We the people of Maine, in order to establish justice, insure tranquility, provide for our mutual defense, promote our common welfare, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty, acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe in affording us an opportunity, so favorable to the design; and, imploring God's aid and direction in its accomplishment, do agree to form ourselves into a free and independent State, by the style and title of the State of Maine and do ordain and establish the following Constitution for the government of the same."
The first section starts "All people are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent and unalienable rights."
The beginning is similar to the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 which used the phrase "born free and equal", the basis for which slavery was abolished in that state in 1820.
The section on religious freedom starts with "all individuals have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences".
This is notably different from the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 which referred to the "duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons to worship the Supreme being.
"The people reserve to themselves power to propose laws and to enact or reject the same at the polls independent of the Legislature."
The Governor is also granted the "line-item veto of dollar amounts appearing in appropriation or allocation sections of legislative documents."
This means if the Senate passes legislation which raises revenue it is constitutionally invalid if the House of Representatives has not previously acted on it.
The state's solitary burden to provide for development should lessen through involving the private sector in a leadership role .....
In Governor Seldon Conner's inaugural address of 1876, he said these words pertaining to the new constitutional amendment: "Section thirteen presents a discretionary field of action which your own honor will impel you to occupy to the fullest extent.
The opportunity is now afforded, and the duty enjoined upon you, by the amendment, to restrict the necessity for such laws to the narrowest possible limits.
It clearly prohibits their creation by special acts if the objects desired can be secured under existing general laws.
The article also describes the compensation of the Governor and their power to appoint members of the judiciary who are not directly elected, as well as civil and military officers.
This article also says that the Justices of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court "shall be obliged to give their opinion upon important questions of law, and upon solemn occasions, when required by the Governor, Senate or House of Representatives."
This section says the Legislature shall require towns to support public schools since "a general diffusion of the advantages of education being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people."
Also authority is granted to "pledge the credit of the State and to issue bonds for loans to Maine students in higher education and their parents."
It sets a $2,000,000 debt and liability limit except to suppress insurrection, to repel invasion, or for purposes of war and provides conditions for temporary loans to be repaid within 12 months.
[7] Section 5 incorporates parts of the Massachusetts law authorizing its separation of Maine, including its stated original office holders.
[7] "And the Constitution, with the amendments made thereto, in accordance with the provisions thereof, shall be the supreme law of the State."
[8] In splitting from Massachusetts, Maine was required to adopt its obligations and treaties with the tribes, and to set aside land for them.
[7] Bear and others see its suppression in print as symbolic of Maine neglecting its responsibilities to the tribes, saying it has aided in them being forgotten by the state.
State Senator Chris Johnson of Somerville, who assumed office in 2012, objected: "We should not be hiding part of our guiding document that still is in force today.
[9] Historian Catherine M. Burns links the redaction of Article X, Section 5 to actions taken by the state in 1875 to settle Joseph Granger v. Peter Avery, a Maine Supreme Judicial Court case involving a dispute related to a 1794 Passamaquoddy treaty with Massachusetts.
All officers provided for in the sixth section of an act of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, passed on the nineteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, entitled "an act relating to the separation of the district of Maine from Massachusetts proper, and forming the same into a separate and independent state," shall continue in office as therein provided; and the following provisions of said act shall be a part of this constitution, subject however to be modified or annulled as therein is prescribed, and not otherwise, to wit: Sect.
Whereas it has been represented to this legislature, that a majority of the people of the district of Maine are desirous of establishing a separate and independent government within said district: therefore, Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives in general court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That the consent of this commonwealth be, and the same is hereby given, that the district of Maine may be formed and erected into a separate and independent state, if the people of the said district shall in the manner, and by the majority hereinafter mentioned, express their consent and agreement thereto, upon the following terms and conditions: and provided the congress of the United States shall give its consent thereto, before the fourth day of March next: which terms and conditions are as follows, viz.
And any vacancy happening with respect to the commissioners shall be supplied in the manner provided for their original appointment; and, in addition to the powers herein before given to said commissioners, they shall have full power and authority to divide all the public lands within the district, between the respective states, in equal shares, or moieties, in severat ty, having regard to quantity, situation and quality; they shall determine what lands shall be surveyed and divided, from time to time, the expense of which surveys, and of the commissioners, shall be borne equally by the two states.
But the grant which has been made to the president and trustees of Bowdoin college, out of the tax laid upon the banks within this commonwealth, shall be charged upon the tax upon the banks within the said district of Maine, and paid according to the terms of said grant; and the president and trustees, and the overseers of said college, shall have, hold and enjoy their powers and privileges in all respects; so that the same shall not be subject to be altered, limited, annulled or restrained except by judicial process, according to the principles of law; and in all grants hereafter to be made, by either state, of unlocated land within the said district, the same reservations shall be made for the benefit of schools and of the ministry, as have heretofore been usual, in grants made by this commonwealth.
No laws shall be passed in the proposed state, with regard to taxes, actions, or remedies at law, or bars or limitations thereof, or otherwise making any distinction between the lands and rights of property of proprietors, not resident in, or not citizens of the proposed state, and the lands and rights of property of the citizens of the proposed state, resident therein; and the rights and liabilities of all persons, shall, after the said separation, continue the same as if the said district was still a part of this commonwealth, in all suits pending, or judgments remaining unsatisfied on the fifteenth day of March next, where the suits have been commenced in Massachusetts proper, and process has been served within the district of Maine; or commenced in the district of Maine, and process has been served in Massachusetts proper, either by taking bail, making attachments, arresting and detaining persons, or otherwise, where execution remains to be done; and in such suits the courts within Massachusetts proper, and within the proposed state, shall continue to have the same jurisdiction as if the said district had still remained a part of the commonwealth.
And this commonwealth shall have the same remedies within the proposed state, as it now has, for the collection of all taxes, bonds or debts, which may be assessed, due, made, or contracted, by, to, or with the commonwealth, on or before the said fifteenth day of March, within the said district of Maine; and all officers within Massachusetts proper and the district of Maine, shall conduct themselves accordingly.