of a jury may render a verdict in civil actions.

The section regulating the right of suffrage closes with the following provision: “No native of China, no idiot, insane person, or person convicted of any infamous crime, and no person hereafter convicted of the embezzlement or misappropriation of public money, shall ever exercise the privileges of an elector in this State."

The sessions of the Legislature after 1880 commence on the first Monday after the first day of January, and are biennial. The election of members of the Legislature after 1879 will be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Senators are chosen for four years and Representatives for two years. There are forty of the former and eighty of the latter. In adjusting the representation of districts, no persons who are not eligible to become citizens of the United States, under the naturalization laws, shall be counted as forming a part of the population of any district. No pay shall be allowed to members after sixty days; and no bill shall be introduced in either House after fifty days except on the consent of two thirds of the members. On the final passage of all bills they shall be read at length and receive the vote of a majority of the members of each House to become laws. The Governor may veto some items of appropriation bills and approve of others. No person holding any lucrative office under the United States or any other power shall be eligible to any civil office of profit under the State. Local officers or postmasters with a salary less than five hundred dollars and militia officers are excepted. "No person convicted of the embezzlement or defalcation of the public funds of the United States, or of any State, or of any county or municipality therein, shall ever be eligible to any office of honor, trust, or profit under the State; and the Legislature shall provide by law for the punishment of embezzlement or defalcation as a felony."

"No money shall ever be appropriated or drawn from the State Treasury for the use or benefit of any corporation, association, asylum, hospital, or any other institution not under the exclusive management and control of the State as a State institution; nor shall any grant or donation of property ever be made thereto by the State; provided, that notwithstanding anything contained in any section of the Constitution, the Legislature shall have the power to grant aid to institutions conducted for the support and maintenance of minor orphans or half orphans, or abandoned children, or aged persons in indigent circumstances such aid to be granted by a uniform rule, and proportioned to the number of inmates of such respective institutions; provided further, that the State shall have at any time the right to inquire into the management of such institutions; provided further, that whenever any county, or city and county, or city,

or town shall provide for the support of minor orphans, or half orphans, or abandoned children, or aged persons in indigent circumstances, such county, city and county, city, or town shall be entitled to receive the same pro rata appropriations as may be granted to such institutions under church or other control. An accurate statement of the receipts and expenditures of public moneys shall be attached to and published with the laws at every regular session of the Legislature."

"Every act shall embrace but one subject, which subject shall be expressed in its title. But if any subject shall be embraced in an act which shall not be expressed in its title, such act shall be void only as to so much thereof as shall not be expressed in its title. No law shall be revised or amended by reference to its title; but in such case the act revised or section amended shall be reenacted and published at length as revised or amended."

"The Legislature shall have no power to authorize lotteries or gift enterprises for any purpose, and shall pass laws to prohibit the sale in this State of lottery or gift-enterprise tickets, or tickets in any scheme in the nature of a lottery. The Legislature shall pass laws to regulate or prohibit the buying and selling of the shares of the capital stock of corporations in any stock board, stock exchange, or stock market under the control of any association. All contracts for the sale of shares of the capital stock of any corporation or association, on margin or to be delivered at a future day, shall be void, and any money paid on such contracts may be recovered by the party paying it by suit in any court of competent jurisdiction."

In all elections by the Legislature the members shall vote viva voce.

"Neither the Legislature, nor any county, city and county, township, school district, or other municipal corporation, shall ever make an appropriation, or pay from any public fund whatever, or grant anything to or in aid of any religious sect, church, creed, or sectarian purpose, or help to support or sustain any school, college, university, hospital, or other institution controlled by any religious creed, church, or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of personal property or real estate ever be made by the State, or any city, city and county, town, or other municipal corporation, for any religious creed, church, or sectarian purpose whatever." The Legislature, however, is not to be prevented from granting aid in the manner above mentioned.

"The Legislature shall have no power to give or to lend, or to authorize the giving or lending, of the credit of the State, or of any county, city and county, city, township, or other political corporation or subdivision of the State now existing, or that may be hereafter established, in aid of or to any person, association, or corporation, whether municipal or otherwise, or to pledge the credit thereof,

in any manner whatever, for the payment of the liabilities of any individual, association, municipal or other corporation whatever; nor shall it have power to make any gift, or authorize the making of any gift, of any public money or thing of value to any individual, municipal or other corporation whatever; provided, that nothing in this section shall prevent the Legislature granting aid" as above mentioned; and it shall not have power to authorize the State, or any political subdivision thereof, to subscribe for stock, or to become a stockholder in any corporation whatever." "The Legislature shall have no power to grant, or authorize any county or municipal authority to grant, any extra compensation or allowance to any public officer, agent, servant, or contractor, after service has been rendered, or a contract has been entered into and performed, in whole or in part, nor to pay, or to authorize the payment of, any claim hereafter created against the State, or any county or municipality of the State, under any agreement or contract made without express authority of law; and all such unauthorized agreements or contracts shall be null and void."

"The Legislature shall pass laws for the regulation and limitation of the charges for services performed and commodities furnished by telegraph and gas corporations, and the charges by corporations or individuals for storage and wharfage, in which there is a public use; and where laws shall provide for the selection of any person or officer to regulate and limit such rates, no such person or officer shall be selected by any corporation or individual interested in the business to be regulated, and no person shall be selected who is an officer or stockholder in any such corporation."

"Any person who seeks to influence the vote of a member of the Legislature by bribery, promise of reward, intimidation, or any other dishonest means, shall be guilty of lobbying, which is hereby declared a felony; and it shall be the duty of the Legislature to provide by law for the punishment of this crime. Any member of the Legislature who shall be influenced in his vote or action upon any matter pending before the Legislature by any reward, or promise of future reward, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof, in addition to such punishment as may be provided by law, shall be disfranchised and for ever disqualified from holding any office or public trust. Any person may be compelled to testify in any lawful investigation or judicial proceeding against any person who may be charged with having committed the offense of bribery or corrupt solicitation, or with having been influenced in his vote or action, as a member of the Legislature, by reward, or promise of future reward, and shall not be permitted to withhold his testimony upon the ground that it may criminate himself or subject him to public infamy; but such testimony shall not afterward be used against him in any

judicial proceeding, except for perjury in giving such testimony."

The term of office of the Governor and State officers is four years. The Governor's salary is fixed at $6,000 per annum, and those of the State officers at $3,000 per annum. These salaries may be reduced by the Legislature, but they can not be increased. No fees are allowed to either of these officers. The Governor is made ineligible to the United States Senate during his term of office.

The Chief Justice and the six Associate Justices of the Supreme Court are to be chosen at the State elections, and their term of office is fixed at twelve years. A Superior Court is created for each county. "The salaries of the Justices of the Supreme Court shall be paid by the State. One half of the salary of each Superior Court Judge shall be paid by the State; the other half thereof shall be paid by the county for which he is elected. During the term of the first Judges elected under this Constitution, the annual salaries of the Justices of the Supreme Court shall be $6,000 each. Until otherwise changed by the Legislature, the Superior Court Judges shall receive an annual salary of $3,000 each, payable monthly, except the Judges of the city and county of San Francisco, and the counties of Alameda, San Joaquin, Los Angeles, Santa Clara, Yuba and Sutter combined, Sacramento, Butte, Nevada and Sonoma, who shall receive $4,000 each." "No Judge of a Superior Court nor of the Supreme Court shall, after the first day of July, 1880, be allowed to draw or receive any monthly salary unless he shall take and subscribe an affidavit, before an officer entitled to administer oaths, that no cause in his court remains undecided that has been submitted for decision for the period of ninety days."

แ

"The public-school system shall include primary and grammar schools, and such high schools, evening schools, normal schools, and technical schools as may be established by the Legislature or by municipal or district authority; but the entire revenue derived from the State school fund and the State school tax shall be applied exclusively to the support of primary and grammar schools." As to the use of appropriations, it is provided that "no public money shall ever be appropriated for the support of any sectarian or denominational school, or any school not under the exclusive control of the officers of the public schools; nor shall any sectarian or denominational doctrine be taught, or instruction thereon be permitted, directly or indirectly, in any of the common schools of this State."

Private property shall not be taken or sold for the payment of the corporate debt of any political or municipal corporation. "No county, city, town, township, board of education. or school district shall incur any indebtedness or liability in any manner or for any purpose, exceeding in any year the income and revenue

provided for it for such year, without the assent of two thirds of the qualified electors thereof voting at an election to be held for that purpose, nor unless before or at the time of incurring such indebtedness provision shall be made for the collection of an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on such indebtedness as it falls due, and also to constitute a sinking fund for the payment of the principal thereof within twenty years from the time of contracting the same. Any indebtedness or liability incurred contrary to this provision shall be void." "No public work or improvement of any description whatsoever shall be done or made in any city, in, upon, or about the streets thereof, or otherwise, the cost and expense of which is made chargeable or may be assessed upon private property, by special assessment, unless an estimate of such cost and expense shall be made, and an assessment in proportion to benefits on the property to be affected or benefited shall be levied, collected, and paid into the city treasury before such work or improvement shall be commenced or any contract for letting or doing the same authorized or performed. In any city where there are no public works owned and controlled by the municipality for supplying the same with water or artificial light, any individual or any company duly incorporated for such purpose under and by authority of the laws of this State shall, under the direction of the Superintendent of Streets or other officer in control thereof, and under such general regulations as the municipality may prescribe for damages and indemnity for damages, have the privilege of using the public streets and thoroughfares thereof, and of laying down pipes and conduits therein, and connections therewith, so far as may be necessary for introducing into and supplying such city and its inhabitants either with gaslight or other illuminating light, or with fresh water for domestic and all other purposes, upon the condition that the municipal government shall have the right to regulate the charges thereof."

"Each stockholder of a corporation or jointstock association shall be individually and personally liable for such proportion of all its debts and liabilities contracted or incurred during the time he was a stockholder, as the amount of stock or shares owned by him bears to the whole of the subscribed capital stock or shares of the corporation or association. The directors or trustees of corporations and joint-stock associations shall be jointly and severally liable to the creditors and stockholders for all moneys embezzled or misappropriated by the officers of such corporation or joint-stock association during the term of office of such director or trustee.'

"No railroad or other transportation company shall grant free passes, or passes or tickets at a discount, to any person holding any office of honor, trust, or profit in this State; and the acceptance of any such pass or ticket,

The

by a member of the Legislature or any public officer, other than Railroad Commissioner, shall work a forfeiture of his office." State is to be divided into three districts, in each of which a Railroad Commissioner shall be elected by the voters. Some of the duties assigned to these Commissioners are thus stated: "They shall have the power, and it shall be their duty, to establish rates of charges for the transportation of passengers and freight by railroad or other transportation companies, and publish the same from time to time, with such changes as they may make; to examine the books, records, and papers of all railroad and other transportation companies, and for this purpose they shall have power to issue subpoenas and all other necessary process; to hear and determine complaints against railroad and other transportation companies, to send for persons and papers, to administer oaths, take testimony, and punish for contempt of their orders and processes, in the same manner and to the same extent as courts of record, and enforce their decisions and correct abuses through the medium of the courts. Said Commissioners shall prescribe a uniform system of accounts to be kept by all such corporations and companies. Any railroad corporation or transportation company which shall fail or refuse to conform to such rates as shall be established by such Commissioners, or shall charge rates in excess thereof, or shall fail to keep their accounts in accordance with the system prescribed by the Commission, shall be fined not exceeding $20,000 for each offense; and every officer, agent, or employee of any such corporation or company, who shall demand or receive rates in excess thereof, or who shall in any manner violate the provisions of this section, shall be fined not exceeding $5,000 or be imprisoned in the county jail not exceeding one year. In all controversies, civil or criminal, the rates of fares and freights established by said Commission shall be deemed conclusively just and reasonable; and in any action against such corporation or company for damages sustained by charging excessive rates, the plaintiff, in addition to the actual damage, may, in the discretion of the judge or jury, recover exemplary damages. Said Commission shall report to the Governor, annually, their proceedings, and such other facts as may be deemed important."

Land and improvements thereon shall be separately assessed. Cultivated and uncultivated land, of the same quality and similarly situated, shall be assessed at the same value.

"The Legislature shall have the power to provide by law for the payment of all taxes on real property by installments.' "The Legislature shall by law require each taxpayer in this State to make and deliver to the county assessor annually a statement under oath setting forth specifically all the real and personal property owned by such taxpayer, or in his possession, or under his control, at 12 o'clock

meridian on the first Monday of March." "All property, except as hereinafter provided, shall be assessed in the county, city and county, city, town, township, or district in which it is situated, in the manner prescribed by law. The franchise, roadway, road-bed, rails, and rolling stock of all railroads operated in more than one county in this State shall be assessed by the State Board of Equalization, at their actual value, and the same shall be apportioned to the counties, cities and counties, cities, towns, townships, and districts in which such railroads are located, in proportion to the number of miles of railway laid in such counties, cities and counties, cities, towns, townships, and districts; and all other property of railroads shall be assessed by the counties in which such property is situated."

"Income taxes may be assessed to and collected from persons, corporations, joint-stock associations or companies resident or doing business in this State, or any one or more of them, in such cases and amounts, and in such manner, as shall be prescribed by law." "The Legislature shall provide for the levy and collection of an annual poll-tax of not less than $2 on every male inhabitant of this State, over twenty-one and under sixty years of age, except paupers, idiots, insane persons, and Indians not taxed. Said tax shall be paid into the State School Fund."

"The Legislature shall not, in any manner, create any debt or debts, liability or liabilities, which shall, singly or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabilities, exceed the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, except in case of war to repel invasion or suppress insurrection, unless the same shall be authorized by law for some single object or work to be distinctly specified therein, which law shall provide ways and means, exclusive of loans, for the payment of the interest of such debt or liability as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal of such debt or liability within twenty years of the time of the contracting thereof, and shall be irrepealable until the principal and interest thereon shall be paid and discharged; but no such law shall take effect until, at a general election, it shall have been submitted to the people and shall have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at such election; and all moneys raised by authority of such law shall be applied only to the specific object therein stated, or to the payment of the debt thereby created."

Article XIX. contains the following provisions relative to the Chinese:

SECTION 1. The Legislature shall prescribe all necessary regulations for the protection of the State, and the counties, cities, and towns thereof, from the burdens and evils arising from the presence of aliens who are or may become vagrants, paupers, mendicants, criminals, or invalids afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases, and from aliens otherwise dangerous or detrimental to the well-being or peace of the State, and to impose conditions upon which such persons

may reside in the State, and to provide the means and mode of their removal from the State upon failvided, that nothing contained in this section shall be ure or refusal to comply with such conditions; proconstrued to impair or limit the power of the Legisla ture to pass such police laws or other regulations as it may deem necessary.

SEC. 2. No corporation now existing or hereafter formed under the laws of this State shall, after the adoption of this Constitution, employ, directly or indirectly, in any capacity, any Chinese or Mongolian. The Legislature shall pass such laws as may be necessary to enforce this provision.

SEC. 3. No Chinese shall be employed on any State, county, municipal, or other public work, except in punishment for crime.

SEC. 4. The presence of foreigners ineligible to become citizens of the United States is declared to be

dangerous to the well-being of the State, and the Legislature shall discourage their immigration by all the means within its power. Asiatic coolyism is a form of human slavery, and is for ever prohibited in this State, and all contracts for cooly labor shall be void. All companies or corporations, whether formed in this of such labor, shall be subject to such penalties as the country or any foreign country, for the importation Legislature may prescribe. The Legislature shall delegate all necessary power to the incorporated cities and towns of this State for the removal of Chinese without the limits of such cities and towns, or for its, and it shall also provide necessary legislation to their location within prescribed portions of those limprohibit the introduction into this State of Chinese after the adoption of this Constitution. This section shall be enforced by appropriate legislation.

Among the miscellaneous provisions of the Constitution are some new ones. Any citizen of the State "who shall, after the adoption of this Constitution, fight a duel with deadly weapons, or send or accept a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, either within this State or out of it, or who shall act as second, or knowingly aid or assist in any manner those thus offending, shall not be allowed to hold any office of profit, or to enjoy the right of suffrage under this Constitution." "All property, real and personal, owned by either husband or wife before marriage, and that acquired by either of them afterward by gift, devise, or descent, shall be their separate property." Every person shall be disqualified from holding any office of profit in this State who shall have been convicted of having given or offered a bribe to procure his election or appointment. Laws shall be made to exclude from office, serving on juries, and from the right of suffrage, persons convicted of bribery, perjury, forgery, malfeasance in office, or other high crimes. The privilege of free suffrage shall be supported by laws regulating elections and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, all undue influence thereon from power, bribery, tumult, or other improper practice." "Mechanics, material men, artisans, and laborers of every class shall have a lien upon the property upon which they have bestowed labor or furnished material, for the value of such labor done and material furnished; and the Legislature shall provide by law for the speedy and efficient enforcement of such liens." "Eight hours shall constitute a legal day's work on all public work." "No person shall, on account

of sex, be disqualified from entering upon or pursuing any lawful business, vocation, or profession."

The following most ample provisions were made for the election relative to the Constitution:

SEC. 4. The Superintendent of Printing of the State of California shall, at least thirty days before the first Wednesday in May, A. D. 1879, cause to be printed at the State printing-office, in pamphlet form, simply stitched, as many copies of this Constitution as there are registered voters in this State, and mail one copy thereof to the post-office address of each registered voter; provided, any copies not called for ten days after reaching their delivery office shall be subject to general distribution by the several postmasters of the State. The Governor shall issue his proclamation, giving notice of the election for the adoption or rejec tion of this Constitution, at least thirty days before the said first Wednesday of May, 1879, and the boards of supervisors of the several counties shall cause said proclamation to be made public in their respective counties, and general notice of said election to be given at least fifteen days next before said election. SEC. 5. The Superintendent of Printing of the State of California shall, at least twenty days before said election, cause to be printed and delivered to the clerk of each county in this State five times the number of properly prepared ballots for said election that there are voters in said respective counties, with the words printed thereon, "For the new Constitution." He shall likewise cause to be so printed and delivered to said clerks five times the number of properly prepared ballots for said election that there are voters in said respective counties, with the words printed thereAgainst the new Constitution." The Secretary of State is hereby authorized and required to furnish the Superintendent of State Printing a sufficient quantity of legal ballot paper, now on hand, to carry out the provisions of this section.

on,

66

It was provided that the Constitution should take effect and be of force on and after the 4th of July, 1879, at 12 o'clock meridian, so far as related to the election of all officers and the commencement of their terms of office and the meeting of the Legislature. In all other respects and for all other purposes it should take effect on January 1, 1880, at 12 o'clock meridian.

The Convention adjourned on the 3d of March, about two months previous to the election, and a vehement campaign against it was commenced. It was conducted with so much virulence that it probably in the end produced, as is usual in such cases, a reaction in favor of the instrument. A canvass of the position of the press of the State on the question, including some papers of neighboring States with business interests closely identified with California, showed on April 19th one hundred and fifty papers arrayed against the Constitution, and only forty-seven urging its adoption.

its tendencies, experimental in its main provisions, spicuous for its sins of omission, and generally unlacking in the essential qualities of a Constitution, conworthy the confidence of the people, we call upon all good citizens to unite in defeating him and his schemes and Constitution, believing that the adoption of the rew Constitution under such auspices would work irreparable damage to California; that as Republicans we oppose it, as citizens we oppose it, and we ask the party and people to aid us in defeating Kearney and the new Constitution at one and the same time.

7th for or against the new Constitution was One speaker said: "The election of May to be the most important one in which the people of California were ever called upon to take part. The Kearney party had made the adoption of the new Constitution a party plank, and the Republican party must declare against it and defeat Kearney and his Constitution also; for a victory for Kearney in May would go far toward giving him victory in September, when Congressmen are to be elected and a Legislature chosen. The people must in May decide whether they will leave the safe retreat in which they have prospered for thirty years, and sail away into experimental seas under a Constitution which the men who made it can't explain and the people who read it can't understand. The Republicans of the State must take position against the instrument, this mongrel Constitution which it is sought to crowd down the throats of the people."

The vote on the Constitution was a very full one. In the counties of the State which were equally settled, the vote cast was nearly as large as that given at the Presidential election in 1876. The following counties serve as an illustration:

COUNTIES.

1876. 1879.

1,279

1.818

278 2,212

1,120

2,879

These changes agree with observed facts. Railroad extension has been settling up Marin and Mendocino very rapidly. The recent mineral discoveries in Mono have attracted a large population. But nearly all the other mining counties have been losing, viz. :