CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND,
ADOPTED IN CONVENTION,
Which Assembled at the City of Annapolis, on the Twenty-seventh Day of April
Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-four, and Adjourned on the Sixth
Day of September, Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-four.
DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. '
WE, the people of the State of Maryland,
grateful to Almighty God for our civil and
religious liberty, and taking into our serious
consideration the best means of establishing
a good constitution in this State, for the
sure foundation and more permanent secu-
rity thereof, declare:
Article 1. That we hold it to be self-evi-
dent that all men are created equally free;
that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights, among which are
life, liberty, the enjoyment of the proceeds of
their own labor, and the pursuit of happi-
ness.
Art. 2. That all government of right origi-
nates from the people, is founded in compact
only, and instituted solely for the good of the
whole; and they have at all times, the una-
lienable right to alter, reform, or abolish
their form of government, in such manner as
they may deem expedient.
Art. 3. That the people of this State ought
to have the sole and exclusive right of regu-
lating the internal government and police
thereof.
Art. 4. That the inhabitants of Maryland
are entitled to the common law of England,
and the trial by jury according to the course
of that law, and to the benefit of such of the
English statutes as existed on the fourth day
of July, seventeen hundred and seventy-six,
and which, by experience have been found
applicable to their local and other circum-
stances, and have been introduced, used and
practiced by the courts of law or equity, and
also of all acts of assembly in force on the first
day of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-four,
except such as may have since expired, or
may be inconsistent with the provisions of
this constitution, subject, nevertheless, to the
revision of, and amendment or repeal by the
legislature of this State; and the inhabitants |
of Maryland are also entitled to all property
derived to them from or under the charter
granted by his majesty Charles the First, to
Caecilius Calvert, Baron of Baltimore.
Art. 5. The constitution of the United
States, and the laws made in pursuance there-
of, being the supreme law of the land, every
citizen of this State owes paramount alle-
giance to the constitution and government of
the United States, and is not bound by any
law or ordinance of this State in contraven-
tion or subversion thereof.
Art. 6, That all persons invested with the
legislative or executive powers of govern-
ment, are the trustees of the public, and as
such accountable for their conduct: where-
fore, whenever the ends of government are
perverted, and public liberty manifestly en-
dangered, and all other means of redress are
ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought
to reform the old or establish a new govern-
ment. The doctrine of non-resistance against
arbitrary power and oppression is absurd,
slavish and destructive of the good and hap-
piness of mankind.
Art. 7. That the right of the people to par-
ticipate in the legislature is the best security
of liberty, and the foundation of all free gov-
ernment; for this purpose elections ought to
be free and frequent, and every free white
male citizen having the qualifications pre-
scribed by the constitution, ought to have the
right of suffrage.
Art. 8. That the legislative, executive and
judicial powers of government ought to be
forever separate and distinct from each other;
and no person exercising the functions of one
of said departments, shall assume or discharge
the duties of any other.
Art. 9. That no power of suspending laws,
or the execution of laws, unless by or derived |
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