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Preamble.

name of The State of Iowa, the boundaries whereof shall be as fol

lows.

KANSAS.

We, the people of Kansas, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious privileges, in order to insure the full enjoyment of our rights as American citizens, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the State of Kansas, with the following boundaries to wit: Beginning at a point on the western boundary of the State of Missouri, where the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude crosses the same; thence running west on said parallel to the twenty-fifth meridian of longitude west from Washington; thence north on said meridian to the fortieth parallel of north latitude; thence east on said parallel to the western boundary of the State of Missouri; thence south with the western boundary of said State to the place of beginning.

KENTUCKY. We, the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties we enjoy, and invoking the continuance of these blessings, do ordain and establish this Constitution.

LOUISIANA.

We, the people of the State of Louisiana, in order to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, acknowledging and InvokIng the guidance of Almighty God, the author of all good government, do ordain and establish this Constitution.

MAINE.

We, the people of Maine, in order to establish justice, insure tran

quility, provide for our mutual defense, promote our common welfare, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty, acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe In affording us an opportunity, so favorable to the design; and, Imploring His aid and direction in its accomplishment, do agree to form ourselves into a free and Independent State, by the style and title of the State of Maine, and do ordain and establish the following Constitution for the government of the same.

MARYLAND.

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 security thereof, declare:

MASSACHUSETTS.

The end of the institution, maintenance and administration of government is to secure the existence of the body politic, to protect it, and to furnish the individuals who compose it with the power of enjoying in safety and tranquility their natural rights, and the blessings of life; and whenever these great objects are not attained, the people have a right to alter the government, and to take measures necessary for their safety, prosperity and happiness.

The body poiti la formed by a voluntary association of individuals; it is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good. It is the

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duty of the people, therefore, in framing a constitution of government, to provide for an equitable mode of making laws, as well as for an impartial interpretation and a faithful execution of them; that every man may, at all times, find his security in them. We, therefore, the people of Massa

chusetts, acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the great Legislator of the universe, in affording us, in the course of His providence, an opportunity, deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, violence, or surprise, of entering into an original, explicit and solemn campact with each other; and of forming a new constitution of civil government, for ourselves and posterity; and devoutly imploring His direction in so interesting a design, do agree upon, ordain and establish the following declaration of rights and frame of government as the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

MICHIGAN.

The people of the State of Michigan do ordain this Constitution.

MINNESOTA.

We, the people of the State of Minnesota, grateful to God for our civil and religious liberty, and desiring to perpetuate its blessings and secure the same to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution.

MISSISSIPPI.

We, the people of Mississippi, in convention assembled, grateful to Almighty God, and invoking his blessing on our work, do ordain and establish this Constitution.

MISSOURI.

We, the people of Missouri, with profound reverence for the Supreme

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existence of our civil, political and religious liberties, and acknowledgng our dependence upon Him for the continuance of those blessings to us and our posterity, do, for the more certain security thereof, and for the better government of this State, ordain and establish this Constitution.

NORTH DAKOTA.

We, the people of North Dakota, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious Hberty, do ordain and establish this Constitution.

OHIO.

We, the people of the State of Ohio, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings and promote our common welfare, do establish this Constitution.

OREGON.

We, the people of the State of Oregon, to the end that justice be | established, order maintained and liberty perpetuated, do ordain this Constitution.

PENNSYLVANIA.

We, the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, and humbly invoking his guidance, do ordain and establish this Constitution.

RHODE ISLAND. We, the people of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which he had so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and to transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations, do ordain and establish this Constitution of government.

SOUTH CAROLINA. We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, grateful to Almighty God for this opportunity deliberately and peaceably of entering into the explicit and solemn compact with each other, and framing a new Constitution of civil government for ourselves and posterity, recognizing the necessity of the protection of the people in all that pertains to their freedom, safety and tranquility, and imploring the direction of the Great Legislator of the Universe, do agree upon, ordain and establish the following:

SOUTH DAKOTA.

We, the people of South Dakota, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberties, in order to form a more perfect and independent government, establish justice, insure tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and preserve to ourselves and to our posterity the blessings of liberty, do ordain and esestablish this Constitution for the State of South Dakota.

TENNESSEE.

Whereas, The people of the territory of the United States south of the River Ohio, having the right of admission into the general government as a member State thereof, consistent with the Constitution of the United States, and the act of cession of the State of North Carolina, recognizing the crdinance for the government of the territory of the United States north-west of the Ohio river, by their Delegates and Representatives in convention assembled, did, on the sixth day of February, in the year of our Lord one

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thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, ordain and establish a Constitution or form of government, and mutually agreed with each other to form themselves into a free and independent State by the name of the State of Tennessee; and Whereas, The General Assembly

of the said State of Tennessee (pursuant to the third section of the tenth article of the Constitution), by an act passed on the twenty-seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, entitled "An act to provide for the calling of a convention, passed in obedience to the declared will of the voters of the State, as expressed at the general election of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, did authorize and provide for the election by the people of Delegates and Representatives, to meet at Nashville, in Davidson county, on the third Monday in May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, for the purpose of revising and amending or changing the Constitution; and said convention did accordingly meet and form a Constitution, which was submitted to the people, and was ratified by them on the first Friday in March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five; and

Whereas, The General Assembly

of said State of Tennessee, under and in virtue of the first section of the first article of the Declaration of Rights, contained in and forming a part of the existing Constitution of the State, by an act passed on the fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight i

hundred and sixty-nine, did provide for the calling of a convention by the people of the State, to meet at Nashville, on the second Monday in January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy, and for the election of Delegates for the purpose of amending or revising the present Constitution, or of forming and making a new Constitution; and Whereas, The people of the State, in the mode provided by said act, have called said convention, and elected Delegates to represent them therein: Now, therefore,

We, the Delegates and Representatives of the people of the State of Tennessee, duly elected and in convention assembled, in pursuance of said act of Assembly, have ordained and established the following Constitution and form of government, for this State, which we recommend to the people of Tennessee for their ratification: That is to say

TEXAS.

Humbly invoking the blessings of Almighty God, the people of the State of Texas do ordain and establish this Constitution.

VIRGINIA.

Whereas, the delegates and representatives of the good people of Virginia, in convention assembled, on the twenty-ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six, reciting and declaring, that whereas George the Third, King of Great Britain and Ireland, and elector of Hanover, before that time intrusted with the exercise of the kingly office in the government of Virginia, had endeavored to pervert the same into a detestable and insupportable tyranny, by put

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ting his negative on laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good; by denying his Governors permission to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation for his assent, and when so suspended, neglecting to attend to them for many years; by refusing to pass certain other laws unless the persons to be benefited by them would relinquish the inalienable right of representation in the Legislature; by dissolving legislative assemblies, repeatedly and continually, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions of the rights of the people; when dissolved, by refusing to call others for a long space of time, thereby leaving the political system without any legislative head; by endeavoring to prevent the population of our country, and for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; by keeping among us, in time of peace, standing armies and ships of war; by affecting to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power; by combining with others to subject us to a foreign jurisdiction, giving his assent to their pretended acts of legislation for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; for imposing taxes on us without our consent; for depriving us of the benefit of trial by jury; for transporting us beyond the seas for trial for pretended offenses; for suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever; by plundering Gur seas, ravaging our coasts, burning our towns, and destroying the lives of our people; by inciting insurrection of our fellow-subjects with the allurements of forfeiture and confiscation;

by

prompting our negroes to rise in arms among us--those very negroes whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he had refused us permission to exclude by law; by endeavoring to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions of existence; by transporting hither a large army of foreign mercenaries to complete the work of death, desolation and tyranny, then already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy unworthy the head of a civilized nation; by answering our repeated petitions for redress with a repetition of our injuries; and, finally, by abandoning the helm of government and declaring us out of his allegiance and protection — by which several acts of misrule, the government of this country, as before exercised under the crown of Great Britain, was totally dissolved did, therefore, having maturely considered the premises, and viewing with great concern the deplorable condition to which this once happy country would be reduced unless some regular, adequate mode of civil policy should be speedily adopted, and in compliance with the recommendations of the general Congress, ordain and declare a form of government of Virginia. And, whereas, a convention, held on the first Monday in October, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, did propose to the people of this Commonwealth an amended Constitution or form of government, which was ratified by them;

And, whereas, the General Assembly of Virginia, by an act passed on the fourth of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty, did provide for the election by the people, of delegates to meet

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