Delegates to
subscribe the
confederation,
&c. |
II. Be it enacted,
by the general assembly of Maryland, That the delegates of
this state in congress, or any two or three of them, shall be and are hereby
empowered
and required, on behalf of this state, to subscribe the articles of confederation
and perpetual union between the states of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-bay,
Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York,
New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina,
South-Carolina and Georgia, signed in the general congress of the said
states by the honourable Henry Laurens Esquire, their then president, and
laid
before the legislature of this state to be ratified, if approved; and that
the said
articles of confederation and perpetual union, so as aforesaid subscribed,
shall
thenceforth be ratified and become conclusive as to this state, and obligatory
thereon: And it is hereby declared,
That by according to the said confederation,
this state doth not relinquish, or intend to relinquish, any right or interest
she
hath with the other United or Confederated States to the back country,
but claims
the same as fully as was done by the legislature of this state in their
declaration
which stands entered on the journals of congress, this state relying on
the justice
of the several states hereafter, as to the said claim made by this state:
And it is
further declared, That no article
in the said confederation can or ought to bind
this or any other state to guarantee any exclusive claim of any particular
state to
the soil of the said back lands, or any such claim of jurisdiction over
the said
lands, or the inhabitants thereof.
The articles of confederation are as follow:
ARTICLES of CONFEDERATION
and PERPETUAL UNION between the
States of NEW-HAMPSHIRE, MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, RHODE-ISLAND
and PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS,
CONNECTICUT, NEW-YORK, NEW-JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA, DELAWARE,
MARYLAND,
VIRGINIA, NORTH-CAROLINA, SOUTH-CAROLINA and GEORGIA.
ART. 1. THE style of this Confederacy shall be " The United States
of America."
ART. 2. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence,
and every power, jurisdiction
and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the
United States in congress assembled.
ART. 3. The said states hereby severally enter
into a firm league of friendship with each other, for
their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual
and general welfare, binding
themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks
made upon them, or any of them,
on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.
ART. 4. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual
friendship and intercourse among the people of
the different states, in this union, the free inhabitants of each of these
states, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives
from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities
of free citizens in the several
states; and the people of each state shall have free ingress and regress
to and from any other state, and
shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to
the same duties, impositions and
restrictions, as the inhabitants thereof respectively, provided that such
restrictions shall not extend so far as
to prevent the removal of property imported into any state, to any other
state of which the owner is an
inhabitant; provided also, that no imposition, duties or restriction, shall
be laid by any state, on the property
of the United States, or either of them. |
