"All persons may freely speak, write, and publish their sentiments on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that right, and no laws shall be enacted to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech. or of the press. In prosecutions for the publication of papers investigating the official conduct of officers or men in public capacity, or when the matter published is proper for public information, the truth thereof may be given in evidence; and in all indictments for libel, the jury shall be the judges of the law and the facts."— Const. of South Carolina, Art. 1, §§ 7, 8. The new constitution of Maryland forbids any religious test as a qualification for any office of profit or trust "other than a declaration of belief in the existence of God." The new constitution of North Carolina disqualifies for office "all persons who shall deny the being of Almighty God." The clause in the original constitution of 1776 was as follows: "That no person who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority of either the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust or profit in the civil department within this State." This was amended in 1835 by substituting the word Christian for Protestant, and in that form it remained until the present year, when the disqualification was narrowed as above shown. Voting by ballot, instead of viva voce, is established by the new constitutions of Arkansas and Georgia. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page 7,8 Limitations upon its power; the Articles of Confederation, and the supersession thereof by the Constitution Adoption of the Constitution by North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Constitution, laws, and treaties of United States to be supreme; Removal of causes from State courts; decisions of State courts to Reservation of powers to States and people; statutes necessary to Restraints imposed thereon by Constitution of United States Statutes setting aside judgments, granting new trials, &c. Statutes conferring power on guardians, &c. to sell lands |