The Legislature may prescribe additional qualifications for electors of municipal and school-district elections.

SEC. 2. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained a residence by reason of his presence, or to have lost it by reason of his absence, while in the civil or military service of the State, or of the United States; nor while a student at any institution of learning, nor while kept at public expense in any poorhouse or other asylum, nor while confined in prison.

SEC. 3. Voters shall, in all cases except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at elections, and in going to and returning therefrom.

SEC. 4. No person, except a qualified elector, shall be elected or appointed to any civil office in the State.

SEC. 5. The general election shall be held biennially on the Tuesday next succeeding the first Monday of November.

SEC. 6. All elections by the people shall be by ballot, and a plurality of votes shall elect, in all cases except where the person who shall receive them shall be ineligible; in which case the person receiving the next highest number of votes, and who is eligible, shall be declared elected. Elections, by persons in their representative capacity, shall be viva voce, and a majority shall be necessary to an election.

SEC. 7. No idiot or insane person shall be entitled to the privileges of an elector.

SEC. 8. Laws shall be passed, excluding from the right of suffrage, all persons who have been or may be convicted of bribery, perjury, or of any infamous crime; and depriving every person who shall make, or become, directly or indirectly, interested in any bet or wager depending upon the result of any election, of the right to vote at such election.

SEC. 9. The Legislature shall pass laws to preserve the purity of elections, and to guard against the abuse of the elective franchise, and shall, for that purpose, have the power to pass laws of registration.

ARTICLE V

DECLARATION OF RIGHT

SECTION 1. All political power is inherent in the People, and all free governments are founded on their authority.

SEC. 2. The people of this State have the sole right to alter or abolish this Constitution and form of government, whenever they deem

A similar declaration of rights is found in Art. I of our present Constitution.

it necessary to their safety and happiness; provided, such change be not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States.

SEC. 3. All persons are by nature free, and equally entitled to certain natural rights; among which are, those of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; of acquiring, possessing and protecting property; and of seeking and obtaining happiness. To secure these rights, governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

SEC. 4. All persons have a natural and indefensible right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences.

No person shall be compelled to attend, erect or support any place of worship, against his consent; and no preference shall be given by law to any religious society; nor shall any interference with the rights of conscience be permitted. No religious test shall be required as a qualification for office; nor shall any person incompetent to be a witness on account of his opinions on matters of religion; but nothing herein shall be construed to dispense with oaths or affirmations; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be construed so as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of the State.

SEC. 5. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, or be denied the equal protection of the law.

SEC. 6. No person, on account of sex, shall be disqualified to enter upon and pursue any of the lawful business avocations or professions of life.

SEC. 7. Every person may freely speak, write and publish his opinions on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or the press. In all prosecutions for libel, the truth may be given in evidence to the jury, and if it appears that the matter charged as libelous be true, and was published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the party accused shall be acquitted; and the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the fact.

SEC. 8. No person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law; and no person, for the same offense shall be put twice in jeopardy of punishment, nor again be put upon trial for the same offense after having been once acquitted by a jury, nor shall be compelled, in any criminal cause, to be a witness against himself. All persons shall, before conviction, be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for murder in the first degree and treason, where the proof is evident or the presumption great; and the privilege of the

writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require. The right of trial by jury of twelve persons shall remain inviolate in all criminal causes. A jury in civil causes, in all Courts, may consist of less than twelve persons, as may be prescribed by law; and the concurrence of three-fourths of the whole number of the jury shall be sufficient for a verdict; provided that the right may be waived by the parties, in such manner as may be provided by law.

Hereafter a grand jury shall consist of seven persons, any five of whom, concurring, may find an indictment; provided, the Legislature may change, regulate, abolish or re-establish the grand jury system."

SEC. 9. Every person in the State shall be entitled to a certain remedy in the law, for all wrongs and injuries which he may receive in his person, character or property; justice shall be administered to all, freely and without purchase; completely and without denial; promptly and without delay; and all Courts shall be open to the public.

SEC. 10. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, papers, houses and effects, against unreasonable seizure and search shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue except upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation in writing, describing, as nearly as may be, the place to be searched, and the person or thing to be seized.

SEC. 11. There shall never be, in this State, involuntary servitude, save as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.

SEC. 12. No person shall be imprisoned for debt except in case of fraud in contracting the same, or of an absconding debtor having means legally applicable to the payment of his debts or some parts thereof.

SEC. 13. In criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have the right to appear and defend in person and by counsel; to demand the nature and cause of the accusation; to have a copy thereof; to testify in his own behalf; to meet the witnesses against him face to face; to have process to compel the attendance of witnesses in his behalf; and a speedy public trial, by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the offense is alleged to have been committed.

SEC. 14. No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, nor any law impairing the obligation of contracts, or making any irrevocable grant

This was a forerunner of practical abolition of the grand jury system as a regular thing which occurs in Art. I, Sec. 26, present Constitution.

of special privileges, franchises or immunities, shall ever be passed by the Legislature.

SEC. 15. Private property shall not be taken or damaged for public use without just compensation; and no person's particular services shall be required without just payment therefor.

SEC. 16. The rights of the people to peacefully assemble and consult for the common good, and to petition for the redress of grievances, shall never be restrained or abridged.

SEC. 17. The military shall always be in strict subordination to the civil power.

SEC. 18. All laws in relation to the possession, enjoyment and descent of property, shall be alike applicable to resident aliens and

citizens.

SEC. 19. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; but this shall not be so construed as to justify the carrying of concealed weapons.

SEC. 20. All elections shall be free and open; and no power, civil or military, shall interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage.

SEC. 21. Treason against the State shall consist only in levying war against the same, or in adhering to its enemies, giving them aid or comfort; and no person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on his own confession in open Court.

SEC 22. No person shall be transported out of the State for any offense committed within the same; and no conviction shall work a corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate.

Leases

SEC. 23. All lands within the State are declared to be allodial; and feudal tenures, with all their incidents, are prohibited. and grants for agricultural lands for a longer term than fifteen years, in which rent or services of any kind shall be reserved, and all fines and like restraints upon alienation, reserved in any grant of land hereafter made, are declared to be void.

SEC. 24. No law shall be passed, granting to any citizen or class of citizens, privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens.

SEC. 25. The operation of the laws shall never be suspended, except by the authority of the Legislature.

SEC. 26. The enumeration in this Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny, impair or disparage others retained by the people.

An attempt to stop long leases of agricultural lands and to prevent absentee landlordism not found in present Constitution.

ARTICLE VI

LEGISLATIVE

SECTION 1. The Legislative power of this State shall be vested in two distinct branches; the one to be styled the Senate, and the other the House of Representatives; and both together, the Legislature of the State of Washington.

The style of all laws shall be: "Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Washington."

SEC. 2. The number of the members of the House of Representatives shall never be less than eighteen nor more than sixty. The Senate shall consist of one-third the number of members of the House of Representatives.

SEC. 3. The Legislature shall provide by law for an enumeration of the inhabitants of the State, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five, and at the end of every ten years thereafter; and at its first session after such enumeration, and after each enumeration made by authority of the United States, the Legislature shall apportion and district anew the members of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the number of inhabitants, excluding Indians not taxed and soldiers and officers of the United States army and navy.

SEC. 4. Elections for members of the Legislature shall be held biennially. When vacancies occur in either House, the Governor shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.

SEC. 5. Senators shall be elected for the term of four years, and members of the House of Representatives for the term of two years; provided, that the members of both Houses first elected shall hold their offices until the time fixed for the meeting of the second Legislature, but no longer.

SEC. 6. No person shall be a member of the Legislature who shall not be a qualified elector of the district for which he is chosen, and who shall not, for at least twelve months next preceding his election, have resided therein; provided, that any person who at the time of the adoption of this Constitution is a qualified elector in the county or district for which he shall be chosen, shall be eligible to the first Legislature.

SEC. 7. The first Legislature shall divide the State into at least ten legislative districts in each of which one Senator and three Representatives shall be elected at the general election then next ensuing; and the districts shall be of convenient contiguous territory, to be bounded by county, precinct or ward lines; and the number may be increased, but shall never exceed twenty. The Legislative districts