NO. 3.-REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON TAXATION AND FINANCE.

SECTION 1. Taxation, except as hereinafter provided, whether imposed by the State, county or corporate bodies, shall be equal and uniform, and all property, both real and personal, shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as prescribed by law. No one species of property, from which a tax may be collected, shall be taxed higher than any other species of property of equal value.

SEC. 2. No tax shall be imposed on any of the citizens of this State for the privilege of taking or catching oysters from their natural beds with tongs, in the waters thereof; but the amount of sales of oysters so taken by any citizen, in any one year, may be taxed at a rate not exceeding the rate of taxation imposed upon any other species of property.

SEC. 3. The Legislature may exempt all property used exclusively for State, county, municipal, benevolent, charitable, educational and religious purposes.

SEC. 4. The General Assembly may levy a tax on incomes in excess of ($600) six hundred dollars per annum, and upon the following licenses, viz : the sale of ardent spirits, theatrical and circus companies, menageries, jugglers, itinerant peddlers, and all other shows and exhibitions for which an entrance fee is required, commission merchants, persons selling by sample, brokers and pawn-brokers, and all other business which cannot be reached by the ad valorem system. The capital invested in all business operations shall be assessed and taxed as other property. Assessments upon all stock shall be according to the market value thereof.

SEC. 5. The General Assembly may levy a tax, not exceeding one dollar per annum, on every male citizen who has attained the age of twenty-one years, which shall be applied exclusively in aid of public free schools; and counties and corporations shall have power to impose a capitation tax - not exceeding (50) fifty cents per annum, for all purposes.

SEC. 6. The General Assembly shall provide for a re-assessment of the real estate of this State in the year 1869, or as soon thereafter as practicable, and on every fifth year thereafter: Provided, in making such assessment, no land shall be assessed above or below its value.

SEC. 7. No debt shall be contracted by this State except to meet casual deficits in the revenue to redeem a previous liability of the State, to suppress insurrection, repel invasion, or defend the State in time of war.

SEC. 8. The General Assembly shall provide, by law, a sinking fund, to be applied solely to the payment and extinguishment of the principal of the State

debt, which sinking fund shall be continued until the extinguishment of such State debt; and every law hereafter enacted by the General Assembly, creating a debt or authorizing a loan, shall provide a sinking fund for the payment of the same.

SEC. 9. The unfunded debt shall not be funded or redeemed at a value exceeding that established by law at the time said debt was contracted, nor shall any discrimination hereafter be made in paying the interest on State bonds, which shall give a higher actual value to bonds held in foreign countries, over the same class of bonds held in this country.

SEC. 10. No money shall be paid out of the State Treasury except in pursuance appropriations made by law; and no appropriation shall ever be made for the payment of any debt or obligation created in the name of the State of Virginia, by the usurped and pretended State authorities assembled at Richmond during the late war; and no county, city or corporation shall levy or collect any tax for the payment of any debt created for the purpose of aiding any rebellion against the State, or against the United States.

SEC. 11. On the passage of every act which imposes, continues or receives any appropriation of public or trust money, or property, or releases, discharges or commutes any claim or demand of the State, the vote shall be determined by ayes and noes, and the names of the persons voting for and against the same shall be entered on the journals of the respective Houses, and a majority of all the members elected to each House shall be necessary to give it the force of a law.

SEC. 12. The credit of the State shall not be granted to, or in aid of, any person, association or corporation.

SEC. 13. No scrip, certificate or other evidence of State indebtedness shall be issued except for the redemption of stock previously issued, or for such debts as are expressly authorized in this Constitution.

SEC. 14. The State shall not subscribe to, or become interested in, the stock of any company, association or corporation.

SEC. 15. The State shall not be a party to, or become interested in, any work of internal improvement, nor engage in carrying on any such work, otherwise than in the expenditure of grants to the State of land or other property.

SEC. 16. Every law which imposes, continues, or revives a tax, shall distinctly state the tax, and the object to which it is to be applied, and it shall not be sufficient to refer to any other law, to fix such tax or object.

SEC. 17. The State shall not assume any indebtedness of a county, borough, or city, nor lend its credit to the same.

SEC. 18. A full account of the State indebtedness, and an accurate statement of receipts and expenditures of the public money, shall be attached to and published with its laws, passed at every regular session of the General Assembly.

SEC. 19. The General Assembly shall provide by law for adjusting with the State of West Virginia the proportion of the public debt of Virginia, proper to be borne by the State of Virginia and West Virginia, and shall provide that such sum as shall be received from West Virginia shall be applied to the payment of the public debt of the State.

SEC. 20. No other or greater amount of tax or revenue shall at any time be levied than may be required for the necessary expenses of the government, or to pay the existing indebtedness of the State.

SEC. 21. The liability to the State of any incorporated. company or institution to redeem the principal and pay the interest of any loan heretofore made by the State to such company or institution, shall not be released or commuted.

NO. 4.-REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIVE FRANCHISE AND QUALIFICATIONS FOR OFFICE.

SECTION 1. Every male citizen of the United States, twenty-one years old, who shall have been a resident of this State twelve months, and of the county, city or town in which he shall offer to vote three months next preceding any election, shall be entitled to vote upon all questions submitted to the people at such election: Provided, That no officer, soldier, seaman, or marine of the United States army or navy shall be considered a resident of this State by reason of being stationed therein: And provided also, That the following persons shall be excluded from voting:

1st. Idiots and lunatics.

2d. Persons convicted of bribery in any election, embezzlement of public funds, treason or felony.

3d. No person who, while a citizen of this State, has, since the adoption of this Constitution, fought a duel with a deadly weapon, sent or accepted a challenge to fight a duel with a deadly weapon, either within or beyond the boundaries of this State, or knowingly conveyed a challenge, or aided or assisted in any manner in fighting a duel, shall be allowed to vote or hold any office of honor, profit or trust, under this Constitution.

4th. Every person who has been a senator or representative in Congress, or elector of President or Vice-President, or who held any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. This clause shall include the following officers: Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor of Public Accounts, Second Auditor, Register of the Land Office, State Treasurer, Attorney-General, Sheriffs, Sergeant of a city or town, Commissioner of the Revenue, County Surveyors, Constables, Overseers of the Poor, Commissioner of the Board of Public Works, Judges of the Supreme Court, Judge of the Circuit Courts, Judge of the Court of Hustings, Justices of the County Courts, Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, Town Councilman of a city or town, Coroners, Escheators, Inspectors of Tobacco, Flour, &c., Clerks of the Supreme, District, Circuit and County Courts, and of the Court of Hustings, and Attorneys for the Commonwealth: Provided, That the Legislature may, by a vote of three-fifths of both Houses, remove the disabilities incurred by this clause from any person included therein, by a separate vote in each case.

SEC. 2. All elections shall be by ballot, and all persons entitled to vote shall be eligible to any office within the gift of the people, except as restricted in this Constitution.

SEC. 3. All persons entitled to vote and hold office, and none other, shall be eligible to sit as jurors.

SEC. 4. The General Assembly shall, at its first session under this Constitution, enact a general registration law; and every person offering or applying to register shall take and subscribe, before the officer charged with making a registration of voters, the following oath :

"I, do voluntarily swear (or affirm) that I am not disqualified from exercising the right of suffrage by the Constitution framed by the Convention which assembled in the city of Richmond on the third day of December, 1867, and that I will support and defend the same to the best of my ability."

SEC. 5. No voter, during the time of holding any election at which he is entitled to vote, shall be compelled to perform military service, except in time of war or public danger, to work upon public roads, or to attend any court as suitor, juror or witness; and no voter shall be subject to arrest under any civil process during his attendance at elections, or in going to or returning from them.

OATH OF OFFICE.

All persons, before entering upon the discharge of any function as officers of this State, must take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation :

"I, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States, and the Constitution and laws of the State of Virginia; that I recognize and accept the civil and political equality of all men before the laws, and that I will faithfully perform the duty of to the best of my ability. So help me God."

SEC. 6. In addition to the foregoing oath of office, the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, members of the General Assembly, Secretary of State, Auditor of Public Accounts, State Treasurer, Attorney-General, all persons elected to any convention to frame a constitution for this State, or to change, alter or abridge this Constitution in any manner, and Mayor and Council of any city or town, shall, before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: Provided, The disabilities therein contained may be individually removed by a two-thirds vote of the General Assembly:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I have never voluntarily borne arms against the United States since I have been a citizen thereof; that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel or encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility thereto; that I have never sought nor accepted, nor attempted to exercise the functions of any office whatever, under any authority, or pretended authority, in hostility to the United States; that I have not yielded a voluntary support to any pretended government, authority, power or constitution within the United States, hostile or inimical thereto. And I do further swear (or affirm) that, to the best of my knowledge and ability, I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

"The above oath shall also be taken by all city and county officers before entering upon their duties, and by all other State officers not included in the above provision.”