People, they have the best Security for the Preservation of their civil
and religious Rights and Liberties. And forasmuch as the free Fruition
of such Liberties and Privileges as Humanity, Civility and Christianity
call for, as is due to every Man in his Place and Proportion, without
Impeachment and Infringement, hath ever been, and wilt be the
Tranquility and Stability of Churches and Commonwealths; and the Denial
thereof, the Disturbance, if not the Ruin of both.

PAR. I. BE it enacted and declared by the Governor, and Council and
House of Representatives, in General Court assembled: That the ancient
Form of Civil Government, contained in the Charter from Charles the
Second, King of England, and adopted by the People of this State, shall
be and remain the Civil Constitution of this State under the sole
authority of the People thereof, independent of any King or Prince
whatever. And that this Republic is, and shall forever be and remain, a
free, sovereign and independent Sate, by the Name of the STATE of
CONNECTICUT.

2. And be it further enacted and declared, That no Man's Land shall be
taken away: No Man's Honor or good Name shall be stained: No Man's
Person shall be arrested, restrained, banished, dismembered, nor any
Ways punished: No Man shall be deprived of his Wife or Children; No
Man's Goods or Estate shall be taken away from him nor any Ways
indamaged under the Color of Law, or Countenance of Authority; unless
clearly warranted by the Laws of this State.

3. That all the Free Inhabitants of this or any other of the United
States of America, and Foreigners in Amity with this State, shall enjoy
the same justice and Law within this State, which is general for the
State in all Cases proper for the Cognizance of the Civil Authority and