shall take an oath to the State: and all officers shall take an oath of office.

XIII. The General Assembly shall, by joint ballot of both houses, appoint judges of the supreme courts of law and equity, judges of admiralty, and attorney-general, who shall be commissioned by the Governor, and hold their offices during good behavior.

XIV. The Senate and House of Commons shall have power to appoint the generals and field officers of the militia, and all officers of the regular army of this State.

XV. The Senate and House of Commons, jointly, at their first meeting after each annual election, shall by ballot, elect a Governor for one year, who shall not be eligible to that office longer than three years, in six successive years; that no person under thirty years of age, and who has not been a resident in this State above five years, and having, in the State, a freehold in lands and tenements, above the value of one thousand pounds, shall be eligible as a Governor.

XVI. The Senate and House of Commons, jointly, at their first meeting, after each annual election, shall, by ballot, elect seven persons to be a Council of State for one year; who shall advise the Governor in the execution of his office: and that four members shall be a quorum; their advice and proceedings shall be entered in a journal, to be kept for that purpose only, and signed by the members present; to any part of which any member present may enter his dissent. And such journal shall be laid before the General Assembly when called for by them.

XVII. There shall be a seal of this State, which shall be kept by the Governor, and used by him as occasion may require; and shall be called, the great seal of the State of North Carolina, and shall be affixed to all grants and commissions.

XVIII. The Governor, for the time being, shall be captain-general and commander-in-chief of the militia; and in the recess of the General Assembly, shall have power, by and with the advice of the Council of State, to embody the militia for the public safety.

XIX. The Governor, for the time being, shall have power to draw for and apply such sums of money as shall be voted by the General Assembly, for the contingencies of government, and be accountable to them for the same. He also may, by and with the advice of the Council of State, lay embargoes, or prohibit the exportation of any commodity, for any term not exceeding thirty days, at any one time in the recess of the General Assembly; and shall have the power of granting pardons and reprieves, except where the prosecution shall be carried on by the General Assembly, or the law shall otherwise direct; in which case he may, in the recess, grant a reprieve until the next sitting of the General Assembly; and he may exercise all the other executive powers of government, limited and restrained, as by this Constitution is mentioned, and according to the laws of the State. And, on his death, inability, or absence from the State,

the Speaker of the Senate, for the time being, and in case of his death, inability, or absence from the State, the Speaker of the House of Commons, shall exercise the powers of government, after such death, or during such absence or inability of the Governor, or Speaker of the Senate, or until a new nomination is made by the General Assembly.

XX. In every case where any officer, the right of whose appointment is by this Constitution vested in the General Assembly, shall, during their recess, die, or his office by other means become vacant, the Governor shall have power, with the advice of the Council of State, to fill up such vacancy, by granting a temporary commission, which shall expire at the end of the next session of the General Assembly.

XXI. The Governor, judges of the supreme court of law and equity, judges of admiralty, and attorney-general, shall have adequate salaries, during their continuance in office.

XXII. The General Assembly shall, by joint ballot of both houses, annually appoint a treasurer or treasurers for this State.

XXIII. The Governor, and other officers offending against the State, by violating any part of this Constitution, maladministration, or corruption, may be prosecuted, on the impeachment of the General Assembly, or presentment of the grand jury of any court of supreme jurisdiction in this State.

XXIV. The General Assembly shall, by joint ballot of both houses, triennially appoint a Secretary for this State.

XXV. No persons who heretofore have been, or hereafter may be receivers of public moneys, shall have a seat in either house of General Assembly, or be eligible to any office in this State, until such person shall have fully accounted for, and paid into the treasury, all sums for which they may be accountable and liable.

XXVI. No treasurer shall have a scat, either in the Senate, House of Commons, or Council of State, during his continuance in that office, or before he shall have finally settled his accounts with the public, for all the moneys which may be in his hands, at the expiration of his office, belonging to the State, and hath paid the same into the hands of the succeeding treasurer.

XXVII. No officer in the regular army or navy, in the service and pay of the United States, of this State, or any other State, nor any contractor or agent for supplying such army or navy with clothing or provisions, shall have a seat either in the Senate, House of Commons, or Council of State, or be eligible thereto; and any mem ber of the Senate, House of Commons, or Council of State, being ap pointed to, and accepting of such office, shall thereby vacate his seat. XXVIII. No member of the Council of State shall have a seat, either in the Senate or House of Commons.

XXIX. No judge of the supreme court of law and equity, or judge of admiralty, shall have a seat in the Senate, House of Com mons, or Council of State.

XXX. No Secretary of this State, Attorney-General, or clerk of any court of record, shall have a seat in the Senate, House of Commons, or Council of State.

XXXI. No clergyman, or preacher of the gospel, of any denomi nation, shall be capable of being a member of either the Senate, House of Commons, or Council of State, while he continues in the exercise of his pastoral function.

XXXII. No person who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority of either the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office, or place of trust or profit, in the civil department, within this State.

XXXIII. The justices of the peace, within their respective coun ties in this State, shall in future be recommended to the Governor for the time being, by the representatives in General Assembly; and the Governor shall commission them accordingly and the justices, when so commissioned, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall not be removed from office by the General Assembly, unless for misbehavior, absence, or inability.

XXXIV. There shall be no establishment of any one religious church or denomination in this State, in preference to any other; neither shall any person, on any pretence whatsoever, be compelled to attend any place of worship contrary to his own faith or judg ment, nor be obliged to pay for the purchase of any glebe, or the building of any house of worship, or for the maintainance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes right, or has voluntarily and personally engaged to perform; but all persons shall be at liberty to exercise their own mode of worship: provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to exempt preachers of treasonable or seditious discourses, from legal trial and punishment.

XXXV. No person in the State shall hold more than one lucrative office at any one time; provided that no appointment in the militia, or the office of a justice of the peace, shall be considered as a lucrative office.

XXXVI. All commissions and grants shall run in the name of the State of North Carolina, and bear test, and be signed by the Governor. All writs shall run in the same manner, and bear test, and be signed by the clerks of the respective courts. Indictments shall conclude, against the peace and dignity of the State.

XXXVII. The delegates for this State to the Continental Congress, while necessary, shall be chosen annually by the General Assembly, by ballot; but may be superseded, in the mean time, in the same manner; and no person shall be elected to serve in that capacity for more than three years successively.

XXXVIII. There shall be a sheriff, coroner, or coroners, and constables, in each county within this State.

XXXIX. The person of a debtor, where there is not a strong pre

sumption of fraud, shall not be continued in prison after delivering up, bona fide, all his estate, real and personal, for the use of his creditors, in such manner as shall hereafter be regulated by law. All prisoners shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, unless for capital offences, when the proof is evident, or the presumption great.

XL. Every foreigner who comes to settle in this State, having first taken an oath of allegiance to the same, may purchase, or by other just means, acquire, hold, and transfer land, or other real estate, and after one year's residence be deemed a free citizen.

XLI. A school or schools shall be established by the Legislature, for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low prices; and, all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities.

XLII. No purchase of lands shall be made of the Indian natives, but on behalf of the public, by authority of the General Assembly. XLIII. The future Legislature of this State shall regulate entails, in such a manner as to prevent perpetuities.

XLIV. The declaration of rights is hereby declared to be part of the Constitution of this State, and ought never to be violated on any pretence whatsoever.

XLV. Any member of either house of General Assembly shall have liberty to dissent from and protest against any act or resolve which he may think injurious to the public, or any individual, and have the reasons of his dissent entered on the journals.

XLVI. Neither house of the General Assembly shall proceed upon public business, unless a majority of all the members of such house are actually present; and that upon a motion made and seconded, the yeas and nays, upon any question, shall be taken and entered on the journals: and that the journals of the proceedings of both houses of the General Assembly shall be printed, and made public, immediately after their adjournment.

This Constitution is not intended to preclude the present Congress from making a temporary provision, for the well ordering of this State, until the General Assembly shall establish government agreeable to the mode herein before described.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION,

Made in Convention, June 4, 1835, and ratified by the People, November 9, to take effect January 1, 1836.

ARTICLE I.

SEC. I.-1. The Senate of this State shall consist of fifty representatives, biennially chosen by ballot, and to be elected by districts; which districts shall be laid off by the General Assembly, at its first session after the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-one; and afterwards, at its first session after the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one; and then every twenty

years thereafter, in proportion to the public taxes paid into the treasury of the State, by the citizens thereof; and the average of the public taxes paid by each county into the treasury of the State, for the five years preceding the laying off of the districts, shall be considered as its proportion of the public taxes, and constitute the basis of apportionment: Provided that no county shall be divided in the formation of a senatorial district. And when there are one or more counties having an excess of taxation above the ratio to form a senatorial district, adjoining a county or counties deficient in such ratio, the excess or excesses aforesaid shall be added to the taxation of the county or counties deficient; and if, with such addition, the county or counties receiving it shall have the requisite ratio, such county and counties each shall constitute a senatorial district.

2. The House of Commons shall be composed of one hundred and twenty representatives, biennially chosen by ballot, to be elected by counties according to their federal population, that is, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons; and each county shall have at least one member in the House of Commons, although it may not contain the requisite ratio of population.

3. This apportionment shall be made by the General Assembly, at the respective times and periods when the districts for the Senate are hereinbefore directed to be laid off; and the said apportionment shall be made according to an enumeration to be ordered by the General Assembly, or according to the census which may be taken by order of Congress, next preceding the making such apportionment. 4. In making the apportionment in the House of Commons, the ratio of representation shall be ascertained by dividing the amount of federal population in the State, after deducting that comprehended within those counties which do not severally contain the one hundred-and-twentieth part of the entire federal population aforesaid, by the number of representatives less than the number assigned to the said counties. To each county containing the said ratio, and not twice the said ratio, there shall be assigned one representative; to each county containing twice, but not three times the said ratio, there shall be assigned two representatives, and so on progressively; and then the remaining representatives shall be assigned severally to the counties having the largest fractions.

SEC.II-1. Until the first session of the General Assembly, which shall be had after the year eighteen hundred and forty-one, the Senate shall be composed of members to be elected from the several districts hereinafter named, that is to say, the first district shall consist of the counties of Perquimons and Pasquotank; the 2d district, of Camden and Currituck; the 3d district, Gates and Chowan; the 4th district, Washington and Tyrrell; the 5th district, Northampton; the 6th district, Hertford; the 7th district, Bertie; the