the elections and qualifications of their own members; they may expel members, but not for causes known to their constituents antecedent to their election; they may administer oaths and affirmations in matters depending before themredress grievances-impeach state criminals-grant charters of incorporationconstitute towns, boroughs, cities and counites: they may annually on their first session after their election, in conjunction with the Council (or oftener if need be) elect Judges of the Supreme and several county and probate Courts, Sheriffs and Justices of the peace; and also, with the Council, may elect MajorGenerals and Brigadier-Generals, from time to time, as often as there shall be occasion: and they shall have all other powers necessary for the Legislature of a free and sovereign State: but they shall have no power to add to, alter, abolish, or infringe any part of this constitution.

SECTION 10. The Supreme Executive Council of this State, shall consist of a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and twelve persons, chosen in the following manner, viz. The freemen of each town * **

CONSTITUTION: VIRGINIA-1776

By endeavoring to prevent the population of our country, and, for that purpose, obstructing, the laws for the naturalization of foreigners :

By keeping among us, in times of peace, standing armies and ships of war: By effecting to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power:

By combining with others to subject us to a foreign jurisdiction, giving his assent to their pretended acts of legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever :

By plundering our seas, ravaging our coasts, burning our towns, and destroying the lives of our people:

By inciting insurrection of our fellow subjects, with the allurements of forfeiture and confiscation:

By prompting our negroes to rise in arms against us, those very negroes whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he hath refused us permission to exclude by law:

By endeavoring to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule or warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions of existence:

By transporting, at this time, a large army of foreign mercenaries, to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy unworthy the head of a civilized nation:

By answering our repeated petitions for redress with a repetition of injuries; And finally, by abandoning the helm of government and declaring us out of his allegiance and protection.

By which several acts of misrule, the government of this country, as formerly exercised under the crown of Great Britain, is TOTALLY DISSOLVED.

We therefore, the delegates and representatives of the good people of Virginia, having maturely considered the premises, and viewing with great concern the deplorable conditions to which this once happy country must be reduced, unless some regular, adequate mode of civil polity is speedily adopted, and in compliance with a recommendation of the General Congress, do ordain and declare the future form of government of Virginia to be as followeth :

The legislative, executive, and judiciary department, shall be separate and distinct, so that neither exercise the powers properly belonging to the other: nor shall any person exercise the powers of more than one of them, at the same time; except that the Justices of the County Courts shall be eligible to either House of Assembly.

The legislative shall be formed of two distinct branches, who, together, shall be a complete Legislature. They shall meet once, or oftener, every year, and shall be called, The General Assembly of Virginia. One of these shall be called, The House of Delegates, and consist of two Representatives, to be chosen for each

See Amendments 9, 24.

county, and for the district of West-Augusta, annually, of such men as actual; reside in, and are freeholders of the same, or duly qualified according to law, at! also of one Delegate or Representative, to be chosen annually for the city od Williamsburgh, and one for the borough of Norfolk, and a Representative: each of such other cities and boroughs, as may hereafter be allowed partiesi. representation by the legislature; but when any city or borough shall so decreas as that the number of persons, having right of suffrage therein, shall hes. been, for the space of seven years successively, less than half the number voters in some one county in Virginia, such city or borough thenceforward sha.. cease to send a Delegate or Representative to the Assembly.

The other shall be called The Senate, and consist of twenty-four meu bers of whom thirteen shall constitute a House to proceed on business; for whee election, the different counties shall be divided into twenty-four districts: ali each county of the respective district, at the time of the election of is Delegate shall vote for one Senator, who is actually a resident and freeholder within the district, or duly qualified according to law, and is upwards of twenty-Le years of age; and the Sheriffs of each county, within five days at farthest, after the last county election in the district, shall meet at some convenient place, aud from the poll, so taken in their respective counties, return, as a Senator, the na1 who shall have the greatest number of votes in the whole district. To keep L this Assembly by rotation, the districts shall be equally divided into four classe and numbered by lot. At the end of one year after the general election, the s.I members, elected by the first division, shall be displaced, and the vacaLCI thereby occasioned supplied from such class or division, by new election, in the manner aforesaid. This rotation shall be applied to each division, according t its number, and continued in due order annually.

The right of suffrage in the election of members for both Houses shall rella 1. as exercised at present; and each House shall choose its own Speaker, appear its own officers, settle its own rules of proceeding, and direct writs of electiot. for the supplying intermediate vacancies.

All laws shall originate in the House of Delegates, to be approved of r rejected by the Senate, or to be amended, with consent of the House of Ikis gates; except money-bills, which in no instance shall be altered by the Senate, but wholly approved or rejected.

A Governor, or chief magistrate, shall be chosen annually by joint ballot of both Houses (to be taken in each House respectively) deposited in the cus ference room; the boxes examined jointly by a committee of each House, and the numbers severally reported to them, that the appointments may be entered (which shall be the mode of taking the joint ballot of both Houses, in all cases who shall not continue in that office longer than three years successively, Log be eligible, until the expiration of four years after he shall have been out of that office. An adequate, but moderate salary shall be settled on him, during his cotinuance in office; and he shall, with the advice of a Council of State, exercise the executive powers of government, according to the laws of this Colamo")wealth; and shall not, under any pretence, exercise any power or prerogative, by virtue of any ***

CONSTITUTION: WASHINGTON-1889

SEC. 2. The house of representatives shall be composed of not less than sixtythree nor more than ninety-nine members. The number of senators shall not be more than one-half nor less than one-third of the number of members of the house of representatives. The first legislature shall be composed of seveL'F members of the house of represenstatives and thirty-five senators.

SEC. 3. The legislature shall provide by law for an enumeration of the inhabitants of the state in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five. and every ten years thereafter; and at the first session after such enumeration, and also after each enumeration made by the authority of the United States, the legislature shall apportion and district anew the members of the senate and house of representatives, according to the number of inhabitants, excluding Indians not taxed, soldiers, sailors and officers of the United States army and and navy in active service.

SEC. 4. Members of the house of representatives shall be elected in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, at the time and in the manner provided by this constitution, and shall hold their offices for the term of one year and until their successors shall be elected.

SEC. 5. The next election of the members of the house of representatives after the adoption of this constitution shall be on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, eighteen hundred and ninety, and thereafter, members of the house of representatives shall be elected biennially, and their term of office shall be two years; and each election shall be on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, unless otherwise changed by law.

SEC. 6. After the first election the senators shall be elected by single districts of convenient and contiguous territory at the same time and in the same manner as members of the house of representatives are required to be elected, and no representative district shall be divided in the formation of a senatorial district. They shall be elected for the term of four years, one-half of their number retiring every two years. The senatorial districts shall be numbered consecutively, and the senators chosen at the first election had by virtue of this constitution, in odd numbered districts, shall go out of office at the end of the first year, and the senators elected in the even numbered districts shall go out of office at the end of the third year.

SEC. 7. No person shall be eligible to the legislature who shall not be a citizen of the United States and a qualified voter in the district for which he is chosen. SEC. 8. Each house shall be the judge of the election, returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day and may compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as each house may provide.

SEC. 9. Each house may determine the rules of its own proceedings, punish for contempt and disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members elected, expell a member, but no member shall be expelled a second time for the same offense.

SEC. 10. Each house shall elect its own officers, and when the lieutenant governor shall not attend as president, or shall act as governor, the senate shall choose a temporary president. When presiding, the lieutenant governor shall have the deciding vote in case of an equal division of the senate.

SECTION 1. The State of Washington asserts its ownership to the beds and shores of all navigable waters, in the state up to and including the line of ordinary high tide, in waters where the tide ebbs and flows, and up to and including the line of ordinary high water within the banks of all navigable rivers and lakes: Provided, That this section shall not be construed so as to debar any person from asserting his claim to vested rights in the courts of the state.

SEC. 2. The state of Washington disclaims all title in and claim to all tide, swamp and overflowed lands patented by the United States: Provided, The same is not impeached for fraud.

ARTICLE XVIII

STATE SEAL

SECTION 1. The seal of the State of Washington shall be, a seal encircled with the words: "The seal of the State of Washington," with the vignette of Gen. George Washington as the central figure, and beneath the vignette the figures "1889."

ARTICLE XIX

EXEMPTIONS

SECTION 1. The legislature shall protect by law from forced sale a certain portion of the homestead and other property of all heads of families.

ARTICLE XX

PUBLIC HEALTH AND VITAL STATISTICS

SECTION 1. There shall be established by law a state board of health and a bureau of vital statistics in connection therewith, with such powers as the legislature may direct.

SEC. 2. The legislature shall enact laws to regulate the practice of medicar and surgery, and the sale of drugs and medicines.

ARTICLE XXI

WATER AND WATER RIGHTS

SECTION 1. The use of the waters of the state for irrigation, mining and mattfacturing purposes shall be deemed a public use.

ARTICLE XXII

LEGISLATIVE APPORTIONMENT

SECTION 1. Until otherwise provided by law, the state shall be divided in". twenty-four (24) senatorial districts, and said districts shall be constituted ar: numbered as follows: The counties of Stevens and Spokane shall constitute the first district, and be entitled to one senator; the county of Spokane shall const tute the second district, and be entitled to three senators; the county of Linesis shall constitute the third district, and be entitled to one senator; the count of Okanogan, Lincoln, Adams and Franklin shall constitute the fourth distric and be entitled to one senator; the county of Whitman shall constitute the fi district, and be entitled to three senators; the counties of Garfield and Asor shall constitute the sixth district, and be entitled to one senator; the county Columbia shall constitute the seventh district, and be entitled to one senator the county of Walla Walla shall constitute the eighth district, and be entitled ? two senators; the counties of Yakima and Douglas shall constitute the ninth dis trict, and be entitled to one senator; the county of Kittitas shall constitute the tenth district, and be entitled to one senator; the counties of Klickitat and Skamania shall constitute the eleventh district, and be entitled to one senator: the county of Clarke shall constitute the twelfth district, and be entitled to ote senator; the county of Cowlitz shall constitute the thirteenth district, and bes entitled to one senator; the county of Lewis shall constitute the fourteenth d.-trict, and be entitled to one senator; the counties of Pacific and Wahkiakum sha. constitute the fifteenth district, and be entitled to one senator; the county of Thurston shall constitute the sixteenth district, and be entitled to one senator the county of Chehalis shall constitute the seventeenth district, and be entitie to one senator: the county of Pierce shall constitute the eighteenth district, azbe entitled to three senators; the county of King shall constitute the nineteenth district, and be entitled to five senators; the counties of Mason and Kitsap » constitute the twentieth district, and be entitled to one senator; the counties of Jefferson, Clallam and San Juan shall constitute the twenty-first district, and ‘* entitled to one senator; the county of Snohomish shall constitute the twentysecond district, and shall be entitled to one senator; the counties of Skagit ab! Island shall constitute the twenty-third district, and be entitled to one senate? the county of Whatcom shall constitute the twenty-fourth district, and be entitled to one senator.

SEC. 2. Until otherwise provided by law, the representatives shall be divided among the several counties of the state in the following manner: The eunty Adams shall have one representative; the county of Asotin shall have one repre sentative; the county of Chehalis shall have two representatives; the county f Clarke shall have three representatives; the county of Clallam shall have one rep resentative; the county of Columbia shall have two representatives; the com of Cowlitz shall have one representative; the county of Douglas shall have e representative: the county of Franklin shall have one representative; the couRTS of Garfield shall have one representative; the county of Island shall have or representative; the county of Jefferson shall have two representatives; the county of King shall have eight representatives; the county of Klickitat sha have two representatives; the county of Kittitas shall have two representatives the county of Kitsap shall have one representative; the county of Lewis shu. have two representatives; the county of Lincoln shall have two representatives the county of Mason shall have one representative; the county of Okanogan sta. have one representative; the county of Pacific shall have one representative: "Icounty of Pierce shall have six representatives; the county of San Juan shaib one representative; the county of Skamania shall have one representative. county of Snohomish shall have two representatives: the county of Skagit have two representatives; the county of Spokane shall have six representatives

the county of Stevens shall have one representative; the county of Thurston shall have two representatives; the county of Walla Walla shall have three representatives; the county of Wahkiakum shall have one representative; the county of Whatcom shall have two representatives; the county of Whitman shall have five representatives; the county of Yakima shall have one representative.

CONSTITUTION: WEST VIRGINIA-1861-1863

SEC. 7. The general elections of State and county officers, and of members of the legislature, shall be held on the fourth Thursday of October. The terms of such officers and members, not elected or appointed to fill a vacancy, shall, unless herein otherwise provided, begin on the first day of January next succeeding their election. Elections to fill vacancies shall be for the unexpired term. Vacancies shall be filled in such manner as may be prescribed by law.

SEC. 8. The legislature, in cases not provided for in this constitution, shall prescribe by general laws the terms of office, powers, duties, and compensation of all public officers and agents, and the manner in which they shall be elected, appointed, and removed.

SEC. 9. No extra compensation shall be granted or allowed to any public officer, agent, or contractor, after the services shall have been rendered, or the contract entered into. Nor shall the salary or compensation of any public officer be increased or diminished during his term of office.

SEC. 10. Any officer of the State may be impeached for maladministration, corruption, incompetence, neglect of duty, or any high crime or misdemeanor. The house of delegates shall have the sole power of impeachment. The senate shall have the sole power to try impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be on oath or affirmation; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office and disqualification to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under the State; but the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trail, judgment, and punishment according to law. The senate may sit during the recess of the legislature, for the trial of impeachments.

SEC. 11. Any citizen of this State, who shall, after the adoption of this constitution, either in or out of the State, fight a duel wih deadly weapons, or send or accept a challenge so to do; or who shall act as a second or knowingly aid or assist in such duel, shall ever thereafter be incapable of holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under this State.

SEC. 12. The legislature may provide for a registry of voters. They shall prescribe the manner of conducting and making returns of elections, and of determining contested elections; and shall pass such laws as may be necessary and proper to prevent intimidation, disorder, or violence at the polls, and corrup tion or fraud in voting.

ARTICLE IV

LEGISLATURE

SECTION 1. The legislative power shall be vested in a senate and house of delegates. The style of their acts shall be, “Be it enacted by the legislature of West Virginia."

SEC. 2. The senate shall be composed of eighteen, and the house of delegates of forty-seven members, subject to be increased according to the provisions hereinafter contained.

SEC. 3. The term of office of senators shall be two years, and that of delegates one year. The senators first elected shall divide themselves into two classes, one senator from every district being assigned to each class; and of these classes, the first, to be designated by lot in such manner as the senate may determine, shall hold their offices for one year, and the second for two years; so that after the first election one-half of the senators shall be elected annually.

SEC. 4. For the election of senators, the State shall be divided into nine senatorial districts, which number shall not be diminished, but may be increased as hereinafter provided. Every district shall choose two senators, but after the first election both shall not be chosen from the same county. The districts shall be equal, as nearly as practicable, in white population, according to the returns of the United States census. They shall be compact, formed of contiguous territory, and bounded by county lines. After every such census the legislature shall alter the senatorial districts, so far as may be necessary to make them conform to the foregoing provisions.