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The
Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption
of the Federal Constitution (Elliot's Debates)
Vol.
I
RHODE
ISLAND
Seven
states ratifying the Constitution proposed no amendments.
Four of the six states proposing amendments requested
provisions dealing with religion including Virginia,
North Carolina, New York and New Hampshire. Rhode Island
legislature announced that, by ratifying, it assumed
that certain principles "are consistent with the Constitution."
RJ&L
Religious Institutions Group
Pg.
334
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Ratification
of the Constitution by the Convention of the State of Rhode
Island and
Providence
Plantations.
We,
the delegates of the people of the state of Rhode Island
and Providence Plantations, duly elected and met in Convention,
having maturely considered the Constitution for the United
States of America, agreed to on the seventeenth day of September,
in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven,
by the Convention then assembled at Philadelphia, in the
commonwealth of Pennsylvania, (a copy whereof precedes these
presents,) and having also seriously and deliberately considered
the present situation of this state, do declare and make
known,--
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IV.
That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator,
and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by
reason and conviction, and not by force and violence; and
therefore all men have a natural, equal, and unalienable
right to the exercise of religion according to the dictates
of conscience; and that no particular religious sect or
society ought to be favored or established, by law, in preference
to others.
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Pg.
335
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XV.
That the people have a right peaceably to assemble together
to consult for their common good, or to instruct their representatives;
and that every person has a right to petition or apply to
the legislature for redress of grievances.
XVI.
That the people have a right to freedom of speech, and of
writing and publishing their sentiments. That freedom of
the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty, and
ought not to be violated.
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XVIII.
That any person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms ought
to be exempted upon payment of an equivalent to employ another
to bear arms in his stead.
Under
these impressions, and declaring that the rights aforesaid
cannot be abridged or violated, and that the explanations
aforesaid are consistent with the said Constitution, and
in confidence that the amendments hereafter mentioned will
receive an early and mature consideration, and, conformably
to the fifth article of said Constitution, speedily become
a part thereof,--We, the said delegates, in the name and
in the behalf of the people of the state of Rhode Island
and Providence Plantations, do, by these presents, assent
to and ratify the said Constitution
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Done
in Convention, at Newport, in the county of Newport, in
the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the
twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand
seven hundred and ninety, and in the fourteenth year of
the independence of the United States of America.
By
order of the Convention.
(Signed)DANIEL
OWEN, President.
Attest.
Daniel Updike, Secretary.
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