association, or corporation, or become, directly or indirectly, the owner of stock in or bonds of any association or corporation, nor shall any such county, city, town, or village be allowed to incur any indebtedness, except for county, city, town, or village purposes. This action shall not prevent such county, city, town, or village from making such provision for the aid or support of its poor as may be authorized by law. ARTICLE X. No officer whose salary is fixed by the constitution shall receive any additional compensation. Each of the other State officers named in the eonstitution shall, during his continuance in office, receive a compensation, to be fixed by law, which shall not be increased or diminished during the term for which he shall have been elected or appointed; nor shall he receive to his use any fees or perquisites of office or other compensation. ARTICLE XII. SECTION 1. Members of the Legislature (and all officers, executive and judicial, except such inferior officers as shall be by law exempted) shall, before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the State of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of ac leged from testifying in relation thereto, and he shall not be liable to civil or criminal prosecution therefor, if he shall testify to giving or offering of such bribe. Any person who shall offer or promise a bribe, if it be rejected by the officer to whom it is tendered, shall be deemed guilty of an attempt to bribe, which is hereby declared to be a felony. Any person charged with receiving a bribe, or with offering or promising a bribe, shall be permitted to testify in his own behalf in any civil or criminal prosecution therefor. Any district attorney who shall fail faithfully to prosecute a person charged with the violation in his county of any provision of this article which may come to his knowledge, shall be removed from office by the Governor, after a due notice and an opportunity of being heard in his defense. The expenses which shall be incurred by any county in investigating and prosecuting any charge of bribery, or attempting to bribe any person holding office under the laws of this State, within such county, or of receiving bribes by any such person in such county, shall be a charge against the State, and their payment by the State shall be provided for by law. ARTICLE XVI. All amendments to the constitution shall be in force from and including the first day of January succeeding the election at which the same were adopted, except when otherwise provided by such amendment. North Carolina. [Amendments ratified by the people, August ARTICLE I. honor and good faith of the State untarnished, the public debt, regularly contracted before and since the rebellion, shall be regarded as inviolable, and never be questioned; but." SEC. 6. Strike out the words "to maintain the cording to the best of my ability;" and all such ARTICLE XV. Any person holding office under the laws of this State, who, except in payment of his legal salary, fees, or perquisites, shall receive or consent to receive, directly or indirectly, anything of value or of personal advantage, or the promise thereof, for performing or omitting to perform any official act, or with the express or implied understanding that his official action or omission to act is to be in any degree influenced thereby, shall be deemed guilty of a felony. This section shall not affect the validity of any existing statute in relation to the offense of bribery. Any person who shall offer or promise a bribe to any officer, if it shall be received, shall be deemed guilty of a felony and liable to punishment, except as herein provided. No person offering a bribe shall, upon any prosecution of the officer for receiving such bribe, be privi ARTICLE II. SEO. 2. Strike out "annually" and insert "biennially," so as to provide for biennial sessions of the Legislature. SEC. 5. Strike out the clause providing for an enumeration of the population every ten years, and the words "as aforesaid, or," which relate to it. est on the public debt; and after the year 1880, | thereof; and such protest and the reasons there. it shall lay a specific annual tax upon the real and personal property of the State, and the sum thus realized shall be set apart as a sinking fund, to be devoted to the payment of the public debt." Amend section 6 so that the General Assembly may exempt from taxation any personal property not exceeding $300 in value." ARTICLE IX. Strike out sections 13, 14, and 15, which relate to the mode of election, powers, duties, organization, privileges, &c., of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina. ARTICLE XIV. Section 7 strikes out that no person shall hold more than one lucrative office under the State at one time," &c., and provides that no person holding a federal or a State office (with certain petty exceptions) shall be eligible to a seat in either house of the Legislature. Ohio. for shall, on being presented to such House, be entered on the journal by the clerk, without alteration, commitment, or delay. Every bill shall be fully and distinctly read on three different days, unless, in case of urgency, three fourths of the members elected to the House in which it shall be pending, by a vote by yeas and nays, entered on the journal, dispense with this rule; but the reading of a bill on its final passage shall in no case be dispensed with. No bill shall contain more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title, and no law shall be revived or amended unless the new act contain the entire act revived or the section or sections amended; and the section or sections so amended shall be repealed. The presiding officer of each House shall sign publicly, in the presence of the House over which capable of transacting business, all bills and he presides, while the same is in session and joint resolutions passed by the General Assembly. Every bill passed by the General Assembly shall be presented to the Governor. If approved, he shall sign it, and thereupon it shall become a [To be submitted to popular vote, August 18, law. If not approved, he shall send it, with his 1874.] * * ARTICLE I. *And no special privileges or immunities shall ever be granted that may not be altered, revoked, or repealed by the General Assembly. No power of suspending laws shall ever be exercised, except by the General Assembly. Private property shall ever be held inviolate, but subservient to the public welfare. When taken in time of war or other public exigency, imperatively requiring its immediate seizure, or for the purpose of making or repairing roads, which shall be open to the public, without charge, other than streets and highways in cities and incorporated villages, a compensation shall be made to the owner in money, and in all other cases, where private property shall be taken for public use, a compensation therefor shall first be made in money, or first secured by a deposit of money; and such compensation shall be assessed by a jury, without deduction for benefits to any property of the owner. ARTICLE II. No person convicted of embezzlement of the public funds shall hold office in this State; nor shall any person holding public money have a seat in the General Assembly, until he shall have accounted for such money and paid it into the treasury. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, which shall be published, and on which, at the request of two members, the yeas and nays shall be entered. On the passage of every bill or joint resolution in each House, the vote shall be taken by yeas and nays and entered on the journal. No bill or resolution, except joint resolutions relating to the course of business in the General Assembly, shall be passed in either House, without the concurrence of a majority of the members elected thereto. Any member of either House shall have the right to protest against any act or resolution objections in writing, to the House where it then agree to repass the same, it shall become a * * No Senator or Representative shall, during the term for which he shall have been elected, or for one year thereafter, be appointed to any civil office, under the laws of this State, which shall be created, or the emoluments of which shall be increased, during such term. No money shall be drawn from the treasury except in pursuance of specific appropriation made by law, the purpose of which shall be distinctly stated in the bill, and no appropriation shall be for a longer period than two years. On the passage of such bills, or on concurring in amendments thereto, a separate vote on any item or items therein shall, on demand of any member, be had by yeas and nays, entered on the journal; and every such item failing to receive the vote of the requisite majority of the members elected to the House in which the bill is pending shall be stricken therefrom, and each item receiving such majority shall be declared passed. No extra compensation shall be made to any officer, public agent, employee, or contractor after the service shall have been rendered or the ARTICLE IV. * * * At the first election for judges of the Supreme Court no elector shall vote for more than three candidates. contract entered into; nor shall any money being to a bill in any stage thereof, nor upon a appropriated or paid on any claim the subject-joint resolution requiring a vote of a majority of matter of which shall not have been provided the members elected to the Senate, nor in a confor by pre existing law, unless such compensation tested election of a member of the Senate, nor in or claim be allowed by bill passed by two-thirds the election of a Senator in Congress. of the members elected to each branch of the General Assembly. No provision authorizing the expenditure or payment of money for any purpose not provided for by pre-existing law shall be included in any bill making appropriations for a purpose which shall have been vided so for; nor shall more than one class of compensation or claims be included in the same bill. Every appropriation for the payment of such compensation or claim included in an act making appropriations of a different class shall be void. pro pro * * *No act or part of an act, except such as relates to public schools, public buildings, or public bridges, shall be passed to take effect upon a vote of the people to be affected thereby, or upon the approval of any other authority than the General Assembly, except as otherwise vided in this constitution; nor shall any act be passed conferring special powers or privileges upon any county, township, city, village, or other municipality not conferred upon all counties, townships, cities, villages, and municipalities of the same general class. The General Assembly shall have no power to pass retroactive laws or laws impairing the obligation of contracts, but may, by general laws, authorize courts to carry into effect, upon such terms as shall be just and equitable, the manifest intention of parties and officers, by curing omissions, defects, and errors in instruments and proceedings arising out of their want of conformity to the laws of this State. No new county shall contain less than four hundred square miles of territory, nor shall any county be reduced below that amount; and all laws creating new counties, changing county lines, or removing county seats, shall, before taking effect, be submitted to the electors of the several counties to be affected thereby, at the next general election after the passage thereof, and be adopted by a majority of all the electors voting at such election in each of said counties; but any county now or hereafter containing one hundred thousand inhabitants may be divided, whenever a majority of the voters residing in each of the proposed divisions shall approve the law passed for that purpose; but no town or city within the same shall be divided, nor shall either of the divisions contain less than twenty thousand inhabitants. The members of the General Assembly shall receive a fixed annual salary and mileage, to be prescribed by law, and no other allowance or perquisites, either in the payment of postage or otherwise; and no change in their compensation shall take effect during their term of office, but the General Assembly shall provide for ratable deductions therefrom on account of unnecessary absence during its sessions. ARTICLE III. Drunkenness of a judicial officer during a term of his court, or when otherwise officially engaged, shall work a forfeiture of his office; and upon such fact being established, as shall be provided by law, his office shall become vacant. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide for carrying this section into effect. The principal of all funds arising from the sale or other disposition of lands and other property, granted or entrusted to the State for educational or religious purposes, shall forever be preserved inviolate and undiminished; and the income therefrom shall be faithfully applied to the specific objects of the original grants and trusts. The General Assembly shall make such provision, by taxation or otherwise, as, with the income arising from the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the State. No religious or other sect shall ever have exclusive right to or control of any part of the school funds of the State. Women, having such qualifications as to age, citizenship, and residence as may be prescribed for electors, shall be eligible to any office under the school laws, except that of State commissioner of common schools. ARTICLE VIII. The State may contract debts to supply casual deficits or failures in revenues, or to meet expenses not otherwise provided for; but the aggregate amount of such debts shall never exceed seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars; and the money arising from the creation of such debts shall be applied to the purpose for which it was obtained, or to pay the debts so contracted, and to no other purpose. The State may also contract debts to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, defend the State in time of war, or redeem its present indebtedness; but the money arising from the creation of such debts shall be applied to the purpose for which it was obtained, or to pay the debts so contracted, and to no other purpose; and all debts incurred to redeem the present indebtedness of the State shall be made payable from the sinking fund hereinafter provided for, as the same shall accumulate. The Lieutenant Governor shall be President of Except as provided in sections one and two of the Senate, and may vote when the Senate is this article, no debt shall be created by or on equally divided, but not upon a question relat- I behalf of the State. The credit of the State shall not be given or loaned to, or in aid of any individual, association, or corporation; nor shall the State become a stockholder or part owner in any company or association. The State shall never assume any debt of a county, township, city, town, village, or corporation, unless such debt shall have been created to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or defend the State in time of war. No county, township, city, town, village or other political or municipal division of the State shall become a stockholder, either directly or indirectly, in any joint stock company, corporation, or association; or raise money for or in aid of, or loan its credit to, or in aid of any such company, corporation, or association; or purchase or construct, or in any way aid in purchasing or constructing, any railroad, canal, or appurtenance thereto. centum of the value of the property within such corporation, as ascertained from time to time by the tax duplicate thereof, without the consent, first obtained, to such increase of indebtedness, and the approval of the objects for which the same is to be created, of at least three-fourths of all the electors of such corporation, to be ascertained by the mode prescribed by law; and in no case shall such indebtedness exceed ten per centum of said taxable value. In ascertaining such indebtedness, there shall be included an amount which, at the rate of six per centum per annum, will produce a sum equal to the aggregate annual rents payable by such corporation. This section shall not be construed to prevent municipal corporations from incurring indebtedness necessary for military purposes in time of war, or for the completion of any work authorized by law and heretofore undertaken; nor, until the first valuation of real estate for taxation hereafter made, to prevent the borrowing of money in anticipation of the collection of assessments actually levied. purposes, specified by law; nor shall money raised by taxation, loan, or assessment, for one purpose, ever be diverted to another. The faith of the State being pledged for the payment of its public debt, in order to provide therefor a sinking fund shall be created, sufficient to pay the accruing interest on such debt, and Except as otherwise provided in this constiannually reduce the principal thereof, by a sum tution, no tax or assessment shall be levied or not less than one hundred thousand dollars, in- collected, or debt contracted by a municipal corcreased yearly and each and every year by com-poration, except in pursuance of law for public pounding at the rate of six per centum per annum, from the fifteenth day of November, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one. The said sinking fund shall consist of the net annual income of the public works and stocks owned by the State, of any other funds or resources that are or may be provided by law, and of such further sum, to be raised by taxation, as may be required for the purposes aforesaid; and no part thereof shall ever be transferred to any other fund, or used for any other purpose. ARTICLE X. No money shall be drawn from any county or township treasury except by authority of law; nor shall money raised by taxation, loan, or assessment, for one purpose, ever be diverted to another. Counties and townships shall, when necessary to the public convenience or welfare, have such power of local taxation and assessment for police purposes, for constructing and improving ditches and public roads other than railroads, and for clearing water courses, as may be prescribed by law. ARTICLE XI. * * * The General Assembly shall restrict the power of such corporations to levy taxes and assessments, borrow money, and contract debts, so as to prevent the abuse of such power. No municipal corporation shall loan its credit to any person or corporation, except as may be otherwise provided in this constitution. No assessments shall be levied by a municipal corporation upon any property, which shall require the payment in one year of more than ten per centum of its value, as ascertained by the tax duplicate, nor shall the aggregate of such assessments, in any period of ten years, exceed fifty per centum of the highest taxable valuation of such property during the same period. The indebtedness of a municipal corporation shall never exceed, in the aggregate, five per No property shall be appropriated to the use of a municipal corporation, until compensation therefor be first made in money, or first secured by a deposit of money, to be assessed in the manner and by the rule prescribed in section nineteen of the bill of rights. ARTICLE XII. The General Assembly shall pass no act conferring corporate powers. Corporations may be formed under general laws, but such laws may, from time to time, be altered or repealed. Dues from corporations shall be secured by such individual liability of the stockholders and other means as may be prescribed by law; but, in all cases, each stockholder shall be liable over and above the stock by him or her owned, and any amount unpaid thereon, to a further sum, at least equal in amount to such stock. No property shall be appropriated to the use of a corporation until full compensation therefor be first made in money, or first secured by a deposit of money to the owner, irrespective of any benefit from any improvement proposed by such corporation; which compensation may be ascertained by a jury of twelve men, in a court of record, as shall be prescribed by law. No act of the General Assembly authorizing the issue of bills, notes, or other paper, which may circulate as money, shall take effect until submitted to the people, at the general election next succeeding the passage thereof, and approved by a majority of the electors voting at such election; and the redemption of all such paper shall be fully secured by the deposit of such securities of the United States or of this State, as may be prescribed by law. The directors of a corporation shall be chosen at one time by general ticket. At elections for directors, each shareholder shall have as many votes as the number of shares held by him, multiplied by the number of directors to be chosen, and may cast all his votes for one candidate, or distribute them as he may see fit. Foreign corporations may be authorized to do business in this State, under such limitations and restrictions as may be prescribed by law; * nor shall they have power to condemn or appropriate private property. increased, except in pursuance of general law; nor until the consent of the persons holding the larger amount in value of the stock shall be obtained, at a meeting held after notice given, for a period not less than sixty days, in pursuance of law. Persons and property transported over any *railroad shall be carried to any station at charges not exceeding in gross the charges for the same class and amount of transportation of persons and property in the same direction to any more distant station; but excursion and commutation tickets may be issued at special rates. ARTICLE XIII. The General Assembly may, by general law, subject to the provisions of this consitution, extend the existence of societies for savings, created prior to the first day of September, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, whose charters are subject to alteration, amendment, or repeal. No other corporation of this State, incorporated prior to the first day of May, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, shall have the benefit of any law passed since that date, or which shall hereafter be passed, except laws regulating judicial procedure, unless they shall reorganize under and subject to the provisions of this constitution. No officer or agent of any company, operating or using a railroad within this State, shall be interested, directly or indirectly, either by himself or associated with others, in the receipts, contracts, or earnings of such company, otherwise than as an ordinary shipper or passenger, or as a stockholder, bond creditor, or employee; nor in any arrangement which shall afford more advantageous terms or greater facilities than are offered and accorded to the public; and all contracts and arrangements in violation of this section shall be void. No railroad company shall consolidate with another, having a line parallel or competing with its own; or lease, purchase, or control such line; and no officer of a railroad company shall act as an officer of any other company owning or controlling a parallel or competing line; and no railroad company shall do business in this State which shares its earnings, in any manner, with a company owning or controlling a parallel or competing line within this State. No foreign corporation shall carry on the business of transporting persons or property, or of telegraphing, mining, manufacturing, or insurance in this State, except while it maintains therein an office where, or on the person in charge of which, process may be served in any action or legal proceeding instituted against it; nor after it shall cause or procure to be removed into any of the courts of the United States a proceeding instituted by or against it, in any court of this State, upon a cause of action arising out of such business, which a corporation of this State, if a party to such proceeding, might not cause or procure to be so removed. The General Assembly shall provide for raisfor each year, including a sum sufficient to pay ing revenue to defray the expenses of the State the interest on the State debt, and so much at least of the principal thereof as is provided for in article eight of this constitution. The General Assembly shall never levy a poll tax for county or State purposes. all real and personal property, according to its Laws shall be passed taxing by a uniform rate value in money, to be ascertained by such rules of appraisement as may be prescribed by the General Assembly, so that all property shall bear an equal proportion of the burdens of taxation; provided that the deduction of debts from credits may be authorized. The General Assembly may provide by general laws for exemption from taxation of all burial grounds, public school houses, houses used exclusively for public worship, institutions of purely public charity, public libraries, public property used exclusively for any public purpose, and personal property to an amount not exceeding two hundred dollars for each individual; but such laws shall be subject to alteration or repeal, and the value of property so exempted shall from time to time be ascertained and published, as may be directed by law. The General Assembly may impose taxes by license, excise, or otherwise, and also provide, by equitable rules, for taxing franchises and income derived from investments, when the principal from which such income is derived cannot be taxed. Banks and bankers shall be taxed by such and business done, as will require them to share equitable rules, based upon capital employed equally with other persons in the burdens of taxtaxation of shares of stock in any bank. ation; but this provision shall not prevent the The General Assembly may, by special tax, prohibit the keeping, harboring, or running at assessment, or otherwise, regulate, restrain, or large of dogs. No tax shall be levied except in pursuance of The General Assembly shall pass laws to correct abuses and prevent unjust discrimination and law, and every law imposing a tax shall state excessive charges by railroad companies for trans-distinctly the object of the same, to which only it shall be applied. porting freight and passengers, and shall provide for enforcing such laws by adequate penalties and forfeitures. No corporation shall issue stocks or bonds, except for money or property actually received, or labor done; and all fictitious increase of stock or indebtedness shall be void. The stock and bonded indebtedness of corporations shall not be The State shall never contract any debt for purposes of internal improvement. ARTICLE XIV. The apportionment for members of the General Assembly shall be made every ten years, after the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the manner hereinafter provided. |
