To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send greeting.
Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts-bay Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
I.
The Stile of this Confederacy shall be
"The United States of America".
II.
Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and
every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation
expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.
III.
The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship
with each other, for their common defense, the security of their
liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves
to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks
made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty,
trade, or any other pretense whatever.
IV.
The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse
among the people of the different States in this Union, the free
inhabitants of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives
from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and
immunities of free citizens in the several States; and the people
of each State shall free ingress and regress to and from any other
State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and
commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions
as the inhabitants thereof respectively, provided that such restrictions
shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported
into any State, to any other State, of which the owner is an inhabitant;
provided also that no imposition, duties or restriction shall be
laid by any State, on the property of the United States, or either
of them.
If any person guilty of, or charged with, treason, felony, or other high misdemeanor in any State, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the United States, he shall, upon demand of the Governor or executive power of the State from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the State having jurisdiction of his offense.
Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other State.
V.
For the most convenient management of the general
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interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the legislatures of each State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, in every year, with a power reserved to each State to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in their stead for the remainder of the year.
No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor more than seven members; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six years; nor shall any
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