Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

ARTICLE 7.

General Provisions.

§ 1. Members of the legislature, and all officers, executive and judicial, before they enter upon the duties of their respective offices, shall take the following oath or affirmation, to wit: "I solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Mississippi, so long as I continue a citizen thereof, and that I will faithfully discharge to the best of my abilities the duties of the office of, according to law. So help me God."

2. The legislature shall pass such laws to prevent the evil practice of duelling as they may deem necessary, and may require all officers, before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, to take the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I have not been engaged in a duel, by sending or accepting a challenge to fight a duel, or by fighting a duel since the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirtythree, nor will I be so engaged during my continuance in office. So help me God."

3. Treason against the state shall consist only in levying war against it, or in adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or his own confession in open court.

4. Every person shall be disqualified from holding an office or place of honour or profit under the authority of this state, who shall be convicted of having given or offered any bribe to procure his election. Laws shall be made to exclude from office and from suffrage those who shall thereafter be convicted of bribery, perjury, forgery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors. The privilege of free suffrage shall be supported by laws regulating elections, and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, all undue influence therein, from power, bribery, tumult, or other improper conduct.

5. No person who denies the being of a God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this state.

6. No law of a general nature, unless otherwise provided for, shall be enforced until sixty days after the passage thereof.

7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of an appropriation made by law, nor shall any appropriation of money for the support of an army be made for a longer term than one year.

8. No money from the treasurer shall be appropriated to objects of internal improvement, unless a bill for that purpose be approved by two-thirds of both branches of the legislature; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of public moneys shall be published annually.

9. No law shall ever be passed to raise a loan of money upon the credit of the state, or to pledge the faith of the state or the payment or redemption of any loan or debt, unless such law be proposed in the senate or house of representatives, and be agreed to by a majority of the members of each house, and entered on their journals with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and be referred to the next succeeding legislature, and

published for three months previous to the next regular election, in three newspapers of the state; and unless a majority of each branch of the legislature, so elected, after such publication, shall agree to, and pass such law; and in such case the yeas and nays shall be taken, and entered on the journals of each house: Provided, that nothing in this section shall be so construed as to prevent the legislature from negotiating a further loan of one and a half million of dollars, and vesting the same in stock reserved to the state by the charter of the Planters' Bank of the state of Mississippi.

10. The legislature shall direct, by law, in what manner and in what courts, suits may be brought against the state.

11. Absence on business of this state, or of the United States, or on a visit, or necessary private business, shall not cause a forfeiture of citizenship or residence once obtained.

12. It shall be the duty of the legislature to regulate, by law, the cases in which deductions shall be made from salaries of public officers for neglect of duty in their official capacity, and the amount of such deduction.

13. No member of congress, nor any person holding any office of profit or trust under the United States, (the office of post-master excepted,) or any other state, of the union, or under any foreign power, shall hold or exercise any office of trust or profit under this state.

14. Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government, the preservation of liberty, and the happiness of mankind, schools, and the means of education, shall for ever be encouraged in this state.

15. Divorces from the bonds of matrimony shall not be granted, but in cases provided for by law, by suit in chancery.

16. Returns of all elections by the people shall he made to the secretary of state in such manner as may be prescribed by law.

17. No new county shall be established by the legislature, which shall reduce the county or counties, or either of them, from which it may be taken, to less contents than five hundred and seventy-six square miles; nor shall any new county be laid off of less contents.

18. The legislature shall have power to admit to all the rights and privileges of free white citizens of this state, all such persons of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians, as shall choose to remain in this state, upon such terms as the legislature may from time to time deem proper.

Slaves.

§ 1. The legislature shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves without the consent of their owners, unless where the slave shall have rendered to the state some distinguished service; in which case the owner shall be paid a full equivalent for the slave so emancipated. They shall have no power to prevent emigrants to this state from bringing with them such persons as are deemed slaves by the laws of any one of the United States, so long as any person of the same age or description shall be continued in slavery by the laws of this state: Provided, that such person or slave be the bona fide property of such emigrants; and provided, also, that laws may be passed to prohibit the introduction into this state of slaves who may have committed high

crimes in other states. They shall have power to pass laws to permit the owners of slaves to emancipate them, saving the rights of creditors, and preventing them from becoming a public charge. They shall have full power to oblige the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity; to provide for them necessary clothing and provisions; to abstain from all injuries to them, extending to life or limb; and in case of their neglect or refusal to comply with the directions of such laws, to have such slave or slaves sold for the benefit of the owner or owners.

2. The introduction of slaves into this state as merchandise, or for sale, shall be prohibited from and after the first day of May, eighteen hundred and thirty-three: Provided, that the actual settler or settlers shall not be prohibited from purchasing slaves in any state in this union, and bringing them into this state for their own individual use, until the year eighteen hundred and forty-five.

3. In the prosecution of slaves for crimes of which the punishment is not capital, no inquest by a grand jury shall be necessary; but the proceedings in such cases shall be regulated by law.

Mode of revising the Constitution.

Whenever two-thirds of each branch of the legislature shall deem any change, alteration, or amendment necessary to this constitution, such proposed change, alteration, or amendment shall be read and passed by a majority of two-thirds of each house respectively on each day, for three several days. Public notice thereof shall then be given by the secretary of state, at least six months preceding the next general election, at which the qualified electors shall vote directly for or against such change, alteration, or amendment; and if it shall appear that a majority of the qualified electors voting for members of the legislature, shall have voted for the proposed change, alteration, or amendment, then it shall be inserted by the next succeeding legislature, as a part of this constitution, and not otherwise.

SCHEDULE.

§ 1. All rights vested, and all liabilities incurred, shall remain the same as if this constitution had not been adopted.

2. All suits at law or in equity, now pending in the several courts of this state, may be transferred to such court as may have proper jurisdiction thereof.

3. The governor and all officers, civil and military, now holding commissions under the authority of this state, shall continue to hold and exercise their respective offices until they shall be superseded, pursuant to the provisions of this constitution, and until their successors be duly qualified.

4. All laws now in force in this state, not repugnant to this constitution, shall continue to operate until they shall expire by their own limitation, or be altered or repealed by the legislature.

5. Immediately upon the adoption of this constitution, the president of this convention shall issue writs of election directed to the sheriffs of the several counties, requiring them to cause an election to be held on the first Monday and day following in December next, for members of the legislature, at the respective places of holding elections in said coun

ties, which elections shall be conducted in the manner prescribed by the existing election laws of this state: and the members of the legislature thus elected, shall continue in office until the next general election, and shall convene at the seat of government on the first Monday in January, eighteen hundred and thirty-three; and shall at their first session order an election to be held in every county of this state, on the first Monday in May and day following, eighteen hundred and thirty-three, for all state and county officers under this constitution, (members of the legislature excepted,) and the officers then elected shall continue in office until the succeeding general election and after, in the same manner as if the election had taken place at the time last aforesaid.

6. Until the first enumeration shall be made, as directed by this constitution, the apportionment of senators and representatives among the several districts and counties in this state shall remain as at present fixed by law.

P. RUTILIUS R. PRAY, President of the Convention, and Representative from the county of Hancock.

Attest, JoHN H. MALLORY, Secretary.

CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS.

The Constitution of the State of Illinois, adopted in convention, at Kaskaskia, on the twenty-sixth day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, and of the independence of the United States the forty-third.

THE people of the Illinois territory, having the right of admission into the general government, as a member of the Union, consistent with the constitution of the United States, the ordinance of congress of 1787, and the law of congress "approved April 18th, 1818," entitled "An act to enable the people of the Illinois territory to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, and for other purposes; in order to establish justice, promote the welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity, do, by their representatives in convention, ordain and establish the following constitution or form of government; and do mutually agree with each other to form themselves into a free and independent state, by the name of the state of Illinois. And they do hereby ratify the boundaries assigned to such state by the act of congress aforesaid, which are as follows, to wit: beginning at the mouth of the Wabash river, thence, up the same, and with the line of Indiana, to the north-west corner of said state; thence, east, with the line of the same state, to the middle of lake Michigan; thence, north, along the middle of said lake, to north latitude forty-two degrees and

thirty minutes; thence, west, to the middle of the Mississippi river; and thence, down, along the middle of that river, to its confluence with the Ohio river; and thence, up the latter river, along its north-western shore, to the beginning.

ARTICLE 1.

Concerning the distribution of the powers of Government.

1. The powers of the government of the state of Illinois shall be divided into three distinct departments, and each of them be confided to a separate body of magistracy, to wit: those which are legislative, to one; those which are executive, to another; and those which are judiciary, to another.

2. No person, or collection of persons, being one of those departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others; except as hereinafter expressly directed or permitted.

ARTICLE 2.

§ 1. The legislative authority of this state shall be vested in a general assembly, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives, both to be elected by the people.

2. The first election for senators and representatives shall commence on the third Thursday of September next, and continue for that and the two succeeding days; and the next election shall be held on the first Monday in August, one thousand eight hundred and twenty; and for ever after, elections shall be held once in two years, on the first Monday of August, in each and every county, at such places therein as may be provided by law.

3. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained the age of twenty-one years, who shall not be a citizen of the United States, and an inhabitant of this state; who shall not have resided within the limits of the county or district in which he shall be chosen twelve months next preceding his election, if such county or district shall have been so long erected; but if not, then within the limits of the county or counties, district or districts, out of which the same shall have been taken, unless he shall have been absent on the public business of the United States or of this state; and who, moreover, shall not have paid a state or county tax.

4. The senators, at their first session herein provided for, shall be divided by lot from their respective counties or districts, as near as can be, into two classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year; and those of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, so that one-half thereof, as near as possible, may be biennially chosen for ever thereafter.

5. The number of senators and representatives shall, at the first session of the general assembly, holden after the returns herein provided for are made, be fixed by the general assembly, and apportioned among the seve ral counties or districts to be established by law, according to the num ber of white inhabitants. The number of representatives shall not be less than twenty-seven, nor more than thirty-six, until the number of inhabitants within this state shall amount to one hundred thousand; and the number of senators shall never be less than one-third nor more than one-half of the number of representatives.

« AnteriorContinuar »