School History of North Carolina Part 51

SEC. 22. As political rights and privileges are not dependent upon, or modified by property, therefore no property qualification ought to affect the right to vote or hold office.

SEC. 23. The people of the State ought not to be taxed, or made subject to the payment of any impost or duty, without the consent of themselves, or their representatives in General a.s.sembly, freely given.

SEC. 24. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; and, as standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up, and the military should be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power. Nothing herein contained shall justify the practice of carrying concealed weapons, or prevent the Legislature from enacting penal statutes against said practice.

SEC. 25. The people have a right to a.s.semble together to consult for their common good, to instruct their representatives, and to apply to the Legislature for redress of grievance. But secret political societies are dangerous to the liberties of a free people, and should not be tolerated.

SEC. 26. All men have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty G.o.d according to the dictates of their own consciences, and no human authority should, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience.

SEC. 27. The people have the right to the privilege of education, and it is the duty of the State to guard and maintain that right.

SEC. 28. For redress of grievances, and for amending and strengthening the laws, elections should be often held.

SEC. 29. A frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is absolutely necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty.

SEC. 30. No hereditary emoluments, privileges or honors ought to be granted or conferred in this State.

SEC. 31. Perpetuities and monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free State, and ought not to be allowed.

SEC. 32. Retrospective laws, punishing acts committed before the existence of such laws, and by them only declared criminal, are oppressive unjust and incompatible with liberty, wherefore no ex post facto law ought to be made. No law taxing retrospectively sales, purchases, or other acts previously done, ought to be pa.s.sed.

SEC. 33. Slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than for crime whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and are hereby, forever prohibited within the State.

SEC. 34. The limits and boundaries of the State shall be and remain as they now are.

SEC. 35. All courts shall be open; and every person for an injury done him in his lands, goods, person or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law, and right and justice administered without sale, denial or delay.

SEC. 36. No soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner; nor in time of war but in a manner prescribed by law.

SEC. 37. This enumeration of rights shall not be construed to impair or deny others retained by the people; and all powers not herein delegated remain with the people.

ARTICLE II. LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

SECTION 1. The legislative authority shall be vested in two distinct branches, both dependent on the people, to wit: A Senate and a House of Representatives.

SEC. 2. The Senate and House of Representatives shall meet biennially on the first Wednesday after the first Monday in January next after their election; and when a.s.sembled shall be denominated the General a.s.sembly. Neither House shall proceed upon public business unless a majority of all the members are actually present.

SEC. 3. The Senate shall be composed of fifty Senators, biennially chosen by ballot.

SEC. 4. The Senate Districts shall be so altered by the General a.s.sembly, at the first session after the return of every enumeration by order of Congress, that each Senate District shall contain, as near as may be, an equal number of inhabitants, excluding aliens and Indians not taxed, and shall remain unaltered until the return of another enumeration, and shall at all times consist of contiguous, territory; and no county shall be divided in the formation of a Senate District, unless such county shall be equitably ent.i.tled to two or more Senators.

SEC. 5. The House of Representatives shall be composed of one hundred and twenty Representatives, biennially chosen by ballot, to be elected by the counties respectively, according to their population, and each county shall have at least one Representative in the House of Representatives, although it may not contain the requisite ratio of representation; this apportionment shall be made by the General a.s.sembly at the respective times and periods when the districts for the Senate are herein before directed to be laid off.

SEC. 6. In making the apportionment in the House of Representatives, the ratio of representation shall be ascertained by dividing the amount of the population of the State, exclusive of that comprehended within those counties which do not severally contain the one hundred and twentieth part of the population of the State, by the number of Representatives, less the number a.s.signed to such counties; and in ascertaining the number of the population of the State, aliens and Indians not taxed shall not be included. To each county containing the said ratio, and not twice the said ratio, there shall be a.s.signed one Representative; to each county containing twice but not three times the said ratio, there shall be a.s.signed two Representatives, and so on progressively, and then the remaining Representatives shall be a.s.signed severally to, the counties having the largest fractions.

SEC. 7. Each member of the Senate shall not be less than twenty- five years of age, shall have resided in the State as a citizen two years, and shall have usually resided in the district for which he is chosen one year immediately preceding his election.

SEC. 8. Each member of the House of Representatives shall be a qualified elector of the State, and shall have resided in the county for which he is chosen for one year immediately preceding his election.

SEC. 9. In the election of all officers, whose appointment shall be conferred upon the General a.s.sembly by the Const.i.tution, the vote shall be viva voce.

SEC. 10. The General a.s.sembly shall have power to pa.s.s general laws regulating divorce and alimony, but shall not have power to grant a divorce or secure alimony in any individual case.

SEC. 11. The General a.s.sembly shall not have power to pa.s.s any private law to alter the name of any person or to legitimate any person not born in lawful wedlock, or to restore to the rights of citizenship any person convicted of an infamous crime, but shall have power to pa.s.s general laws regulating the same.

SEC. 12. The General a.s.sembly shall not pa.s.s any private law, unless it shall be made to appear thirty days' notice of application to pa.s.s such a law shall have been given, under such directions and in such manner as shall be provided by law.

SEC. 13. If vacancies shall occur in the General a.s.sembly by death, resignation or otherwise, writs of election shall be issued by the Governor under such regulations as may be prescribed by law.

SEC. 14. No law shall be pa.s.sed to raise money on the credit of the State, or to pledge the faith of the State, directly or indirectly, for the payment of any debt, or to impose any tax upon the people of the State, or to allow the counties, cities or towns to do so, unless the bill for the purpose shall have been read three several times in each House of the General a.s.sembly, and pa.s.sed three several readings, which readings shall have been on three different days, and agreed to by each House respectively, and unless the yeas and nays on the second and third reading of the bill shall have been entered on the journal.

SEC. 15. The General a.s.sembly shall regulate entails in such manner as to prevent perpetuities.

SEC. 16. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, which shall be printed and made public immediately after the adjournment of the General a.s.sembly.

SEC. 17. Any member of either House may dissent from, and protest against, any act or resolve which he may think injurious to the public, or any individual, and have the reason of his dissent entered on the journal.

SEC. 18. The House of Representatives shall choose their own Speaker and other officers.

SEC. 19. The Lieutenant-Governor shall preside in the Senate, but shall have no vote unless it may be equally divided.

SEC. 20. The Senate shall choose its other officers, and also a Speaker (pro tempore) in the absence of the Lieutenant-Governor, or when he shall exercise the office of Governor.

SEC. 21. The style of the acts shall be: "The General a.s.sembly of North Carolina do enact"

SEC. 22. Each House shall be judge of the qualifications and elections of its own members, shall sit upon its own adjournments from day to day, prepare bills to be pa.s.sed into laws; and the two Houses may also jointly adjourn to any feature day, or other place.

SEC. 23. All bills and resolutions of a legislative nature shall be read three times in each House before they pa.s.s into laws; and shall be signed by the presiding officers of both Houses.

SEC. 24. Each member of the General a.s.sembly, before taking his seat, shall take an oath or affirmation, that he will support the Const.i.tution and laws of the United States, and the Const.i.tution of the State of North Carolina and will faithfully discharge his duty as a member of the Senate or House of Representatives.

SEC. 25. The terms of office for Senators and members of the House of Representatives shall commence at the time of their election.

SEC. 26. Upon motion made and seconded in either House, by one- fifth, of the members present, the yeas and nays upon any question shall be taken and entered upon the journals.

SEC. 27. The election for members of the General a.s.sembly shall be held for the respective districts and counties, at the places where they are now held, or may be directed hereafter to be held, in such manner as may be prescribed by law, on the first Thursday in August in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy, and every two years thereafter. But the General a.s.sembly may change the time of holding the elections.

SEC. 28. The members of the General a.s.sembly for the term for which they have been elected, shall receive as a compensation for their services the sum of four dollars per day for each day of their session, for a period not exceeding sixty days; and should they remain longer in session, they shall serve without compensation. They shall also be ent.i.tled to receive ten cents per mile, both while coming to the seat of government and while returning home, the said distance to be computed by the nearest line or mute of public travel. The compensation of the presiding officers of the two Houses shall be six dollars per day and mileage. Should an extra session of the General a.s.sembly be called, the members and presiding officers shall receive a like rate of compensation for a period not exceeding twenty days.

ART1CLE III. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.

SECTION 1. The Executive Department shall consist of a Governor, in whom shall be vested the supreme executive power of the State, a Lieutenant Governor, a Secretary of State, an Auditor, a Treasurer, a Superintendent of Public Instruction, and an Attorney-General, who shall be elected for a term of four years, by the qualified electors of the State, at the same time and place, and in the same manner as members of the General a.s.sembly are elected. Their term of office shall commence on the first day of January next after their election, and continue until their successors are elected and qualified: Provided, that the officers first elected shall a.s.sume the duties of their office ten days after the approval of this Const.i.tution by the Congress of the United States, and shall hold their offices four years from after the first day of January.

SEC. 2. No person shall be eligible as Governor or Lieutenant- Governor, unless he shall have attained the age of thirty years, shall have been a citizen of the United States five years, and shall have been a resident of this State for two years next before the election; nor shall the person elected to either of these two offices be eligible to the same office more than four years in any term of eight years, unless the office shall have been cast upon him as Lieutenant-Governor or President of the Senate.

SEC. 3. The return of every election for officers of the Executive Department shall be sealed up and transmitted to the seat of government by the returning officers, directed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall open and publish the same in the presence of a majority of the members of both Houses of the General a.s.sembly. The persons having the highest number of votes respectively shall be declared duly elected; but if two or more be equal and highest in vote for the same office, then one of them shall be chosen by joint ballot of both Houses of the General a.s.sembly. Contested elections shall be determined by a joint ballot of both Houses of the General a.s.sembly, in such manner as shall be prescribed-by law.

SEC. 4. The Governor, before entering upon the duties of his office, shall, in the presence of the members of both branches of the General a.s.sembly, or before any Justice of the Supreme Court, take an oath or affirmation that he will support the Const.i.tution and laws of the United States, and of the State of North Carolina, and that he will faithfully perform the duties appertaining to the office of Governor to which he has been elected.