nence, authority, dispensing or other power, in any matter, civil, ecclefiaftical or spiritual, within this commonwealth, except the authority or power which is or may be vested by their constituents in the Congress of the United States. And I do further testify and declare, that no man or body of men hath or can have any right to abfolve or discharge me from the obligation of this oath, declaration or affirmation; and that I do make this acknowledgement, profeffion, testimony, declaration, denial, renunciation and abjuration, heartily and truly, according to the common meaning and acceptation of the foregoing words, without any equivocation, mental evasion, or fecret reservation, whatso ver. So help me God."

on me as

" I, A. B. do folemnly swear and affirm, that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent according to the best of my abilities and understanding, agreeably to the rules and regulations of the constitution, and the laws of this commonwealth. So help me God."

دو

Provided always, that when any person chosen or appointed as aforefaid shall be of the denomination of the people called Quakers, and shall decline taking the faid oaths, he shall make his affirmation in the foregoing form, and subscribe the fame, omitting the words, "I do swear," " and abjure," "oath or, " and abjuration," in the first oath; and in the second oath, the words, " fwear and;" and in each of them the words, help me God;" fubjoining instead thereof, "This I do under the pains and penalties of perjury."

"So

And the faid oaths or affirmations shall be taken and fubscribed by the governor, lieutenant-governor, and councillors, before the president of the senate, in the presence of the two houses of afsembly; and by the fenators and representatives first elected under this constitution, before the president and five of the council of the former constitution; and forever afterwards before the governor and council for the time being: and by the refidue of the officers aforesaid, before such persons and in such manner as from time to time shall be prescribed by the legislature.

II. No governor, lieutenant-governor, or judge of the fupreme judicial court, shall hold any other office or place under the authority of this commonwealth, except such as by this constitution they are admitted to hold; saving that the judges of the faid court may hold the offices of justices of the peace through the state; nor shall they hold any other place or office, or receive any pension or falary from any other state or government or power whatever.

No person shall be capable of holding or exercising at the fame time more than one of the following offices within this state,

viz.

2

viz judge of probate, sheriff, register of probate, or register of deeds; and never more than any two offices which are to be held by appointment of the governor, or the governor and council, or the senate, or the house of representatives, or by the election of the people of the state at large, or of the people of any county, military offices, and the office of justice of the peace excepted, shall be held by one person,

No person holding the office of judge of the fupreme judicial court, secretary, attorney-general, folicitor-general, treasurer or receiver-general, judge of probate, commissary-general; prefident, profeffor, or instructor of Harvard College; sheriff, clerk of the house of representatives, register of probate, regifter of deeds, clerk of the supreme judicial court, clerk of the inferior court of common-pleas, or officer of the customs, including in this description naval officers, shall at the same time have a feat in the fenate or house of representatives; but their being chosen or appointed to, and accepting the fame, shall operate as a refignation of their seat in the senate or house of representatives, and the place so vacated shall be filled up.

And the fame rule shall take place in case any judge of the said fupreme judicial court, or judge of probate, shall accept a feat in council; or any councillor shall accept of either of those offices or places.

And no person shall ever be admitted to hold a feat in the legiflature, or any office of trust or importance under the government of this commonwealth, who shall, in the due course of law, have been convicted of bribery or corruption in obtaining an election or appointment.

III. In all cases where sums of money are mentioned in this constitution, the value thereof shall be computed in silver, at fix shillings and eight-pence per ounce : and it shall be in the power of the leg flature from time to time to increase such qualifications, as to property of the persons to be elected into offices, as the circumstances of the commonwealth shall require.

IV. All commissions shall be in the name of the commonwealth of Maffachusetts, signed by the governor and attested by the secretary or his deputy, and have the great feal of the commonwealth affixed thereto.

V. All writs issuing out of the clerk's office in any of the courts of law shall be in the name of the commonwealth of Massachusetts: they shall be under the feal of the court from whence they issue: they shall bear test of the first justice of the court to which they shall be returnable, who is not a party, and be signed by the clerk of such court.

VI. All the laws which have heretofore been adopted, used and approved in the province, colony, or state of MafiachusettsBay, and usually practised on in the courts of law, shall still re

G2

1

main and be in full force, until altered or repealed by the legiflacure; such parts only excepted as are repugnant to the rights and liberties contained in this constitution.

VII. The privilege and benefit of the writ of habeas-corpus shall be enjoyed in this commonwealth, in the most free, easy, cheap, expeditious and ample manner; and shall not be fufpended by the legislature, except upon the most urgent and preffing occafions, and for a limited time, not exceeding twelve

months.

VIII. The enacting style in making and paffing all acts, ftatutes, and laws, shall be, "Be it enacted by the fenate and house of représentatives in general court assembled, and by the authority of the fame."

IX. To the end there may be no failure of justice, or danger arife to the commonwealth from a change of the form of government-all officers, civil and military, holding commissions under the government and people of Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, and all other officers of the said government and people, at the time this constitution shall take effect, shall have, hold, use, exercise, and enjoy, all the powers and authority to them granted or committed, until other persons shall be appointed in their stead: And all courts of law shall proceed in the execution of the business of their respective departments; and all the executive and legislative officers, bodies, and powers, shall continue in full force, in the enjoyment and exercise of all their trufts, employments, and authority, until the general court, and the fupreme and executive officers under this constitution, are defignated and invested with their respective trufts, powers and authority.

X. In order the more effectually to adhere to the principles of the constitution, and to correct those violations which by any means may be made therein, as well as to form such alterations as from experience shall be found necessary, the general court which hall be in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five shall issue precepts to the selectmen of the foveral towns, and to the affeffors of the unincorporated plantations, directing them to convene the qualified voters of their respective towns and plantations, for the purpose of collecting their sentiments on the neceffity or expediency of revising the constitution, in order to amendments.

And if it shall appear by the returns made, that two-thirds of the qualified voters throughout the state who shall assemble and vote in confequence of the said precepts are in favour of fuch revision and amendment, the general court shall issue precepts, or direct them to be issued from the secretary's office, to the feveral

1

veral towns to elect delegates to meet in convention, for the purpofe aforesaid,

The faid delegates to be chosen in the same manner and proportion as their representatives in the second branch of the legiflature are by this conftitution to be chosen.

XÍ. This form of government shall be enrolled on parchment, and depofited in the secretary's office, and be a part of the laws of the land, and printed copies thereof shall be prefixed to the book containing the laws of this commonwealth, in all future editions of the said laws.

JAMES BOWDOIN, PRESIDENT.

Atteft. SAMUEL BARRET, Secretary.

1

RHODE

RHODE-ISLAND..

1

RHODE-ISLAND CHARTER, granted by King Charles II. in
the Fourteenth Year of his Reign.

Quintadecima pars Patentium Anno Regni Regis Caroli Secundi
Quintodecimo.

C

HARLES the Second, by the grace of God, &c. To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Whereas we have been informed by the petition of our trufty and well beloved fubjects, John Clarke, on the behalf of Benedict Arnold, William Brenton, William Codington, Nicholas Easton, William Boulston, John Porter, John Smith, Samuel Gorton, John Weekes, Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, Gregory Dexter, John Cogeshall, Joseph Clarke, Randall Houlden, John Greene, John Roome, Samuel Wildbore, William Field, James Barker, Richard Tew, Thomas Harris, and William Dyre, and the rest of the purchasers, and free inhabitants of our ifland called Rhode-Island, and the rest of the colony of Providence Plantations, in the Narraganset-Bay in New England in America, That they, pursuing with peace and loyal minds their fober, serious, and religious intentions, of godly edifying themselves and one another in the holy Christian faith and worship as they were perfuaded, together with the gaining over and converfion of the poor ignorant Indian natives in those parts of America to the fincere profeffion and obedience of the same faith and worship, did not only by the consent and good encouragement of our royal progenitors, transport themselves out of this kingdom of England into America; but also since their arrival there, after their first settlement among other our subjects in those parts, for the avoiding of difcord and those many evils which were likely to ensue upon those our fubjects not being able to bear in those remote parts their different apprehenfions in religious concernments; and in pursuance of the aforesaid ends did once again leave their defirable stations and habitations, and with exceffive labour and travail, hazard and charge, did tranfplant themselves into the midst of the Indian natives, who, as we are informed, are the most potent princes and people of all that country; where, by the good providence of God (from whom the plantations have taken their name) upon their labour and industry,