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.
ARTICLE VI.
Assumption of debts incurred under the confederation.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.
This constitution, acts of congress and treaties, the supreme law—the state judges bound thereby.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.
Members of congress and of the state legislatures, &c. bound by oath to support this constitution.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.
Ratification of nine states, sufficient, &c.The ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this constitution between the states so ratifying the same.
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.
GEORGE WASHINGTON,
President and Deputy from Virginia.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
John Langdon,
Nicholas Gilman.
CONNECTICUT.
Wm. Samuel Johnston,
Roger Sherman.
MASSACHUSETTS.
Nathaniel Gorham,
Rufus King.
NEW YORK.
Alexander Hamilton.
