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electors.

§ 5. No elector shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence, Residence of by reason of his being employed in the service of the United States, or of this State; nor while engaged in the navigation of the waters of this State or of the United States, or of the high seas; nor while a student of any seminary of learning; nor while kept at any alms-house or other asylum at public expense; nor while confined in any public prison.

6. Laws may be passed to preserve the purity of elections, and purity of guard against abuses of the elective franchise.

elections.

not residents

§ 7. No soldier, seaman, nor marine in the army or navy of the Soldiers, &c. United States, shall be deemed a resident of this State, in consequence of being stationed in any military or naval place within the

same.

qualifies

and from e

§ 8. Any inhabitant who may hereafter be engaged in a duel, Duelli'g diseither as principal, or accessory before the fact, shall be disqualified from office from holding any office under the constitution and laws of this State, lective franand shall not be permitted to vote at any election.

ARTICLE VIII.

STATE OFFICERS.

chise.

State officers elected.

§ 1. There shall be elected at each general biennial election a Sec. retary of State, a Superintendent of Public Instruction, a State Treasurer, a Commissioner of the Land Office, an Auditor General, and an Attorney General, for the term of two years. They shall keep their offices at the seat of government, and shall perform such duties as keep their may be prescribed by law.

Where to

offices.

fice.

§ 2. Their term of office shall commence on the first day of Janu- Term of of ary, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, and of every second year thereafter.

§ 3. Whenever a vacancy shall occur in any of the State offices, the Governor shall fill the same by appointment, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, if in session.

§4. The Secretary of State, State Treasurer, and Commissioner

Vacancy; how filled.

Auditors.

of the State Land Office shall constitute a board of State auditors to Board of S. examine and adjust all claims against the State, not otherwise provided for by general law. They shall constitute a board of State Can- To be state vassers to determine the result of all electinos for Governor, Lieuten

canvassers.

In case of a tie, legisla

@hoice.

ant Governor and State officers, and of such other officers as shall by law be referred to them.

§ 5. In case two or more persons have an equal and the highest ture to make number of votes for any office, as canvassed by the board of State canvassers, the Legislature, in joint convention, shall choose one of said persons to fill such office. When the determination of the board of State canvassers is contested, the Legislature, in joint convention, shall decide which person is elected.

Salaries.

ARTICLE IX:

SALARIES.

§ 1. The Governor shall receive an annual salary of one thousand dollars; the Judges of the Circuit Court shall each receive an annual salary of one thousand five hundred dollars; the State Treasurer shall receive an annual salary of one thousand dollars; the Auditor General shall receive an annual salary of one thousand dollars; the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall receive an annual salary of one thousand dollars; the Secretary of State shall receive an annual salary of eight hundred dollars; the Commissioner of the Land Office shall receive an annual salary of eight hundred dollars; the Attorney General shall receive an annual salary of eight hundred dollars. They shall receive no fees or perquisites, whatever, for the performance of any duties connected with their offices. It shall not be competent for the Legislature to increase the salaries herein provided.

Counties to be bodies corporale.

Not to be reduced to less

townships.

ARTICLE X.

COUNTIES.

§ 1. Each organized county shall be a body corporate, with such powers and immunities as shall be established by law. All suits and procedings, by or against a county, shall be in the name thereof.

§ 2. No organized county shall ever be reduced, by the organizathan sixteen tion of new counties, to less than sixteen townships, as surveyed by the United States, unless, in pursuance of law, a majority of electors residing in each county to be affected thereby shall so decide. The Legislature may organize any city into a separate county, when it has attained a population of twenty thousand inhabitants, without reference to geographical extent, when a majority of the electors of

a county in which such city may be situated, voting thereon, shall be in favor of a separate organization.

cers.

§3. In each organized county there shall be a sheriff, a county elerk, a county treasurer, a register of deeds and a prosecuting attor- County offi ney, chosen by the electors thereof, once in two years, and as often as vacancies shall happen, whose duties and powers shall be prescribed by law. The board of supervisors in any county may unite the offices of county clerk and register of deeds in one office, or disconnect the same.

Co. seat.

§ 4. The sheriff, county clerk, county treasurer, judge of probate Offices at and register of deeds, shall hold their offices at the county seat.

Sheriff to

er office.

5. The sheriff shall hold no other office, and shall be incapable of holding the office of sheriff longer than four in any period of six hold no oth. years. He may be required by law to renew his security from time to time, and in default of giving such security, his office shall be deem-curity. ed vacant. The county shall never be responsible for his acts.

To give se

6. A board of supervisors, consisting of one from each organized Board of sutownship, shall be established in each county, with such powers as pervisors. shall prescribed by law.

represented

§ 7. Cities shall have such representation in the board of supervi- Cities to be sors of the counties in which they are situated, as the Legislature may in board. direct.

seats; how

8. No county seat, once established, shall be removed, until the place to which it is proposed to be removed shall be designated by County two-thirds of the board of supervisors of the county, and a majority o of the electors voting thereon shall have voted in favor of the proposed location, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law.

removed.

Board of su

may borrow

9. The board of supervisors of any county may borrow or raise by tax one thousand dollars, for constructing or repairing public pervisors buildings, highways or bridges; but no greater sum shall be borrowed money for or raised by tax for such purpose in any one year, unless authorized by a majority of the electors of such county voting thereon.

highways,

&c.

In county of

10. The board of supervisors, or, in the county of Wayne, the board of county auditors, shall have the exclusive power to prescribe Wayne. and fix the compensation for all services rendered for, and to adjust all claims against, their respective counties; and the sum so fixed or defined shall be subject to no appeal.

pervisors to

Board of su- $11. The board of supervisors of each organized county may. provide for provide for laying out highways, constructing bridges and organilaying out highways, zing townships, under such restrictions and limitations as shall be prescribed by law.

ARTICLE XI.

Township officers.

Townships

corporate.

TOWNSHIPS.

§ 1. There shall be elected annually, on the first Monday of April, in each organized township, one supervisor, one township clerk, who shall be ex-officio school inspector, one commissioner of highways, one township treasurer, one school inspector, not exceeding four constables, and one overseer of highways for each highway district, whose powers and duties shall be prescribed by law.

§ 2. Each organized township shall be a body corporate, with to be bodies such powers and immunities as shall be prescribed by law. All suits and proceedings by or against a township, shall be in the name thereof.

Imapechments.

How tried.

House to elect three

ARTICLE XII.

IMPEACHMENTS AND REMOVALS FROM OFFICE.

§ 1. The House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeaching civil officers for corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors; but a majority of the members elected shall be necessary to direct an impeachment.

§ 2. Every impeachment shall be tried by the Senate. When the Governor or Lieutenant Governor is tried, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside. When an impeachment is directed, the Senate shall take an oath or affirmation truly and impartially to try and determine the same according to the evidence. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members elected. Judgment, in case of impeachment, shall not extend further than removal from office; but the party convicted shall be liable to punishment according to law.

§ 3. When an impeachment is directed, the House of Representatives shall elect from their own body three members, whose duty it membra to shall be to prosecute such impeachment. No impeachment shall be tried until the final adjournment of the Legislature, when the Senate shall proceed to try the same.

prosecute.

4. No judicial officer shall exercise his office, after an impeach- Impeachm't ment is directed, until he is acquitted.

of judicial officer.

§ 5. The Governor may make a provisional appointment to a Vaeaney; vacancy occasioned by the suspension of an officer, until he shall how filled. be acquitted, or until after the election and qualification of a suc

cessor.

§ 6. For reasonable cause, which shall not be sufficient ground for the impeachment of a judge, the Governor shall remove him on a concurrent resolution of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the Legislature; but the cause for which such removal is required shall be stated at length in such resolution.

Removal of

judge.

Removal of

§ 7. The Legislature shall provide by law for the removal of any officer elected by a county, township or school district, in such man- certain offi ner and for such cause as to them shall seem just and proper.

ARTICLE XIII.

EDUCATION.

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§ 1. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall have the gen- Education. eral supervision of public instruction, and his duties shall be prescrbied by law.

§ 2. The proceeds from the sales of all lands that have been or hereafter may be granted by the United States to the State, for educational purposes, and the proceeds of all lands or other property given by individuals or appropriated by the State for like purposes, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest and income of which, together with the rents of all such lands as may remain unsold, shall be inviolably appropriated and annually applied to the specific objects of the original gift, grant or appropriation.

§ 3. All lands, the titles to which shall fail from a defect of heirs, shall escheat to the State; and the interest on the clear proceeds from the sales thereof, shall be appropriated exclusively to the support of primary schools.

School fund.

Escheats.

§ 4. The Legislature shall, within five years from the adoption of this constitution, provide for and establish a system of primary Free school schools, whereby a school shall be kept without charge for tuition, at least three months in each year, in every school district in the State; and all instruction in said schools shall be conducted in the English langaage.

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