CONSTITUTION

OF THE

REPUBLIC OF TEXAS.

We, the people of Texas, in order to form a government, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence and general welfare; and to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves, and our posterity, do ordain and estab lish this constitution.

ARTICLE I.

SECTION 1. The powers of this government shall be divided into three departments, viz: legislative, executive and judicial, which shall remain forever separate and distinct.

SEC. 2. The legislative power shall be vested in a senate and house of representatives, to be styled the congress of the republic of Texas.

SEC. 3. The members of the house of representatives shall be chosen annually, on the first Monday of September each year, until congress shall otherwise provide by law, and shall hold their offices one year from the date of their election.

SEC. 4. No person shall be eligible to a scat in the house of representatives until he shall have attained the age of twentyfive years, shall be a citizen of the republic, and shall have resided in the county or district six months next preceding his election.

SEC. 5. The house of representatives shall not consist of less than twenty-four, nor more than forty members, until the population shall amount to one hundred thousand souls, after which time the whole number of representatives shall not be less than forty, nor more than one hundred: Provided, however, that each county shall be entitled to at least one representative.

SEC. 6. The house of representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment.

SEC. 7. The senators shall be chosen by districts, as nearly equal in free population (free negroes and Indians excepted,) as practicable; and the number of senators shall never be less than one third nor more than one half the number of representatives, and each district shall be entitled to one member and no

more.

SEC. 8. The senators shall be chosen for the term of three years, on the first Monday in September; shall be citizens of the republic, reside in the district for which they are respectively chosen at least one year before the election; and shall have atrained the age of thirty years.

SEC. 9. At the first session of congress after the adoption of this constitution, the senators shall be divided by lot into three classes, as nearly equal as practicable; the seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the end of the first year; of the second class, at the end of the second year; the third class, at the end of the third year, in such a manner that one third shall be chosen each year thereafter.

SEC. 10. The vice president of the republic shall be president of the senate, but shall not vote on any question, unless the senate be equally divided.

SEC. 11. The senate shall choose all other officers of their body, and a president pro tempore, in the absence of the vice president, or whenever he shall exercise the office of president; shall have the sole power to try impeachments, and when sitting as a court of impeachment, shall be under oath; but no conviction shall take place without the concurrence of two thirds of all the members present.

SEC. 12. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall only extend to removal from office, and disqualification to hold any of fice of honor, trust or profit under this government; but the party shall nevertheless be liable to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment according to law.

SEC. 13. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, qualifications and returns of its own members. Two thirds of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may compel the attendance of absent members.

SEC. 14. Each house may determine the rules of its own proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and with

the concurrence of two thirds, may expel a member, but not second time for the same offence.

SEC. 15. Senators and representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be fixed by law, but no increase of compensation, diminution, shall take effect during the session at which such increase or diminution shall have been made. They shall, except in case of treason, felor, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during the session of congress, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either house they shall not be questioned in any other place.

SEC. 16. Each house may punish, by imprisonment, during the session, any person not a member, who shall be guilty of any disrespect to the house, by any disorderly conduct in their presence.

SEC. 17. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and publish the same, except such parts as in its judgment require secrecy. When any three members shall desire the yeas and nays on any question, they shall be entered on the journals.

SEC. 18. Neither house, without the consent of the other, shall adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses may be sitting.

SEC. 19. When vacancies happen in either house, the exccutive shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancics.

SEC. 20. No bill shall become a law until it shall have beez read on three several days in each house, and passed by the same, unless, in cases of emergency, two thirds of the members of the house where the bill originated shall deem it expedi. ent to dispense with the rule.

SEC. 21. After a bill shall have been rejected, no bill containing the same substance shall be passed into a law during the same session.

SEC. 22. The style of the laws of the republic shall be, "Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the republic of Texas, in congress assembled."

SEC. 23. No person holding an office of profit under the government shall be eligible to a seat in cither house of congress, nor shall any member of either house be eligible to any office which may created, or the profits of which shall be increased during his term of service.

SEC. 24. No holder of public monies or collector thereof, shall be eligible to a scat in either house of congress, until he

shall have fully acquitted himself of all responsibility, and shall produce the proper officer's receipt thereof. Members of either house may protest against any act or resolution, and may have such protest entered on the journals of their respective houses.

SEC. 25. No money shall be drawn from the public treasury but in strict accordance with appropriations made by law;" and no appropriations shall be made for private or local purposes, unless two thirds of each house concur in such appropriations.

SEC. 26. Every act of congress shall be approved and signed by the president before it becomes a law; but if the president will not approve and sign such act, he shall return it to the house in which it shall have originated, with his reasons for not approving the same, which shall be spread upon the journals of such house, and the bill shall then be reconsidered, and shall not become a law unless it shall then pass by a vote of two thirds of both houses. If any act shall be disapproved by the president, the vote on the reconsideration shall be recorded by ayes and If the president shall fail to return a bill within five days. (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented for his approval and signature, the same shall become a law, unless the congress prevent its return within the time above specified by adjournment.

nocs.

SEc. 27. All bills, acts, orders, or resolutions, to which the concurrence of both houses may be necessary, (motions or resolutions for adjournment excepted,) shall be approved and signed by the president, or being disapproved, shall be passed by two thirds of both houses, in manner and form as specified in section twenty.

ARTICLE II.

SEC. 1. Congress shall have power to levy and collect taxes and imposts, excise and tonage duties; to borrow money on the faith, credit, and property of the government, to pay the debts and to provide for the common defence and general welfare of the republic.

SEC. 2. To regulate commerce, to coin money, to regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin, to fix the standard of weights and measures, but nothing but gold and silver shall be made a lawful tender.

SEC. 3. To establish post offices and post roads, to grant charters of incorporation, patents and copy rights, and secure to the authors and inventors the exclusive use thereof for a limited time.

SEC. 4. To declare war, grant letters of marque and repri sal, and to regulate captures.

SEC. 5. To provide and maintain an army and navy, and to make all laws and regulations necessary for their government. SEC. 6. To call out the militia to execute the law, to suppress insurrections, and repel invasion.

SEC. 7. To make all laws which shall be deemed necessary and proper to carry into effect the foregoing express grants of power, and all other powers vested in the government of the republic, or in any officer or department thereof.

ARTICLE III.

SEC. 1. The executive authority of this government shall be vested in a chief magistrate, who shall be styled the president of the republic of Texas.

SEC. 2. The first president elected by the people shall hold his office for the term of two years, and shall be ineligible during the next succeeding term; and all subsequent presidents shall be elected for three years, and be alike ineligible; and in the event of a tie, the house of representatives shall determine between the two highest candidates by a vive voce vote.

SEC. 3. The returns of the elections for president and vice president shall be scaled up and transmitted to the speaker of the house of representatives, by the holders of elections of each county; and the speaker of the house of representatives shall open" and publish the returns in presence of a majority of each house of congress.

ARTICLE IV.

SEC. 1. The judicial powers of the government shall be vested in one supreme court, and such inferior courts as the congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish. The judges of the supreme and inferior courts shall hold their offices for four years, be eligible to re-election, and shall, at stated periods, receive for their services a compensation, not to be increased or diminished during the period for which they were elected.

SEC. 2. The republic of Texas shall be divided into con venient judicial districts, not less than three, nor more than eight. There shall be appointed for each district a judge, who shall reside in the same, and hold the courts at such times and places as congress may by law direct.

SEC. 3. In all admiralty and maritime cases, in all cases affecting ambassadors, public ministers or consuls, and in all capital cases, the district courts shall have exclusive original jurisdiction, and original jurisdiction in all civil cases when the mat. ter in controversy amounts to one hundred dollars.