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journment, shall be presented to the Governor, and before it shall take effect be approved by him, or being disapproved, shall be repassed by both houses according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.

17. Whenever the office of Governor shall become vacant by death, resignation, removal from office, or otherwise, the President of the Senate shall exercise the office of Governor until another Governor shall be duly qualified; and in case of the death, resignation, removal from office, or other disqualification of the President of the Senate so exercising the office of Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall exercise the office, until the President of the Senate shall have been chosen; and when the office of Governor, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House shall become vacant, in the recess of the Senate, the person acting as Secretary of State for the time being, shall by proclamation convene the Senate, that a President may be chosen to exercise the office of Governor.

18. When either the President or Speaker of the House of Representatives shall so exercise said office, he shall receive the compensation of Governor only, and his duties as President or Speaker shall be suspended, and the Senate or House of Representatives, as the case may be, shall fill the vacancy until his duties as Governor shall cease.

19. A sheriff, and one or more coroners, a Treasurer, Surveyor, and ranger shall be elected in each county by the qualified electors thereof, who shall hold their office, for two years, unless sooner removed; except that the coroner shall hold his office until his successor be duly qualified.

20. A State Treasurer and auditor of public accounts shall be elected by the qualified electors of the State, who shall hold their offices for the term of two years, unless sooner removed.

Militia.

SEC. 1. The Legislature shall provide by law for organizing and disciplining the militia of this State, in such manner as they shall deem expedient, not incompatible with the Constitution and laws of the United States in relation thereto.

2. Commissioned officers of the militia (staff-officers and the officers of volunteer companies excepted) shall be elected by the persons liable to perform military duty, and the qualified electors within their respective commands, and shall be commissioned by the Governor.

3. The Governor shall have power to call forth the militia to execute the laws of the State, to suppress insurrection, and repel invasion. ARTICLE VI-Impeachments.

SEC. 1. The House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeaching.

2. All impeachments shall be tried by the Senate. When sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be cn oath or affirmation. No

person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present.

3. The Governor, and all civil officers, shall be liable to impeachment for any misdemeanor in office, but judgment in such cases shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under the State; but the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, and punishment, according to law, as in other cases.

ARTICLE VII.-General Provisions.

SEC. 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 thirty-three, 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.

tion.

4. Every person shall be disqualified from holding an office or place of honor or profit under the authority of this State, who shall be convicted of having given or offered any bribe to procure his elecLaws 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, tuinult, 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 for 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 forever 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 be 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.

SEC. 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 merchandize, 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.

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THIS State was first explored by the French, and named Louisiana in honor of Louis XIV. In 1699 a French settlement was begun at Ibberville, by M. Ibberville. His efforts were followed up by M. Crozat, a man of wealth, who held the trade of the country for several years. About the year 1717, he transferred all his interest in the province to a chartered company, at the head of which was the celebrated John Law, whose speculations involved the ruin of one half of the French nobility. In 1731, the company resigned all their rights to the crown, by whom the whole of Louisiana was ceded to Spain in 1762. In 1800, Spain reconveyed it to the French, from whom it was purchased by the United States, in 1803, for $15,000,000. Louisiana became a State in 1812, and adopted a Constitution. The present one was adopted in 1845. Area, 45,350 sq. miles. Pop. in 1850, 500,763. Slaves, 230,807. Free colored, 15,685.

CONSTITUTION.

PREAMBLE.

WE, the people of the State of Louisiana do ordain and establish this Constitution:

TITLE I-Distribution of Powers.

ART. 1. The powers of the government of the State of Louisiana shall be divided into three distinct departments, and each of them be confided to a separate body of magistracy, to wit: those which

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