the lowest bidder or bidders, who shall give adequate and satisfactory security for the performance thereof. The Legislature shall prescribe by law the manner in which the State printing shall be executed, and the accounts rendered therefor; and shall prohibit all charges for constructive labor. They shall not rescind nor alter such contract, nor release the person or persons taking the same, or his or their sureties, from the performance of any of the conditions of the contract. No member of the Legislature, nor officer of the State shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in any such contract.

SEC. 23. The Legislature shall not authorize, by private or special law, the sale or conveyance of any real estate belonging to any person; nor vacate nor alter any road laid out by commissioners of highways, or any street in any city or village, or in any recorded town plat.

SEC. 24. The Legislature may authorize the employment of a chaplain for the State Prison; but no money shall be appropriated for the payment of any religious services in either house of the Legislature.

SEC. 25. No law shall be revised, altered, or amended by reference to its title only; but the act revised, and the section or sections of the act altered or amended shall be reënacted and published at length.

SEC. 26. Divorces shall not be granted by the Legislature. SEC. 27. The Legislature shall not authorize any lottery, nor permit the sale of lottery tickets.

SEC. 28. No new bill shall be introduced into either house of the Legislature after the first fifty days of the session shall have expired.*

* Amendment agreed to by the Legislature of 1859, and approved by the people in 1860. The Constitution of 1837 did not contain this limitation.

SEC. 29. In case of a contested election, the person only shall receive from the State per diem compensation and mileage who is declared to be entitled to a seat by the house in which the contest takes place.

SEC. 30. No collector, holder or disburser of public moneys shall have a seat in the Legislature, or be eligible to any office of trust or profit under this State, until he shall have accounted for and paid over, as provided by law, all sums for which he may be liable.

SEC. 31. The Legislature shall not audit nor allow any private claim or account.

SEC. 32. The Legislature on the day of final adjournment, shall adjourn at twelve o'clock noon.

SEC. 33. The Legislature shall meet at the seat of government on the first Wednesday in January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and on the first Wednesday of January in every second year thereafter, and at no other place or time, unless as provided in the Constitution of the State, and shall adjourn without day at such time as the Legislature shall fix by concurrent resolution.*

SEC. 34. The election of Senators and Representatives pursuant to the provisions of this Constitution, shall be held on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, and on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday in November of every second year thereafter.

SEC. 35. The Legislature shall not establish a State paper. Every newspaper in the State which shall publish all the gen

*As amended by Joint Resolution, No. 18, Laws of 1859, p. 1105. Ratified election of 1860. Under the Constitution of 1837 the Legislature met the first Monday in January of every year.

eral laws of any session within forty days of their passage shall be entitled to receive a sum not exceeding fifteen dollars therefor.

SEC. 36. The Legislature shall provide for the speedy publication of all the statute laws of a public nature, and of such judicial decisions as it may deem expedient. All laws and judicial decision shall be free for publication by any person.

SEC. 37. The Legislature may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant, and also the manner of filling the vacancy where no provision is made for that purpose in this Constitution.

SEC. 38. The Legislature may confer upon organized townships, incorporated cities and villages, and upon the Boards of Supervisors of the several counties such powers of a local, legislative and administrative character, as they may deem proper.

SEC. 39. The Legislature shall pass no law to prevent any body from worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of his own conscience, or to compel any person to attend, erect, or support any place of religious worship, or to pay tithes, taxes, or other rates for the support of any minister of the gospel or teacher of religion.

SEC. 40. No money shall be appropriated or drawn from the treasury for the benefit of any religious sect or society, theological or religious seminary, nor shall property belonging to the State be appropriated for any such purpose.

SEC. 41. The Legislature shall not diminish or enlarge the civil or political rights, privileges and capacities of any person on account of his opinion or belief concerning matters of religion.

SEC. 42. No law shall ever be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press; but every person may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of such right.

SEC. 43. The Legislature shall pass no bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts. SEC. 44. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus remains, and shall not be suspended by the Legislature, except in case of rebellion or invasion the public safety require it.

SEC. 45. The assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the Legislature shall be requisite to every bill appropriating the public money or property for local or private purposes.

SEC. 46. The Legislature may authorize a trial by a jury of a less number than twelve men.*

[† SEC. 47. The Legislature shall not pass any act authorizing the grant of license for the sale of ardent spirits or other intoxicating liquors.]

SEC. 48. The style of the laws shall be, "The People of the State of Michigan enact."

ARTICLE V.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.

SECTION 1. The executive power is vested in a Governor, who shall hold his office for two years. A Lieutenant Governor shall be chosen for the same term.

*Justice court juries consist of six men. In case of death or sickness of jurors, cases may be tried even by nine in a jury of twelve, or four in a jury of six. This does not apply to criminal cases.

† By amendment proposed by the Legislature of 1875, and approved by the people at the general election of 1876, Section 47, Article IV., was stricken out. It prohibited the license of the sale of intoxicating liquors. In 1887 the people voted not to re-insert a prohibitory clause.

SEC. 2. No person shall be eligible to the office of Governor or Lieutenant Governor who has not been five years a citizen of the United States, and a resident of this State two years next preceding his election; nor shall any person be eligible to either office who has not attained the age of thirty years.* SEC. 3. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor shall be elected at the times and places of choosing the members of the Legislature. The person having the highest number of votes for Governor or Lieutenant Governor shall be elected. In case two or more persons shall have an equal and the highest number of votes for Governor or Lieutenant Governor, the Legislature shall, by joint vote, choose one of such persons.

SEC. 4. The Governor shall be Commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces, and may call out such forces to execute the laws, to suppress insurrection and to repel invasion.

SEC. 5. He shall transact all necessary business with officers of government, and may require information in writing from the officers of the executive department, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices.

SEC. 6. He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

SEC. 7. He may convene the Legislature on extraordinary occasions.

SEC. 8. He shall give to the Legislature, and, at the close of his official term, to the next Legislature, information by message of the condition of the State, and recommend such measures to them as he shall deem expedient.

* Under the old Constitution the age was not specified, and the first Governor of the State was scarcely 25 years of age when elected. No person not a nativeborn citizen has filled the office thus far.