NEW CONSTITUTION.

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.
WE, the People of the State of Maryland, grateful to Almighty
God for our civil and religous 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 security thereof,

DECLARE:

ARTICLE I. That all government of right originates from the
people, is founded in compact only, and instituted solely for the
good of the whole; and they have at all limes according to the
mode prescribed in this Constitution, the unalienable right to alter,
reform, or abolish their form of Government, in such manner as
they may deem expedient.
ART. 2. That the people of this State ought to have the sole
and exclusive right of regulating the internal government and
police thereof.
ART. 3. 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 appli
cable to their local and other circumstances, and have been intro
duced, used and practiced by the courts of law or equity, and also
of all acts of Assembly in force on the first Monday of Novem
ber, eighteen hundred and fifty, except such as may have since
expired, or may be altered by this Constitution, subject, neverthe
less, 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 grant
ed by his Majesty Charles the First, to Caecilius Calvert, Baron
of Baltimore.
ART. 4. That all persons invested with the Legislative or Ex
ecutive powers of government are the trustees of the public, and
as such accountable for their conduct; wherefore, whenever the