been taken, and who shall not moreover have paid a state or county tax within one year next preceding his election.

6. The senate shall consist of not less than twenty-five nor more than thirty-three members, for the election of whom the state shall be divided into convenient districts, which may be altered from time to time, and new districts established, as public convenience may require; and the senators shall be apportioned among the several districts according to the number of permanent free white inhabitants in each: provided, that when a senatorial district shall be composed of two or more counties, the counties of which such district consists, shall not be entirely separated by any county belonging to another district, nor shall said district, so composed of two or more counties, be entitled to more than one senator; and no county shall be divided in forming such a district, except a county whose population shall entitle it to two or more senators, in which case said county shall be divided by the tribunal transacting county business as soon after each apportionment as is practicable, into as many districts as it may be entitled to senators, which districts shall not be changed until after the succeeding apportionment, each of which districts shall contain as near as may be an equal number of permanent free white inhabitants, and elect one senator; and any person otherwise qualified, who has lived in such senatorial district one month, shall be entitled to vote in the same, and until he shall acquire the right to vote in such district, he shall be entitled to vote in the district from which he removed.

7. At the first session of the general assembly, the senators shall be divided by lot, as equally as may be, into two classes. The seats of the first class shall be vacated at the end of the second year, and the seats of the second class at the end of the fourth year, so that one half of the senators shall be chosen every second year.

8. After the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, all general elections shall commence on the first Monday in August, and shall be held biennially, and the electors in all cases except treason, felony, or breach of peace, shall be privileged from arrest during their continuance at elections, and in going to and returning from the same.

9. The governor shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies as may occur in either house of the general assembly.

10. Every free white male citizen of the United States, who may have attained the age of twenty-one years, and who shall have resided in this State one year before an election, the last three months whereof shall have been in the county or district in which he offers to vote, shall be deemed a qualified elector of all elective officers; where a county shall be districted, any person who is otherwise qualified and shall have resided in a representative district for one month, shall have a right to vote in such district; and until he acquires a right to vote in the district to which he has removed, he shall have the right to vote in the district from which he removed: provided, that no soldier, seaman, or mariner, in the regular army or navy of the United States, shall be entitled to vote at any election in this state. No person who has been convicted of any felonious or infamous crime in any foreign country, or any state of this union, or who has

become a fugitive from justice from such country or state, on account of the commission of such crime, shall be permitted to vote in this state. This disqualification shall not extend to any offence of a political nature, nor to any offence which would not be considered felonious or infamous in this state.

11. No judge of any court of law or equity, secretary of state, attorney-general, state auditor, state or county treasurer, register, or recorder, clerk of any court of record, sheriff, coroner, member of congress, or other person holding any lucrative office under the United States or of this state, militia officers, justices of the peace, and postmasters excepted, shall be eligible to either house of the general assembly.

12. No person who now is, or hereafter may be, a collector or holder of public money, nor any assistant or deputy of such collector or holder of public money, shall be eligible to either house of the general assembly, nor to any office of profit or trust, unless he shall, prior to his election or appointment, have accounted for and paid all sums for which he may be accountable.

13. No person, while he continues to exercise the functions of a bishop, priest, or clergyman, or teacher of any religious persuasion, denomination, society, or sect whatever, shall be eligible to the office of governor, lieutenant-governor, or to either house of the general assembly, nor to the office of judge in any court of record.

14. The general assembly shall have power to exclude from every office of honour, trust, or profit, within this state, and from the right of suffrage, all persons convicted of bribery or other infamous crime.

15. Every person who shall directly or indirectly give, or offer any bribe to procure his election or appointment to any office, or the election or appointment of any other person, shall, on conviction, be disqualified for an elector, and for any office of honour, profit, or trust under this state.

16. No senator or representative shall, during the term for which he shall have been elected, be appointed to any civil office under this state, during said term, except such offices as shall be filled by elections by the people.

17. The general assembly shall have power to pass laws regulating proceedings in cases of contested elections of senators and representatives. Each house shall appoint its own officers, and shall judge of the qualifications, elections, and returns of its own members. A majority of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties, as each house may provide.

18. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behaviour, and with the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members elected, expel any member, but no member shall be expelled a second time for the same cause. They shall each, from time to time, publish a journal of their proceedings, except such parts as may in their opinion require secrecy; and the yeas and nays on any question shall be entered on the journal at the desire of any five members.

19. The doors of each house, and of committees of the whole, shall be kept open, except in cases which may require secrecy, and each house may punish by fine or imprisonment, any person not a member, who shall be guilty of disrespect to the house, by any disorderly or contemptuous behaviour in their presence, during their session: Provided, that such fine shall not exceed three hundred dollars, and such imprisonment shall not exceed forty-eight hours for one offence. 20. Neither house shall without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than two days at any one time, nor to any other place than to that in which the two houses may be sitting.

21. Bills may originate in either house, and may be altered, amended, or rejected by the other, except bills for raising revenue, which shall originate only in the house of representatives: and every bill shall be read on three different days in each house, unless two-thirds of the house where the same is depending, shall dispense with this rule. And every bill having passed both houses, shall be signed by the speaker of the house of representatives, and by the president of the senate.

22. When any officer, civil or military, shall be appointed by a joint or concurrent vote of both houses, or by the separate vote of either house of the general assembly, the votes shall be publicly given viva voce and entered on the journals; the whole list of members shall be called, and the names of absentees shall be noted and published with the journals.

23. The senators and representatives, in all cases, except of treason, felony, or breach of the peace, shall be privileged from arrest, during the session of the general assembly, and for fifteen days next before the commencement and after the termination of each session, and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place.

24. The members of the general assembly shall severally receive from the public treasury a compensation for their services, which may from time to time be increased or diminished by law: but no alteration, increasing or intending to increase the compensation of members, shall take effect during the session at which such alteration shall be made; and no session shall continue longer than sixty days.

25. The general assembly shall direct by law, First, In what manner and in what courts suits may be brought against the state; Second, The cases in which deductions shall be made from the salaries of public officers for neglect of duty in their official capacity, and the amount of such deductions.

26. The general assembly shall have no power to pass laws, First, For the emancipation of slaves without the consent of their owners, and without paying them, before such emancipation, a full equivalent for such slaves so emancipated, and removing such slaves so emancipated out of this state; Second, To prevent bona fide immigrants to this state, or actual settlers therein, from bringing from any of the United States or from their territories, such persons as may there be deemed to be slaves, so long as any persons of the same description are allowed to be held as slaves by the laws of this

state.

27. The general assembly shall have power to pass laws, First, To prohibit the introduction into this state of any slaves who may have committed any high crime in any other state or territory. Second, To prohibit the introduction of any slave for the purpose of speculation, or as an article of trade or merchandise. Third, To prohibit the introduction into this state of any slave, or the offspring of any slave, who, heretofore, may have been, or who hereafter, may be imported from any foreign country into the United States or any territory thereof, in contravention of any existing statute of the United States; and Fourth, To permit the owners of slaves to emancipate them (saving the rights of creditors), where the persons so emancipating will give security that the slaves so emancipated shall be forthwith removed out of the state.

28. It shall be the duty of the general assembly, as soon as may be, to pass such laws as may be necessary, First, To prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to and settling in this state, under any pretext whatever: provided, that nothing in this constitution shall be construed to conflict with the provisions of the first clause of the second section of the fourth article of the constitution of the United States. Second, To oblige the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity, and to abstain from all injuries to them, extending to life or limb.

29. In prosecutions for felony and capital crimes, slaves shall not be deprived of an impartial trial by jury, and courts of justice before whom slaves shall be tried, shall assign them counsel for their defence.

30. Any person who shall maliciously deprive of life or dismember a slave, shall suffer such punishment as would be inflicted for the like offence if it were committed on a free white person.

31. The general assembly shall have no power to pass any law whereby any debt shall be created, that shall cause the entire indebtedness of the state, contracted under this constitution, to exceed at any one time, twenty-five thousand dollars, except in cases of war, insurrection, or invasion. But the general assembly may propose by a vote of a majority of all the members elected to both branches thereof the creation of a debt for any specified purpose, which shall be submitted to the direct vote of the people at the next general election thereafter, and if approved by a majority of the qualified voters voting on such question, shall be of full force and effect; provided, that each proposition shall be for one object alone, and shall propose the ways and means, by taxation, for the payment of the debt and interest as they become due; and provided further, that no more than one proposition shall be submitted by any one session of the general assembly, and that the debt proposed shall not have a longer time to run than twenty years.

32. The general assembly shall not have power to grant a divorce in any case.

33. The power to provide for the organization and government of the militia shall be vested in the general assembly.

34. No private or local bill, which may be passed by the general assembly, shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title.

35. The governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, attorney-general, and all judges of the courts of law and equity, shall be liable to impeachment for any misdemeanor in office, but judgment in such cases shall not extend further than removal from office and disqualification to hold any office of honour, trust, or profit, under the state government.

36. The house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment. All impeachments shall be tried by the senate, and when sitting for that purpose the senators shall be on oath or affirmation to do justice according to law and evidence. When the governor shall be tried, the presiding judge of the supreme court shall preside, and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the senators elected.

37. A state treasurer shall be biennially appointed by a joint vote of the two houses of the general assembly, who shall keep his office at the seat of government. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law or joint resolution, and an accurate account of the receipts and expenditures of the public money shall be annually published.

38. The appointment of all officers not otherwise directed by this constitution, shall be made in such manner as may be prescribed by law; and all officers, both civil and military, under the authority of this state, shall, before entering on the duties of their respective offices, take an oath or affirmation to support the constitution of the United States and of this state, and to demean themselves faithfully in office. Any person who, after the ratification of this constitution, shall be engaged in a duel either as principal, second, surgeon, accessary, or abettor, or in giving, accepting, or knowingly carrying a challenge to fight a duel, shall be disqualified from holding any civil or military office or appointment in this state, and if any person thus disqualified shall receive an appointment, election, or commission, the same shall be void.

39. It shall be the duty of the general assembly to provide, by law, for the mode and manner in which the survivor of a duel, and his estate, shall be rendered responsible to, and be charged with a compensation for the wife and children of the deceased, whom he has slain.

40. The general assembly shall meet on the first Monday of November, 1848, and thereafter the general assembly shall meet once in every two years, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday of November, unless a different day be fixed by law.

41. No county now established by law, shall ever be reduced by the establishment of new counties, or otherwise, to less than twenty miles square: nor shall any county hereafter be established which shall contain less than five hundred square miles, nor shall any new county be hereafter organized, so as to entitle such county to separate representation, unless the number of permanent free white inhabitants therein, shall at the time be equal to two-thirds of the ratio of representation then being, but may be organized with a smaller number for all other purposes, civil and military. But residuums of territory upon the northern boundary of the state, containing four hundred square miles, may have county organization.