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CONSTITUTIONS

COLONIAL CHARTERS, AND OTHER
ORGANIC LAWS

OF THE

STATES, TERRITORIES, AND

COLONIES

NOW OR HERETOFORE FORMING

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Compiled and Edited

under the Act of Congress of June 30, 1906

By

FRANCIS NEWTON THORPE, Ph. D., LL. D.
Member of the Pennsylvania Bar; Fellow and Professor of American Constitu-
tional History at the University of Pennsylvania, 1885-1898; Member of
the American Historical Association; Author of The Constitutional History
of the United States, 1765-1895; A (State) Constitutional History of
the American People, 1776-1850; A Short Constitutional History
of the United States; A (Social and Economic) History of the
American People; A History of the Civil War; Editor of the His-
tory of North America, Volumes IX, XV, XVI, XVIII, XIX,
XX; Author of The Government of the People of the
United States; Benjamin Franklin and the University
of Pennsylvania; The Life of William Pepper, etc.

VOL. III
Kentucky-Massachusetts

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

ЈК
18

1709 v.3

KENTUCKY"

For organic acts issued before 1790 relating to the land now included within Kentucky see in this work :

Charters of Virginia, 1606, 1609, 1612 (Virginia, pp. 3783–3812).
Ordinances for Virginia, 1621 (Virginia, p. 3810).

Constitution of Virginia, 1776 (Virginia, p. 3812).

THE TERRITORY SOUTH OF THE OHIO-1790

[FIRST CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION]

An Act for the Government of the Territory of the United States, south of the river Ohio

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the territory of the United States south of the river Ohio, for the purposes of temporary government, shall be one district; the inhabitants of which shall enjoy all the privileges, benefits, and advantages set forth in the ordinance of the late Congress for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio. And the government of the said territory south of the Ohio shall be similar to that which is now exercised in the territory northwest of the Ohio: except so far as is otherwise provided in the conditions expressed in an act of Congress of the present session, entitled "An act to accept a cession of the claims of the State of North Carolina to a certain. district of western territory."

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the salaries of the officers, which the President of the United States shall nominate, and with the advice and consent of the Senate appoint, by virtue of this act, shall be the same as those, by law established, of similar officers in the gov ernment northwest of the river Ohio. And the powers, duties, and emoluments of a superintendent of Indian affairs for the southern department shall be united with those of the governor.

Approved, May 26, 1790.

a Kentucky was originally settled by the whites as a colony of Virginia, but after the revolutionary war the settlers demanded an independent government, under the following provision in the first constitution of Virginia: "The western and northern extent of Virginia shall, in all other respects, stand, as fixed by the charter of King James I, in the year 1609, and by the public treaty of peace between the courts of Great Britain and France, in the year 1763, unless by act of this legislature one or more governments be established westward of the Alleghany Mountains." It was not, however, until after there had been ten successive conventions elected by the people of the "district," and four successive enabling acts passed by the legislature of Virginia, that Kentucky was allowed to enter the Federal Union as an independent State, on an equality with those which had established themselves as a nation.

1263

ACT ADMITTING KENTUCKY INTO THE UNION-1791

[FIRST CONGRESS, THIRD SESSION]

An Act declaring the consent of Congress, that a new State be formed within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and admitted into this Union, by the name of the State of Kentucky

Whereas the legislature of the commonwealth of Virginia, by an act entitled "An act concerning the erection of the district of Kentucky into an independent state," passed the eighteenth day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, have consented that the district of Kentucky, within the jurisdiction of the said commonwealth, and according to its actual boundaries at the time of passing the act aforesaid, should be formed into a new state: And whereas a convention of delegates, chosen by the people of the said district of Kentucky, have petitioned Congress to consent that, on the first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, the said district should be formed into a new state, and received into the Union, by the name of "The State of Kentucky:

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatires of the United States of America in Congress assembled, and it is hereby enacted and declared, That the Congress doth consent that the said district of Kentucky, within the jurisdiction of the commonwealth of Virginia, and according to its actual boundaries on the eighteenth day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eightynine, shall, upon the first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, be formed into a new State, separate from, and independent of, the said commonwealth of Virginia.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted and declared, That upon the aforesaid first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and ninetytwo, the said new State, by the name and style of the State of Kentucky, shall be received and admitted into this Union as a new and entire member of the United States of America.

Approved, February 4, 1791.

CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY-1792 * a

We, the representatives of the people of the State of Kentucky, in convention assembled, do ordain and establish this constitution for its government.

ARTICLE I

1. The powers of government shall be divided into three distinct departments, each of them to be confided to a separate body of magistracy, to wit, those which are legislative to one, those which are executive to another, and those which are judiciary to another.

* Verified from "The General Statutes of Kentucky. Bullitt and Feloud, Louisville. The Barnaby and Gilbert Co., 1887." pp. 56-72.

a This constitution was adopted by a convention which met at Danville April 2, 1792, and completed its labors on the 19th of April, 1792. The constitution was not submitted to the people for ratification.

2. No person, or collection of persons, being of one of these departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except in the instances hereinafter expressly permitted.

3. The legislative powers of this commonwealth shall be vested in a general assembly, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives.

4. The representatives shall be chosen annually, by the qualified electors of each county respectively, on the first Tuesday in May; but the several elections may be continued for three days, if, in the opinion of the presiding officer or officers, it shall be necessary, and no longer.

5. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained the age of twenty-four years, and have been a citizen and inhabitant of the State two years preceding his election, and the last six months thereof an inhabitant of the county in which he may be chosen; unless he shall have been absent on the public business of the United States, or this State.

6. Within two years after the first meeting of the general assembly, and within every subsequent term of four years, an enumeration of the free male inhabitants above twenty-one years of age shall be made, in such manner as may be directed by law. The number of the representatives shall, at the several periods of making such enumeration, be fixed by the legislature, and apportioned among the several counties, according to the number of free male inhabitants above the age of twenty-one years in each, and shall never be less than forty, nor greater than one hundred; but no county hereafter erected shall be entitled to a separate representation, until a sufficient number of free male inhabitants above the age of twenty-one years shall be contained within it, to entitle them to one representative, agreeable to the ratio which shall then be established.

7. The senators shall be chosen for four years.

8. Until the first enumeration be made, the senate shall consist of eleven members, and thereafter for every four members added to the house of representatives, one member shall be added to the senate.

9. In choosing the senate, one member at least shall be elected from each county, until the number of counties is equal to the number of senators; after which, when a new county is made, it shall, as to the choice of senators, be considered as being a part of the county or counties from which it shall have been taken.

10. The senate shall be chosen in the following manner: All persons qualified to vote for representatives shall, on the first Tuesday in May, in the present year, and on the same day in every fourth year, forever thereafter, at the place appointed by law for choosing representatives, elect by ballot, by a majority of votes, as many persons as they are entitled to have for representatives for their respective counties, to be electors of the senate..

11. No person shall be chosen an elector who shall not have resided in the State three years next before his election, and who shall not have attained the age of twenty-seven years.

12. The electors of the senate shall meet at such place as shall be appointed for convening the legislature, on the third Tuesday in May, in the present year, and on the same day in every fourth year forever thereafter; and they, or a majority of them so met, shall proceed to elect by ballot, as senators, men of the most wisdom,

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