, render an opinion,
declaring whether or not there is foundation for instituting a
cause;

(3) the Chamber will consider the information and decide upon
the cause by the vote of an absolute majority of the members
present, the accusing Deputy abstaining from voting.

Article 24.
The declaration that there is foundation for the cause
operates to suspend from office the accused and incapacitates
him for the discharge of any public function during the trial.

Article 25.
To form this Chamber each State, through its respective
legislature, will elect three principal Senators and an equal
number of alternates to supply the vacancies that may occur.

Article 26.
To be a Senator it is required that he shall be a Venezuelan
by birth and thirty years of age.

Article 27.
The Senators will occupy their posts for four years and be
renewed in their entirety.

Article 28.
It is the prerogative of the Senate to substantiate and decide
the causes initiated in the Chamber of Deputies.

Article 29.
If the cause may not have been concluded during the sessions,
the Senate will continue assembled for this purpose only until
the cause is finished.

Article 30.
The National Legislature will assemble on the 20th day of
February of each year or as soon thereafter as possible at the
capital of the United States without the necessity of previous
notice. The sessions will last for seventy days to be
prolonged until ninety days at the judgment of the majority.

Article 31.
The Chambers will open their sessions with two-thirds of their
number at least; and, in default of this number, those present
will assemble in preparatory commission and adopt measures for
the concurrence of the absentees.

Article 32.
The sessions having been opened, they may be continued by
two-thirds of those that may have installed them, provided
that the number be not less than half of all the members
elected.

Article 33.
Although the Chambers deliberate separately, they may assemble
together in the Congress when the constitution and laws
provide for it or when one of the two Chambers may deem it
necessary. If the Chamber that is invited shall agree, it
remains to it to fix the day and the hour of the joint
session.

Article 34.
The sessions will be public and secret at the will of the
Chamber.

Article 35.
The Chambers have the right:

(1) to make rules to be observed in the sessions and to
regulate the debates;

(2) to correct infractors;

(3) to establish the police force in the hall of sessions;

(4) to punish or correct spectators who create disorder;

(5) to remove the obstacles to the free exercise of their
functions;

(6) to command the execution of their private resolutions;

(7) to judge of the qualifications of their members and to
consider their resignations.

Article 36.
One of the Chambers cannot suspend its sessions nor change its
place of meeting without the consent of the other; in case of
disagreement they will reassemble together and execute that
which the majority resolves.

Article 37.
The exercise of any other public function, during the
sessions, is incompatible with those of a Senator or Deputy.
The law will specify the remunerations that the members of the
national Legislature shall receive for their services. And
whenever an increase of said remunerations is decreed, the law
that sanctions it will not begin to be in force until the
following period when the Chambers that sanctioned it shall
have been renewed in their entirety.

Article 38.
The Senators and Deputies shall enjoy immunity from the 20th
day of January of each year until thirty days after the close
of the sessions and this consists in the suspension of all
civil or criminal proceeding, whatever may be its origin or
nature; when anyone shall perpetrate an act that merits
corporal punishment the investigation shall continue until the
end of the summing up and shall remain in this state while the
term of immunity continues.

Article 39.
The Congress will be presided over by the President of the
Senate and the presiding officer of the Chamber of Deputies
will act as Vice-President.

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Article 40.
The members of the Chambers are not responsible for the
opinions they express or the discourses they pronounce in
session.

Article 41.
Senators and deputies that accept office or commission from
the National Executive thereby leave vacant the posts of
legislators in the Chambers to which they were elected.

Article 42.
Nor can senators and deputies make contracts with the general
Government or conduct the prosecution of claims of others
against it.

Article 43.
The National Legislature has the following prerogatives:

(1) to dissolve the controversies that may arise between two
or more States;

(2) to locate the Federal District in an unpopulated territory
not exceeding three miles square, where will be constructed
the capital city of the Republic. This district will be
neutral territory, and no other elections will be there held
than those that the law determines for the locality, The
district will be provisionally that which the constituent
assembly designated or that which the National Legislature may
designate;

(3) to organize everything relating to the custom-houses,
whose income will constitute the treasure of the Union until
these incomes are supplied from other sources;

(4) to dispose in everything relating to the habitation and
security of ports and seacoasts;

(5) to create and organize the postal service and to fix the
charges for transportation of correspondence;

(6) to form the National Codes in accordance with paragraph
19, article 13 of this Constitution;

(7) to fix the value, type law, weight, and coinage of
national money, and to regulate the admission and circulation
of foreign money;

(8) to designate the coat-of-arms and the national flag which
will be the same for all the States;

(9) to create, abolish, and fix salaries for national offices;

(10) to determine everything in relation to the national debt;

(11) to contract loans upon the credit of the nation;

(12) to dictate necessary measures to perfect the census of
the current population and the national statistics;

(13) to annually fix the armed forces by sea and land and to
dictate the army regulations;

(14) to decree rules for the formation and substitution of the
forces referred to in the preceding clause;

(15) to declare war and to require the National Executive to
negotiate peace;

(16) to ratify or reject the contracts for national public
works made by the President with the approval of the Federal
Council, without which requisite they will not be carried into
effect;

[Transcriber's note: (17) is missing.]

(18) to annually fix the estimates for public expenses;

(19) to promote whatever conduces to the prosperity of the
country and to its advancement in the general knowledge of the
arts and sciences;

(20) to fix and regulate the national weights and measures;

(21) to grant amnesties;

(22) to establish, under the names of territories, special
regulations for the government of regions inhabited by
unconquered and uncivilized Indians. Such territories will be
under the immediate supervision of the Executive of the Union;

(23) to establish the modes of procedure and to designate the
penalties to be imposed by the Senate in the trials originated
in the Chamber of Deputies;

(24) to increase the basis of population for the election of
deputies;

(25) to permit or refuse the admission of foreigners into the
service of the Republic;

(26) to make laws in respect to retirements from the military
service and army pensions;

(27) to dictate the law of responsibility on the part of all
national employés and those of the States for infraction of
the constitution and the general laws of the Union;

(28) to determine the mode of conceding military rank or
promotion;

(29) to elect the Federal Council provided for in this
constitution and to convoke the alternates of the senators and
deputies who may have been chosen for it.

Article 44.
Besides the preceding enumeration the National Legislature may
pass such laws of general character as may be necessary, but
in no case can they be promulgated, much less executed, if
they conflict with this constitution, which defines the
prerogatives of the public powers in Venezuela.

Article 45.
The laws and decrees of the National Legislature may be
proposed by the members of either chamber, provided that the
respective projects are conformed to the rules established for
the Parliament of Venezuela.

Article 46.
After a project may have been presented, it will be read and
considered in order to be admitted; and if it is, it must
undergo three discussions, with an interval of at least one
day between each, observing the rules established for debate.

Article 47.
The projects approved in the chamber in which they were
originated will be passed to the other for the purposes
indicated in the preceding article, and if they are not
rejected they will be returned to the chamber whence they
originated, with the amendments they may have undergone.

Article 48.
If the chamber of their origin does not agree to the
amendments, it may insist and send its written reasons to the
other. They may also assemble together in Congress and
deliberate, in general commission, over the mode of agreement,
but if this can not be reached, the project will be of no
effect after the chamber of its origin separately decides upon
the ratification of its insistence.

Article 49.
Upon the passing of the projects from one to the other
chamber, the days on which they have been discussed will be
stated.

Article 50.
The law reforming another law must be fully engrossed and the
former law, in all its parts, will be annulled.

Article 51.
In the laws this form will be used: "The Congress of the
United States of Venezuela decrees."

Article 52.
The projects defeated in one legislature cannot be
reintroduced except in another.

Article 53.
The projects pending in a chamber at the close of the sessions
must undergo the same three discussions in succeeding
legislatures.

Article 54.
Laws are annulled with the same formalities established for
their sanction.

Article 55.
When the ministers of Cabinet may have sustained, in a
chamber, the unconstitutionality of a project by word or in
writing, and, notwithstanding this, it may have been
sanctioned as law, the National Executive, with the
affirmative vote of the Federal Council, will suspend its
execution and apply to the legislatures of the States, asking
their vote in the matter.

Article 56.
In case of the foregoing article, each State will represent
one vote expressed by the majority of the members of the
legislature present, and the result will be sent to the High
Federal Court in this form: "I confirm" or "I reject."

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Article 57.
If a majority of the legislatures of the States agree with the
Federal Executive, the High Federal Court will confirm the
suspension, and the Federal Executive himself will render an
account to the next Congress relative to all that has been
done in the matter.

Article 58.
The laws will not be observed until after being published in
the solemn form established.

Article 59.
The faculty conceded to sanction a law is not to be delegated.

Article 60.
No legislative disposition will have a retroactive effect,
except in matters of judicial procedure and that which imposes
a lighter penalty.

Article 61.
There will be a Federal Council composed of one senator and
one deputy for each State and of one more deputy for the
Federal District, who will be elected by the Congress each two
years from among the respective representations of the States
composing the Federation and from that of the Federal
District. This election will take place in the first fifteen
days of the meeting of Congress, in the first and third year
of the constitutional period.

Article 62.
The Federal Council elects from its members the President of
the United States of Venezuela, and in the same manner the
person who shall act in his stead in case of his temporal or
permanent disability during his term. The election of a person
to be President of the United States of Venezuela who is not a
member of the Federal Council, as well as of those who may
have to act in his stead in case of his temporal or permanent
disability, is null of right and void of efficacy.

Article 63.
The members of the Federal Council hold office for two years,
the same as the President of the United States of Venezuela,
whose term is of equal duration; and neither he nor they can
be reëlected for the term immediately succeeding, although
they may return to occupy their posts as legislators in the
chambers to which they belong.

Article 64.
The Federal Council resides in the district and exercises the
functions prescribed in this constitution. It cannot
deliberate with less than an absolute majority of all its
members; it dictates the interior regulations to be observed
in its deliberations, and annually appoints the person who
shall preside over its sessions.

Article 65.
The prerogatives of the President of Venezuela are:

(1) To appoint and remove the cabinet ministers;

(2) to preside over the cabinet, in whose discussions he will
have a vote, and to inform the Council of all the matters that
refer to the General Administration;

(3) to receive and welcome public ministers;

(4) to sign the official letters to the Sovereigns or
Presidents of other countries;

(5) to order the execution of the laws and decrees of the
National Legislature, and to take care that they are complied
with and executed;

(6) to promulgate the resolutions and decrees that may have
been proposed and received the approbation of the Federal
Council, in conformity with article 66 of this constitution;

(7) to organize the Federal District and to act therein as the
chief civil and political authority established by this
constitution;

(8) to issue registers of navigation to national vessels;

(9) to render an account to Congress, within the first eight
days of its annual session, of the cases in which, with the
approval of the Federal Council, he may have exercised all or
any of the faculties accorded to him in article 66 of this
compact;

(10) to discharge the other functions that the national laws
entrust to him.

Article 66.
Besides the foregoing prerogatives, that are personal to the
president of the United States of Venezuela, he can, with the
deliberate vote of the Federal Council, exercise the
following:

(1) To protect the Nation from all exterior attack;

(2) to administer the public lands, mines, and salt mines of
the States as their delegate;

(3) to convoke the National Legislature in its regular
sessions, and in extraordinary session when the gravity of any
subject demands it;

(4) to nominate persons for diplomatic positions,
consuls-general, and consuls; those named for the first and
second positions must be Venezuelans by birth;

(5) to direct negotiations and celebrate all kinds of treaties
with other nations, submitting these to the National
Legislature;

(6) to celebrate contracts of national interest in accordance
with the laws and to submit them the legislatures for their
approval;

(7) to nominate the employés of hacienda, which nominations
are not to be made by any other authority. It is required that
these employés shall be Venezuelan by birth;

(8) to remove and suspend employés of his own free motion,
ordering them to be tried if there should be cause for it;

(9) to declare war in the name of the Republic when Congress
shall have decreed it;

(10) in the case of foreign war he can,

first, demand from the States the assistance necessary for
the national defense;

second, require, in anticipation, the contributions and
negotiate the loans decreed by the National Legislature;

third, arrest or expel persons who pertain to the nation
with which war is carried on and who may be opposed to the
defense of the country;

fourth, to suspend the guaranties that may be incompatible
with the defense of the country, except that of life;

fifth, to select the place to which the General Power of
the Federation may be provisionally translated when there
may be grave reasons for it;

sixth, to bring to trial for treason to the country those
Venezuelans who may be, in any manner, hostile to the
national defense;

seventh, to issue registers to corsairs and privateers and
to prescribe the laws that they must observe in cases of
capture;

(11) to employ the public force and the powers contained in
numbers 1, 2, and 5 of the preceding clause with the object of
reëstablishing constitutional order in case of armed
insurrection against the institutions of the Nation;

(12) to dispose of the public force for the purpose of
quelling every armed collision between two or more States,
requiring them to lay down their arms and submit their
controversies to the arbitration to which they are pledged by
number 30, article 14 of this constitution;

(13) to direct the war and to appoint the person who shall
command the army;

(14) to organize the national force in time of peace;

(15) to concede general or particular exemptions;

(16) to defend the territory designated for the Federal
District when there may be reasons to apprehend that it will
be invaded by hostile forces.

Article 67.
The President of the United States of Venezuela shall have the
ministers for his cabinet that the law designates. It will
determine their functions and duties and will organize their
bureaus.

Article 68.
To be a minister of the cabinet it is required that the person
shall be twenty-five years of age, a Venezuelan by birth or
five years of naturalization.

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Article 69.
The ministers are the natural and proper organs of the
President of the United States of Venezuela. All his acts must
be subscribed by them and without such requisite they will not
be complied with nor executed by the authorities, employees,
or private persons.

Article 70.
All the acts of the ministers must be conformed to this
Constitution and the laws; their personal responsibility is
not saved, although they may have the written order of the
President.

Article 71.
The settlement of all business, except the fiscal affairs of
the bureaus, will be determined in the council of ministers,
and their responsibility is collective and consolidated.

Article 72.
The ministers, within the five first sessions of each year,
will render an account to the Chambers of what they may have
done or propose to do in their respective branches. They will
also render written or verbal reports that may be requested of
them, reserving only that which, in diplomatic affairs, it may
not be convenient to publish.

Article 73.
Within the same period, they will present to the National
Legislature the estimates of public expenditures and the
general account of the past year.

Article 74.
The ministers have the right to be heard in the Chambers, and
are obliged to attend when they may be called upon for
information.

Article 75.
The ministers are responsible:

(1) for treason to the country;

(2) for infraction of this Constitution or the laws;

(3) for malversation of the public funds;

(4) for exceeding the estimates in their expenditures;

(5) for subornation or bribery in the affairs under their
charge or in the nominations for public employees;

(6) for failure in compliance with the decisions of the
Federal Council.

Article 76.
The High Federal Court will be composed of as many judges as
there may be States of the Federation and with the following
qualities:

(1) A judge must be a Venezuelan by birth;

(2) he must be thirty years of age.

Article 77.
For the nomination of judges of the High Federal Court the
Congress will convene on the fifteenth day of its regular
sessions and will proceed to group together the representation
of each State from which to form a list of as many candidates
for principal judges and an equal number of alternates as
there may be States of the Federation. The Congress, in the
same or following session, will elect one principal and one
alternate for each State, selecting them from the respective
lists.

Article 78. The law will determine the different functions of the judges and other officers of the High Federal Court.

Article 79.
The judges and their respective alternates will hold office
for four years. The principals and their alternates in office
can not accept during this period any office in the gift of
the executive without previous resignation and lawful
acceptance. The infraction of this disposition will be
punished with four years of disability to hold public office
in Venezuela.

Article 80.
The matters within the competence of the High Federal Court
are:

(1) to take cognizance of civil or criminal causes that may be
instituted against diplomatic officers in those cases
permitted by the law of nations;

(2) to take cognizance of causes ordered by the President to
be instituted against cabinet ministers when they may be
accused according to the cases provided for in this
Constitution. In the matter of the necessity of suspension
from office, they will request the President to that effect
and he will comply;

[Transcriber's note: (3) is absent.]

(4) to have jurisdiction of the causes of responsibility
instituted against diplomatic agents accredited to another
nation for the wrong discharge of their functions;

(5) to have jurisdiction in civil trials when the nation is
defendant and the law sanctions it;

(6) to dissipate the controversies that may arise between the
officials of different States in political order in the matter
of jurisdiction or competence;

(7) to take cognizance of all matters of political nature that
the States desire to submit for their consideration;

(8) to declare which may be the law in force when the national
and State laws may be found to conflict with each other;

(9) to have jurisdiction in the controversies that may result
from contracts or negotiations celebrated by the president of
the federation;

(10) to have jurisdiction in causes of imprisonment;

(11) to exercise other prerogatives provided for by law.