POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SEC. 8. The general assembly shall meet annually, and not oftener, unless convened by the governor in the manner prescribed in this constitution.

No session of the general assembly, after the first under this constitution, shall continue longer than sixty days, without the concurrence of three-fifths of the members elected to each house, in which case the session may be extended for a further period, not exceeding thirty days.

Neither house, during the session of the general assembly, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting.

A majority of the members elected to each house shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and shall be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalty as each house may provide.

SEC. 9. The house of delegates shall choose its own speaker, and in the absence of the lieutenant-governor, or when he shall exercise the office of governor, the senate shall choose from their own officers, a president pro tempore, and each house shall appoint its own officers, settle its own rules of proceeding, and direct writs of election for supplying intermediate vacancies, but if vacancies shall occur during the recess of the general assembly, such writs may be issued by the governor, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law.

Each house shall judge of the election, qualification, and returns of its members, may punish them for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member, but not a second time for the same offence.

SEC. 10. The members of the general assembly shall receive for their services a compensation to be ascertained by law and paid out of the public treasury, but no act increasing such compensation shall take effect until after the end of the term for which the members of the house of delegates voting thereon were elected.

And no senator or delegate during the term for which he shall have been elected shall be appointed to any civil office of profit under the commonwealth, which has been created, or the emoluments of which have been increased, during such term, except offices filled by election by the people.

SEC. 11. Bills and resolutions may originate in either of the two houses of the general assembly, to be approved or rejected by the other, and may be amended by either house with the consent of the other.

SEC. 12. Each house of the general assembly shall keep a journal of its proceedings, which shall be published from time to time, and the yeas and nays of the members of either house, on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. No bill shall become a law until it has been read on three different days of the session in the house in which it originated, unless two-thirds of the members elected to that house shall otherwise determine.

SEC. 13. The whole number of members to which the State may at any time be entitled in the House of Representatives of the United States shall be apportioned as nearly as may be amongst the several counties, cities, and towns of the State, according to their population. SEC. 14. In the apportionment, the State shall be divided into districts corresponding in number with the Representatives to which it may be entitled in the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, which shall be formed respectively of contiguous counties, cities, and towns, be compact, and include, as nearly as may be, an equal number of population.

SEC. 15. The privilege of habeas corpus shall not in any case be suspended. The general assembly shall not pass any bill of attainder. or any ex post facto law, or any law impairing the obligations of contracts, or any law whereby private property shall be taken for publie uses without just compensation, or any law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall any man be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, or otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and the same shall in nowise affect, diminish, or enlarge their civil capacities. And the general assembly shall not prescribe any religious test whatever, or confer any peculiar privileges or advantages on any sect or denomination, or pass any law requiring or authorizing any religious society, or the people of any district within this commonwealth, to levy on themselves or others any tax for the erection or repair of any house of public worship, or for the support of any church or ministry, but it shall be left free to every person to select his religious instructor, and to make for his support such private contract as he shall please.

SEC. 16. No law shall embrace more than one object, which shall be expressed in its title, nor shall any law be revived or amended by reference to its title, but the act revived or the section amended shall be reënacted and published at length.

SEC. 17. The general assembly may provide that no person shall be capable of holding, or being elected to, any post of profit, trust, or emolument, civil or military, legislative, executive, or judicial, under the government of this commonwealth, who shall hereafter fight a duel, or send or accept a challenge to fight a duel, the probable issue of which may be the death of the challenger or challenged, or who shall be a second to either party, or shall in any manner aid or assist in such duel, or shall be knowingly the bearer of such challenge or acceptance, but no person shall be so disqualified by reason of his having heretofore fought such duel, or sent or accepted such challenge, or been second in such duel, or bearer of such challenge or acceptance.

SEC. 18. The governor, lieutenant-governor, judges, and all others offending against the State by maladministration, corruption, neglect of duty, or other high crime or misdemeanor, shall be impeachable by the house of delegates, and be prosecuted before the senate, which shall have the sole power to try impeachments. When sitting for that purpose they shall be on oath or affirmation, and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. Judgment in case of impeachment shall not extend further than

to removal from office, and disqualification to hold or enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the commonwealth; but the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law. The senate may sit, during the recess of the general assembly, for the trial of impeachment.

SLAVERY OR FREEDOM

SEC. 19. Slavery and involuntary servitude (except for crime) is hereby abolished and prohibited in the State forever.

SEC. 20. Courts of competent jurisdiction may apprentice minors of African descent on like conditions provided by law for apprenticing white children.

SEC. 21. The general assembly shall make no law establishing slavery or recognizing property in human beings.

SEC. 22. A capitation-tax, equal to the tax assessed on land of the value of two hundred dollars, shall be levied on every white male inhabitant who has attained the age of twenty-one years, and one equal moiety of the capitation-tax upon white persons shall be applied to the purposes of education in primary and free schools; but nothing herein contained shall prevent exemptions of taxable polls in cases of bodily infirmity.

SEC. 23. Taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout the commonwealth, and all property shall be taxed in proportion to its value, which shall be ascertained in such manner as may be prescribed by law. The general assembly may levy a tax on incomes, salaries, and licenses, but no tax shall be levied on property from which any income so taxed is derived of the capital invested in trade or business in respect to which the license so taxed is issued.

SEC. 24. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in pursuance of appropriation made by law, and a statement of receipts, disbursements, appropriations, and loans shall be published after the adjournment of each session of the general assembly, with the acts and resolutions thereof.

SEC. 25. On the passage of every act which imposes, continues, or revives a tax, or creates a debt or charge, or makes, continues, or revives 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 yeas and nays, 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. 26. The liability to the State of any incorporated company or institution to redeem the principal and pay the interest of any loan heretofore made or which may hereafter be made by the State to such company or institution shall not be released, and the general assembly shall not pledge the faith of the State or bind it in any form for the debt or obligation of any company or corporation.

SEC. 27. 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 States of Virginia and of West Virginia, respectively, and may authorize, in conjunction with the State of West Virginia, the sale of all lands and property of every description, including all stocks and other interests owned and held by the State of Virginia in banks, works of internal improvement,

7535-VOL 7-09—6

and other companies at the time of the formation of the State of West Virginia, and no ordinance passed by the convention which assembled at Wheeling on the eleventh day of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, adjusting the public debt between Virginia and West Virginia, shall be binding upon this State. It shall not provide for the payment of any debt or obligation created in the name of the State of Virginia by the usurped and pretended State authorities at Richmond; and it shall not allow any county, city, or corporation to levy or collect any tax for the payment of any debt created for the purpose of aiding any rebellion against the State or the United States. The legislature shall not provide for the payment of any bonds now held by rebels in arms against the State or United States governments.

SEC. 28. The general assembly may at any time direct the sale of the stocks held by the commonwealth in internal improvements, and other companies located within the limits of this commonwealth, but the proceeds of such sale, if made before the payment of the public debt, shall be appropriated to the payment thereof.

SEC. 29. No debt shall be contracted by this State except to meet casual deficits in the revenue, to redeem a previous liability of the State, or to suppress insurrection, repel invasion, or defend the State in time of war. If the State becomes a stockholder in any association or corporation for purposes of internal improvements, such stock shall be paid for at the time of subscription, or a tax shall be levied for the ensuing year sufficient to pay the subscription in full.

GENERAL PROVISIONS

SEC. 30. The general assembly shall not grant a charter of incorporation to any church or religious denomination, but may secure the title to church property to an extent to be limited by law.

SEC. 31. No lottery shall hereafter be authorized by law, and the buying, selling, or transferring of tickets or chances in any lottery not now authorized by a law of this State shall be prohibited.

SEC. 32. No new county shall be formed with an area of less than six hundred square miles; nor shall the county or counties from which it is formed be reduced below that area, nor shall any county having a white population less than five thousand be deprived of more than one-fifth of such population, nor shall a county having a larger white population be reduced below four thousand. But any county, the length of which is three times its mean breadth, or which exceeds fifty miles in length, may be divided at the discretion of the general assembly. In all general elections the voters in any county not entitled to separate representation shall vote in the same election district.

SEC. 33. The general assembly shall confer on the courts the power to grant divorces, change the names of persons, and direct the sale of estates belonging to infants and other persons under legal disabilities, but shall not, by special legislation, grant relief in such cases, or in any other case of which the courts or other tribunals may have jurisdiction.

SEC. 34. The general assembly shall provide for the periodical registration in the several counties, cities, and towns of the voters therein; and for the annual registration of births, marriages, and

deaths in the white population, and of the births and deaths in the colored population.

SEC. 35. The manner of conducting and making returns of elections, of determining contested elections, and of filling vacancies in office, in cases not specially provided for by this constitution, shall be prescribed by law; but special elections to fill vacancies in the office of judge of any court shall be for a full term. And the general assembly may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant, where no provision is made for that purpose in this constitution.

ARTICLE V

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT

GOVERNOR

SECTION 1. The chief executive power of this commonwealth shall be vested in a governor. He shall hold the office for the term of four years, to commence on the first day of January next succeeding his election, and be ineligible to the same office for the term next succeeding that for which he was elected, and to any other office during his term of service.

SEC. 2. The governor shall be elected by the voters, at the times and places of choosing members of the general assembly. Returns of the elections shall be transmitted under seal, by the proper officers, to the secretary of the commonwealth, who shall deliver them to the speaker of the house of delegates on the first day of the next session of the general assembly. The speaker of the house of delegates shall, within one week thereafter, in the presence of the senate and house of delegates, open the said returns, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the highest number of votes shall be declared elected; but if two or more shall have the highest and equal number of votes, one of them shall be chosen governor by the joint vote of the two houses of the general assembly. Contested elections for governor shall be decided by a like vote, and the mode of proceeding in such cases shall be prescribed by law.

SEC. 3. No person shall be eligible to the office of governor unless he has attained the age of thirty years, is a native citizen of the United States, and has been a citizen of Virginia for five years next preceding his election.

SEC. 4. The governor shall reside at the seat of government; shall receive five thousand dollars for each year of his services; and, while in office, shall receive no other emolument from this or any other government.

SEC. 5. He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed; communicate to the general assembly at every session the condition of the commonwealth; recommend to their consideration such measures as he may deem expedient: and convene the general assembly on application of a majority of the members of both houses thereof, or when, in his opinion, the interest of the commonwealth may require it. He shall be commander-in-chief of the land and naval forces of the State; have power to embody the militia to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, and enforce the execution of the laws; conduct, either in person or in such other manner as shall be prescribed by law,