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two years subsequent to his naturalization, and shall be otherwise qualified, according to the Constitution and laws of this Commonwealth; Provided, That this amendment shall not affect the rights which any person of foreign birth possessed at the time of the adoption thereof; And, Provided, further, That it shall not affect the rights of any child of a citizen of the United States, born during the temporary absence of the parent therefrom.]

ART. XXIV. Any vacancy in the Senate shall be filled by election by the people of the unrepresented district, upon the order of a majority of the Senators elected.

ART. XXV. In case of a vacancy in the Council, from a failure of election, or other cause, the Senate and House of Representatives shall, by concurrent vote, choose some eligible person from the people of the district wherein such vacancy occurs, to fill that office. If such vacancy shall happen when the Legislature is not in session, the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Council, may fill the same by the appointment of some eligible person.

ART. XXVI. The twenty-third article of the articles of amendment of the Constitution of this Commonwealth, which is as follows, to wit: "No person of foreign birth shall be entitled to vote, or shall be eligible to office, unless he shall have resided within the jurisdiction of the United States for two years subsequent to his naturalization, and shall be otherwise qualified, according to the Constitution and laws of this Commonwealth; Provided, That this amendment shall not affect the rights which any person of foreign birth possessed at the time of the adoption thereof; And, Provided, further, That it shall not affect the rights of any child of a citizen of the United States, born during the temporary absence of the parent therefrom," is hereby wholly annulled.

CONSTITUTION OF MICHIGAN. 1850.*

ARTICLE I.

BOUNDARIES.

The State of Michigan consists of and has jurisdiction over the territory embraced within the following boundaries, to wit: Commencing at a point on the eastern boundary line of the State of Indiana, where a direct line drawn from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the most northerly cape of the Maumee Bay shall intersect the same-said point being the north-west corner of the State of Ohio, as established by act of Congress, entitled "An act to establish the northern boundary line of the State of Ohio, and to provide for the admission of the State of Michigan into the Union upon the conditions therein expressed," approved June fifteenth, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six; thence with the said boundary line of the State of Ohio till it intersects the boundary line between the United States and Canada in Lake Erie; thence with said boundary line between the United States and Canada through the Detroit river, Lake Huron and Lake Superior, to a point where the said line last touches Lake Superior; thence in a direct line through Lake Superior to the mouth of the Montreal river; thence through the middle of the main channel of the said river Montreal to the head waters thereof; thence in a direct line to the center of the channel between Middle and South Islands in the Lake of the Desert; thence in a direct line to the southern shore of Lake Brule; thence along said southern shore and down the river Brule to the main channel of the Menominie river; thence down the center of the main channel of the same to the center of the most usual ship channel of the Green Bay of Lake Michigan; thence through the center of the most usual ship channel of the said Bay to the middle of Lake Michigan; thence through the middle of Lake Michigan to the northern boundary of the State of Indiana, as that line was established by the act of Congress of the nineteenth

* This State was formed from territory ceded by Virginia and other States. A territorial government was organized in 1805. On the 25th of January, 1833, it presented a memorial for admission. accompanied with a Constitution, and it was admitted into the Union in 1836. The present Constitution was adopted in Convention, August 15th, 1850, and has been repeatedly amended. A Convention for revising this Constitution is appointed to meet at Lansing. on the 15th of May, 1867.

of April, eighteen hundred and sixteen; thence due east with the north boundary line of the said State of Indiana to the north-east corner thereof; and thence south with the eastern boundary line of Indiana to the place of beginning.

ARTICLE II.

SEAT OF GOVERNMENT.

SECTION 1. The seat of government shall be at Lansing, where it is now established. ARTICLE III.

DIVISION OF THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT.

SECTION 1. The powers of government are divided into three departments, the Legislative, Executive and Judicial.

§ 2. No person belonging to one department shall exercise the powers properly belonging to another, except in the cases expressly provided in this Constitution.

ARTICLE IV.

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

SECTION 1. The Legislative power is vested in a Senate and House of Representatives.

§ 2. The Senate shall consist of thirty-two members. Senators shall be elected for two years, and by single districts. Such districts shall be numbered from one to thirtytwo inclusive; each of which shall choose one Senator. No county shall be divided in the formation of senate districts, except such county shall be equitably entitled to two or more Senators.

§ 3. The House of Representatives shall consist of not less than sixty-four, nor more than one hundred members. Representatives shall be chosen for two years, and by single districts. Each representative district shall contain, as nearly as may be, an equal number of white inhabitants, and civilized persons of Indian descent, not members of any tribe, and shall consist of convenient and contiguous territory. But no township or city shall be divided in the formation of a representative district. When any township or city shall contain a population which entitles it to more than one Representative, then such township or city shall elect by general ticket the number of Representatives to which it is entitled. Each county hereafter organized, with such territory as may be attached thereto, shall be entitled to a separate Representative when it has attained a population equal to a moiety of the ratio of representation. In every county entitled to more than one Representative, the Board of Supervisors shall assemble at such time and place as the Legislature shall prescribe, and divide the same into representative districts, equal to the number of Representatives to which such county is entitled by law, and shall cause to be filed in the offices of the Secretary of State and Clerk of such county a description of such representative districts, specifying the number of each district, and the population thereof, according to the last preceding enumeration.

§ 4. The Legislature shall provide by law for an enumeration of the inhabitants in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-four, and every ten years thereafter; and at the first session after each enumeration so made, and also at the first session after each enumeration by the authority of the United States, the Legislature shall re-arrange the senate districts, and apportion anew the Representatives among the counties and districts, according to the number of white inhabitants and civilized persons of Indian descent, not members of any tribe. Each apportionment and the division into representative districts, by any Board of Supervisors, shall remain unaltered until the return of another enumeration.

5. Senators and Representatives shall be citizens of the United States, and qualified electors in the respective counties and districts which they represent. A removal from their respective counties or districts shall be deemed a vacation of their office.

§ 6. No person holding any office under the United States (or this State), or any county office, except Notaries Public, officers of the militia and officers elected by townships, shall be eligible to or have a seat in either House of the Legislature, and all votes given for any such person shall be void.

§ 7. Senators and Representatives shall, in all cases, except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest. They shall not be subject to any civil process during the session of the Legislature, or for fifteen days next before the commencement and after the termination of each session. They shall not be questioned in any other place for any speech in either House.

§ 8. A majority of each House shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each House may prescribe.

§ 9. Each House shall choose its own officers, determine the rules of its proceedings, and judge of the qualifications, election, and return of its members; and may, with the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members elected, expel a member. No member shall be expelled a second time for the same cause, nor for any cause known to his constituents antecedent to his election. The reason for such expulsion shall be entered upon the journal, with the names of the members voting on the question.

§ 10. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and publish the same, except such parts as may require secrecy. The yeas and nays of the members of either House, on any question, shall be entered on the journal at the request of one-fifth of the members elected. Any member of either House may dissent from and protest against any act, proceeding, or resolution which he may deem injurious to any person or the public, and have the reason of his dissent entered on the journal.

§ 11. In all elections by either House or in joint convention the votes shall be given All votes on nominations to the Senate shall be taken by yeas and nays, and published with the journal of its proceedings.

viva voce.

§ 12. The doors of each House shall be open, .unless the public welfare require secrecy. Neither House shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than where the Legislature may then be in session. 13. Bills may originate in either House of the Legislature.

14. Every bill and concurrent resolution, except of adjournment, passed by the Legislature, shall be presented to the Governor before it becomes a law. If he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it with his objections to the House in which it originated, which shall enter the objections at large upon their journal, and reconsider it. On such reconsideration, if two-thirds of the members elected agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall be reconsidered. If approved by two-thirds of the members elected to that House, it shall become a law. In such case, the vote of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the members voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journals of each House respectively. If any bill be not returned by the Governor within ten days, Sundays excepted, after it has been presented to him, the same shall become a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Legislature, by their adjournment, prevent its return; in which case it shall not become a law. The Governor may approve, sign, and file in the office of the Secretary of State, within five days after the adjournment of the Legislature, any act passed during the last five days of the session; and the same shall become a law.

§ 15. The compensation of the members of the Legislature shall be three dollars a day for actual attendance and when absent on account of sickness [for the first sixty days of the session of the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, and for the first forty days of every subsequent session, and nothing thereafter.] * When convened in extra session their compensation shall be three dollars a day for the first twenty days, and nothing thereafter; and they shall legislate on no other subjects than those expressly stated in the Governor's Proclamation, or submitted to them by special message. They shall be entitled to ten cents and no more for every mile actually traveled, going to and returning from the place of meeting, on the usually traveled route; and for stationery and newspapers not exceeding five dollars for each member during any session. Each member shall be entitled to one copy of the laws, journals, and documents of the Legislature of which he was a member; but shall not receive at the expense of the State, books, newspapers, or other perquisites of office, not expressly authorized by this Constitution.

§ 16. The Legislature may provide by law for the payment of postage on all mailable matter received by its members and officers during the sessions of the Legislature, but not on any sent or mailed by them.

17. The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall be entitled to the same per diem compensation and mileage as members of the Legislature, and no more.

§ 18. No person elected a member of the Legislature shall receive any civil appointment within this State, or to the Senate of the United States, from the Governor, the Governor and Senate, from the Legislature, or any other State authority, during the term

* The part in brackets was amended in 1852, to read as follows: "but the Legislature may allow extra compensation to the members from the territory of the Upper Peninsula," exceeding two dollars per day during the session.

for which he is elected. All such appointments and all votes given for any person so elected for any such office or appointment, shall be void. No member of the Legislature shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract with the State, or any county thereof, authorized by any law passed during the time for which he is elected, nor for one year thereafter.

19. Every bill and joint resolution shall be read three times in each House, before the final passage thereof. No bill or joint resolution shall become a law without the concurrence of a majority of all the members elected to each House. On the final passage of all bills, the vote shall be by ayes and nays, and entered on the journal.

20. No laws shall embrace more than one object, which shall be expressed in its title. No public act shall take effect or be in force until the expiration of ninety days from the end of the session at which the same is passed, unless the Legislature shall otherwise direct, by a two-thirds vote of the members elected to each House.

§ 21. The Legislature shall not grant nor authorize extra compensation to any public officer, agent, or contractor, after the service has been rendered or the contract entered into.

§ 22. The Legislature shall provide by law that the furnishing of fuel and stationery for the use of the State, the printing and binding the laws and journals, all blanks, paper and printing for the executive departments, and all other printing ordered by the Legislature, shall be let by contract to the lowest bidder or bidders, who shall give adequate and satisfactory security for the performance thereof. The Legislature shall prescribe by law the manner in which the State printing shall be executed, and the accounts rendered therefore; and shall prohibit all charges for constructive labor. They shall not rescind nor alter such contract, nor release the person nor persons taking the same, or his or their sureties, from the performance of any of the conditions of the contract. No member of the Legislature, nor officer of the State, shall be interested directly or indirectly in any such contract.

§ 23. The Legislature shall not authorize, by private or special law, the sale or conveyance of any real estate belonging to any person; nor vacate, nor alter any road laid out by commissioners of highways, or any street in any city or village, or in any recorded town plat.

§ 24. The Legislature may authorize the employment of a chaplain for the State prison; but no money shall be appropriated for the payment of any religious services in either House of the Legislature.

§ 25. No law shall be revised, altered or amended by reference to its title only; but the act revised, and the section or sections of the act altered or amended, shall be reenacted and published at length,

§ 26. Divorces shall not be granted by the Legislature.

27. The Legislature shall not authorize any lottery, nor permit the sale of lottery tickets.

28. [No new bill shall be introduced into either House during the last three days of the session, without the unanimous consent of the House in which it originates.]*

§ 29. In case of a contested election, the person only shall receive from the State per diem compensation and mileage, who is declared to be entitled to a seat by the House in which the contest takes place.

§ 30. No collector, holder, nor disburser of public moneys, shall have a seat in the Legislature, or be eligible to any office of trust or profit under this State, until he shall have accounted for and paid over, as provided by law, all sums for which he may be liable.

§ 31. The Legislature shall not audit nor allow any private claim or account.

32. The Legislature, on the day of final adjournment, shall adjourn at twelve o'clock at noon.

§ 33. The Legislature shall meet at the seat of government on the first Wednesday in February next, and on the first Wednesday in January of every second year thereafter, and at no other place or time, unless as provided in this Constitution.†

§ 34. The election of Senators and Representatives, pursuant to the provisions of this Constitution, shall be held on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday of Novem

* This section was amended in 1859, '60, to read as follows: "28. No new bill shall be introduced into either House of the Legislature after the first fifty days of a session shall have expired. † This section was amended in 1859-'60 to read as follows:

? 33. The Legislature shall meet at the seat of government on the first Wednesday in January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and on the first Wednesday in January in every second year thereafter and at no other place or time, unless as provided in the Constitution of this State, and shall adjourn without day at such time as the Legislature shall fix by concurrent resolution.

ber, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, and on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday of November of every second year thereafter.

35. The Legislature shall not establish a State paper. Every newspaper in the State which shall publish all the general laws of any session within forty days of their passage, shall be entitled to receive a sum not exceeding fifteen dollars therefor.

$ 36. The Legislature shall provide for the speedy publication of all statute laws of a public nature, and of such judicial decisions as it may deem expedient. All laws and judicial decisions shall be free for publication by any person.

§ 37. The Legislature may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant, and also the manner of filling the vacancy, where no provision is made for that purpose in this Constitution.

§ 38. The Legislature may confer upon organized townships, incorporated cities and villages, and upon the Board of Supervisors of the several counties, such powers of a local, legislative and administrative character as they may deem proper.

39. The Legislature shall pass no law to prevent any person from worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of his own conscience, or to compel any person to attend, erect, or support any place of religious worship, or to pay tithes, taxes, or other rates for the support of any minister of the Gospel or teacher of religion.

§ 40. No money shall be appropriated or drawn from the treasury for the benefit of any religious sect or society, theological or religious seminary, nor shall property belonging to the State be appropriated for any such purposes.

41. The Legislature shall not diminish or enlarge the civil or political rights, privileges and capacities of any person on account of his opinion or belief concerning matters of religion.

§ 42. No law shall ever be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press but every person may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of such right.

§ 43. The Legislature shall pass no bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts.

§ 44. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus remains, and shall not be suspended by the Legislature, except in case of rebellion or invasion the public safety require it. § 45. The assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each House of the Legislature shall be requisite to every bill appropriating the public money or property for local or private purposes.

§ 46. The Legislature may authorize a trial by a jury of a less number than twelve

men.

§ 47. The Legislature shall not pass any act authorizing the grant of license for the sale of ardent spirits or other intoxicating liquors.

§ 48. The style of the laws shall be, "The People of the State of Michigan enact."

ARTICLE V.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.

SECTION 1. The Executive power is vested in a Governor, who shall hold his office for two years. A Lieutenant-Governor shall be chosen for the same term.

§ 2. No person shall be eligible to the office of Governor or Lieutenant-Governor who has not been five years a citizen of the United States, and a resident of this State two years next preceding his election; nor shall any person be eligible to either office who has not attained the age of thirty years.

§ 3. The Governor and Lieutenant-Governor shall be elected at the times and places of choosing the members of the Legislature. The person having the highest number of votes for Governor or Lieutenant-Governor shall be elected. In case two or more persons shall have an equal and the highest number of votes for Governor or LieutenantGovernor, the Legislature shall, by joint vote, choose one of such persons.

§ 4. The Governor shall be Commander-in-Chief of the military and naval forces, and may call out such forces to execute the laws, to suppress insurrections and to repe invasions.

§ 5. He shall transact all necessary business with officers of government, and may require information, in writing, from the officers of the Executive department, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices.

6. He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

§ 7. He may convene the Legislature on extraordinary occasions.

8. He shall give to the Legislature, and at the close of his official term to the next Legislature, information by message of the condition of the State, and recommend such measures to them as he shall deem expedient.

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