to, and the tax shall be collected accordingly, and not otherwise: and shall, moreover, file a copy of their proceedings, in all such cases of correction, with the clerk of the county court or county trustee, or with the clerk of the township meetings, for the inspection of any person concerned-the correction of unjust assessments should be provided for. "2nd. That the Legislature be authorized and required to provide by law, that the respective county courts of this State shall elect one competent accountant, of reputed integrity and correct business habits, whose duty it shall be to take cognizance of the accounts, supported by vouchers of unexceptionable character, when rendered by executors, administrators, guardians and trustees of the estates of deceased persons of the county or elsewhere, to the adjusting of which they are acting executors, administrators, guardians or trustees, for settlement: that it be his duty to settle such accounts finally with them and report the same to the county court: that he be appointed for two years, take an oath of office to act faithfully, and to settle such accounts according to the very right of the matter and the law of the land, to the best of his knowledge: which accounts, so settled, shall remain in his office for inspection; and that the executor, administrator, guardian, or trustee, shall within three months after such settlement, give due notice in writing, to all persons entitled to shares of the estate, or to their guardians respectively, if residing within the State, and if not in the State, by public advertisement in some newspaper, that the account is lodged in said office for inspection; that said commissioner shall be allowed such fees as shall be allowed by law, to be paid by the partics concerned, or a moderate rate of commission on the amount of said accounts, to be allowed by the county court, only, to be paid by the parties themselves (exceptions may, however, be made by persons concerned, to both sides of every such account, either denying the justice of the allowances made to the accountant, or alleging further charges against him; and the exceptions shall be heard in the county court; and thereupon the account shall be adjusted and settled according to the right of the matter and the law of the land)—the best security of the estates of orphans require that such provisions should be made the law of the land. "3rd. In order that the 'reedom, rights and interests of the people of this State may be preserved inviolate forever, there shall be elected by joint vote of the Legislature, once in every years, within the first week of, or during the first session held under this Constitution, and within the first week of, or during the session in every years thereaf ter, five persons of undoubted probity and qualification, selected from different parts of the State by districts, to be laid off by the counties to compose each district, one member from each, but no member of the Legislature to be eligible; which body, of five members, shall be called a State Council, for correcting abuses; who shall meet together on the first Wednesday in January and June, ensuing their election; and whose duty it shall be, to inquire, from public data and legal testimony, whe ther the Constitution has been preserved inviolate during the last or preceding years, including the year of their service; and whether the legislative and executive branches of government have performed their duty as guardians of the rights of the people on the one hand, and whether on the other, they have assumed to themselves or exercised other or greater powers than they are entitled to possess and exercise by the Constitution: they are also to inquire, whether the public taxes have been justly laid, fully collected and duly accounted for, in all parts of the State; also to see and make known, in what manner the public moneys have been appropriated and disposed of: and likewise to examine and declare, whether the laws have been duly executed or not. For these purposes, they shall have power to send for persons, papers, and records: they shall have authority to pass public censures for malpractices, and to recommend to the Legislature the repealing such laws as shall appear to them to have been passed contrary to the principles of the Constitution; they shall also have power to order necessary prosecutions promptly against offenders against the law, when thus publicly ascertained to be in default; they shall also constitute the court, for the trial of impeachments, when necessary, and whenever called to sit as a court of impeachment, by proclamation of the Governor, they shall convene for that purpose at the time and place specified in the proclamation:-These powers they shall continue to have and exercise, under due responsibility for any abuse or neglect of them, for and during the space of one year, as a council, from their election, and no longer, except to sit as a court for the trial of impeachments, which they may hold at any time, when called, within the term of years they were elected for: But as a board or council, they shall sit only twice in that year, of their election, and then only for a reasonable length of time at each of those two sittings or sessions; and to be allowed a per diem pay as the law may direct for the time they may be employed at their sittings, and holding the court of impeachment. "Said council shall also have power to recommend, at the instance of a specified majority of the people, (expressed at such time and manner under a general law to secure the right of voting to that end) the call of a Convention to amend the Constitution, to meet within two years after their sitting, or sooner, if it appears to them to be absolutely necessary to amend any article of that instrument which may be defective: they shall also have the power of explaining such articles as may be thought to be not clearly expressed, to the consideration of the Convention, and likewise the power of recommending such amendments as are necessary to be made, by a Convention, for the preservation of the rights and happiness of the people. But the articles to be amended, and the amendments proposed, and such articles as are proposed to be added or abolished, shall be promulgated at least six months before the day appointed for the election of the members of such Convention, for the previous consideration of the people, that they may have an opportunity of instructing their delegates on the subject. 4th. Whereas it is declared in the Bill of Rights, unanimously adopted by this Convention as one article thereof, that all power is inherent in the people, and that all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted by their consent, for their peace, safety and happiness, they being the only acknowledged and rightful sovereigns of a free, independent State, and the rightful and only owners of the State, of its government, of all the great community of public interests within the State; and that government being instituted for the common benefit: and whereas, to the ends of promoting the peace, safety and happiness, it is declared in said Bill of Rights, that the people have, at all times, an unalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, change, or abolish the government in such manner and time as they may think best and proper for themselves as a free and independent people, acknowledging no superior civil authority over them, and the doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary exercise of power and oppres sion, being declared to be absurd, slavish and destructive to the good and happiness of mankind. "And whereas it is provided in said declaration of rights reserved to the people, that they shall be secure in their liberty, rights of person, property, privileges and effects; and the Constitution otherwise and in a different article provides, that laws shall be made to support the privilege of free suffrage, prescribing the manner of regulating and conducting meetings of the electors, and prohibiting, under adequate pen. alties, all undue influence therein, from power, bribery, tumult, and other improper conduct; and whereas all reasonable laws, resolves and regulations for civil government should be made for the defence and benefit of the people of this State, not repugnant to this Constitution, nor to that of the United States: and whereas nothing can tend more effectually to promote the great ends of liberty, of equal rights, of the peace, order, power and happiness of the people in a just and harmonious manner, alluded to in the foregoing preamble, nor tend more to give and strengthen confidence in the provisions of this Constitution, than would that of submitting that result of the labors of this Convention to the good people of this State for their consideration, ratification or rejection, according to their right of exercising their own good will and pleasure to be expressed at general elections, to be held in the respective counties of this State, to be provided for to be held by an ordinance of this Convention for that purpose, therefore "Resolved, That this Constitution be forthwith submitted to the good people of this State for their consideration, ratification or rejection, at a general meeting in the counties of the State, at a time to be set by an ordinance of this Convention, and if ratified by a majority of the votes of the people, it shall be the fundamental law of this State, and shall, after such ratification, be made publicly known as such by proclamation of the Governor to that effect. "5th. Whereas it is absurd to expect obedience to the laws of the State, unless provision be made for a general distribution of them among the good people of the State, to the end that they have opportunities of knowing what, Alexander, biom time to time, are-therefore, , Cobbs, Douglass, Fult "Resolved, That the Legislature be authorized and required to provide by law, that within five years after the adoption of this Constitution, the body of our laws, civil and criminal, shall be revised, digested, and arranged under proper heads by persons appointed by the Legislature from time to time for that purpose: and that such laws be promulgated and distributed among the people of the several counties of the State, in such proportions and manner, and within such periods as the General Assembly by law directs: and that a like revision, promulgation and distribution shall be made within every subsequent period of fifteen years, for the valuable purpose of enabling the people to know what the existing laws they have, at the cost of the people, had passed, are, short of which provision or some such, nine-tenths of the people have not an opportunity of knowing what the laws they are to be governed by, without violation at their peril, are: justice requires such provision to be made. Mr HUNTSMAN submitted the following: "Resolved, That when the Convention shall have finished reading the amended Constitution the second time, a committee consisting of seven be appointed to examine and fix in its proper place, each article and section; also to examine and correct the phraseology and arrange the sentences, &c. in their places, and report the same to the Convention for its third and last reading." On motion of Mr WHITE, Mr ARMSTRONG was added to the Committee on Senatorial and Representative Districts. On motion of Mr KIMBROUGH, the Convention took up the Constitution, as amended on its first reading: And thereupon the first article being read, Mr JOHNA. MCKINNEY moved to strike out from the twenty-first line of the thirty-first section thereof the words "the late"; which motion prevailed. Mr JOHN A. MCKINNEY further moved to strike out the thirty-second section of said article; which motion was lost. Mr ARMSTRONG moved to add to the sixth section of said article the following: "Except such jurisdiction as may be assigned by law to justices of the peace out of court." Which motion was rejected. The first article, as amended, was adopted. Article second was next taken up, And the first section thereof being read, was adopted. The second section being read, On motion of Mr FULTON, the word "expressly" in the third line thereof was stricken out. Whereupon said section, as amended, was adopted. The third section was adopted. The fourth section being read, Mr BURTON moved to strike out the words "provided that any one of he small counties having two thirds of *** member." entitled to one And the question being had on striking out, it was determined in the negative; ayes 15, noes 35. The ayes and noes being demanded by Mr BURTON, The affirmative voters are, Messrs. Allen, Burton, Cannon, Childress, Douglass Fulton, Fogg, Ledbetter, McClellan, Richardson, Ridley, Stephenson, Ury, White, Webster and Weakley; 16. The negative voters are, Messrs. President (Carter), Armstrong, Alexander, Bradshaw, Blount, Cahal, Cobbs, Cross, Garrett, Gillespy, Gray, Gordon, Hedges, Hill, Huntsman, Humphreys, Hess, Kelly, Kendall, Kimbrough, Loving, Robert J. McKinney, John A. McKinney, Mabry, McGaughey, Marr, Purdy, Roadman, Robertson, Senter, Smartt, Sharp, Scott, Whitson and Walton; 35. Mr KIMBROUGH moved to strike out the words "until the population of the State shall be one million and a half; and never thereafter more than ninety-nine." Whereupon, Mr JOHN A. MCKINNEY offered the following, as a substitute of said section; to wit: "Each county in the State shall have one member in the House of Representatives; and no county shall have more than one member." Mr JOHN A. MCKINNEY moved a division of the question; which was accordingly ordered. The question was then had on the first branch thereof, viz: "each county in the State shall have one member in the House of Representative"; which was determined in the affirmative; ayes 28, nocs 24. The ayes and noes being demanded by Mr JOHN A. MCKINNEY, Messrs. President (Carter), Armstrong, Blount, Cross, Garrett, Gray, Gordon, Hodges, Hill, Huntsman, Hess, Kelly, Kendall, Loving, McClellan, Robert J. McKinney, John A. McKinney, Mabry, McGaughey, Marr, Roadman, Robertson, Stephenson, Senter, Smartt, Sharp, Scott and Whitson; 28. The negative voters are, Messrs. Allen, Alexander, Bradshaw, Burton, Cannon, Childress, Cahal, Cobbs, Douglass, Fulton, Fogg, Gillespy, Humphreys, Kimbrough, Ledbetter, Neil, Purdy, Richardson, Ridley, Ury, Walton, White, Webster and Weakley; 24. The question was then had on the last branch of said proposition; to wit: "and no county shall have more than one member"; and determined in the negative; ayes 17, noes 35. The ayes and noes being demanded by Mr JoHN A. MCKINNEY, Messrs President (Carter), Armstrong, Cross, Garrett, Gray, Hodges, Kelly, Kendall, McClellan, Robert J. McKinney, John A. McKinney, Mabry, McGaughey, Neil, Stephenson, Sharp and Scott; 17. The negative voters are, Messrs. Allen, Alexander, Bradshaw, Burton, Blount, Cannon, Childress, Cahal, Cobbs, Douglass, Fulton, Fogg, Gillespy, Gordon, Hill, |