Alabama*

At an election held, November 16, 1875, a new Constitution, adopted by a Convention, was ratified by the following vote: For, 95,672; Against, 30,004.

Among the Declaration of Rights are the following:

That all persons resident in this State born in the United States, or naturalized, or who shall have legally declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, are hereby declared citizens of the State of Alabama, possessing equal civil and political rights.

That the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended by the authorities of this State.

That the exercise of the right of eminent domain shall never be abridged nor so construed as to prevent the General Assembly from taking the property and franchises of incorporated companies and subjecting them to public use the same as individuals. But private property shall not be taken for or applied to public use, unless just compensation be first made therefor; nor shall private property be taken for private use, or for the use of corporations, other than municipal, without the consent of the owner; Provided, however, that the General Assembly may, by law, secure to persons or corporations the right of way over the lands of other persons or corporations, and by general laws provide for and regulate the exercise by persons and corporations of the rights herein reserved; but just compensation shall, in all cases, be first made to the owner. And provided, That the right of eminent domain shall not be so construed as to allow taxation or forced subscription for the benefit of railroads or any other kind of corporations other than municipal, or for the benefit of any individual or association.

That every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the State.

That no form of slavery shall exist in this State, and there shall be no involuntary servitude, otherwise than for the punishment of crime, of which the party shall have been duly convicted.

The right of suffrage shall be protected by laws regulating elections, and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, all undue influences from power, bribery, tumult, or other improper conduct.

The people of this State accept as final the established fact that from the Federal Union there can be no secession of any State.

No educational or property qualification for suffrage or office, nor any restraint upon the same on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude, shall be made by law.

Other provisions are:

Election for Senators and Representatives shall be on the first Monday in August, 1876, and biennially—the terms of Senators to be four years, Representatives two, and the Legislature to meet biennially. Their pay to be $4 a day, and 10 cents a mile travel to and from the capital. Not more than thirty-three Senators, and not more than one hundred Representatives.

A member of either house expelled for corruption, shall not thereafter be eligible to either house; and punishment for contempt or disorderly behavior, shall not bar an indictment for the same offense.

No Senator or Representative shall, during the term for which he shall have been elected, be appointed to any civil office of profit, under this State, which shall have been created or the emoluments of which shall have been increased during such term, except such offices as may be filled by election by the people.

No person hereafter convicted of embezzlement of public money, bribery, perjury, or other infamous crime, shall be eligible to the General Assembly, or capable of holding any office of trust or profit in this State.

No special or local law shall be enacted for the benefit of individuals or corporations, in cases which are or can be provided for by a general law, or where the relief sought can be given by any court of this State; nor shall the operation of any general law be suspended by the General Assembly for the benefit of any individual, corporation or association.

No local or special law shall be passed, on a subject which cannot be provided for by a general law, unless notice of the intention to apply therefor shall have been published in the locality where the matter or things to be affected may be situated; which notice shall be at least twenty days prior to the introduction into the General Assembly of such bill; and the evidence of such notice having been given, shall be exhibited to the General Assembly before such bill shall be passed. Provided, That the provisions of this Constitution, as to special or local laws, shall not apply to public or educational institutions of or in this State, nor to industrial, mining, immigration, or manufacturing corporations or interests, or corporations for constructing canals, or improving navigable rivers or harbors of this State.

The General Assembly shall pass general laws, under which local and private interests shall be provided for and protected.

No bill shall be passed giving any extra compensation to any public officer, servant or employ6, agent or contractor, after the services shall have been rendered or contract made; nor shall any officer of the State bind the State to the payment of any sum of money but by authority of law.

No appropriation shall be made to any charitable or educational institution not under the absolute control of the State, other than Normal schools established by law for the professional training of teachers for the public schools of the State, except by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house.

No act of the General Assembly shall authorize the investment of any trust funds by executors, administrators, guardians and other trustees, in the bonds or stock of any private corporation; and any such acts now existing are avoided, saving investments heretofore made.

When the General Assembly shall be convened in special session, there .shall be no legislation upon subjects other than those designated in the proclamation of the Governor calling such session.

A member of the General Assembly who shall corruptly solicit, demand or receive, or consent to receive, directly or indirectly, for himself or for another, from any company, corporation, or person, any money, office, appointment, employment, reward, thing of value or enjoyment, or of personal advantage or promise thereof, for his vote or official influence, or for withholding the same; or with an understanding, expressed or implied, that his vote or official action shall be in any way influenced thereby; or who shall solicit or demand any such money or other advantage, matter or thing aforesaid, for another, as the consideration of his vote or official influence, or for withholding the same; or shall give or withhold his vote or influence in consideration of the payment or promise of such money, advantage, matter or thing to another, shall be guilty of bribery, within the meaning of this Constitution, and shall incur the disabilities provided thereby for such offence, and such additional punishment as is or shall be provided by law.

Any person who shall, directly or indirectly, offer, give or promise any money or thing of value, testimonial, privilege or personal advantage, to any Executive or Judicial officer, or member of the General Assembly, to influence him in the performance of any of his public or official duties, shall be guilty of bribery, and be punished in such manner as shall be provided by law.

The offense of corrupt solicitation of members of the General Assembly, or of public officers of this State, or of any municipal division thereof, and any occupation or practice of solicitation of such member or officers, to influence their official action, shall be defined by law, and shall be punished by fine and imprisonment.

The General Assembly shall not tax the property, real and personal, of the State, counties or other municipal corporations, or cemeteries; nor lots in incorporated cities or towns, or within one mile of any city or town, to the extent of one acre, nor lots one mile or more distant from such ckies or towns, to the extent of five acres, with the buildings thereon, when the same are used exclusively for religious worship, for schools, or for purposes purely charitable; nor such property, real or personal, to an extent not exceeding twenty

five thousand dollars in value, as may be used exclusively for agricultural or horticultural associations of a public character.

The General Assembly shall by law prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary to ascertain the value of personal and real property exempted from sale under legal process by this Constitution, and to secure the same to the claimant thereof as selected.

The State shall not engage in works of internal improvement, nor lend money or its credit in aid of such; nor shall the State be interested in any private or corporate enterprise, or lend money or its credit to any individual, association or corporation.

The General Assembly shall pass such penal laws as they may deem expedient to suppress the evil practice of duelling.

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

The Governor shall have power to remit fines and forfeitures, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by law, and after conviction, to grant reprieves, commutation of sentence and pardons (except in cases of treason and impeachment); but pardons, in cases of murder, arson, burglary, rape, assault with intent to commit rape, perjury, forgery, bribery and larceny, shall not relieve from civil and political disability unless specifically expressed in the pardon.

The Governor shall have power to disapprove of any item or items of any bill making appropriations of money, embracing distinct items, and the part or parts of the bill approved shall be the law, and the item or items of appropriations disapproved shall be void, unless repassed accordding to the rules and limitations prescribed for the passage of other bills over the Executive veto; and he shall, in writing, state specifically the item or items he disapproves.

Every male citizen of the United States, and every male person of foreign birth, who may have legally declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States before he offers to vote, who is twenty-one years old or upwards, possessingthe following qualifications, shall be an elector, and shall be entitled to vote at any election by the people, except as hereinafter provided:

First. He shall have resided in the State at least one year immediately preceding the election at which he offers to vote.

Second. He shall have resided in the county for three months, and in the precinct, or ward, for thirty days immediately preceding the election at which he offers to vote; provided, that the General Assembly may prescribe a longer or shorter residence in any precinct in any county, or in any ward in any incorporated city or town having a population of more than five thousand inhabitants, but in no case to exceed three months; and provided, that no soldier, sailor or marine in the military or naval service of the United States shall acquire a residence by being stationed in this State.

All elections by the people shall be by ballot, and all elections by persons in a representative capacity shall be viva voce*

The following classes shall not be permitted to register, vote or hold office:

First. Those who shall have been convicted of treason, embezzlement of public funds, malfeasance in office, larceny, bribery, or other crime punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary.

Second. Those who are idiots or insane.

It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to pass adequate laws giving protection against the evils arising from the use of intoxicating liquors at all elections.

The Constitution creates Senatorial and Representative districts, to remain till the apportionment made after the census of 1880.

The personal property of any resident of this State to the value of one thousand dollars, to be selected by such resident, shall be exempted from sale on execution, or other process of any court, issued for the collection of any debt contracted since the thirteenth day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, or after the ratification of this Constitution.

Every homestead not exceeding eighty acres, and the dwelling and appurtenances thereon, to be selected by the owner thereof, and not in any city, town, or village, or in lieu thereof, at the option of the owner, any lot in the city, town, or village, with the dwelling and appurtenances thereon, owned and occupied by any resident of this State, and not exceeding the value of two thousand dollars, shall be exempted from sale on execution, or any other process from a court, for any debt contracted since the thirteenth day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, or after the ratification of this Constitution. Such exemption, however, shall not extend to any mortgage lawfully obtained, but such mortgage or other alienation of such homestead, by the owner thereof, if a married man, shall not be valid without the voluntary signature and assent of the wife to the same. But this shall not be so construed as to prevent a laborer's lien for work done and performed for the person claiming such exemption, or a mechanic's lien for work done on the premises.

All taxes levied on property in this State shall be assessed in exact proportion to the value of such property: Provided', however, The General Assembly may levy a poll tax, not to exceed one dollar and fifty cents on each poll; which shall be applied exclusively in aid of the public school fund, in the county so paying the same.

No power to levy taxes shall be delegated to individuals or private corporations.

The General Assembly shall not have the power to levy, in any one year, a greater rate of taxation than three-fourths of one per centum on the value of the taxable property within this State.

No county in this State shall be authorized to levy a larger rate of taxation, in any one year, on the value of the 'taxable property therein, than one-half of one per centum.

The property of private corporations, associations and individuals of this State, shall forever be taxed at the same rate; Provided, This section shall not apply to institutions or enterprises devoted exclusively to religious, educational or charitable purposes.

The General Assembly shall establish, organ7

ize, and maintain a system of public schools throughout the State, for the equal benefit of the children thereof, between the ages of seven and twenty-one years; but separate schools shall be provided for the children of citizens of African descent.

The General Assembly shall also provide for the levying and collection of an annual poll tax, not to exceed one dollar and fifty cents on each poll, which shall be applied to the support of the public schools in the counties in which it is levied and collected.

No money raised for the support of the public schools of the State shall be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian or denominational school.

No corporation shall issue stock or bonds, except for money, labor done, or money or property actually received; and all fictitious increase of stock or indebtedness shall be void. The stock and bonded indebtedness of corporations shall not be increased, except in pursuance of general laws, nor without the consent of the persons holding the larger amount in value of stock, first obtained at a meeting to be held after thirty days' notice given in pursuance of law.

The General Assembly shall not have the power to establish or incoporate any bank or banking company, or moneyed institution, for the purpose of issuing bills of credit, or bills payable to order or bearer, except under the conditions prescribed in this Constitution.

No banks shall be established otherwise than under a general banking law, nor otherwise than upon a specie basis.

All bills, or notes issued as money, shall be, at all times, redeemable in gold or silver, and no law shall be passed sanctioning, directly or indirectly, the suspension, by any bank or banking company, of specie payment.

Holders of bank notes, and depositors who have not stipulated for interest, shall, for such notes and deposits, be entitled, in case of insolvency, to the preference of payment over all other creditors.

Every bank or banking company shall be required to cease all banking operations within twenty years from the time of its organization, (unless the General Assembly shall extend the time), and promptly thereafter close its business; but shall have corporate capacity to sue, and shall be liable to suit, until its affairs and liabilities are fully closed.

No bank shall receive, directly or indirectly, a greater rate of interest than shall be allowed by law to individuals for lending money.

The State shall not be a stockholder in any bank, nor shall the credit of the State ever be given, or loaned, to any banking company, association, or corporation.

All railroads and canals shall be public highways, and all railroad and canal companies slaali be common carriers. Any association or corporation organized for the purpose shall have the right to construct and operate a railroad between any points in this State, and to connect, at the State line, with railroads of other States. Every railroad company shall have the right with its road to intersect, connect with, or cross any other railroad, and shall receive and transport, each, the others' freight, passengers, and cars, loaded or empty, without delay or discrimination.

The General Assembly shall pass laws to correct abuses and prevent unjust discrimination and extortion in the rates of freights and passenger tariffs on railroads, canals and rivers in this State.

No railroad or other transportation company shall grant free passes, or sell tickets or passes at a discount, other than as sold to the public generally, to any member of the General Assembly, or to any person holding office under this State or the United States.

No person holding an office of profit under the United States, except Postmasters whose annual salary does not exceed two hundred dollars, shall, during his continuance in such office, hold any office of profit under this State; nor shall any person hold two offices of profit at one and at the same time under this State, except justices of the peace, constables, notaries public and commissioners of deeds.

Nt Convention shall hereafter be held for the purpose of altering or amending the Constitution of this State, unless the question of Convention or no Convention shall be first submitted to a vote of all the electors of the State, and approved by a majority of those voting at said election.

Arkansas.

A few of the important provisions only, of the new Constitution, are given:

Every male citizen of the United States, or male person who has declared his intention of becoming a citizen of the same, of the age of twenty-one years, who has resided in the State twelve months, in the county six months, in the voting precinct or ward one month, next preceding the election, shall be entitled to vote. No law shall be enacted whereby the right to vote at any election shall be made to depend upon any previous registration of the elector's name.

All elections by the people shall be by ballot. Every ballot shall be numbered in the order in which it shall be received, and the number recorded by the election officers on the list of voters, opposite the name of the elector who presents the ballot. The election officers shall be sworn or affirmed not to disclose how any elector shall have voted, unless required to do so as witnesses in a judicial proceeding, or proceeding to contest an election.

The Supreme Court shall be composed of three judges; one of whom shall be chief justice, elected as such; two of whom shall constitute a quorum. The term of office shall be eight years.

The State shall ever maintain a general, suitable and efficient system of free schools, whereby all persons in the State, between the ages of six and twenty-one years, may receive gratuitous instruction.

No money belonging to the public school fund, or to the State, for the benefit of schools or universities, shall ever be used for any other than for the respective purposes to which it belongs.

The General Assembly shall provide, by general laws, for the support of common schools by taxes, which shall never exceed in any one year two mills on the dollar in the taxable property of

the State; and by an annual per capita tax of one dollar, to be assessed on every male inhabitant of the State over the age of twentyone years; Provided, The General Assembly may, by general law, authorize school-districts to levy, by a vote of the qualified electors of such districts, a tax not to exceed five mills on the dollar in any one year for school purposes; Provided further, That no such tax shall be appropriated to any other purpose, nor to any other district than that for which it was levied.

The supervision of public schools, and the execution of the laws regulating the same, shall be vested in and confided to such officers as may be provided for by the General Assembly.

All property subject to taxation shall be taxed according to its value. The General Assembly shall not have power to levy State taxes for any one year to exceed, in the aggregate, one per cent, of the assessed valuation of the property for that year.

Senators and representatives, and all judicial and executive, State and county officers, and all other officers, both civil and military, before entering on the duties of their respective offices, shall take and subscribe to the following oath or affirmation: . "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Arkansas, and that I will faithfully discharge the office upon which I am now about to enter."

California.

The proposed Amendments to the Constitution, proposed by the Legislature of 1873-4, and printed in McPherson's Hand-Book of Politics for 1874, pp. 58-60, were agreed to only in part by the Legislature of the twenty first session (18756), and were not submitted to the people for their approval.

Instead, at the election of 1875, the vote was taken on the question of calling a Constitutional Convention; which was disagreed to—"For" a Convention, 34,374; "Against," 25,552—total vote for Governor at same election, 122,939. . At same time, a proposed amendment providing that the laws shall be published in such a manner as the Legislature shall direct, as a substitute for the 21st section of Article eleven of the State Constitution, requiring publication in Spanish— was also lost.

An act was passed April 3, 1876, recommending to the electors of the State, at the first general election for members of the Legislature after the passage of this act, to vote for or against calling a Convention to revise and change the Constitution of the State.

Connecticut.

A vote of the people was taken, October 4, 1875, on two Constitutional Amendments, which were adopted, as follows:

THE FIRST.

Section I. A general election for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Comptroller and Members of the General Assembly, shall be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, 1876, and annually thereafter for such officers as are herein, and may be hereafter prescribed.

Sec. 2. The State officers above named, and the senators from those districts having even numbers, elected on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, 1876, and those elected biennially thereafter on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, shall respectively hold their offices for two years from and after the Wednesday following the first Monday of the next succeeding January. The senators from those districts having odd numbers, elected on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, 1876, shall hold their offices for one year from and after the Wednesday following the first Monday of January, 1877; the electors residing in the senatorial districts having odd numbers shall, on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, 1877, and biennially thereafter, elect senators who shall hold their offices for two years from and after the Wednesday following the first Monday of the next succeeding January. The representatives elected from the several towns on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, 1876, and those elected annually thereafter, shall hold their offices for one year from and after Wednesday following £he first Monday of the next succeeding January.

Sec. 3. There shall be a stated session of the General Assembly in Hartford, on the Wednesday after the first Monday of January, 1877, and annually thereafter on the Wednesday after the first Monday of January.

Sec. 4. The persons who shall be severally elected to the State Offices and General Assembly on the first Monday of April, 1876, shall hold such offices only until the Wednesday after the first Monday of January, 1877.

Sec. 5. The General Assembly elected in April, 1876, shall have power topass such laws as may be necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this amendment.

THE SECOND.

The General Assembly shall have power, by a vote of two-thirds of the members of both branches, to restore the privileges of an elector to those who may have forfeited the same by a conviction of crime.

The vote on the first was: "For," 41,264; "Against," 2,525. On the second: "For," 31,619; "Against," 11,363.

Four other amendments were before the Legislature of 1775, having been continued over by a majority vote from the previous year:

That no county, city, town, or other municipality shall ever become a subscriber to the capital stock of, or loan its credit in aid of, any railroad or private corporation.

Judges of Common Pleas and Probate, and all other Judges of inferior courts, shall be appointed in the manner now provided, for such terms, not exceeding six years, as the General Assembly may determine by law.

From and after the expiration of the term of Senators elected in April, 1876, the Senate shall consist of not less than forty-one nor more than forty-nine members. The General Assembly of 1876 shall divide the State into Senatorial districts, and in forming them neither the whole or part of one county shall be joined to the whole

or part of another county to form a district, regard to be had to population in such apportionment, and no town shall be divided, unless for the purpose of forming more than one district within such town. The districts, when established, shall continue the same until the session of the General Assembly next after the completion of the next census of the United States, when the districts may be changed, but not again till after the next census.

After the first Wednesday in May, 1877, the Senate shall be composed of members chosen annually. The General Assembly of May, 1876, shall divide the State into Senatorial Districts, not less than thirty-five nor more than forty-five. [The manner of forming districts is the same as provided in the preceding proposed amendment. See Miscellaneous Chapter.]

The following items from the newspapers give the result on the above:

Hartford, June 9, 1875.—The House today defeated the proposed constitutional amendment extending the term of the Judges of the Probate and of the Superior Courts to not exceeding six years. The chief objection was to the Judges of the Probate Court, the present term of one year giving a chance for rotation.

June 23—The Senate to-day passed a constitutional amendment, forbidding the bonding of towns in aid of railroads or other private corporations. The vote stood—Yeas, 15; Nays, 6. The amendment was defeated in the House. In the House, a constitutional amendment redistrictr ing the State and making the number of Senators not less than 41 nor more than 49 was defeated —yeas, 105; nays, 121.

The present number of Senators is 21, whose term has been for one year; of Representatives 246, also for one year.

Florida.

The Constitutional Amendments adopted by the Legislature of 1874—an abstract of which can be found in McPherson's Hand Book of Politics for 1874, pp. 62, 63—were ratified by the succeeding Legislature, and adopted by the people, and are now a part of the organic law of that

State.

Georgia.

A bill passed the House of Representatives at the late session—yeas 117, nays 27—to provide for calling a Constitutional Convention, to consist of 194 delegates, to be elected in January, 1877, but it failed to become a law.

Kentucky.

In November, 1874, a call for a Constitutional Convention was defeated, a majority of all the qualified voters being necessary to a call. The affirmative votes were 85,466 out of 288,316.

Louisiana.

In November, 1874, the following Constitutional Amendments were ratified by the people: For first amendment, 69,419; against, 60,070; for second, 70,824; against, 59,634; for third, 70,499; against, 59,995; for fourth, 69,750; against, 59,640; for fifth, 67,234; against, 59,528.