Maryland Declaration of Rights

The Maryland Declaration of Rights is series of statements establishing certain rights for people in Maryland. The Declaration of Rights opens the Maryland Constitution and has appeared in some form in all Maryland Constitutions since the first version in 1776. The Declaration began with 42 distinct articles and now, after amendments, contains 47. These include the guarantee of free speech, protection for people involved in legal cases, a prohibition on monopolies, and, by 1972 amendment, equal rights for the sexes under the law.

The Maryland Declaration of Right was created at the 1776 Assembly of Freemen in Annapolis. On August 1, 1776, freemen with property in Maryland elected 76 delegates. They met from August 14 to November 11 and during that time drafted and approved the new Maryland's first constitution—of which the Declaration of Rights is the lead statement. There are no known records of the proceedings of this convention.

The original Declaration contains 42 articles.

The first version of the Declaration of Rights contrasts the new government of Maryland with the tyrannical British Monarchy.

The 1776 Declaration declared Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches “forever separate and distinct”—establishing a separation of powers doctrine far more explicit than the one which came later in the Federal Constitution.

The Maryland Declaration of Rights bears some similarities to the Virginia Declaration of Rights, created as an independent document in May–June 1776, and the Pennsylvania Declaration of Rights, ratified as part of Pennsylvania's constitution in September 1776. Some parts of the Declaration resemble the Magna Carta.

The adoption of a new constitution in 1851 was motivated largely by a power imbalance between Maryland's two shores, as well as the related issue of slavery. At this point, the preamble of the Declaration changed from a condemnation of the British monarchy to a shorter introductory clause.

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