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CONSTITUTION
RHODE
ISLAND
1842
This
constitution, which is excerpted as it relates to religion,
superseded the charter of 1663. Completed on November
5, 1842 and ratified on November 23, 1842, it reiterates
that "a principal object of our venerated ancestors.
. .was, as they expressed it, to hold forth a lively
experiment that a flourishing civil state may stand
and be best maintained with full liberty in religious
concernments."
Rhode
Island is the home of American religious freedom. Its
religious liberties provisions were unparalleled. Rhode
Island is still governed under the constitution of 1842.
The clauses pertaining to religion remain intact to
this day.
RJ&L
Religious Institutions Group
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Sec.
3. Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free, and
all attempts to influence it by temporal punishment, or
burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend to beget habits
of hypocrisy and meanness; and whereas a principal object
of our venerated ancestors, in their migration to this country
and their settlement of this State, was, as they expressed
it, to hold forth a lively experiment that a flourishing
civil state may stand and be best maintained with full liberty
in religious concernments; we therefore declare, that no
man shall be compelled to frequent or to support any religious
worship, place, or ministry whatever, except in fulfilment
of his own voluntary contract; nor enforced, restrained,
molested, or burdened in his body or goods; nor disqualified
from holding any office; nor otherwise suffer on account
of his religious belief; and that every man shall be free
to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience,
and to profess, and by argument to maintain, his opinion
in matters of religion; and that the same shall in no wise
diminish, enlarge, or affect his civil capacity.
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Sec.
21. The citizens have a right, in a peaceable manner, to
assemble for their common good, and to apply to those invested
with the powers of government, for redress of grievances,
or for other purposes, by petition, address, or remonstrance.
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Source:
the federal and state constitutions, colonial charters,
and other organic laws of the united states 1603-05 (Ben:
Perley Poore, 1878).
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