no amendments 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. PUBLIC DEBT, SUPREMACY OF THE CONSTITUTION, OATH OF
OFFICE, RELIGIOUS TEST.

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.[14]

[Footnote 14: Compare clause I with Confed. Art. XII.]

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,
anything 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 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.[15]

[Footnote 15: Compare clauses 2 and 3 with Confed. Art. XIII. and
addendum, "And whereas," etc.]

ARTICLE VII. RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION.

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,[16] 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.

[Footnote 16: Rhode Island sent no delegates to the Federal
Convention.]

George Washington, President, and Deputy from VIRGINIA.
NEW HAMPSHIRE--John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman.
MASSACHUSETTS--Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King.
CONNECTICUT--William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman.
NEW YORK--Alexander Hamilton.
NEW JERSEY--William Livingston, David Brearly, William
Patterson, Jonathan Dayton.
PENNSYLVANIA--Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin,