ARTICLE VII.

IMPEACHMENTS.

A. D. 1868.

ment.

SECTION 1. The House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment. A vote of two-thirds of all the members elected shall be Impeachrequired for an impeachment, and any officer impeached shall thereby be suspended from office until judgment in the case shall have been pro

nounced.

SECTION 2. All impeachments shall be tried by the Senate, and when sitting for that purpose they shall be under oath or affirmation. No person shall be convicted except by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected. When the Governor is impeached the Chief Justice of the Stpreme Court, or the senior Judge, shall preside, with a casting vote in all preliminary questions.

How tried.

SECTION 3. The Governor and all other executive and judicial officers shall be liable to impeachment; but judgment in such cases shall not Who liable. extend further than removal from office. The persons convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable to indictment, trial and punishment according to law.

Causes of

SECTION 4. For any wilful neglect of duty, or other reasonable cause, which shall not be sufficient ground of impeachment, the Governor shall impeachment remove any executive or judicial officer on the address of two-thirds of each House of the General Assembly: Provided, That the cause, or causes, for which said removal may be required, shall be stated at length in such address, and entered on the journals of each House: And provided, further, That the officer intended to be removed shall be notified of such cause or causes, and shall be admitted to a hearing in his own defence, before any vote for such address; and in all cases the vote shall be taken by yeas and nays, and be entered on the journals of each House respectively.

ARTICLE VIII.

RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE.

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

of electors.

SECTION 2. Every male citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, not laboring under the disabilities named Qualification 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.

A. D. 1868.

Residence.

Soldiers and

sailors.

Exemption from arrest.

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 consequence 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 eliEligibility to gible 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 Disqualifica- 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.

tions.

Presidential Electors.

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

ble to.

SECTION 11. The provision of this Constitution concerning the term of Not applica- 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 Assessment and equal rate of assessment and taxation, and shall prescribe such reguand taxation. lations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of all property, real,

Poll tax.

Annual tax.

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 As

sembly 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.

A. D. 1868.

Object to be

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 stated. shall be applied.

SECTION 5. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to enact laws Exemptions. 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.

assem

SECTION 6. The General Assembly shall provide for the valuation and assessment of all lands and the improvements thereon prior to the bling 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.

Valuation of

lands.

Public debts.

Municipal

SECTION 8. The corporate authorities of Counties, townships, school districts, cities, towns and villages may be vested with power to assess and taxes. 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 Incorporaand organization of cities and towns, and shall restrict their powers of tions. taxation, borrowing money, contracting debts, and loaning their credit. SECTION 10. No scrip, certificate or other evidence of State indebted

Evidences of

ness shall be issued except for the redemption of stock, bonds, or other State indebtevidences of indebtedness previously issued, or for such debts as are ex- edness, pressly authorized in this Constitution.

Receipts and

SECTION 11. An accurate statement of the receipt and expenditures of the public money shall be published with the laws of each regular expenditures. 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 pur-Drafts on the suance of appropriations made by law.

Treasury.

SECTION 13. The fiscal year shall commence on the first day of No- 'Fiscal year. vember in each year.

A. D. 1868.

State bonds.

funds.

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 passage 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 State, Counfor the safe keeping, transfer and disbursement of the State. County and ty and school 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.

Rebel debts.

dent of Education.

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 Superinten- 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.

School Commissioners.

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 Free schools. 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.

attendance.

SECTION 4. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide Compulsory 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.

School tax.

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.

A. D. 1868.

Normal

School.

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

and dumb.

Reform

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

State Uni

Agricultural

College.

SECTION 9. The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance of the State University, and, as soon as practicable, provide for the estab- versity. lishment 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.

SECTION 10. All the public schools, colleges and universities of this State, supported in whole or in part by the public funds, shall be free and open to all. open to all the children and youths of the State, without regard to race or color.

SECTION 11. The proceeds of all lands that have been or hereafter may be given by the United States to this State for educational purposes. and not otherwise appropriated by this State or the United States, and of all lands or other property given by individuals, or appropriated by the State for like purpose, and of all estates of deceased persons who have died without leaving a will or heir, shall be securely invested and sacredly preserved as a State school fund, and the annual interest and income of said fund, together with such other means as the General Assembly may provide, shall be faithfully appropriated for the purpose of establishing and maintaining free public schools, and for no other purposes or uses whatever.

School fund.