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shall give or promise to give such consideration | of subjects within the territorial limits of the to any other person or party for such elector's anthority levying the tax, and shall be levied vote, or for the withholding thereof, and any and collected under general laws; but the Genelector who shall receive or agree to receive for eral Assembly may, by general laws, exempt himself or for another any money, reward, or from taxation public property used for public other valuable consideration for his vote at an purposes, actual places of religious worship, election, or for withholding the same, shall places of burial not used or held for private or thereby forfeit the right to vote at such election, corporate profit, and institutions of purely puband any elector whose right to vote shall be lic charity. challenged for such cause before the election officers shall be required to swear or affirm that the matter of the challenge is untrue before his vote shall be received.

Any person who shall, while a candidate for office, be guilty of bribery, fraud, or willful violation of any election law, shall be forever disqualified from holding an office of trust or profit in this Commonwealth; and any person convicted of willful violation of the election laws shall, in addition to any penalties provided by law, be deprived of the right of suffrage absolutely for a term of four years.

In trials of contested elections, and in proceedings for the investigation of elections, no person shall be permitted to withhold his testimony upon the ground that it may criminate himself or subject him to public infamy; but such testimony shall not afterwards be used against him in any judicial proceeding, except for perjury in giving such testimony.

All laws exempting property from taxation, other than the property above enumerated, shall be void.

The power to tax corporations and corporate property shall not be surrendered or suspended by any contract or grant to which the State shall be a party.

No debt shall be created by or on behalf of the State, except to supply casual deficiencies of revenue, repel invasion, suppress insurrection, defend the State in war, or to pay existing debt, and the debt created to supply deficiencies in revenue shall never exceed in the aggregate at any one time one million of dollars.

All laws authorizing the borrowing of money by and on behalf of the State shall specify the purpose for which the money is to be used, and the money so borrowed shall be used for the purpose specified and no other.

The credit of the Commonwealth shall not be pledged or loaned to any individual, company, corporation, or association, nor shall the Commonwealth become a joint owner or stockholder in any company, association, or corporation.

No person shall be qualified to serve as an election officer who shall hold, or shall within two months have held any office, appointment, or employment in or under the Government of The General Assembly shall not authorize any the United States, or of this State, or of any city county, city, borough, township, or incorporated or county, or of any municipal board, commis-district to become a stockholder in any company, sion, or trust in any city, save only justices of the peace and aldermen, notaries public, and persons in the militia service of the State; nor shall any election officer be eligible to any civil office to be filled at an election at which he shall serve, save only to such subordinate municipal or local offices below the grade of city or county offices as shall be designated by general law.

The courts of common pleas of the several counties of the Commonwealth shall have power within their respective jurisdictions to appoint overseers of election to supervise the proceedings of election officers, and to make report to the court as may be required; such appointments to be made for any district in a city or county, upon petition of five citizens, lawful voters of such election districts, setting forth that such appointment is a reasonable precaution to secure the purity and fairness of elections; overseers shall be two in number for an election district, shall be residents therein, and shall be persons qualified to serve upon election boards, and in each case members of different political parties; whenever the members of an election board shall differ in opinion, the overseers, if they shall be agreed thereon, shall decide the question of difference; in appointing overseers of election, all the law judges of the proper court, able to act at the time, shall concur in the appointments made.

ARTICLE IX.
Taxation and Finance.

association, or corporation, or to obtain or appropriate money for or to loan its credit to any corporation, association, institution, or individual.

The debt of any county, city, borough, township, school district, or other municipality, or incorporated district, except as herein provided, shall never exceed seven per centum upon the assessed value of the taxable property therein, nor shall any such municipality or distrtct incur any new debt, or increase its indebtedness to an amount exceeding two per centum upon such assessed valuation of property without the assent of the electors thereof, at a public election, in such manner as shall be provided by law, but any city, the debt of which now exceeds seven per centum of such assessed valuation, may be authorized by law to increase the same three per centum in the aggregate at any one time upon such valuation.

The Commonweath shall not assume the debt, or any part thereof, of any city, county, borough or township, unless such debt shall have been contracted to enable the State to repel invasion, suppress domestic insurrection, defend itself in time of war, or to assist the State in the discharge of any portion of its present indebtedness.

Any county, township, school district, or other municipality incurring any indebtedness, shall, at or before the time of so doing, provide for the collection of an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest and also the principal thereof

All taxes shall be uniform upon the same class within thirty years.

To provide for the payment of the present State debt, and any additional debt contracted as aforesaid, the General Assembly shall continue and maintain the sinking fund sufficient to pay the accruing interest on such debt, and annually to reduce the principal thereof by a sum not less than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; * * and unless in case of war, invasion, or insurrection, no part of the said sinking fund shall be used or applied otherwise than in the extinguishment of the public debt. The moneys of the State, over and above the necessary reserve, shall be used in the payment of the debt of the State, either directly or through the sinking fund, and the moneys of the sinking fund shall never be invested in or loaned upon the security of anything except the bonds

of the United States or of this State.
The moneys
held as necessary reserve shall be
limited by law to the amount required for cur-
rent expenses, and shall be secured and kept as
may be provided by law.

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The making of profit out of the public moneys, or using the same for any purpose not authorized by law, by any officer of the State or member or officer of the General Assembly, shall be a misdemeanor, and shall be punished as may be provided by law, bnt part of such punishment shall be a disqualification to hold office for a period of not less than five years.

ARTICLE X.
Education.

The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public schools, wherein all the children of this Commonwealth, above the age of six years, may be educated, and shall appropriate at least one million dollars each year for that purpose.

No money raised for the support of the public schools of the Commonwealth shall be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school.

Women twenty-one years of age and upwards shall be eligible to any office of control or management under the school laws of this State. ARTICLE XI.

Militia.

The General Assembly * * may exempt from military service persons having conscientious scruples against bearing arms. ARTICLE XIV.

County Officers.

In counties containing over one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, all county officers shall be paid by salary.

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exclusive privileges, under which a bona fide organization shall not have taken place and business been commenced in good faith at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall thereafter have no validity.

The General Assembly shall not remit the forfeiture of the charter of any corporation now existing, or alter or amend the same, or pass any other general or special law for the benefit of such corporation except upon the condition that such corporation shall thereafter hold its charter subject to the provisions of this constitution.

The exercise of the right of eminent domain shall never be abridged or so construed as to prevent the General Assembly from taking the property and franchises of incorporated companies, and subjecting them to public use, the same as the property of individuals; and the exercise of the police power of the State shall never be abridged or so construed as to permit corporations to conduct their business in such manner. as to infringe the equal rights of individuals or the general well being of the State.

In all elections for directors or managers of a corporation, each member or shareholder may cast the whole number of his votes for one candidate, or distribute them upon two or more candidates, as he may prefer.

No foreign corporation shall do any business in this State without having one or more known places of business, and an authorized agent or agents in the same, upon whom process may be served.

No corporation shall engage in any business other than that expressly authorized in its charter, nor shall it take or hold any real estate, except such as may be necessary and proper for its legitimate business.

No corporation shall issue stocks or bonds except for money, labor done, or money or property actually received; and all fictitious increase of stock or indebtedness shall be void; the stock and indebtedness of corporations shall not be increased except in pursuance of general law, nor without the consent of the persons holding the larger amount in value of the stock first obtained at a meeting to be held after sixty days' notice given in pursuance of a law.

Municipal and other corporations and individuals invested with the privilege of taking private property for public use shall make just compensation for property taken, injured, or destroyed by the construction or enlargement of their works, highways, or improvements, which compensation shall be paid or secured before such taking, injury, or destruction. The General Assembly is hereby prohibited from depriving any person of an appeal from any preliminary Three county commissioners and three county assessment of damages against any such corporaauditors shall be elected in each county where tions or individuals, made by viewers or othersuch officers are chosen, in the year one thous-wise; and the amount of such damages, in all and eight hundred and seventy-five, and every third year thereafter; and in the election of said officers each qualified elector shall vote for no more than two persons, and the three persons having the highest number of votes shall

be elected.

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ARTICLE XVI.
Private Corporations.

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cases of appeal, shall, on the demand of either party, be determined by a jury according to the course of the common law.

Every banking law shall provide for the registry and countersigning by an officer of the State, of all notes or bills designed for circulation, and that ample security to the full amount thereof shall be deposited with the Auditor General for

All existing charters, or grants of special or the redemption of such notes or bills.

class in the same direction to any more distant station; but excursion and commutation tickets may be issued at special rates.

The General Assembly shall have the power | any railroad shall be delivered at any station to alter, revoke, or annul any charter of incor- at charges not exceeding the charges for transporation now existing and revocable at the adop-portation of persons and property of the same tion of this constitution, or any that may hereafter be created, whenever in their opinion it may be injurious to the citizens of this Commonwealth, in such manner, however, that no injustice shall be done to the corporators. No law hereafter enacted shall create, renew, or extend the charter of more than one corporation.

No corporate body to possess banking and discounting privileges shall be created or organized in pursuance of any law without three months' previous public notice at the place of the intended location, of the intention to apply for such privileges, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law, nor shall a charter for such privilege be granted for a longer period than twenty years.

Any association or corporation organized for the purpose, or any individual, shall have the right to construct and maintain lines of telegraph within this State, and to connect the same with other lines; and the General Assembly shall, by general law of uniform operation, provide reasonable regulations to give full effect to this section. No telegraph company shall consolidate with or hold a controlling interest in the stock or bonds of any other telegraph company owning a competing line, or acquire, by purchase or otherwise, any other competing line of telegraph.

The term "corporations," as used in this article, shall be construed to include all joint stock companies or associations having any of the powers or privileges of corporations not possessed by individuals or partnerships.

ARTICLE XVII.
Railroads and Canals.

No railroad, canal, or other corporation, or the lessees, purchasers, or managers of any railroad or canal corporation, shall consolidate the stock, property, or franchises of such corporation with, or lease or purchase the works or franchises of, or in any way control any other railroad or canal corporation owning or having under its control a parallel or competiting line, nor shall any officer of such railroad or canal corporation act as an officer of any other railroad or canal corporation owning or having the control of a parallel or competing line, and the question whether railroads or canais are parallel or competing lines shall, when demanded by the party complainant, be decided by a jury as in other civil issues.

No incorporated company doing the business of a common carrier shall, directly or indirectly, prosecute or engage in mining or manufacturing articles for transportation over its works, nor shall such company, directly or indirectly, engage in any other business than that of common carriers, or hold or acquire lands, freehold or leasehold, directly or indirectly, except such as shall be necessary for carrying on its business; but any mining or manufacturing company may carry the products of its mines and manufactories on its railroad or canal not exceeding fifty miles in length.

No president, director, officer, agent, or employee of any railroad or canal company shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in the furhigh-nishing of material or supplies to such company, or in the business of transportation as a common carrier of freight or passengers over the works owned, leased, controlled, or worked by such company.

All railroads and canals shall be public ways, and all railroad and canal companies shall be common carriers. Any association or corporation organized for the purpose shall have the right to construct and operate a railroad between any points within this State and to connect at the State line with railroads of other States. Every railroad company shall have the right with its road to intersect, connect with, or cross any other railroad, and shall receive and transport each the others' passengers, tonnage, and cars, loaded or empty, without delay or discrimination.

Every railroad and canal corporation organized in this State shall maintain an office therein, where transfers of its stock shall be made, and where its books shall be kept for inspection by any stockholder or creditor of such corporation, in which shall be recorded the amount of capital stock subscribed or paid in, and by whom, the names of the owners of its stock and the amounts owned by them, respectively, the transfers of said stock, and the names and places of residence of its officers.

All individuals, associations, and corporations shall have equal right to have persons and property transported over railroads and canals, and no undue or unreasonable discrimination shall be made in charges for or in facilities for transportation of freight or passengers within the State, or coming from or going to any other State. Persons and property transported over

No discrimination in charges or facilities for transportation shall be made between transportation companies and individuals, or in favor of either, by abatement, drawback, or otherwise, and no railroad or canal company, or any lessee, manager, or employee thereof, shall make any preferences in furnishing cars or motive power. No railroad, railway, or other transportation company shall grant free passes or passes at a discount, to any persons except officers or employees of the company.

No street passenger railway shall be constructed within the limits of any city, borough, or township, without the consent of its local authorities.

No railroad, canal, or other transportation company, in existence at the time of the adoption of this article, shall have the benefit of any future legislation by general or special laws, except on condition of complete acceptance of all the provisions of this article.

The existing powers and duties of the Auditor General, in regard to railroads, canals, and other transportation companies, except as to their accounts, are hereby transferred to the Secretary of Internal Affairs, who shall have a general supervision over them, snbject to such regula

tions and alterations as shall be provided by | SEC. 3. The Supreme Court shall have appellate law; and in addition to the annual reports now required to be made, said secretary may require special reports at any time, upon any subject relating to the business of said companies, from any officer or officers thereof.

The General Assembly shall enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. [The new constitution was adopted by the constitutional convention elected in the fall of 1872, and was adopted by the people at a special election held on the 16th day of December, 1873, by a vote of 252,744 yeas to 108,594 nays. By authority of an act passed at the late session of the General Assembly, Governor HARTRANFT has appointed the Chief Justice of the State, the Attorney General, an ex-Attorney General, a common pleas judge, and three other eminent citizens a commission to propose amendments.]

Texas.

Section 6 of article X of the Constitution has been so amended as to read as follows, having been ratified at the election of 1872, and by the Legislature of 1873:

jurisdiction only, which, in civil causes and in criminal causes, shall be co-extensive with the limits of the State. Appeals from interlocutory judgments may be allowed, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Legislature may prescribe. The Supreme Court and the judges thereof shall have power to issue the writ of habeas corpus, and, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law, may issue the writ of mandamus and such other writs as may be necessary to enforce its own jurisdiction. The Supreme Court shall also have power to ascertain such matters of fact as may be necessary to the proper exercise of its jurisdiction.

SEC. 4. The Supreme Court shall hold its sessions at the capital and two other places in the State.

ARTICLE XII.

General Provisions.

SEC. 28. In each and every organized county in the State there shall be an assessor and collector of taxes elected by the people at the next ensuing general election, and every four years thereafter, who shall assess the property and collect the taxes so assessed, in conformity to such laws as now exist, or may be enacted hereafter by the Legislature, relative to the assessment and collection of taxes.

SEC. 40. The Legislature shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases: that is to say, for locating or chang

SEC. 6. The Legislature shall not hereafter grant lands, except for purposes of internal improvement, to any person or persons, nor shall any certificate for land be sold at the land office, except to actual settlers upon the same, and in lots not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres: Provided, That the Legislature shall not granting out of the public domain more than twenty sections of land for each mile of completed work, in aid of the construction of which land may be granted: And provided further, That nothing in the foregoing proviso shall affect any rights granted or secured by laws passed prior to the final adoption of this amendment.

The following amendments were proposed by the Legislature of 1873, understood to have been ratified at the election in December, 1873, were ratified by the Legislature of 1874, and proclaimed by the Governor January 27, 1874: ARTICLE I.

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SEC. 2. The Supreme Court shall consist of one chief justice and four associate justices, any three of whom shall constitute a quorum. They shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of nine years. All vacancies shall be filled for the unexpired term. If a vacancy shall occur or a term shall expire when the Senate is not in session, the Governor shall fill the same by appointment, which shall be sent to the Senate within ten days after that body shall assemble; and if not confirmed, the office shall immediately become vacant.

county seats; regulating county or town affairs; regulating the practice in courts of justice; regulating the duties and jurisdiction of justices of the peace and constables; providing for changes of venue in civil and criminal causes; incorporating cities and towns, or changing or amending the charter of any city or village; providing for the management of common schools; regulating the rates of interest on money; remitting fines, penalties, or forfeitures; changing the law of descent. In all other cases, when a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted; or in any case when a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted. The Legislature shall enact general laws providing for the cases before enumerated in this section, and for all other cases which, in its judgment, may be provided by gen

eral laws.

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VII.

THE ACTION OF THE PRESIDENT IN THE AFFAIRS OF THE STATES OF ALABAMA, ARKANSAS,

LOUISIANA, AND TEXAS.

[The following papers are gathered from Senate | now holding certificates of election as RepresentReport No. 457, 42d Cong., 3d session, and from atives from Marengo shall not vote upon or in said House Exec. Doc. No. 91, 42d Cong., 3d session, temporary organization, nor shall any business as to LOUISIANA; from House Exec. Doc. No. 229, other than deciding the contest as to said county parts 1 and 2, and Senate Exec. Doc. No. 51, 43d be transacted during such organization. Cong., 1st session, as to ARKANSAS; and from the Fourth. When such contest is determined, the records of the Attorney General's office as to ALA- House shall make a permanent organization in BAMA and TEXAS.] the usual way.

Alabama.

Attorney General to State Senator Hamilton.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 1872. SIR: I enclose copy of a plan of compromise which I have determined to propose to the bodies now in session at Montgomery claiming respectively to be the General Assembly of Alabama.

I have carefully considered your suggestions as to its modification, and am constrained to say that they do not accord with my views of the right of the case.

I believe the arrangement which I have suggested a fair and equitable one, and I hope that Both parties will deem it wise and prudent to settle the unhappy controversy in which they are now involved in accordance with it. Yours, very truly, GEO. H. WILLIAMS, Attorney General.

Attorney General's Plan of Compromise. Two organizations at Montgomery, Alabama, claiming to be the General Assembly of that State, have appealed to the President, and with his approval I submit, as a plan of compromising the difficulty, the following:

First. Officers of each organization shall tender their resignations, to take effect upon the permanent organization of a House of Representatives, as hereinafter provided.

Fifth. On said

the inst., the Senate Chamber shall be vacant, and at 12 o'clock the persons holding certificates of election as Senators shall assemble therein, and organize with the Lieutenant Governor presiding, with the person holding the certificate of Secretary Rayland in his seat, as the only Senator from Barbour county; and the votes for Senator in Marengo county shall be counted in the same way, and upon the same kind of evidence as is herein before provided for the House contest as to said county, and upon such count the person found to have the highest number of votes for Senator from said county shall be seated as such; but the person now holding the certificate of election to the Senate from said county shall not vote upon any question while the contest about his seat is pending. And then the contest as to the district comprising the counties of Butler and Conecuh shall be decided in the same way and upon the same kind of evidence, and the person now holding the certificate of election as Senator from said district shall not vote upon any question before he is declared elected upon a count of the votes of said district as aforesaid, nor shall the Senate settled. any other business before these contests are

do

shall take a seat in either body until his right No person not holding a certificate of election thereto is affirmed as above founded.

and

All those claiming to be members and seated Second. On the inst. the hall of the House in either organization shall be allowed mileage in the Capitol shall be vacant, and at 12 o'clock per diem compensation prior to the tempoof that day all the persons holding the certifi-rary organization as hereinbefore provided for, cates of Secretary Rayland shall be the only tion from Secretary Parker for Barbour county after which persons holding certificates of elecRepresentatives seated from Barbour county, shall cease to draw pay; and those contesting and shall make in the usual manner a temporary the seats for Marengo and the district of Butler organization. allowed per diem pay until said contests are reand Conecuh who are finally excluded shall be spectively ended; and the officers and employees of each organization shall be paid the usual compensation.

Third. Two tellers, one Republican and one Democrat, shall be appointed by the speaker pro tem, who shall publicly and in the presence of the House count the votes cast for Representatives in the county of Marengo; and for that purpose they shall take the returns of the precinct inspectors of said county, or, in case they cannot be procured, the evidence of said inspectors, so far as the same may be necessary to ascertain the actual vote cast as aforesaid, and the persons found upon such count to have the highest number of votes for Representative shall be seated as such from said county; but the persons

GEO. H. WILLIAMS,
Attorney General.

Attorney General to the Governor.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11. Hon. DAVID P. LEWIS, Governor of Alabama: I advise that no military or other force be employed, and both bodies of the Assembly allow matters to remain as they are until a plan of

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