two-thirds of all the members elected to each House, then it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to submit such proposed amendment or amendments to the people in such manner and at such time as the General Assembly shall prescribe. And if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments by a majority of all the citizens of the State voting for Representatives voting in their favor, such amendment or amendments shall become a part of this Constitution. When any amendment or amendments to the Constitution shall be proposed in pursuance of the foregoing provisions, the same shall, at each of the said sessions, be read three times on three several days in each House. The Legislature shall not propose amendments to the Constitution oftener than once in six years. The Legislature shall have the right at any time, by law, to submit to the people the question of calling a Convention to alter, reform, or abolish this Constitution, and when, upon such submission, a majority of all the votes cast shall be in favor of said proposition, then delegates shall be chosen, and the Convention shall assemble in such mode and manner as shall be prescribed. SEC. 4. The Legislature shall have no power to grant divorces, but may authorize the courts of justice to grant them for such causes as may be specified by law; but such laws shall be general and uniform in their operation throughout the State. SEC. 5. The Legislature shall have no power to authorize lotteries for any purpose, and shall pass laws to prohibit the sale of lottery tickets in this State. SEC. 6. The Legislature shall have no power to change the names of persons, or to pass acts adopting or legitimatizing persons, but shall, by general laws, confer this power on the courts. SEC. 7. The Legislature shall fix the rate of interest, and the rate so established shall be equal and uniform throughout the State; but the Legislature may provide for a conventional rate of interest, not to exceed ten per cent. per annum. SEC. 8. The Legislature shall have no power to suspend any general law for the benefit of any particular individual, nor to pass any law for the benefit of individuals inconsistent with the general laws of the land; nor to pass any law granting to any individual or individuals rights, privileges, immunities, or exemptions, other than such as may be, by the same law, extended to any member of the community who may be able to bring himself within the provisions of such law. No corporation shall be created, or its powers increased or diminished, by special laws, but the General Assembly shall provide, by general laws, for the organization of all corporations hereafter created, which laws may, at any time, be altered or repealed; and no such alteration or repeal shall interfere with or divest rights which have become vested. SEC. 9. The Legislature shall have the right to vest such powers in the courts of justice with regard to private and local affairs as may be expedient. SEC. 10. A well-regulated system of internal improvement is calculated to develop the resources of the State and promote the happiness and prosperity of her citizens, therefore it ought to be encouraged by the General Assembly. SEC. 11. A homestead in the possession of each head of a family, and the improvements thereon, to the value in all of one thousand dollars, shall be exempt from sale under legal process during the life of such head of a family, to inure to the benefit of the widow, and shall be exempt during the minority of their children occupying the same. Nor shall said property be alienated without the joint consent of the husband and wife when that relation exists. This exemption shall not operate against public taxes, or debts contracted for the purchase money of such homestead or improvements thereon. SEC. 12. Knowledge, learning, and virtue, being essential to the preservation of republican institutions, and the diffusion of the opportunities and advantages of education throughout the different portions of the State being highly conducive to the promotion of this end, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly, in all future periods of this government, to cherish literature and science. And the fund called the common school fund, and all the lands and proceeds thereof, dividends, stocks, and other property of every description whatever, heretofore by law appropriated by the General Assembly of this State for the use of common schools, and all such as shall hereafter be appropriated, shall remain a perpetual fund, the principal of which shall never be diminished by legislative appropriation; and the interest thereof shall be inviolably appropriated to the support and encouragement of common schools throughout the State, and for the equal benefit of all the people thereof; and no law shall be made authorizing said fund, or any part thereof, to be diverted to any other use than the support and encouragement of common schools. The State taxes derived hereafter from polls shall be appropriated to educational purposes in such manner as the General Assembly shall from time to time direct by law. No school established or aided under this section shall allow white and negro children to be received as scholars together in the same school. The above provision shall not prevent the Legislature from carrying into effect any laws that have been passed in favor of the colleges, universities, or academies, or from authorizing heirs or distributees to receive and enjoy escheated property under such laws as may be passed from time to time. SEC. 13. The General Assembly shall have power to enact laws for the protection and preservation of game and fish within the State, and such laws may be enacted for and applied and enforced in particular counties or geographical districts designated by the General Assembly. SEC. 14. The intermarriage of white persons with negroes, mulattoes, or persons of mixed blood, descended from a negro to the third generation, inclusive, or their living together as man and wife, in this State is prohibited. The Legislature shall enforce this section by appropriate legislation. SEC. 15. No person shall, in time of peace, be required to perform any service to the public on any day set apart by his religion as a day of rest. SEC. 16. The declaration of rights, hereto prefixed, is declared to be a part of the Constitution of this State, and shall never be violated on any pretense whatever. And to guard against transgression of the high powers we have delegated, we declare that every thing in the Bill of Rights contained is excepted out of the general powers of the government, and shall forever remain inviolate. SEC. 17. No county office created by the Legislature shall be filled otherwise than by the people or the County Court. 134 HARDIN COUNTY'S REPRESENTATIVES. REPRESENTATIVES OF HARDIN COUNTY IN THE LOWER HOUSE OF THE LEGISLATURE. JOEL WALKER, Representative of Hardin and Wayne from 1820 to 1823. JAMES BARNES, from 1823 to 1825. BENJAMIN HARDIN, Representative of Hardin, Wayne, McNairy, Hardeman, Fayette, Shelby, and Tipton, from 1825 to 1827. BRADLEY HALFORD, Representative of Lawrence, Wayne, and Hardin, from 1831 to 1833. JOHN RAYBURN, Representative of Hardin, Hickman, Lawrence, Wayne and McNairy, from 1833 to 1835. C. C. GIBBS, from 1837 to 1839. C. H. MCGINNIS, from 1839 to 1847. DANIEL SMITH, from 1847 to 1851. GEORGE M. HAMILTON, from 1851 to 1853. S. W. RIGGS, from 1873 to 1875. D. W. HERRING, Hardin and Decatur, from 1875 to 1877. The names of the Representatives of the county between the years 1827 and 1831, and between the years 1835 and 1837, are unknown to us. Hon. H. B. Neely, after serving one year, died, and Hon. J. D. Martin was elected to fill out the unexp red term, |