the public or oppress individuals by unjustly | gether." Wright v. United States (U. S.) 108 subjecting them to the power of the con- Fed. 805, 809, 48 C. C. A. 37. federators, and giving color to the purposes of the latter, whether of extortion or mischief. Commonwealth v. Gallagher, 4 Pa. Law J. 58, 64; Cote v. Murphy (Pa.) 28 Atl. 190, 192, 23 L. R. A. 135, 39 Am. St. Rep. 686; Crump v. Commonwealth (Va.) 6 S. E. 620, 625, 10 Am. St. Rep. 895. "Conspire" is a word in common use, which necessarily carries with it the idea of agreement, concurrence, and combination; and when one person is charged with conspiring with another there are no words in the English language by which the idea of the action and co-operation of two minds could be more effectively conveyed, since one cannot agree or conspire with another who does not agree or conspire with him. State v. Slutz, 30 South. 298, 299, 106 La. 182. "Conspiracy was anciently confined to imposing by combination a false crime on any person, or conspiring to convict an innocent person by perjury and a perversion of the law; but it is certain that modern cases have extended the doctrine far beyond that, and every conspiracy to do an unlawful act CONSTABLE. is indictable." A combination by two to cheat a third person by making him drunk and playing falsely at cards with him is indictable at common law. State v. Younger, 12 N. C. 357, 358, 17 Am. Dec. 571. See "State Constable." As police officer, see "Police Officer." A constable is an officer charged with a A conspiracy to defraud creditors is an offense against good morals, common hon-duty to the public of the gravest and most del esty, and sound public policy, for it is a let and hindrance to the due course and execution of law and justice, and tends to overthrow all true and plain dealing and bargaining between man and man, without which no commonwealth or civil society can be maintained or continued. Hawley v. Smeiding, 42 Pac. 841, 842, 3 Kan. App. 159 (citing Bump, Fraud. Conv. 443; Weatherbee v. Cockrell, 44 Kan. 380, 382, 24 Pac. 417). icate nature, in which the whole commonwealth is vitally interested. Pearson V. Brunswick County Sup'rs, 9 Va. 322, 334, 21 S. E. 483. A constable is a known officer charged with the conservation of the peace, and whose business it is to arrest those who have violated it. Commonwealth v. Deacon (Pa.) 8 Serg. & R. 47, 49. Constables are legal officers of the peace A conspiracy as an agreement or an un-elected by cities and towns. Originally their dertaking or a combination entered into be-duty was to keep the peace, and they have no tween two or more persons to accomplish an authority to serve process in civil actions, exillegal result, i. e., the doing of something cept such as is conferred on them by statute. which is against the law of the government; Leavitt v. Leavitt, 135 Mass. 191, 193. entering into a combination to do something which is by law a crime against the United States. United States v. Howell (U. S.) 56 Fed. 21, 33. CONSPIRE. To "conspire" is defined by Webster as to make an agreement, especially a secret agreement; to do some act, as to commit a treason, or a crime, or to do some unlawful deed; to plot together; to concur to one end; to agree. In the Century Dictionary it is defined to agree by oath, covenant, or otherwise to commit a reprehensible or illegal act; to engage in a conspiracy. Thus, as used in statutes of the United States, that if two or more persons conspire they shall be punishable, etc., it is used in the sense in which it is employed by English writers and speakers, so that it would have added nothing to the meaning of the act to have added the word "together" or the words "between themselves"; and hence an indictment charging that persons conspire to defraud the United States is sufficient without the use of the words "combine, confederate, or agree to Constables are in Michigan, and "always have been, the local peace officers of their vicinage, the ministerial officers of the judges of the peace, and the bailiffs of the court of record of criminal jurisdiction in the county." Allor v. Wayne County, 4 N. W. 492. 500, 43 Mich. 76. In the construction of statutes the terms "sheriff," "coroner," "constable," "clerk,” or other words used for an executive or ministerial officer may include any deputy or other person performing the duties of such officer, Hurd's either generally or in special cases. Rev. St. Ill. 1901, p. 1719, c. 131, § 1, subd. 8. The term "constable" includes any person performing the duties of such officer, either generally or in special cases. Shannon's Code Tenn. 1896, § 66. The words "coroner," "Justice," and "constable" mean officers of the county in which the action is brought or is pending, or in which the proceeding is had, or to whom the process is directed. Sand. & H. Dig. Ark. 1893, § 7212. CONSTANTLY. tablishes the government, delegates, limits, and defines the manner in which the governing power of the state shall be exercised, and by overpowering necessity compels those who frame government to confer ample power on its agencies to enforce the protection and security for which government is instituted." Wabash, St. L. & P. Ry. Co. v. Peo Where an insurance policy provided that the insured premises should be "constantly worked," such phrase meant that the premises should be worked during the usual and customary working days and hours for the prosecution of the business for which they were employed. Prieger v. Exchange Mut. | ple, 105 Ill. 236, 240. Ins. Co., 6 Wis. 89, 104. CONSTITUENT. His constituents, see "His." "Constituent element," as used in refer ence to the conviction or acquittal of one crime as a bar to another, the proof of one of which involved the proof of the other, or such that one is a part or "constituent element" of the other, signifies an essential and necessary ingredient. State v. Magone, 56 Pac. 648, 650, 33 Or. 570. CONSTITUTION. A constitution is that by which the pow ers of government are limited. It is to the governors, or rather to the departments of government, what a law is to individuals; nay, it is not only a rule of action to the branches of government, but it is that from the powers (or portions of the right to gov which their existence flows, and by which ern) which may have been committed to them are prescribed. It is their commission; nay, it is their creator. Kamper v. Hawkins, 1 Va. Cas. 20-24. A constitution is defined by Judge Story to be a fundamental law or basis of government. It is established by the people, in their original sovereign capacity, to promote See "State Constitution"; "Written Con- their own happiness, and permanently to sestitution." "A constitution' is, according to the American idea, the organization of the government, distributing its powers among bodies of magistracy, and declaring their rights, and the liberties reserved and maintained by the people." French v. State, 52 Miss. 759, 762. A constitution is not the beginning of a country, nor the origin of appropriate rights. It is not the fountain of law, nor the incipient state of government. It grants no rights to the people, but it is the creature of their power, the instrument of their convenience. Designed for their protection in the enjoyment of the rights and powers they possessed before the constitution was made, it is but the framework of political government, and necessarily based on the pre-existing rights, habits, and modes of thought. State v. County Treasurer, 4 S. C. (4 Rich.) 520, 536. When the people associate, and enter into a compact, for the purpose of establishing government, that compact, whatever may be its provisions, or in whatever language it may be written, is the constitution of the state, revocable only by the people, or in the manner they prescribe. It is by this instrument that government is instituted, its departments created, and the powers to be exercised by it conferred. Bates v. Kimball (Vt.) 2 D. Chip. 77, 84. "A constitution or foundation of government embraces and declares the principles, regulates the division and exercise of the governing power, directs to what officers or agencies it shall be confided, and limits and controls its exercise. In other words, it es cure their rights, property, independence, and common welfare. McKoan v. Devries, 3 Barb. 196, 198 (quoting 1 Story, Const. §§ 338, 339); Church v. Kelsey, 7 Sup. Ct. 897, 898, 121 U. S. 282, 30 L. Ed. 960. A constitution is the form of government, delineated by the mighty hand of the people, in which certain first principles of fundamental laws are established. The constitution is certain and fixed. It contains the permanent will of the people, and is the supreme law of the land. It is paramount to the legislature, and can be revoked or altered only by the authority that made it. Vanhorne's Lessee v. Dorrance, 2 U. S. (2 Dall.) 304, 308, 28 Fed. Cas. 1012, 1 L. Ed. 391. A constitution is that body of rules and maxims in accordance with which the powers of sovereignty are habitually exercised, and its provisions are the rules of conduct for those branches of the government which exercise the sovereign power. State v. Griswold, 34 Atl. 1046, 1047, 67 Conn. 290, 33 L. R. A. 227. "A constitution is an act of extraordinary legislation by which the people establish the structure and mechanism of their government, and in which they prescribe fundamental rules to regulate the motions of the several parts." Eakin v. Raub (Pa.) 12 Serg. & R. 330, 347. "Every state constitution is a compact made by and between the citizens of a state to govern themselves in a certain manner, and the Constitution of the United States is likewise a compact made by the people of the United States to govern themselves, as to general objects, in a certain manner." Per Jay, C. J., in Chisholm v. Georgia (Pa.) 21 which each must act, and establishes bounds Dall. 419, 471, 1 L. Ed. 440. beyond which neither can go. Rison v. Farr, 24 Ark. 161, 166, 87 Am. Dec. 52. A constitution is the written charter enacted and adopted by the people of a state through a combination of representatives, or in any way the people may choose to act, by which a government for them is obtained and established, and by which the people give organic and corporate form to that ideal thing, a state, for all time to come, or during the life of the state. Lynn v. Polk, 76 Tenn. (8 Lea) 121, 165. In our system of government, a written constitution is the highest expression of law; none other emanates directly from the sovereign people themselves. It is the deliberate and affirmative utterance of the sovereign majority. In re Denny, 59 N. E. 359, 360, 156 Ind. 104, 51 L. R. A. 722. A constitution is an instrument of government, made and adopted by the people for practical purposes connected with the common business and wants of human life. In re Silkman, 84 N. Y. Supp. 1025, 1029, 88 App. | Div. 102; People v. New York Cent. R. Co., 24 N. Y. 485, 486. The term "constitution" is used in several senses. In a broad sense of the term, we may speak of a constitution resting upon usage or acquiescence, as in England. But in this country, when we use the term, we refer exclusively to the sovereign acts of the people, acting by conventions or in other constitutional modes. Horsman v. Allen, 61 Pac. 796. 799, 129 Cal. 139 (citing Cooley, Const. Lim. pp. 5, 6). In American constitutional law, the word "constitution" is used in a restricted sense, as implying a written instrument agreed on by the people of the Union, or of any one of the states, as the absolute rule of action and decision for all departments and officers of the government in respect to all of the points covered by it, which must control until it shall be changed by the authority which established it, and in opposition to which any act or regulation of any such department or officer, or even the people themselves, will be altogether void. Cline v. State, 36 Tex. Cr. R. 320, 350, 36 S. W. 1099, 1107, 37 S. W. 722, 61 Am. St. Rep. 850 (citing Cooley, Const. Lim. p. 5). A constitution is but a higher form of statutory law, and it is entirely competent for the people, if they so desire, to incorporate into it self-executing enactments. Willis v. Mabon, 50 N. W. 1110, 1111, 48 Minn. 140, 16 L. R. A. 281, 31 Am. St. Rep. 626. The constitution of a state is the supreme law of the land, under the Constitution of the United States, and is of binding force and obligation upon all dependents of the government, and assigns the sphere within As contract or law. See "Contract"; "Law." As fixed and permanent. A constitution is the form of government created by the hand of the people, in which certain first principles of fundamental law are established. The constitution is certain and fixed; it contains the permanent will of the people, and is the supreme law of the land; it is paramount to the power of the legislature, and can be revoked or altered only by the authority that made it. Vanhorne's Lessee v. Dorrance, 2 U. S. (2 Dall.) 304, 308, 28 Fed. Cas. 1012, 1 L. Ed. 391. The term "constitution," as applied to government, is the form or government instituted by the people in their sovereign capacity, in which, first, the principal and fundamental laws are established. A constitution is the supreme, permanent, and fixed will of the people in their original, unlimited, and sovereign capacity, and in it are determined the conditions, rights, and duties of every individual of the community. Pheobe v. Jay, 1 Ill. (Breese) 268, 271. The term "constitution" implies an instrument of a permanent and abiding nature, and, while it contains provision for revision, it indicates the will of the people that the underlying principles upon which it rests, as well as the substantial entirety of the instrument, shall be of a like permanent and abiding nature. Livermore v. Waite, 36 Pac. 424, 426, 102 Cal. 113, 25 L. R. A. 312. As a limitation on legislative power. "The constitution of a state is the supreme, organized, and written will of the people, acting in convention, and assigning to different departments of the government their respective powers. It may remove and control the action of these departments, or it may confer upon them any extent of power not incompatible with the federal compact. By an inspection and examination of the constitutions of our country, they will be found to be nothing more than so many limitations upon the departments of the government and people." Taylor v. Governor, 1 Ark. (1 Pike) 21, 27. A constitution of a state is not a grant of power, or an enabling act to the legislature; but it is a limitation on the state's general powers of a legislative character, and restricts only so far as the restriction appears either by express terms or by necessary inference. McConville v. Howell (U. S.) 17 Fed. 104, 106. A constitution, "according to the common acceptation of the word in the United States, may be said to be an agreement of the peo ple, in their individual capacities, reduced to the Constitution as written, and as written writing, establishing and fixing certain prin- in the English language, so that a person ciples for the government of themselves. who cannot read the Constitution in the EngAmong these principles, one of the most im- lish language is not entitled to vote. Rasportant in all our constitutions is to prescribe mussen v. Baker, 50 Pac. 819, 823, 7 Wyo. and limit the objects of legislative power. 117, 38 L. R. A. 773. The people are sovereign, in power they are supreme, and the legislature acts by dele CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOM. gated and circumscribed authority; circumscribed as to its objects, circumscribed as to its extent over these objects." State v. Parkhurst, 9 N. J. Law (4 Halst.) 427, 443. As written and in English. "Constitutional freedom" certainly does not consist in exemption from governmental interference in the citizen's private affairs, in his being unmolested in his family, in being; suffered to buy, sell, and enjoy property, "In our American constitutional law the and generally to seek happiness in his own word 'constitution' is used in a restricted sense, as implying a written instrument agreed on by the people of the Union, or of any one of the states, as an absolute rule of action and decision for all departments and offices of the government in respect to all points covered by it, which must control till it shall be changed by the authority which established it, and in opposition to which any act or regulation of any such department or officer, or even the people themselves, will be together void." State v. McCann, 72 Tenn. (4 Lea) 1, 9 (quoting Cooley, Const. Lim. PP. 2, 3). way. All these might be permitted by the most arbitrary ruler, even though he allowed his subjects no degree of political liberty. Mr. Justice Story has well shown that conthan liberty permitted; it consists in the civil stitutional freedom means something more and political rights which are absolutely guarantied, assured, and guarded; in one's vote, his right to hold office, his right to worliberties as a man and a citizen-his right to ship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, his equality with all others who and protected, and not held at the mercy and are his fellow citizens; all these, guarded discretion of any one man or any popular majority. People v. Hurlbut, 24 Mich. 44, 106, 108, 9 Am. Dec. 103. cONSTITUTIONAL LAW. See "Unconstitutional." In its most general sense, a "constitution" is defined as that body of rules and maxims in accordance with which the powers of sovereignty are habitually exercised. Cooley, Const. Lim. 2. The term "constitution" may not be improperly applied to the guiding principles underlying these varying forms of government, whether they are or are not established by any written instrument. Miller, Const. 63. Comprehensively considered, therefore, a "constitution" consists in the fundamental principles of the government, and, as thus understood, the use of the term would not be inapplicable in referring to almost any kind of established human government. It might be either written or unwritten. The principles, therefore, might rest solely upon the will of an absolute monarch; but in the United States the word "constitution" is used in a restricted sense, as implying the written instrument agreed upon by the people of the Union, or any one of the states, as the absolute rule of action and decision for all departments and officers of government in respect to all the points covered by it, which must control until it shall be charged by the authority which established it. A "constitution," in the American sense of the word, is a written instrument by which the fundamental powers of the government are established, limited, and defined, and by which those powers are distributed among several departments for their safe and useful exercise for the benefit of the CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICE OR OFFIbody politic. The term "constitution," with in the provision that no person shall have the right to vote who shall not be able to Constitutional law, in the form which it has taken in the United States, is an American graft on English jurisprudence. Its principles and rules are mainly the work of the present century. They rest upon the fundamental conception of the supreme law, expressed in written form, in accordance with which all private rights must be determined and all public authority administered. The Constitution of Connecticut, art. 2, has divided the powers of government into three distinct departments, each confided to a separate magistracy. To one of these departments is intrusted (article 5) the judicial power of the state. In all cases where the meaning of a written document is to be collected from the words in which it is expressed, its construction, if called in question in the course of a judicial proceeding, is to be determined by the court. This is a proper and necessary exercise of judicial power. Hence it follows that the constitutionality of a statute on which a prosecution is based is a matter for the court, and not for the jury. State v. Main, 37 Atl. 80, 69 Conn. 123, 36 L. R. A. 623, 61 Am. St. Rep. 30. CER. Any of those officers whose tenure and read the Constitution of this state, relates to term of office are fixed and defined by the Constitution are known as "constitutional officers." Foster v. Jones, 79 Va. 642, 644, 52 Am. Rep. 637. Const. § 30, art. 16, provides that all terms of office not otherwise fixed by the Constitution are limited to two years. Held that, since the office of an attorney is one for life, he cannot be regarded as a constitutional officer. Ex parte Williams, 20 S. W. 580, 581, 31 Tex. Cr. R. 262, 21 L. R. A. 783. "Constitutional offices" are those either created or provided for in the Constitution. They are, generally speaking, such as are governmental in their nature, as, for example, the executive, judicial, or legislative offices of the state, or any political division thereof. The offices are either created or provided for in the Constitution, while such offices as are designed for the administration of the affairs of municipalities are ordinarily created by the Legislature. People v. Scheu, 69 N. Y. Supp. 597, 599, 60 App. Div. 592. CONSTITUTIONAL TERM. liens, shall be held to include partial construction, and all repairs done in and upon any building, or other improvement. Ann. Codes & Sts. Or. 1901, § 5652. Alterations and reconstruction. Every change, alteration, or addition in or to an existing structure does not constitute an "erection or construction of a building" within the meaning of that phrase as used in laws giving mechanics' liens. The change or alteration must be such that the whole structure as changed or altered would commonly be regarded as another new and different building, and the addition of a back building to a main structure, as, for instance, a bathhouse and kitchen to a residence, is not an "erection or construction of a building." Rand v. Mann (Pa.) 3 Phila. 429. Under Gen. St. Mass. c. 151, § 12, giving materialmen a lien for labor and material furnished in the "construction and repair" of vessels, work on a steamer, consisting in enlarging the promenade deck, taking off and replacing the hurricane deck, and other items done in order to adapt the steamer to new uses and service, was included. Donnell v. Starlight, 103 Mass. 227, 232. Rev. St. c. 6, tit. 1, § 8, provides that all vacancies in the office of representative in Congress, senator, justice of the peace, etc., shall be supplied at the general election next succeeding the happening thereof, but when St. 1848, § 490, providing that, whenever the term of service of any such officer will a debt is contracted for labor performed or expire at the end of the year during which materials used in the "construction" or rethe vacancy in his office shall occur, no per- pair of any ship or vessel, such debt shall be son shall be chosen to supply such vacancy, a lien thereon, and shall be preferred to all but the usual election shall be held for a new other liens except mariners' wages, should officer to hold during the constitutional term. be construed to apply to alterations and reHeld, that the expression "constitutional constructions as well as to the original conterm" did not mean a term of service neces-struction, for, if the latter meaning alone sarily commencing on the 1st day of January, had been intended, the word "building" since it is evident that the constitutional would seem to have been more natural. The term of a representative in Congress does Ferax (U. S.) 8 Fed. Cas. 1147. not commence on that date, but that the only effect of the section was to dispense with special elections, and, in case the term of service in any office in which a vacancy occurs should expire before the close of the year, a successor should be chosen in the same manner as if no vacancy had happened. People v. Green (N. Y.) 2 Wend. 266, 276. CONSTRUCT-CONSTRUCTION. See "Is Constructed"; "Original Con struction." Construction of instruments, see "Construe-Construction." The International Dictionary defines the word "construct": "To put together constituent parts of something in their proper place or order; to build; to form; to make." Morse v. City of West-Port, 19 S. W. 831, 832, 110 Mo. 502; Contas v. City of Bradford, 55 "Construction," as used in Rev. St. 1881, $8 40, 45, authorizing aid to the construction of railroads, will be construed to provide also for aid in the reconstruction of railroads, reconstruction being but a form of construction. Bell v. Maish, 36 N. E. 358, 359, 137 Ind. 226. Where the structure of a building is so completely changed that in common parlance it may be properly called a 'new building' or a 'rebuilding,' the process of change is such an erection or construction of a building as to be within the meaning of that phrase as used in laws giving mechanics' liens. Smith v. Nelson (Pa.) 2 Phila. 113, 114. The mechanic's lien act, authorizing a work and materials in the "erection or conmechanic's lien to be filed on buildings for struction" thereof, means the original building of the house or other building, and cannot be construed to include the repair, alteration, or addition to houses or other buildings The words "construction, alteration, or already constructed. Appeal of Hancock, repair," as used in the chapter relating to 7 Atl. 773, 775, 115 Pa. 1 (citing Rynd v. Atl. 989, 990, 206 Pa. 291. |