Page:Arkansas Constitution 1874 (published 1913).pdf/7



ADOPTED IN CONVENTION SEPTEMBER 7, 1874

PREAMBLE

We, the people of the State of Arkansas, grateful to Almighty God for the privilege of choosing our own form of government, for our civil and religious liberty, and desiring to perpetuate its blessings and secure the same to ourselves and posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution.

We do declare and establish, ratify and confirm, the following as the permanent boundaries of the State of Arkansas, that is to say: Beginning at the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River, on the parallel of thirty-six degrees of north latitude, running thence west with said parallel of latitude to the middle of the main channel of the St. Francis River; thence up the main channel of said last named river to the parallel of thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes of north latitude; thence west with the southern boundary line of the State of Missouri to the southwest corner of said last named State; thence to be bounded on the west to the north bank of Red River, as by act of Congress and treaties existing January, 1837, defining the western limits of the Territory of Arkansas and to be bounded across and south of Red River by the boundary line of the State of Texas as far as to the northwest corner of the State of Louisiana; thence easterly with the northern boundary line of said last named State to the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River; thence up