REVISED CONSTITUTION, 1850.

The People of the State of Michigan do ordain this Constitution.

ARTICLE I.

BOUNDARIES.

ARTICLE II.

and down the river Brule to the main channel of the Menominie river; thence down the centre of the main channel of the The State of Michigan consists of and same to the centre of the most usual ship has jurisdiction over the territory embraced channel of the Green Bay of Lake Michiwithin the following boundaries, to wit: gan; thence through the centre of the most Commencing at a point on the eastern usual ship channel of the said Bay, to the boundary line of the State of Indiana, middle of Lake Michigan; thence through where a direct line drawn from the south- the middle of Lake Michigan to the northern extremity of Lake Michigan to the ern boundary of the State of Indiana, as most northerly cape of the Maumee Bay, that line was established by the act of shall intersect the same-said point being Congress of the nineteenth of April, eighthe north-west corner of the State of Ohio, teen hundred and sixteen; thence due east as established by act of Congress, entitled with the north boundary line of the said "an act to establish the northern boundary State of Indiana to the north-east corner line of the State of Ohio, and to provide thereof; and thence south with the eastern for the admission of the State of Michigan boundary line of Indiana to the place of into the Union upon the conditions therein beginning. expressed," approved June fifteenth, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six; thence with the said boundary line of the State of Ohio, till it intersects the boundary line between the United States and Canada, in Lake Erie; thence with said boundary line between the United States and Canada, through the Detroit river, Lake Huron and Lake Superior, to a point where the said line last touches Lake Superior; thence in a direct line through tive, executive and judicial. Lake Superior to the mouth of the Sec. 2. No person belonging to one deMontreal river; thence through the mid- partment shall exercise the powers prodle of the main channel of the said perly belonging to another, except in the river Montreal to the head waters thereof; cases expressly provided in this constituthence in a direct line to the centre of the channel between Middle and South Islands, in the Lake of the Desert; thence in a direct line to the southern shore of Lake Brule; thence along said southern shore

SEAT OF GOVERNMENT.

Sec. 1. The seat of government shall be in Lansing, where it is now established.

ARTICLE III.

DIVISION OF THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT. Sec. 1. The powers of Government are divided into three departments: the legisla

tion.

ARTICLE IV.

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

Section 1. The legislative power is vest

ed in a Senate and House of Representa tives.

Sec. 2. The Senate shall consist of thirty-two members. Senators shall be elected for two years, and by single districts. Such districts shall be numbered from one to thirty-two inclusive; each of which shall choose one Senator. No county shall be divided in the formation of senate districts, except such county shall be equitably entitled to two or more Senators.

portion anew the Representatives among the counties and districts, according to the number of white inhabitants and civilized persons of Indian descent, not members of any tribe. Each apportionment, and the division into representative districts by any board of supervisors, shall remain unaltered until the return of another enumeration.

Sec. 6. No person holding any office under the United States [or this State,] or any county office, except notaries public, officers of the militia, and officers elected by townships, shall be eligible to or have a seat in either house of the Legislature; and all votes given for any such person shall be void.

Sec. 5. Senators and Representatives shall be citizens of the United States, and Sec. 3. The House of Representatives qualified electors in the respective counties shall consist of not less than sixty-four, and districts which they represent. A renor more than one hundred members. Rep-moval from their respective counties or disresentatives shall be chosen for two years, tricts shall be deemed a vacation of their and by single districts. Each representa- office. tive district shall contain, as nearly as may be, an equal number of white inhabitants, and civilized persons of Indian descent not members of any tribe, and shall consist of convenient and contiguous territory. But no township or city shall be divided in the formation of a representative district. When any township or city shall contain a population which entitles it to more than one Representative, then such township or city shall elect by general ticket the number of Representatives to which it is entitled. Each county hereafter organized, with such territory as may be attached thereto, shall be entitled to a separate Representative when it has attained a population equal to a moiety of the ratio of representation. In every county entitled to more than one Representative, the board of supervisors shall assemble at such time and place as the Legislature shall prescribe, and divide the same into representative districts, equal to the number of Representatives to which such county is entitled by law, and shall cause to be filed in the offices of Secretary of State and clerk of such county, a description of such representative districts, specifying the number of each district, and the population thereof, according to the last preceding enumeration.

Sec. 4. The Legislature shall provide by law for an enumeration of the inhabitants in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-four, and every ten years thereafter; and at the first session after each enumeration so made, and also at the first session after each enumeration by the authority of the United States, the Legislature shall re-arrange the Senate districts, and ap

Sec. 7. Senators and Representatives shall, in all cases except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest. They shall not be subject to any civil process during the session of the Legislature, or for fifteen days next before the commencement and after the termination of each session; they shall not be questioned in any other place for any speech in either house.

Sec. 8. A majority of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each house may prescribe.

Sec. 9. Each house shall choose its own officers, determine the rules of its proceedings, and judge of the qualifications, election and returns of its members; and may, with the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members elected, expel a member. No member shall be expelled a second time for the same cause; nor for any cause known to his constituents antecedent to his election; the reason for such expulsion shall be entered upon the journal, with the names of the members voting on the question.

Sec. 10. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and publish the same, except such parts as may require se

crecy. The yeas and nays of the members of either house, on any question, shall be entered on the journal at the request of one-fifth of the members elected. Any member of either house may dissent from and protest against any act, proceeding or resolution which he may deem injurious to any person or the public, and have the reason of his dissent entered on the journal.

Sec. 11. In all elections by either house, or in joint convention, the votes shall be given viva voce. All votes on nominations to the Senate, shall be taken by yeas and nays, and published with the journal of its proceedings.

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Sec. 12. The doors of each house shall open, unless the public welfare require secrecy. Neither house shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than where the Legislature may then be in ses

sion.

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Sec. 13. Bills may originate in either house of the Legislature..

Sec. 14. Every bill and concurrent resolution, except of adjournment, passed by the Legislature, shall be presented to the Governor before it becomes a law. If he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it with his objections to the house in which it originated, which shall enter the objections at large upon their journal, and reconsider it. On such reconsideration, if two-thirds of the members

elected agree to pass the bill, it shall be

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days of the session; and the same shall become a law.

Sec. 15. The compensation of the members of the Legislature shall be three dollars a day for actual attendance and when absent on account of sickness, for the first sixty days of the session of the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, and for the first forty days of every subsequent When convened in extra session their compensasession, and nothing thereafter. tion shall be three dollars a day for the first twenty days, and nothing thereafter; and they shall legislate on no other subjects. than those expressly stated in the Governor's proclamation, or submitted to them by special message. They shall be entitled to ten cents, and no more, for every mile actually traveled, going to and returning from the place of meeting, on the usually traveled route; and for stationery and newspapers not exceeding five dollars for member shall be entitled to one copy of each member during any session. Each the laws, journals and documents of the Legislature of which he was a member; but shall not receive, at the expense of the State, books, newspapers, or other perquisites of office, not expressly authorized by

sent with the objections to the other house, by which it shall be reconsidered. If proved by two-thirds of the members elected to that house, it shall become a law. In such case, the vote of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays; and the names of the members voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journals of each house respectively. If any bill be not returned by the Governor within ten days, Sundays excepted, after it has been presented to him, the same shall become a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Legislature, by their adjournment, prevent its return; in which case it shall not become a law. The Governor may approve, sign, and file in the office of the Secretary of State, within five days after the adjournment of the Legislature, any act passed during the last five

this constitution.

Sec. 16. The Legislature may provide by law for the payment of postage on all mailable matter received by its members and officers during the sessions of the Legislature, but not on any sent or mailed by

them.

Sec. 17. The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall be entitled to the same per diem compensation and mileage as members of the Legislature, and no more.

Sec. 18. No person elected a member of the Legislature shall receive any civil appointment within this State, or to the Senate of the United States, from the Governor, the Governor and Senate, from the Legislature, or any other State authority, during the term for which he is elected. All such appointments, and all votes given for any person so elected for any such office or appointment, shall be void, No member of the Legislature shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract with the State, cr any county thereof, authorized by any law passed during the

time for which he is elected, nor for one year thereafter.

Sec. 19. Every bill and joint resolution shall be read three times in each house before the final passage thereof. No bill or joint resolution shall become a law without the concurrence of a majority of all the members elected to each house. On the final passage of all bills the vote shall be by ayes and nays, and entered on the journal.

Sec. 20. No law shall embrace more than one object, which shall be expressed in its title. No public act shall take effect or be in force until the expiration of ninety days from the end of the session at which the same is passed, unless the Legislature shall otherwise direct, by a two-thirds vote of the members elected to each house.

Sec. 21. The Legislature shall not grant nor authorize extra compensation to any public officer, agent or contractor, after the service has been rendered or the contract entered into.

Sec. 22. The Legislature shall provide by law that the furnishing of fuel and stationery for the use of the State, the printing and binding the laws and journals, all blanks, paper and printing for the executive departments, and all other printing ordered by the Legislature, shall be let by contract to the lowest bidder or bidders, who shall give adequate and satisfactory security for the performance thereof. The Legislature shall prescribe by law the manner in which the State printing shall be executed, and the accounts rendered therefor; and shall prohibit all charges for constructive labor. They shall not rescind nor alter such contract, nor release the person nor persons taking the same, or his or their sureties, from the performance of any of the conditions of the contract. No member of the Legislature nor officer of the State shall be interested directly or indirectly in any such contract.

Sec. 23. The Legislature shall not au thorize, by private or special law, the sale or conveyance of any real estate belonging to any person; nor vacate nor alter any road laid out by commissioners of highways, or any street in any city or village, or in any recorded town plat.

Sec. 24. The Legislature may authorize the employment of a chaplain for the State Prison; but no money shall be ap

propriated for the payment of any religious services in either house of the Legislature.

Sec. 25. No law shall be revised, altered or amended by reference to its title only; but the act revised, and the section or sections of the act altered or amended shall be re-enacted and published at length.

Sec. 26. Divorces shall not be granted by the Legislature.

Sec. 27. The Legislature shall not authorize any lottery, nor permit the sale of lottery tickets.

Sec. 28. No new bill shall be introduced into either house during the last three days of the session, without the unanimous consent of the house in which itoriginates.

Sec. 29. In case of a contested election, the person only shall receive from the State per diem compensation and mileage who is declared to be entitled to a seat by the house in which the contest takes place.

Sec. 30. No collector, holder nor disburser of public moneys, shall have a seat in the Legislature or be eligible to any office of trust or profit under this State, until he shall have accounted for and paid over, as provided by law, all sums for which he may be liable.

Sec. 31. The Legislature shall not audit nor allow any private claim or account.

Sec. 32. The Legislature, on the day of final adjournment, shall adjourn at twelve o'clock at noon.

Sec. 33. The Legislature shall meet at the seat of government on the first Wednesday in February next, and on the first Wednesday in January of every second year thereafter, and at no other place or time, unless as provided in this constitution.

Sec. 34. The election of Senators and Representatives, pursuant to the provisions of this constitution, shall be held on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, and on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday of November of every second year thereaf ter.

Sec. 35. The Legislature shall not establish a State Paper. Every newspaper in the State which shall publish all the general laws of any session within forty days of their passage, shall be entitled to

receive a sum not exceeding fifteen dol-gislature shall be requisite to every bill aplars therefor.

propriating the public money or property for local or private purposes.

Sec. 46. The Legislature may authorize a trial by a jury of a less number than twelve men.

Sec. 47. The Legislature shall not pass any act authorizing the grant of license for the sale of ardent spirits or other intoxicating liquors.

Sec. 48. The style of the laws shall be: "The People of the State of Michigan enact."

Sec. 37. The Legislature may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant, and also the manner of filling the vacancy, where no provision is made for that purpose in this constitution. Sec. 38. The Legislature may confer upon organized townships, incorporated cities and villages, and upon the board of supervisors of the several counties, such powers of a local, legislative and adminis-in trative character as they may deem pro

ARTICLE V.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.

Sec. 1. The executive power is vested a Governor, who shall hold his office for two years. A Lieutenant Governor shall be chosen for the same term.

Sec. 39. The Legislature shall pass no Sec. 2. No person shall be eligible to the law to prevent any person from worship-office of Governor or Lieutenant Governor ping Almighty God according to the dicLates of his own conscience; or to compel any person to attend, erect or support any place of religious worship, or to pay tithes, taxes or other rates for the support of any minister of the gospel or teacher of religion.

Sec. 8. He shall give to the Legislature, Sec. 45. The assent of two-thirds of the and at the close of his official term to the members elected to each house of the Le-next Legislature, information by message,