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XXII. TENNESSEE.

Government for the Year 1851.

WILLIAM TROUSDALE, of Gallatin, Governor (term expires Octo- Salary.

ber, 1851),

W. B. A. Ramsey,
Anthony Dibrell,
Arthur R. Crozier,
West H. Humphreys,

$2,000

of Nashville, Sec. of St. & Int. Imp. Comm'r, 800 & f.

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A. O. W. Totten,

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Attorney-Gen. & Reporter,

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Robert J. McKinney, of Greenville,

Nathan Green,

Wm. H. Stephens,

James W. Campbell, of Knoxville,

James P. Clark,

66 Eastern "6

The judges of the Supreme Court are elected by a joint vote of the two houses of the General Assembly, for the term of 12 years. The judges of the inferior courts are elected in the same manner, for 8 years. There are 14 Circuit Courts. Salary of each judge, $1,500. Each circuit has an attorney, paid by fees.

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of Sommerville, Chancellor, Western Division, $1,500

Calvin Jones,

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Criminal Court of Davidson County.

William K. Turner, of Nashville, Judge,

Common Law and Chancery Court of the City of Memphis.

Salary.

$1,500

$1,800

William B. Turley, of Jackson, Judge,

FINANCES

For the Two Years ending October, 1849.

Total amount received, .

790,693.53

Whole amount expended, .

Excess of disbursements,

The amount of productive property held by the State in 1850 is $4,894,922.56. The State debt amounts to $3,352,856.66, and the annual interest on it is $179,176.37. The amount of school fund owned by the State, $1,321,655.00. Ordinary annual expenditures, exclusive of debts and schools, $290,000.

802,436.66

11,743.13

XXIII. KENTUCKY.

Abstract of the Constitution.

THE first constitution was adopted in 1790, the second in 1799. The present one was adopted in convention, June 11th, 1850, and has been ratified by the people, by a vote of 71,563 in favor to 20,302 against.

Every free white male citizen, 21 years of age, resident in the State two years, or in the county, town, or city where he offers to vote one year next preceding the election, may vote, but he shall have been for 60 days next preceding the election a resident of the precinct where he offers to vote, and shall vote in said precinct, and not elsewhere. Voters, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace, shall be exempt from arrest while attending, going to, or returning from elections.

Senators, 38 in number, are chosen from single districts. At the time of election they must be citizens of the United States, 30 years of age, residents of the State for six years next preceding the election, and the last year of the district. They shall be divided into two classes; the first shall vacate their seats in two years, and the second in four years, and afterwards one half shall be chosen every two years. The Senate may choose its officers biennially. Representatives, 100 in number, shall be chosen for two years, from single districts, and representation shall depend upon the number of qualified voters. At the time of their election, they must be citizens of the United States, 24 years of age, two years next preceding the election residents of the State, and the last year thereof, of the district. In 1850 and in 1857, and every eighth year thereafter, an enumeration of the qualified voters shall be taken, and in the session next after each enumeration, the number of Representatives shall be apportioned among the ten districts into which the State is by this constitution divided. Senators and Representatives shall be elected on the 1st Monday in August, and the sessions of the Assembly shall be biennial, the first one to be Nov. 1, 1851. Members shall be paid $3 per day, and 12 cents a mile for travel. No session shall continue beyond 60 days, unless by a two-thirds vote of all the members elect to each branch. Any two may call for the yeas and nays on any question. The proceedings of the Assembly shall be published weekly. Teachers of religion, those holding offices of profit under the State or the United States, are ineligible to the Assembly, except attorneys at law receiving no salary from the State, justices of the peace, and militia officers. Members during

their term of office, and for one year afterwards, cannot be appointed or elected, except by the people, to any civil office of profit in the State, created; or whose pay is increased, during said term.

Collectors of public moneys are ineligible to the Assembly, unless six months before the election their accounts are closed and settled. The Assembly shall not grant divorces, or change of names, or sales of estates of persons under legal disabilities, nor change the venue in any criminal or penal prosecution, by special legislation, but by general laws shall confer such power upon the courts. The State shall never lend or give its credit. The Assembly shall never diminish, but may increase, the resources of the sinking fund, but those resources shall be sacredly applied to payment of the debt, principal and interest, and to no other purpose. The Assembly may contract debts not exceeding in the aggregate $500,000, to meet casual deficits in the revenue; but except to suppress insurrection, &c., or to borrow money to pay part of the State debt, it shall contract no debt unless provision is made in the act creating the same for a tax sufficient to pay the annual interest, and the debt itself in 30 years, nor unless the act shall have received at a general election a majority of all the votes cast. Any act appropriating money, or creating a debt over $100, must receive a majority vote of all the members then elected, and the yeas and nays be entered on the journal.

A Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, chosen by a plurality of votes, shall be chosen for four years. They must be 35 years of age, citizens of the United States, and inhabitants of the State for six years next preceding the election. The Governor is ineligible for the four years succeeding the expiration of his term. He shall enter upon office the fifth Tuesday after the general election, and shall continue in office until his successor has taken the oath of office. He may grant pardons, &c., and may veto a bill, but a majority of all the members elect of each house, by yea and nay vote, may pass the bill. The Lieutenant-Governor shall be President of the Senate, with the right to debate and vote, and, when there is a tie, to throw a casting vote, and if the office of the Governor be vacant, he, and after him the Speaker of the Senate, shall act as Governor, if the vacancy occur after the first two years of the Governor's term have expired; if before, the people shall fill the vacancy. If, in the recess of the Assembly, the Lieutenant-Governor, acting as Governor, shall resign,&c., the Secretary of the State for the time being shall convene the Senate to choose a Speaker. A Secretary of State shall be appointed by the Governor to hold office during his own term, and during good conduct. The people shall elect a Treasurer for two years, and an Auditor of Public Accounts, Register of the Land Office, and Attorney-General, and other inferior officers, for four years. There shall be a Court of Appeals with appellate jurisdiction only throughout the State, the judges whereof shall be elected by the people, in districts, for eight years, and until their successors are qualified, subject to removal for cause. The judges must be 30 years old, citizens of the United States, residents of their district for two years next preceding the election, eight years practising lawyers, or whose service on the bench of any court of record, added to the time they have practised law, shall be equal to eight years. The clerk or clerks, elected by the people for eight years, must be citizens, and residents for two years as above, 21 years of age, and must have a certificate of qualification from a judge of the higher courts. When a majority of the judges are interested in a cause, an additional judge or judges may be appointed as a special court to try the cause. There shall be four judges of the Court of Appeals, but when there is a vacancy, the number may be reduced to not less than three, and then the term of office shall be changed so that one shall be elected every two years. The judges shall be so classified, that every two years one shall leave office and a new judge be elected. The judge having the

shortest time to serve shall be chief justice. Any three of the judges may constitute a court for the transaction of business.

Circuit Courts shall be established in each county, and for the election of judges of these courts, the State shall be divided into 12 judicial districts, each of which shall elect a judge for six years. The qualifications of the judges shall be the same as those of the Court of Appeals. An additional district may be established once in four years, but there shall not be more than 16 districts, until the population exceeds 1,500,000.

There shall be County Courts in each county, consisting of a presiding judge and two associates, any two of whom may transact business. The judges shall be elected by the people for four years. They must be citizens of the United States, 21 years of age, and residents of their county for one year next preceding their election. There shall be two justices of the peace for each county, to hold office for four years. Attorneys for the Commonwealth, clerks of the courts, surveyors, coroners, jailers, and assessors shall be elected in their several circuits, districts, or counties, whose term of office shall be the same as that of the presiding judge of the said circuits, districts, or counties. There shall be a sheriff in each county, elected for two years, and reëligible only for a second term. constable shall be elected in each justice's district for two years.

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All free, white, able-bodied male persons in the State, between 18 and 45 years of age, except such as are by law exempt, shall compose the militia of the State, and shall elect their own officers. No person shall be convicted of treason, except upon confession in open court, or upon the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act. Persons convicted of offering or giving bribes or treats to procure their election shall be disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit for said term. The Assembly may direct, by law, how suits shall be brought against the State. Absence from the State, upon business of the State or United States, shall not deprive one of the right to vote or to be elected. Deductions may be made by law from the salaries of public officers neglecting their official duty. All votes, except by dumb persons, shall be given viva voce, personally and publicly. No member of Congress, or officer of the United States, is eligible to a State office. Challenges, or carrying challenges, directly or indirectly, to fight a duel with a citizen of the State, either in the State or out of the State, shall deprive the person sending or bearing them of the right to hold office, and he may be otherwise punished by law; and the oath of office shall require the affiant to say that he has not sent or knowingly carried a challenge as above. After five years from the offence, the Governor may pardon participants in duels, and restore them to their rights as citizens.

A commission to revise and arrange the statute law of the State, and another to prepare a code of practice, civil and criminal, shall be appointed by the Assembly at its first session. The President of the Board of Internal Improvement, and a Superintendent of Public Instruction, shall be elected by the people for four years. No laws shall be passed for the emancipation of slaves without the consent of their owners, or without paying the owners, prior to emancipation, a full equivalent, and providing for their removal from the State. Owners of slaves may emancipate them, saving the rights of creditors. Immigrants to the State may bring their slaves with them, but slaves shall not be brought into the State as merchandise, nor those imported since Jan. 1, 1789. Masters shall treat their slaves humanely, or the slaves shall be sold. Slaves shall not have the right of an inquest by the grand jury, but shall not be deprived of an impartial trial by a petit jury. Free negroes or mulattoes coming into or refusing to leave the State, are deemed guilty of a felony, and may be sent to the Penitentiary. The School fund shall consist of $1,350,491.71, and of such sums as the State may hereafter raise by taxation. It shall be held inviolate, and the income thereof shall be apportioned among the counties in aid of common schools.

To amend the constitution, a majority of the members elect of each house of the Assembly must, within the first twenty days of a regular session, vote to lay the matter before the people, and at the next general election a majority of those entitled to vote for representatives must vote therefor; the Assembly, at its next regular session, must pass a vote to lay the matter again before the people, and the majority of all the votes, as before, must be given therefor, and then at its next session the Assembly shall appoint an election for members to compose the convention, which shall consist of as many members as there shall be in the House of Representatives, and no more, and which shall meet within three months after the election of its members, for re-adopting, amending, or changing the Constitution.

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John L. Bridges, of Danville, Judge; salary, $1,300. A. H. Rennick, of Frankfort, Clerk. Joseph Gray, of Frankfort, Sergeant. The clerk and sergeant are paid by fees.

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