TO PROPOSED AMENDMENTS
TO THE CONSTITUTION OF
THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
To Appear on a Special Ballot at Election
on November 5, 1968
QUESTION NO. 3
3. Are you in favor of amending Article 6 of Part I of the Constitution so as to strike out certain specific sectarian references and further amending said Article to read as follows:
"Art. 6th.
As morality and piety, rightly grounded on high
principles, will give the best and greatest security to
government, and will lay, in the hearts of men, the
strongest obligations to due subjection; and as the
knowledge of these is most likely to be propagated
through a society, therefore, the several parishes,
bodies, corporate, or religious societies shall at all
times have the right of electing their own teachers, and
of contracting with them for their support or
maintenance or both.
But no person shall ever be compelled to pay towards
the support of the schools of any sect or denomination.
And every person, denomination or sect shall be
equally under the protection of the law; and no
subordination of any one sect, denomination or
persuasion to another shall ever be established.
ever be established."?
NOW -- AT THE PRESENT TIME,
Article 6 authorizes local public taxation for the support of "Protestant" clergymen only, and promises equal protection of the law solely to "every denomination of Christians". While these provisions may have had some reason in 1783 when adopted, they are now obsolete and dead provisions, also liable to be offensive to good citizens of Catholic and Jewish faiths, as well as to all disciples of freedom of conscience. These provisions are obviously contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
IF THE AMENDMENT IS ADOPTED, by enough Yes votes on Questions No. 3, the above-described sectarian references will be stricken from the state constitution, putting all religious denominations on a basis of equality and removing the present conflict with the U.S. Constitution. It should be emphasized that this amendment does not introduce any new substantive restrictions on the relation between Church and State; the second sentence merely paraphrases a provision which has been contained in Article 83, Part II of the state constitution since 1877, but adds nothing to it. An amendment similar to this one has several times received a popular majority but failed to get the necessary 2/3 vote. The Convention believes that now is the time to give final approval to what the 20th Century has made obvious.
The Special Committee ordered by the 15th
Constitutional Convention to prepare and
distribute this pamphlet consists of:
Richard F. Upton, Concord, President of the Convention
New Hampshire Politics
P.O. Box 1120
Merrimack, NH 03054
Full T1 direct Internet Backbone connection and Internet Services provided by
Mainstream EIS
