Page:The Federal and state constitutions vol1.djvu/330

288 [A State convention, which met at Little Rock, passed an ordinance of secession on the 6th of May, 1861, and on the 22d amended the State constitution of 1836 by inserting the words “Confederate States” in place of “United States,” with a few other unimportant changes. These amendments were not submitted to the people.]

We, the people of the State of Arkansas, having the right to establish for ourselves a Constitution in conformity with the Constitution of the United States of America, recognizing the legitimate consequences of the existing rebellion, do hereby declare the entire action of the late convention of the State of Arkansas, which assembled in the city of Little Rock, on the fourth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, was, and is, null and void, and is not now, and never has been binding and obligatory upon the people.

That all the action of the State of Arkansas under the authority of said convention, of its ordinances, or of its constitution, whether legislative, executive, judicial or military (except as hereinafter provided,) was, and is hereby declared null and void; Provided, That this ordinance shall not be so construed as to affect the rights of individuals, or change county boundaries, or county seats, or to make invalid the acts of justices of the peace, or other officers in their authority to administer oaths, or take and certify the acknowledgment of deeds of conveyance or other instruments of writing, or in the solemnization of marriages: And provided further, That no debt or liability of the State of Arkansas incurred by the action of said convention, or of the legislature or any department of the government under the authority of either, shall ever be recognized as obligatory.

And we, the people of the State of Arkansas, in order to establish therein a State government, loyal to the Government of the United States—to secure to ourselves and our posterity, the protection and blessings of the Federal Constitution, and the enjoyment of all the rights of liberty and the free pursuit of happiness, do agree to continue ourselves as a free and independent State, by the name and style of “the State of Arkansas,” and do ordain and establish the following Constitution for the government thereof:

We do declare and establish, ratify and confirm the following as the permanent boundaries of the State of Arkansas, that is to say: Beginning in the middle of the Mississippi River, on the parallel of