Chapter LVII: Section 1: Constitution, when to go into operation--Its effect on

existing laws, charters, &c.

SEC. 2. Former debts, &c., adopted.

SEC. 3. Jurisdiction of supreme court.

SEC. 4. Exemptions of New Shoreham and Jamestown from military duty, continued.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.

ARTICLE I.

Lists of voters for general officers no longer required to be kept, &c.

ARTICLE II.

The pardoning power, how exercised.

ARTICLE III.

Sessions of the General Assembly.

ARTICLE IV.

Electors absent from the state in the military service of the United States, allowed to vote.

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We, the people of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath 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.

ARTICLE I.

DECLARATION OF CERTAIN CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AND PRINCIPLES.

In order effectually to secure the religious and political freedom established by our venerated ancestors, and to preserve the same for our posterity, we do declare that the essential and unquestionable rights and principles hereinafter mentioned, shall be established, maintained and preserved, and shall be of paramount obligation in all legislative, judicial and executive proceedings.