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SECTION 1. In all elections by the people the electors shall vote by ballot.

SECTION 2. Every male citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, not laboring under the disabilities named in this Constitution, without distinction of race, color, or former condition, who shall be a resident of this State at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, or who shall thereafter reside in this State one year, and in the County in which he offers to vote, sixty days next preceding any election, shall be entitled to vote for all officers that are now, or hereafter may be, elected by the people, and upon all questions submitted to the electors at any elections; Provided, That no person shall be allowed to vote or hold office who is now or hereafter may be disqualified therefor by the Constitution of the United States, until such disqualification shall be removed by the Congress of the United States; Provided further, That no person, while kept in any alms house or asylum, or of unsound mind, or confined in any public prison. shall be allowed to vote or hold office.

SECTION 3. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide from time to time for the registration of all electors.

SECTION 4. For the purpose of voting no person shall be deemed to have lost his residence by reason of absence while employed in the service of the United States, nor while engaged upon the waters of this State or the United States, or of the high seas, nor while temporarily absent from the State.

SECTION 5. No soldier, seaman or marine in the army or navy of the United States shall be deemed a resident of this State in con■equence of having been stationed therein.

SECTION 6. Electors shall, in all cases, except treason, felony or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest and civil process during their attendance at elections, and in going to and returning from the same.

SECTION 7. Every person entitled to vote at any election shall be eligible to any office which now is or hereafter shall be elective by the people in the County where he shall have resided sixty days previous to such election, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution or the Constitution and laws of the United States.

SECTION 8. The General Assembly shall never pass any law that will deprive any of the citizens of this State of the right of suffrage except for treason, murder, robbery, or duelling, whereof the persons shall have been duly tried and convicted.

SECTION 9. Presidential electors shall be elected by the people. SECTION 10. In all elections held by the people under this Constitution, the person or persons who shall receive the highest number of votes shall be declared elected.

SECTION 11. The provision of this Constitution concerning the term of residence necessary to enable persons to hold certain offices therein mentioned, shall not be held to apply to officers chosen by the people at the first election, or by the General Assembly at its first session.

SECTION 12. No person shall be disfranchised for felony, or other, crimes committed while such person was a slave.

ARTICLE IX.

FINANCE AND TAXATION.

SECTION 1. The General Assembly shall provide by law for a uniform and equal rate of assessment and taxation, and shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of all property, real, personal and possessory, except mines and mining claims, the proceeds of which alone shall be taxed; and also excepting such property as may be exempted by law for municipal, educational, literary, scientific, religious or charitable purposes.

SECTION 2. The General Assembly may provide annually for a poll tax not to exceed one dollar on each poll, which shall be applied exclusively to the public school fund. And no additional poll tax shall be levied by any municipal corporation.

SECTION 3. The General Assembly shall provide for an annual tax sufficient to defray the estimated expenses of the State for each year; and whenever it shall happen that such ordinary expenses of the State for any year shall exceed the income of the State for such year, the General Assembly shall provide for levying a tax for the ensuing year sufficient, with other sources of income, to pay the deficiency of the preceding year, together with the estimated expenses of the ensuing year.

SECTION 4. No tax shall be levied except in pursuance of a law, which shall distinctly state the object of the same; to which object such tax shall be applied.

SECTION 5. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to enact laws for the exemption from taxation of all public schools, colleges, and institutions of learning, all charitable institutions in the nature of asylums for the infirm, deaf and dumb, blind, idiotic and indigent persons, all public libraries, churches and burying grounds; but property of associations and societies, although connected with charitable objects, shall not be exempt from State, County or

Municipal taxation; Provided, That this exemption shall not extend beyond the buildings and premises actually occupied by such schools, colleges, institutions of learning, asylums, libraries, churches and burial grounds, although connected with charitable objects.

SECTION 6. The General Assembly shall provide for the valuation and assessment of all lands and the improvements thereon prior to the assembling of the General Assembly of one thousand eight hundred and seventy, and thereafter on every fifth year.

SECTION 7. For the purpose of defraying extraordinary expenditures, the State may contract public debts; but such debts shall be authorized by law for some single object, to be distinctly specified therein; and no such law shall take effect until it shall have been passed by the vote of two-thirds of the members of each branch of the General Assembly, to be recorded by yeas and nays on the journals of each House respectively; and every such law shall levy a tax annually sufficient to pay the annual interest of such debt.

SECTION 8. The corporate authorities of Counties, Townships, School Districts, Cities, Towns and Villages may be vested with power to assess and collect taxes for corporate purposes; such taxes to be uniform in respect to persons and property within the jurisdiction of the body imposing the same. And the General Assembly shall require that all the property, except that heretofore exempted within the limits of municipal corporations, shall be taxed for the payment of debts contracted under authority of law.

SECTION 9. The General Assembly shall provide for the incorporation and organization of cities and towns, and shall restrict their powers of taxation, borrowing money, contracting debts, and loaning their credit.

SECTION 10. No scrip, certificate, or other evidence of State indebtedness shall be issued, except for the redemption of stock, bonds, or other evidences of indebtedness previously issued, or for such debts as are expressly authorized in this Constitution.

SECTION 11. An accurate statement of the receipt and expenditures of the public money shall be published with the laws of each regular session of the General Assembly in such manner as may, by law, be directed.

SECTION 12. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in pursuance of appropriations made by law.

SECTION 13. The fiscal year shall commence on the first day of November in each year.

SECTION 14. Any debt contracted by the State shall be by loan on State Bonds, of amounts not less than fifty dollars each, on interest, payable within twenty years after the final pas

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sage of the law authorizing such debt. A correct registry of all such bonds shall be kept by the Treasurer in numerical order, so as always to exhibit the number and amount unpaid, and to whom severally made payable.

SECTION 15. Suitable laws shall be passed by the General Assembly for the safe keeping, transfer and disbursement of the State, County and School funds, and all officers and other persons charged with the same, shall keep an accurate entry of each sum received, and of each payment and transfer; and shall give such security for the faithful discharge of such duties as the General Assembly may provide. And it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to pass laws making embezzlement of such funds a felony, punishable by fine and imprisonment proportioned to the amount of deficiency or embezzlement, and the party convicted of such felony shall be disqualified from ever holding any office of honor or emolument in this State; Provided, however, That the General Assembly, by a two-third vote, may remove the disability upon payment in full of the principal and interest of the sum embezzled. SECTION 16. No debt contracted by this State in behalf of the late rebellion, in whole or in part, shall ever be paid.

ARTICLE X.

EDUCATION.

SECTION 1. The supervision of public instruction shall be vested in a State Superintendent of Education, who shall be elected by the qualified electors of the State in such manner and at such time as the other State officers are elected; his powers, duties, term of office and compensation shall be defined by the General Assembly.

SECTION 2. There shall be elected biennially, in each County, by the qualified electors thereof, one School Commissioner, said Commissioners to constitute a State Board of Education, of which the State Superintendent shall, by virtue of his office, be Chairman; the powers, duties, and compensation of the members of said Board shall be determined by law.

SECTION 3. The General Assembly shall, as soon as practicable after the adoption of this Constitution, provide for a liberal and uniform system of free public schools throughout the State, and shall also make provision for the division of the State into suitable School Districts. There shall be kept open at least six months in each year one or more schools in each School District.

SECTION 4. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide for the compulsory attendance, at either public or private schools, of all children between the ages of six and sixteen years,

not physically or mentally disabled, for a term equivalent to twenty-four months, at least: Provided, That no law to that effect shall be passed until a system of public schools has been thoroughly and completely organized, and facilities afforded to all the inhabitants of the State for the free education of their children.

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SECTION 5. The General Assembly shall levy at each regular session after the adoption of this Constitution an annual tax on all taxable property throughout the State for the support of public schools, which tax shall be collected at the same time and by the same agents as the general State levy, and shall be paid into the Treasury of the State. There shall be assessed on all taxable polls in the State an annual tax of one dollar on each poll, the proceeds of which tax shall be applied solely to educational purposes. Provided, That no person shall ever be deprived of the right of suffrage for the non-payment of said tax. No other poll or capitation tax shall be levied in the State, nor shall the amount assessed on each poll exceed the limit given in this section. The School Tax shall be distributed among the several School Districts of the State, in proportion to the respective number of pupils attending the public schools. No religious sect or sects shall have exclusive right to, or control of any part of the school funds of the State, nor shall sectarian principles be taught in the public schools.

SECTION 6. Within five years after the first regular session of the General Assembly, following the adoption of this Constitution, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide for the establishment and support of a State Normal School, which shall be open to all persons who may wish to become teachers.

SECTION 7. Educational institutions for the benefit of all the blind, deaf and dumb, and such other benevolent institutions, as the public good may require, shall be established and supported by the State, subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by

law.

SECTION 8. Provisions shall be made by law, as soon as practicable, for the establishment and maintenance of a State Reform School for juvenile offenders.

SECTION 9. The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance of the State University, and as soon as practicable, provide for the establishment of an Agricultural College, and shall appropriate the land given to this State, for the support of such a college, by the Act of Congress, passed July second, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, or the money or scrip, as the case may be arising from the sale of said lands, or any lands which may hereafter be given or appropriated for such purpose, for the support and maintenance of such college, and may make the same a branch of the State University, for instruction in Agriculture, the Mechanic Arts, and the Natural Sciences connected therewith.

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