ry State of 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.

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.

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 all 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.

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 U