RHODE ISLAND. One of the original, thirteen states of the United States of Ame rica ; its full style being, " The State of. Rhode Island and ,Pr eridence Plantations." 2. Its territ,,ry lies I etween Massachusetts and Connecticut, in the south,rest single of that portion oil the territory af the former State which was known :la the oolony of New Plymouth, and is situated at the head and albng both shores of the Narragansett bay, comprising the islands in the same, the prim cipal of which ia Rhode Island, placed at the moods of 'the 'hay. It contains a population of about ono hundred and fifty thousand, The settlement was commenced as early as June, 1636, on the present site of the city of Provideoce, by five men under Roger Williams. .Willisms founded his colony upon a compact Which bound the settlers to obe dience to the major part " only in civil things :" leaving to each perfect freed* in matters of reii gious concernment, so that be did not, by his reli gious practices, encroach upon the publio order and peace. A portion of the Massachusetts colonists, vrho were of the Antinomian party, after their defeat in that colony settled on the isla.nd of Aquet net, now 'Rhoda Island, where they associated themselves as a colony on the 7th of March, 1638. These settlements, together with one at Shawomet, now WarwiCk, made by another sect of religious outcasts. under Gorton, in 1642-3, remained under separate 'voluntary governments nntil 1647, when they were united under one government, styled " The Incorporation of Provideace Plantationa in the Narragansett Bay in New England," by virtue of a charter granted in 1643.
3. This colony remained under this charter, which, npon some divisions. was confirmed by Cromwell in 1655, until after the restoration, when a new charter was procured from Charles II.. in the fif teenth year of his reign, under which a new colo nial government was formed on the 24th of Novem ber, 1663, which continued, with the short interrup tion of the colonial adminiatration of Sir Edmund Andros, down tio the period of the American revo lutida. Under both the parliamentary charter whieh was procured by Williama, the founder of the settlement at Providence, and the royal charter which was procured by John Clark, one of the foundera of the aettlement at Aquetnet, religious liherty was carefully protected. By the parliament
ary charter, the colony was authorized to make only " such civii laws and constitution as they or the greatcat part of them shall by free consent ogres unto ;" and the royal charter, reciting " that it ia much on the hearts" of the coloniats, " if they may be permitted, to hold forth a lively experi ment, that a most flourishing civil state may stand and best be maintained, and that amongst our Eng lish subjects with full liberty in religions concern ments," expressly ordained " that no person within maid colony, at any time hereafter, shall be any wise molested, puniahed, disquieted, or called in question for any differences in opinion in matters of religion, and do not actually diaturh the civil peace of our said colony; but that all and every person or persona may, from tinio to time and at all times hereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgments and conscieneea in. mattera of religious concernmenta, tbroughont the tract of land hereafter mentioned, they behaving themselves peaceably and quietly, and not using the liberty to licentiousneas and profaneness, nor to the civil injury or outward disturbance of others ; any law, atatute, or clause therein contained or to be contained, usage or custom of this realm, to the oontrary hereof, in any wise notwithstand ing." 4. In the general assembly of the colony, on the first Wednesday of May, 1776, in anticipation of the declaration of independenee, an act waa pasaed which absolved the colonists from their al legianoe to the king of Great Britain, and which ordered that in future all writs and proceases should issue in the charter name of " The Goveroor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Provideace Plantationa," instead of the name of the king. The old colonial charter, together with a bill of rights adopted by the geoeral assem bly, remained the sole constitution of state govern ment nntil the first Tuesday in May, 1843, when a state conditution framed by a convention as sembled in November, 1842, and adopted by the people of the state, went iato operation.