laws are duly punished. They They are also the law-advisers of the county authorities. 695. JURISDICTION.-The jurisdiction of the State Judiciaries, in both civil and criminal cases, is co-extensive with the State constitution and laws. Cases arising in these courts that involve Federal questions may be carried to the National courts; but with this exception, the judiciary of any State is independent, and its determinations are conclusive and final. 696. TRIAL BY JURY.-In discussing the National Judiciary, some remarks have been made concerning this right, that is so dearly prized by all English-speaking men. The States differ more or less in the details of their constitutional and legal provisions in relation to this subject; but all of them have preserved the grand features of the jury system first built up in England, and then transplanted to the Colonies in the seventeenth century. Restrictions, limitations, and guarantees similar to those found in the National Constitution and Amendments had been incorporated into the State constitutions before the Convention of 1787 sat. CHAPTER VI. THE SUFFRAGE AND ELIGIBILITY TO OFFICE. 697. How FIXED.-Every State regulates the qualifications of voters and office-holders in its constitution and laws, except that Amendment XV. to the National Constitution provides that, as respects voting, no discrimination shall be made on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Formerly, property qualifications were imposed upon the voter; these have all been swept away, Rhode Island, the last State to take such action, having done so in 1888. eral States, however, require the payment of a poll tax as a condition for voting. 698. THE COMMON RULE OF SUFFRAGE.-This is what is sometimes called manhood suffrage. That is, the vote is given to every male person twenty-one years of age and upwards, unless he has some prescribed disqualification. These disqualifications are summed up in rules, the principal of which are mentioned below. 699. CITIZENSHIP.-A majority of the States demand citizenship of the voter. Fifteen States, however, give the suffrage to every male person of foreign birth of the required age who shall have declared his intention to become a citizen a prescribed time before the election at which he offers his vote, the time varying from thirty days to one year. In some States it is given to every male inhabitant of voting age. 700. RESIDENCE.-In a majority of the States the citizen must have resided in the State a certain time before he can become a voter. years. The common rule is one year. Some States also require residence in the county and voting precinct, say twelve days in the one, and thirty in the other. This period varies from three months to two 701. RACE.-The word "white" is still found as a qualification for voting in a few constitutions, but it is over-ridden by the Fifteenth Amendment. Indians not taxed are commonly excluded; and so are Chinamen, or persons of the Mongolian race, in most or all of the States on the Pacific Slope. 702. EDUCATION.-Connecticut and Wyoming make ability to read the State constitution an electoral qualification. Massachusetts demands ability both to read the constitution in the English language and to write one's name. Florida, in 1868, required her legislature to enact an educational qualification after 1880; and Colorado, in 1876, authorized her legislature to do so after 1890. 703. REGISTRATION.-To prevent fraudulent voting and secure honest elections, a majority of the States require a registration of the voters to be made in the precinct where they reside, either throughout the State or in towns and cities having more than a prescribed population. Some States require a registration in all precincts; one State requires it in cities only; three forbid it altogether. New York and New Jersey require registration in all towns and cities having a population of 10,000 and upward. 704. RELIGION. The constitution of Idaho denies the ballot to all bigamists, polygamists, or persons living in patriarchal, plural, or celestial marriage, or who teach, or in any way countenance, such practices. No other constitution contains anything that can be termed a religious qualification for suffrage. 795. VARIOUS DISQUALIFICATIONS.-Certain classes of persons are disfranchised for mental or moral reasons. Mention may be made of idiots, lunatics, and persons convicted of infamous crimes, unless civil rights are restored to them; paupers, duelists, and persons bribing, or attempting to bribe, electors are also sometimes disfranchised. 706. WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE.-The Territories of Wyoming, Washington, and Utah, gave the ballot to women on the same terms as men. Wyoming, on becoming a State (1890), inserted this clause in her constitution, being the first State to take that step: "The rights of citizens of the State of Wyoming to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex." North Dakota (1889) authorized her legislature to give women otherwise qualified the vote, provided the people at a general election when the question was regularly submitted should give their approval. Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, South Dakota, and Massachusetts, and perhaps other States, allow women to vote for school offices and on other questions relating to schools. North Dakota and Washington have authorized their legislatures to enact laws conferring the same right. Montana allows women who are tax payers, of prescribed age and character, to vote equally with men upon all questions submitted to the vote of the tax payers, as such, of the State, or any political division thereof. 707. CUMULATIVE VOTING.-The constitution of Illinois gives each senatorial district three senators, and allows each elector to distribute his three votes as he sees fit, giving them all to one candidate, two to one candidate and one to another, or one to each of three candidates. The Pennsylvania constitution provides that when two or more Supreme judges, or two or more designated county officers, are to be chosen, each elector shall vote for only one or two of three candidates. Other States have rejected similar propositions. The object of this method of voting is to secure representation to minorities. This it does by enabling them to mass their votes on one or more candidates. 708. MODES OF VOTING.-In all the States but Kentucky voting is by ballot. In that State, save in electing members of the National House of Representatives, the elector declares his choice viva voce to the judges of the election, which is recorded, together with his name, in the poll book. this mode of voting prevailed in several of the States. Formerly Within the last few years several of the States, with a view to protect the voter against intimidation or undue influence in casting his ballot, have taken measures to render voting absolutely secret. Many of them have adopted the so-called Australian System, or modifications of that system. Ballot reform has made its impress upon two or more of the constitutions last adopted. Idaho provides: "An absolutely secret ballot is hereby guaranteed, and it shall be the duty of the Legislature to enact such laws as shall carry this section into effect." And Wyoming: "All voters shall be guaranteed absolute privacy in the preparation of their ballots, and the secrecy of their ballot." 709. HOLDING OFFICE.-The general rule may be stated thus: Persons entitled to vote may also hold office, provided they are of a certain prescribed age and have lived within the State a certain prescribed time. The Indiana rule is that the governor must be thirty years of age, must have been a citizen of the United States five years, and have resided in the State for that period next preceding his election. And this rule may be taken as a fair example. Several States, as Pennsylvania and Kansas, allow women to hold school offices, and Wyoming allows them to hold any office whatever. 710. RELIGIOUS QUALIFICATIONS.-Most of the Constitutions declare that no religious test shall be required for the enjoyment of any civil or political right, and that no preference shall be given by law to any religious sect. But several constitutions declare persons disqualified for office who deny |