tion any person who shall fight a duel or send or accept a challenge for purpose, or be an aider or abetter in fighting a duel, shall be deprived holding any office of honor or trust in this State, and shall be otherwise ished as the law shall prescribe. SEC. 12. Temporary absence from the State shall not forfeit a residence · obtained. SEC. 13. The power of suspending the laws or the execution of the laws 1 only be exercised by the General Assembly or by its authority in parlar cases expressly provided for by it. SEC. 14. In the government of this State the legislative, executive and cial powers of the Government shall be forever separate and distinct from other, and no person or persons exercising the functions of one of said rtments shall assume or discharge the duties of any other. SEC. 15. All Courts shall be public, and every person shall have speedy dy therein for wrongs sustained. SEC. 16. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, rs and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be ited, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and person or thing to be seized. SEC. 17. No person shall be held to answer for any crime where the shment exceeds a fine of one hundred dollars or imprisonment for thirty , with or without hard labor, unless on a presentment or indictment of and jury of the County where the crime shall have been committed, except ses arising in the land or naval forces or in the militia when in actual ce in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject he same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or liberty, nor shall ompelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. Private rty shall not be taken for private use without the consent of the owner, 'or public uses without just compensation being first made therefor. SEC. 18. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right speedy and public trial by an impartial jury; and to be fully informed he nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the wit's against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in 'avor, and to be fully heard in his defense by himself or by his counsel > both. SEC. 19. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, ruel and unusual punishments inflicted, nor shall witnesses be unreasondetained. Corporal punishment shall not be inflicted. The power to sh for contempt shall not in any case extend to imprisonment in the State entiary. SEC. 20. All persons shall, before conviction, be bailable by sufficient ies, except for capital offenses when the proof is evident or the presumpgreat. SEC. 21. In all indictments or prosecutions for libel, the truth of the ed libel may be given in evidence, and the jury shall be the judges of the ind the facts. SEC. 22. Treason against the State shall consist alone in levying war giving aid and comfort to enemies against the State. No person shall eld guilty of treason, except upon testimony of at least two witnesses to ame overt act, or upon confession in open Court. SEC. 23. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended $ when, in case of insurrection, rebellion or invasion, the public safety require it. SEC. 24. No person shall be imprisoned for debt except in cases of fraud. and be governed by it. 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 the man? prescribed by law. SEC. 27. No person shall in any case be subject to Martial law or to ay pains or penalties by virtue of that law, except those employed in the arr and navy of the United States, and except the militia in actual service. In by the authority of the General Assembly. SEC. 28. All navigable waters shall forever remain public highways fre to the citizens of the State and the United States without tax, impost toll imposed; and no tax, toll, impost or wharfage shall be imposed, demanded or received from the owners of any merchandise or commodity for the ne of the shores or any wharf erected on the shores or in or over the waterw of any navigable stream unless the same be authorized by the General Assenly, SEC. 29. The provisions of the Constitution shall be taken, deened and construed to be mandatory and prohibitory, and not merely directory, evoq where expressly made directory or permissory by its own terms, ARTICLE II. RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE. SECTION 1. All elections by the people shall be by ballot. and elect shall never be held or the ballots counted in secret. SEC. 2. Every qualified elector shall be eligible to any office to be von for, unless disqualified by age, as prescribed in this Constitution. But person shall hold two offices of honor or profit at the same time: Provice That any person holding another office may at the same time be an of in the militia or a Notary Public. SEC. 3. Every male citizen of this State and of the United States twe one years of age and upwards, not laboring under the disabilities named this Constitution and possessing the qualifications required by it. shall b elector. SEC. 4. The qualifications for suffrage shall be as follows: (a) Residence in the State for two years, in the County one year the polling precinct in which the elector offers to vote four months, and payment six months before any election of any poll tax then due and payab Provided, That ministers in charge of an organized church and teachers public schools shall be entitled to vote after six months' residence in the Sta if otherwise qualified. (b) Registration, which shall provide for the enrollment of every eleg once in ten years, and also an enrollment during each and every year every elector not previously registered under the provisions of this Article. (c) Up to January 1st, 1898, all male persons of voting age applying registration who can read any Section in this Constitution submitted to the by the registration officer, or understand and explain it when read to thea by the registration officer, shall be entitled to register and become electe A separate record of all persons registered before January 1st, 1898, swor by the registration officer, shall be filed, one copy with the Clerk of Cou and one in the office of the Secretary of State, on or before February 16 1898, and such persons shall remain during life qualified electors unless de qualified by the other provisions of this Article. The certificate of the CH of Court or Secretary of State shall be sufficient evidence to establish t right of said citizens to any subsequent registration and the franchise w the limitations herein imposed. (d) Any person who shall apply for registration after January 1st, 19 if otherwise qualified, shall be registered: Provided. That he can both re and write any Section of this Constitution submitted to him by the registrat. officer or can show that he owns, and has paid all taxes collectible durtz the previous year on property in this State assessed at three hundred dolla ($300) or more. (e) Managers of election shall require of every elector offering to vie any election, before allowing him to vote, proof of the payment of all es, including poll tax, assessed against him and collectible during the vious year. The production of a certificate or of the receipt of the officer horized to collect such taxes shall be conclusive proof of the payment reof. (f) The General Assembly shall provide for issuing to each duly regised elector a certificate of registration, and shall provide for the renewal such certificate when lost, mutilated or destroyed, if the applicant is still Qualified elector under the provisions of this Constitution, or if he has been istered as provided in subsection (c). SEC. 5. Any person denied registration shall have the right to appeal to Court of Common Pleas, or any Judge thereof, and thence to the Supreme irt, to determine his right to vote under the limitations imposed in this icle, and on such appeal the hearing shall be de novo, and the General embly shall provide by law for such appeal, and for the correction of gal and fraudulent registration, voting, and all other crimes against the tion laws. SEC. 6. The following persons are disqualified from being registered or ing: First. Persons convicted of burglary, arson, obtaining goods or money under se pretenses, perjury, forgery, robbery, bribery, adultery, bigamy, wifeting, house-breaking, receiving stolen goods, breach of trust with frauduintent, fornication, sodomy, incest. assault with intent to ravish, misenation, larceny, or crimes against the election laws: Provided, That the don of the Governor shall remove such disqualification. Second. Persons who are idiots, insane, paupers supported at the public ense, and persons confined in any public prison. SEC. 7. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have hed or lost a residence by reason of his presence or absence while employed the service of the United States, nor while engaged in the navigation of waters of this State, or of the United States, or of the high seas, nor le a student of any institution of learning. SEC. 8. The General Assembly shall provide by law for the registration all qualified electors, and shall prescribe the manner of holding elections of ascertaining the results of the same: Provided, At the first registraunder this Constitution, and until the first of January, 1898, the regis ion shall be conducted by a Board of three discreet persons in each inty, to be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent the Senate. For the first registration to be provided for under this Conution, the registration books shall be kept open for at least six consecutive ks; and thereafter from time to time at least one week in each month, to thirty days next preceding the first election to be held under this Conution. The registration books shall be public records open to the inspecof any citizen at all times. SEC. 9. The General Assembly shall provide for the establishment of ing precincts in the several Counties of the State, and those now existshall so continue until abolished or changed. Each elector shall be rered to vote at his own precinct, but provision shall be made for his transfer nother precinct upon his change of residence. SEC. 10. The General Assembly shall provide by law for the regulation party primary elections and punishing fraud at the same. SEC. 11. The registration books shall close at least thirty days before election, during which time transfers and registration shall not be legal: wvided, Persons who will become of age during that period shall be entitled registration before the books are closed. SEC. 12. Electors in municipal elections shall possess the qualifications I be subject to the disqualifications herein prescribed. The production of ertificate of registration from the registration officers of the County as an tor at a precinct included in the incorporated city or town in which the er desires to vote is declared a condition prerequisite to his obtaining a cercate of registration for municipal elections, and in addition he must have been a resident within the corporate limits at least four months before the electio and have paid all taxes due and collectible for the preceding fiscal year. The General Assembly shall provide for the registration of all voters before each eilertion in municipalities: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall apply to any municipal elections which may be held prior to the general election of the year 1896. SEC. 13. In authorizing a special election in any incorporated city a town in this State for the purpose of bonding the same, the General Assenter shall prescribe as a condition precedent to the holding of said election a pettion from a majority of the freeholders of said city or town as shown by its tax books, and at such elections all electors of such city or town who are duly qualified for voting under Section 12 of this Article, and who have jed all taxes, State, County and municipal, for the previous year, shall be allowd to vote; and the vote of a majority of those voting in said election shall le necessary to authorize the issue of said bonds. SEC. 14. Electors shall in all cases except treason, felony, or a bread of the peace, be privileged from arrest on the days of election during the attendance at the polls, and going to and returning therefrom. SEC. 15. No power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to preve the free exercise of the right of suffrage in this State. ARTICLE III. LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT. SECTION 1. The legislative power of this State shall be vested in t distinct branches, the one to be styled the "Senate" and the other the "Hous of Representatives," and both together the "General Assembly of the State South Carolina." SEC. 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of mende chosen by ballot every second year by citizens of this State, qualified as this Constitution is provided. SEC. 3. The House of Representatives shall consist of one hundred 4 twenty-four members, to be apportioned among the several Counties accords to the number of inhabitants contained in each. Each County shall constiv one Election District. An enumeration of the inhabitants for this purpo shall be made in the year nineteen hundred and one, and shall be ms in the course of every tenth year thereafter, in such manner as shall be law directed: Provided, That the General Assembly may at any time, in discretion, adopt the immediately preceding United States Census as a tr and correct enumeration of the inhabitants of the several Counties, and nat the apportionment of Representatives among the several Counties accordi to said enumeration: Provided, further, That until the apportionment whic shall be made upon the next enumeration shall take effect, the representativ of the several Counties as they now exist (including the County of Salu established by ordinance) shall be as follows: Abbeville, 5; Aiken, 3; Ander son, 5; Barnwell, 5; Beaufort, 4; Berkeley, 4; Charleston, 9; Chester, Chesterfield, 2; Clarendon, 3; Colleton, 4; Darlington, 3; Edgeville, 3; F field, 3; Florence, 3; Georgetown, 2; Greenville, 5; Hampton, 2; Horry. Kershaw, 2; Lancaster, 2; Laurens, 3; Lexington, 2; Marion, 3; Marlbore Newberry, 3; Oconee, 2; Orangeburg, 5; Pickens, 2; Richland, 4; Saluda. Spartanburg, 6; Sumter, 5; Union, 3; Williamsburg, 3; York, 4: Provid further, That in the event other Counties are hereafter established, then General Assembly shall reapportion the Representatives between the Counties SEC. 4. In assigning Representatives to the several Counties, the General Assembly shall allow one Representative to every one hundred and twenty fourth part of the whole number of inhabitants in the State: Provided. Th if in the apportionment of Representatives any County shall appear not to be entitled, from its population, to a Representative, such County shall, never theless, send one Representative; and if there be still a deficiency in the number of Representatives required by Section third of this Article, such de ency shall be supplied by assigning Representatives to those Counties having = largest surplus fractions. SEC. 5. No apportionment of Representatives shall take effect until the neral election which shall succeed such apportionment. SEC. 6. The Senate shall be composed of one member from each County, be elected for the term of four years by the qualified electors in each County, the same manner in which members of the House of Representatives are sen. SEC. 7. No person shall be eligible to a seat in the Senate or House of presentatives who, at the time of his election, is not a duly qualified elector der this Constitution in the County in which he may be chosen. Senators ill be at least twenty-five and Representatives at least twenty-one years age. SEC. 8. The first election for members of the House of Representatives ler this Constitution shall be held on Tuesday after the first Monday in vember, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, and in every second year thereer, in such manner and at such places as the General Assembly may scribe; and the first election for Senators shall be held on Tuesday after first Monday in November, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, and every rth year thereafter, except in Counties in which there was an election for ator in eighteen hundred and ninety-four for a full term, in which Counties election for Senator shall be held until the general election to be held in hteen hundred and ninety-eight, and every fourth year thereafter, except fill vacancies. Senators shall be so classified that one-half of their number, nearly as practicable, shall be chosen every two years. Whenever the neral Assembly shall establish more than one County at any session, it Il so prescribe the first term of the Senators from such Counties as to erve such classification. SEC. 9. The annual session of the General Assembly heretofore elected, d by the Constitution of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-eight to vene on the fourth Tuesday of November, in the year eighteen hundred ninety-five, is hereby postponed, and the same shall be convened and d in the city of Columbia on the second Tuesday of January, in the r eighteen hundred and ninety-six. The first session of the General Assembly ted under this Constitution shall convene in Columbia on the second Tuesin January, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, and thereer annually at the same time and place. Should the casualties of war contagious disease render it unsafe to meet at the seat of government, n the Governor may, by proclamation, appoint a more secure and conient place of meeting. Members of the General Assembly shall not ree any compensation for more than forty days of any one session : Proed, That this limitation shall not affect the first four sessions of the Gen1 Assembly under this Constitution. SEC. 10. The term of office of the Senators and Representatives chsoen i general election shall begin on the Monday following such election. SEC. 11. Each house shall judge of the election returns and qualifications its own members, and a majority of each house shall constitute a quorum do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and y compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under h penalties as may be provided by law or rule. cedure, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurSEC. 12. Each house shall choose its own officers, determine its rules of ce of two-thirds, expel a member, but not a second time for the same cause. SEC. 13. Each house may punish by imprisonment during its sitting any son not a member who shall be guilty of disrespect to the house by any orderly or contemptuous behavior in its presence, or who, during the time its sitting, shall threaten harm to the body or estate of any member for thing said or done in either house, or who shall assault any of them refor, or who shall assault or arrest any witness or other person ordered attend the house in his going thereto or returning therefrom, or who Il rescue any person arrested by order of the house: Provided, That such |