That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States: — 1. New States may be admitted by the Congress, on the Concurrence of two thirds of both Houses, 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. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission by the Congress..