Principles of American constitutional democracy

Adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

(1) "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 Life, Liberty and the 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 new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

(2) "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."

(3) "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good." …

(4) "He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries." …

(5) "For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:" …

Word help: self-evident = obvious, needing no proof; unalienable = cannot be taken away or given up; instituted = set up; usurpations = wrongful seizures of power; tenure = length of time in a job.

Excerpt 1: Preamble to the U.S. Constitution (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."

Excerpt 2: President Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (1863), closing words

"…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Word help: domestic tranquility = peace at home; posterity = future generations; ordain = officially order or set up.

Adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

(1) "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 Life, Liberty and the 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 new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

(2) "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."

(3) "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good." …

(4) "He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries." …

(5) "For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:" …

Word help: self-evident = obvious, needing no proof; unalienable = cannot be taken away or given up; instituted = set up; usurpations = wrongful seizures of power; tenure = length of time in a job.

The Virginia Convention adopted this declaration on June 12, 1776, about three weeks before the Declaration of Independence. George Mason wrote most of it.

(1) Section I: "That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."

(2) Section II: "That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them."

(3) Section V: "That the legislative and executive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judicative…"

Word help: inherent = part of a person by nature; compact = agreement; divest = strip away; posterity = future generations; magistrates = government officials; trustees = people trusted to manage something for others; amenable to = answerable to; judicative = judicial (relating to courts).

Adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

(1) "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 Life, Liberty and the 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 new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

(2) "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."

(3) "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good." …

(4) "He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries." …

(5) "For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:" …

Word help: self-evident = obvious, needing no proof; unalienable = cannot be taken away or given up; instituted = set up; usurpations = wrongful seizures of power; tenure = length of time in a job.

Excerpt 1: Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (1748; English translation by Thomas Nugent, 1750)

(1) "When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner."

(2) "Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive."

Excerpt 2: James Madison, The Federalist No. 47 (1788)

(3) "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

Excerpt 3: James Madison, The Federalist No. 51 (1788)

(4) "But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. … Ambition must be made to counteract ambition."

(5) "If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."

Word help: magistrates = officials; apprehensions = fears; accumulation = piling up; department = branch of government; encroachments = intrusions on another's power.

Excerpt 1: Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (1748; English translation by Thomas Nugent, 1750)

(1) "When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner."

(2) "Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive."

Excerpt 2: James Madison, The Federalist No. 47 (1788)

(3) "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

Excerpt 3: James Madison, The Federalist No. 51 (1788)

(4) "But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. … Ambition must be made to counteract ambition."

(5) "If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."

Word help: magistrates = officials; apprehensions = fears; accumulation = piling up; department = branch of government; encroachments = intrusions on another's power.

Excerpt 1: Preamble to the U.S. Constitution (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."

Excerpt 2: President Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (1863), closing words

"…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Word help: domestic tranquility = peace at home; posterity = future generations; ordain = officially order or set up.

The Virginia Convention adopted this declaration on June 12, 1776, about three weeks before the Declaration of Independence. George Mason wrote most of it.

(1) Section I: "That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."

(2) Section II: "That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them."

(3) Section V: "That the legislative and executive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judicative…"

Word help: inherent = part of a person by nature; compact = agreement; divest = strip away; posterity = future generations; magistrates = government officials; trustees = people trusted to manage something for others; amenable to = answerable to; judicative = judicial (relating to courts).

President George Washington published this address in 1796, as he prepared to leave office after two terms.

(1) "The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all."

(2) "If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation…"

(3) "The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern…"

Word help: explicit and authentic act = a clear, official decision; sacredly obligatory = must be obeyed, as a solemn duty; designates = names, sets out; usurpation = seizing power wrongfully; reciprocal = working both ways; depositaries = places where something is kept (here, branches of government); public weal = public good; evinced = proven.

James Madison, The Federalist No. 45 (1788). Some New Yorkers feared that the proposed national government would swallow up the states. Madison answered them in this essay.

(1) "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite."

(2) "The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected."

(3) "The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."

Word help: delegated = given, assigned; indefinite = not limited to a list; the former = the first one named (here, the federal powers); external objects = matters outside the country; commerce = trade; internal order = peace and good order inside the state.

Excerpt 1: Massachusetts Constitution (1780), Part the First, Article XXX

(1) "In the government of this commonwealth, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them: the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them: the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men."

Excerpt 2: U.S. Constitution (1787), Article I

(2) Section 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."

(3) Section 8: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,…"

(4) Section 9: "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."

(5) Section 9: "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."

Word help: commonwealth = state; to the end = so that; revenue = money the government collects; originate = start; concur = agree; duties, imposts, excises = kinds of taxes; writ of habeas corpus = a court order requiring officials to bring a jailed person before a judge and show a lawful reason for holding him or her; bill of attainder = a law that declares a person guilty and punishes him or her without a trial; ex post facto law = a law that punishes an act that was legal when it was done.

Excerpt 1: Massachusetts Constitution (1780), Part the First, Article XXX

(1) "In the government of this commonwealth, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them: the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them: the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men."

Excerpt 2: U.S. Constitution (1787), Article I

(2) Section 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."

(3) Section 8: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,…"

(4) Section 9: "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."

(5) Section 9: "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."

Word help: commonwealth = state; to the end = so that; revenue = money the government collects; originate = start; concur = agree; duties, imposts, excises = kinds of taxes; writ of habeas corpus = a court order requiring officials to bring a jailed person before a judge and show a lawful reason for holding him or her; bill of attainder = a law that declares a person guilty and punishes him or her without a trial; ex post facto law = a law that punishes an act that was legal when it was done.

Riverton and the state of Calder are fictional.

(1) Mayor pays ethics fine. Riverton Mayor Dana Ruiz paid a $500 fine after the city ethics board found that she had used a city car for a family vacation. "The rules apply to the mayor the same as to anyone else," the board chair said.

(2) Council rejects police chief pick. Under the city charter, the mayor nominates the police chief, but the City Council must approve the choice. On Monday the council voted 6–1 to reject the mayor's nominee.

(3) State sets teacher rules. Calder's legislature passed new requirements for teacher licenses. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education said that licensing teachers is a matter for each state to decide.

(4) Voters amend state constitution. Calder voters approved Measure 4, an amendment to the state constitution that limits state senators to three terms. The measure reached the ballot after 120,000 citizens signed petitions, and it passed with 58 percent of the vote.

(5) Judge strikes down sign ban. A federal judge ruled that a new Riverton law banning all protest signs in Central Park violates the First Amendment's protection of free speech. The law can no longer be enforced.

(6) Two tax deadlines. Riverton residents are reminded that both the federal government and the state of Calder collect income taxes. Each sets its own rates and deadlines.

(7) New council member. In a special election on Tuesday, Riverton voters chose Marcus Bell to fill an empty seat on the City Council.

President George Washington published this address in 1796, as he prepared to leave office after two terms.

(1) "The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all."

(2) "If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation…"

(3) "The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern…"

Word help: explicit and authentic act = a clear, official decision; sacredly obligatory = must be obeyed, as a solemn duty; designates = names, sets out; usurpation = seizing power wrongfully; reciprocal = working both ways; depositaries = places where something is kept (here, branches of government); public weal = public good; evinced = proven.

Excerpt 1: Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (1748; English translation by Thomas Nugent, 1750)

(1) "When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner."

(2) "Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive."

Excerpt 2: James Madison, The Federalist No. 47 (1788)

(3) "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

Excerpt 3: James Madison, The Federalist No. 51 (1788)

(4) "But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. … Ambition must be made to counteract ambition."

(5) "If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."

Word help: magistrates = officials; apprehensions = fears; accumulation = piling up; department = branch of government; encroachments = intrusions on another's power.

From John Locke's Second Treatise of Government (1690). Locke imagines a "state of nature," the condition of people before any government exists.

(1) "The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions…"

(2) A person "seeks out, and is willing to join in society with others … for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties and estates, which I call by the general name, property."

(3) "The great and chief end, therefore, of men's uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property."

(4) "…whenever the legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience…"

Word help: obliges = binds, requires; estates = possessions, land; chief end = main purpose; commonwealths = organized political communities; arbitrary = based on whim, not law; absolved = freed from a duty.

The Virginia Convention adopted this declaration on June 12, 1776, about three weeks before the Declaration of Independence. George Mason wrote most of it.

(1) Section I: "That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."

(2) Section II: "That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them."

(3) Section V: "That the legislative and executive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judicative…"

Word help: inherent = part of a person by nature; compact = agreement; divest = strip away; posterity = future generations; magistrates = government officials; trustees = people trusted to manage something for others; amenable to = answerable to; judicative = judicial (relating to courts).

President George Washington published this address in 1796, as he prepared to leave office after two terms.

(1) "The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all."

(2) "If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation…"

(3) "The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern…"

Word help: explicit and authentic act = a clear, official decision; sacredly obligatory = must be obeyed, as a solemn duty; designates = names, sets out; usurpation = seizing power wrongfully; reciprocal = working both ways; depositaries = places where something is kept (here, branches of government); public weal = public good; evinced = proven.

James Madison, The Federalist No. 45 (1788). Some New Yorkers feared that the proposed national government would swallow up the states. Madison answered them in this essay.

(1) "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite."

(2) "The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected."

(3) "The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."

Word help: delegated = given, assigned; indefinite = not limited to a list; the former = the first one named (here, the federal powers); external objects = matters outside the country; commerce = trade; internal order = peace and good order inside the state.

(1) In June 1776, Virginia adopted a Declaration of Rights, written mostly by George Mason. It declared that people have inherent rights and that all power comes from the people. It also protected freedom of the press and trial by jury and banned excessive bail.

(2) A few weeks later, on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson's famous lines about equality and unalienable rights echo Mason's words.

(3) The first national plan of government, the Articles of Confederation, was written in 1777 and took effect in 1781. It created a loose league of states. Congress had no power to collect taxes, there was no national executive to enforce laws, and changing the Articles required the agreement of all thirteen states.

(4) The weakness of this system became clear in 1786–1787, when indebted farmers in western Massachusetts, led by Daniel Shays, closed courts to stop the seizure of their farms. Congress had no army or money to respond. Many leaders concluded that the nation needed a stronger central government.

(5) In 1787, delegates met in Philadelphia and wrote a new Constitution with three separate branches and a national government able to tax. Supporters such as Madison, Hamilton, and Jay explained it in The Federalist essays. The Constitution was ratified in 1788, and the new government began work in 1789.

(6) Many Americans had demanded written protection of their rights before they would support the Constitution. Madison drew on the Virginia Declaration of Rights and other state declarations when he wrote the amendments that became the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791. Its protections of a free press and jury trials and its ban on excessive bail all have roots in Mason's 1776 document.

The Virginia Convention adopted this declaration on June 12, 1776, about three weeks before the Declaration of Independence. George Mason wrote most of it.

(1) Section I: "That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."

(2) Section II: "That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them."

(3) Section V: "That the legislative and executive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judicative…"

Word help: inherent = part of a person by nature; compact = agreement; divest = strip away; posterity = future generations; magistrates = government officials; trustees = people trusted to manage something for others; amenable to = answerable to; judicative = judicial (relating to courts).

Excerpt 1: Massachusetts Constitution (1780), Part the First, Article XXX

(1) "In the government of this commonwealth, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them: the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them: the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men."

Excerpt 2: U.S. Constitution (1787), Article I

(2) Section 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."

(3) Section 8: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,…"

(4) Section 9: "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."

(5) Section 9: "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."

Word help: commonwealth = state; to the end = so that; revenue = money the government collects; originate = start; concur = agree; duties, imposts, excises = kinds of taxes; writ of habeas corpus = a court order requiring officials to bring a jailed person before a judge and show a lawful reason for holding him or her; bill of attainder = a law that declares a person guilty and punishes him or her without a trial; ex post facto law = a law that punishes an act that was legal when it was done.

James Madison, The Federalist No. 45 (1788). Some New Yorkers feared that the proposed national government would swallow up the states. Madison answered them in this essay.

(1) "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite."

(2) "The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected."

(3) "The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."

Word help: delegated = given, assigned; indefinite = not limited to a list; the former = the first one named (here, the federal powers); external objects = matters outside the country; commerce = trade; internal order = peace and good order inside the state.

Excerpt 1: Massachusetts Constitution (1780), Part the First, Article XXX

(1) "In the government of this commonwealth, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them: the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them: the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men."

Excerpt 2: U.S. Constitution (1787), Article I

(2) Section 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."

(3) Section 8: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,…"

(4) Section 9: "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."

(5) Section 9: "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."

Word help: commonwealth = state; to the end = so that; revenue = money the government collects; originate = start; concur = agree; duties, imposts, excises = kinds of taxes; writ of habeas corpus = a court order requiring officials to bring a jailed person before a judge and show a lawful reason for holding him or her; bill of attainder = a law that declares a person guilty and punishes him or her without a trial; ex post facto law = a law that punishes an act that was legal when it was done.

President George Washington published this address in 1796, as he prepared to leave office after two terms.

(1) "The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all."

(2) "If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation…"

(3) "The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern…"

Word help: explicit and authentic act = a clear, official decision; sacredly obligatory = must be obeyed, as a solemn duty; designates = names, sets out; usurpation = seizing power wrongfully; reciprocal = working both ways; depositaries = places where something is kept (here, branches of government); public weal = public good; evinced = proven.