THE CONSTITUTION: HAS ANYONE PROOFREAD OUR COPIES? — BY NICK LEVINSON
Appendix 1: Comparison of U.S.C. to NARA
United States Code (Washington [D.C.]: Law Revision Counsel (bound), 2000 ed.). (Details in Data Documentation for this article.)
(Core of the Constitution only. A column of dots on the left, if produced by your browser, may be disregarded. To verify any character displayed in the event of a browser deficiency, please peruse page source code, using your browser’s commands.)
- Preamble to Original Constitution, fr. 1
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- case
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- WE THE PEOPLE of the United States
- NOTES ON U.S.C.:
- “WE THE PEOPLE” is in double capitals, only the “W” and the initial “P” full capitals.
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- We the People of the United States
- Art. I, § 7, cl. 3, fr. 1
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- case
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- question
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Question
- NOTES ON NARA:
- It is unclear from the calligraphical x-height whether the initial is a capital or lower case; the letter is shaped as for lower case but is written taller and wider, albeit only somewhat taller and somewhat wider. Cf. “Q” in Art. VI, cl. 3, “Qualification”, in which the letter is shaped as for lower case but scaled large.
- Art. I, § 8, cl. 17, fr. 12
- NOTES ON FRAGMENT:
- This fragment is quoted only for “And” and the space, em-dash, or em-dash-and-space preceding the “And”.
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- Buildings;—And
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Buildings;— And
- Art. II, § 1, cl. 8, fr. 1
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- :—“I
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- :— “I
- NOTES ON NARA:
- A space is present after the em-dash.
- Art. III, § 2, cl. 1, fr. 2
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- Authority;—to
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Authority;— to
- Art. III, § 2, cl. 1, fr. 5
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- Consuls;—to
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Consuls;— to
- Art. III, § 2, cl. 1, fr. 6
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- Jurisdiction;—to
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Jurisdiction;— to
- Art. III, § 2, cl. 1, fr. 7
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- Party;—to
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Party;— to
- Art. III, § 2, cl. 1, fr. 9
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- State;—between
- NOTES ON U.S.C.:
- A footnote reference before the em-dash was not quoted.
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- State;— between
- Art. III, § 2, cl. 1, fr. 12
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- —between Citizens of the
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- — between Citizens of the
- Art. V, fr. 5
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- word choice
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- of its
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- of it’s
- NOTES ON NARA:
- The apostrophe, if it is one, may be too small (compare to commas and the bottoms of semicolons for size), raising a doubt as to whether an apostrophe was intended; but see “it’s” elsewhere for similarity or dissimilarity. If the apostrophe is small, so is the comma at the end of the statement of subscription of names (“Names,”) in the original Constitution.
- Before Amendment I, Statement of Desire, fr. 1
- NOTES ON FRAGMENT:
- This fragment is quoted only for presence or absence in various renditions.
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- absence of text
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- [blank]
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- 4 THE Conventions of a number of the States . . . expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses . . . ensure the benificent ends of its institution
- NOTES ON NARA:
- 1. The “4” at the beginning is addressed with its own fragment. — 2. The end is addressed with its own fragment. — 3. This rendition fragment, subject to the fragments referred to in the foregoing notes, is “4 THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the benificent ends of its institution”.
- Amdt. V, fr. 2
- NOTES ON FRAGMENT:
- This fragment is quoted only for word choice and not for case.
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- word choice
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- a Grand
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Grand
- NOTES ON NARA:
- A smudge precedes “Grand”; see also Virginia’s copy of the sheet stating the first twelve proposed Amendments, illustrated in Life, Fall Special, 1991.
- Amdt. V, fr. 9
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- case
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- criminal
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Criminal
- Amdt. VI, fr. 4
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spelling
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- process
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- praeess
- NOTES ON NARA:
- 1. The only thing resembling a smudge, discoloration, interruption, or other defect is at the stroke attachment point on the right side of the “a”, too low to imply an “o” instead, and thus is irrelevant to the apparent misspelling. — 2. The Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed October 9, 2002) showed no entry for “praeess” or “praess” (the latter sought only on speculation of orthographic reasonableness).
- Amdt. X, fr. 2
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- punctuation
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- United States
- NARA SOURCE:
- High Resolution rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- United States,
- NOTES ON NARA:
- The comma is faint, and possibly isn’t present, but spacing appears intended to accommodate a comma. An alternative explanation for the visible mark is that it is the beginning of an upstroke for the “b” which comes next, but that is not consistent with other occurrences of an initial “b” in this Amendment and in Amendments II and IX, which do not show such an upstroke commencing much to the left of the principal downstroke in the corresponding letter.
- Amdt. XII, fr. 3
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- punctuation
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- respective states,
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- respective states
- Amdt. XII, fr. 15
- NOTES ON FRAGMENT:
- This fragment is quoted only for spacing or line breakage immediately after the semicolon and for the em-dash or double hyphen.
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- Senate;—The
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Senate; -- the
- Amdt. XII, fr. 16
- NOTES ON FRAGMENT:
- This fragment is quoted only for spacing immediately after the em-dash or double hyphen.
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- Senate;—The
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Senate; -- the
- Amdt. XII, fr. 17
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- case
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- The President of the Senate shall
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- the President of the Senate shall
- Amdt. XII, fr. 19
- NOTES ON FRAGMENT:
- This fragment is quoted only for spacing immediately after the semicolon.
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- counted;—The
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- counted; -- The
- Amdt. XII, fr. 21
- NOTES ON FRAGMENT:
- This fragment is quoted only for spacing immediately after the em-dash or double hyphen.
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- counted;—The
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- counted; -- The
- Amdt. XII, fr. 40
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- word choice
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- in the case
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- in case
- Amdt. XII, fr. 42
- NOTES ON FRAGMENT:
- This fragment is quoted only for spacing immediately before the em-dash or double hyphen.
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- President.—The
- NOTES ON U.S.C.:
- A footnote reference before the em-dash was not quoted.
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- President. -- The
- Amdt. XII, fr. 45
- NOTES ON FRAGMENT:
- This fragment is quoted only for spacing immediately after the em-dash or double hyphen.
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- spacing
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- President.—The
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- President. -- The
- NOTES ON NARA:
- The closing bracket and the asterisk in the original, presumably not meant as part of the text, were disregarded in quoting this rendition fragment.
- Amdt. XIV, § 2, fr. 1
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- hyphenation
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- Vice President
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Vice-President
- Amdt. XIV, § 3, fr. 3
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- hyphenation
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- Vice President
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Vice-President
- Amdt. XIV, § 5, fr. 1
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- word choice
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- power
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- the power
- Amdt. XV, § 1, fr. 1
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- punctuation
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- servitude.
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- servitude--
- Amdt. XVII, cl. 2, fr. 3
- NOTES ON FRAGMENT:
- This fragment is quoted only for punctuation.
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- italicization or not
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- Provided,
- NOTES ON U.S.C.:
- The punctuation is probably italicized. For a typographic style implementation comparison, see, in the same book, Articles of Confederation, signatures, New Jersey, caption (2 commas).
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Provided,
- NOTES ON NARA:
- The punctuation is not italicized; this was verified Jan. 2, 2003, by examination of the source code available via a browser command when viewing the Web site.
- Amdt. XX, § 1, fr. 1
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- word choice
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- Vice President
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- the Vice President
- Amdt. XXI, § 2, fr. 1
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- case
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- possession
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Possession
- Amdt. XXII, § 1, fr. 3
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- word choice
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- of the President more than once
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- of President more than once
- Amdt. XXII, § 1, fr. 7
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- word choice
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- the Congress
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Congress
- Amdt. XXIII, § 1, cl. 1, fr. 3
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- word choice
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- the Congress
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- Congress
- Amdt. XXIV, § 1, fr. 2
- TYPE OF ERROR:
- word choice
- TEXT OF U.S.C.:
- any poll
- NARA SOURCE:
- Retypeset rendition.
- TEXT PER NARA:
- poll
—————
URL: http://www.GeoCities.com/Nick_Levinson/law/const_proofrdg/Appx_01.htm
Article URL: http://www.GeoCities.com/Nick_Levinson/law/const_proofrdg/article.htm
Appendix first publicly posted to the World Wide Web July 24, 2004; revised (to add links) and posted August 17, 2004.
Minor revisions: Copyright © 2004 Nick Levinson
Balance: Copyright © 2003 Nick Levinson
All rights reserved.