The Fourth Article

Article IV

Relations Among the States

Section 1. Official Records

     Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.

Section 2. Privileges of the Citizens

     1. Privileges - The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.

     2. Return of a Person Accused of a Crime - A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 

     3. Return of Fugative Slaves - No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.  (this has been removed from the constitution due to the end of slavery)

Section 3. New States and Territories

     1. New States - New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States or parts of States, without the consent of the legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

     2. Federal Lands - The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State.

Section 4. Guarantees to the States

     The United States shall guarantee to every State in 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.

    

Summary of Article IV

This article outlines the duties states have to each other, as well as those the federal government has to the states. Article Four also provides for the admission of new states and the changing of state boundaries.

And, though it was eliminated from the Constitution by the Thirteenth Amendment, it also talkes about slavery. If a slave rans away to a northern state where there was no slavery, the slave had to be returned to its owner.

The Importance of Article IV

     Article Four is a very important part of the Constitution.  It tells how the state government and the federal government have to get along without breaking any of the people's rights. It also says what had to happen to runaway slaves in the 1700-1800's.  If this article wasn't in the Constitution, people who are for the States and people who are for the Federal Government wouldn't get along very well.