University of Virginia Library

VI

Sect. 1. The times and places and manner of
holding the elections of the members of each House
shall be prescribed by the Legislature of each State;
but their provisions concerning them may, at any
time, be altered by the Legislature of the United
States.

Sect. 2. The Legislature of the United States
shall have authority to establish such uniform qualifications
of the members of each House, with regard
to property, as to the said Legislature shall seem
expedient.

Sect. 3. In each House a majority of the members
shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a
smaller number may adjourn from day to day.

Sect 4. Each House shall be the judge of the
elections, returns and qualifications of its own
members.

Sect 5. Freedom of speech and debate in the
Legislature shall not be impeached or questioned in
any Court or place out of the Legislature; and the
members of each House shall, in all cases, except
treason felony and breach of the peace, be privileged
from arrest during their attendance at Congress,
and in going to and returning from it.

Sect 6. Each House may determine the rules of
its proceedings; may punish its members for disorderly
behaviour; and may expel a member.

Sect. 7. The House of Representatives, and the
Senate, when it shall be acting in a legislative capacity,

shall keep a journal of their proceedings, and
shall, from time to time, publish them: and the yeas
and nays of the members of each House, on any
question, shall at the desire of one-fifth part of the
members present, be entered on the journal.

Sect. 8. Neither House, without the consent of
the other, shall adjourn for more than three days,
nor to any other place than that at which the two
Houses are sitting. But this regulation shall not
extend to the Senate, when it shall exercise the
powers mentioned in the—article.

Sect. 9. The members of each House shall be ineligible
to, and incapable of holding any office under
the authority of the United States, during the time
for which they shall respectively be elected: and
the members of the Senate shall be ineligible to, and
incapable of holding any such office for one year
afterwards.

Sect. 10. The members of each House shall receive
a compensation for their services, to be ascertained
and paid by the State, in which they shall be
chosen.

Sect. 11. The enacting stile of the laws of the
United States shall be, "Be it enacted by the Senate
and Representatives in Congress assembled."

Sect. 12. Each House shall possess the right of
originating bills, except in the cases beforementioned.

Sect. 13. Every bill, which shall have passed the
House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before
it become a law, be presented to the President
of the United States for his revision: if, upon

such revision, he approve of it, he shall signify his
approbation by signing it: But if, upon such revision,
it shall appear to him improper for being passed
into a law, he shall return it, together with his objections
against it, to that House in which it shall have
originated, who shall enter the objections at large
on their journal and proceed to reconsider the bill.
But if after such reconsideration, two thirds of that
House shall, notwithstanding the objections of the
President, agree to pass it, it shall together with his
objections, be sent to the other House, by which it
shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by
two thirds of the other House also, it shall become a
law. But in all such cases, the votes of both Houses
shall be determined by yeas and nays; and the
names of the persons voting for or against the bill
shall be entered on the journal of each House respectively.
If any bill shall not be returned by the
President within seven days after it shall have been
presented to him, it shall be a law, unless the legislature,
by their adjournment, prevent its return; in
which case it shall not be a law.