AND ANNALS OF PROGRESS, FROM The Year 1788 to the Year 1900. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOLUME II. By WILLIAM A. TAYLOR COLUMBUS, OHIO: PRESS OF THE WESTBOTE Co., STATE PRINTERS. 1899. WILLIAM G. DESHLER, The author embraces the opportunity to acknowledge his indebtedness to MR. WILLIAM G. DESHLER, who for half a century has been closely identified with the State Benevolences and other public affairs of the State, for his valuable suggestions as to the preparation of the matter herein, and his words of encouragement during the necessarily tedious and laborious preparation of the same. COPYRIGHTED 1898 PART I.-VOL. II. The Second Constitution. There was a practical revolution in the Governmental machinery in 1851, with the adoption of the Second Constitution. Pursuant to the enabling and authorizing acts of the Forty eighth General Assembly, the people, at an election in 1850, chose the following delegates to a Constitutional Convention: CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, 1850-1851. This body of men met in the hall of the House of Representatives on Monday, the sixth day of May, 1850, and organized as above, and began their deliberations. Two sessions of the convention were held, the first continued until the ninth day of July, when it met to reassemble at Cincinnati on Monday, December 2, 1850. The selection of a second place of meeting was for the reason that the Legislature would be in session at the date of the second reassembling, and it was desirable that the convention should reassemble elsewhere than at the State capital under the cir cumstances. The second session continued until the tenth day of March, 1851, when the Constitution was adopted as a whole. The following was the Constitution framed by the delegates, and afterward ratified by the people, with the amendments subsequently adopted and incorporated therein, and as it stands at the end of the century: THE SECOND CONSTITUTION AND SUBSEQUENT AMENDMENTS. WE, the people of the State of Ohio, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings and promote our common welfare, do establish this Constitution. ARTICLE I. BILL OF RIGHTS. SECTION I. All men are, by nature, free and independent, and have certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and seeking and obtaining happiness and safety. SEC. 2. All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal protection and benefit, and they have the right to alter, reform, or abolish the same whenever they may deem it necessary; and no special privileges or immunities shall ever be granted that may not be altered, revoked, or repealed by the General Assembly. SEC. 3. The people have the right to assemble together, in a peaceable manner, to consult for their common good, to instruct their Representatives, and to petition the General Assembly for the redress of grievances. SEC. 4. The people have the right to bear arms for their defence and security; but standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and shall not be kept up; and the military shall be in strict subordination to the civil power. SEC. 5. The right of trial by jury shall be inviolate. SEC. 6. There shall be no slavery in this State; nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crime. SEC. 7. All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience. No person shall be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or maintain any form of worship against his consent; and no preference shall be given, by law, to any religious society; nor shall any interference with the rights of conscience be permitted. No religious test shall be required as a qualification for office, nor shall any person be incompetent to be a witness on account of his religious belief; but nothing herein shall be construed to dispense with oaths and affirmations. Religion, morality, and knowledge, however, being essential to good government, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to pass suitable laws to protect every religious denomination in the peaceable enjoyment of its own mode of public worship, and to encourage schools and the means of instruction. SEC. 8. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety require it. SEC. 9. All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offences where the proof is evident or the presumption great. Excessive bail shall not be required; nor excessive fines imposed; nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. SEC. 10. Except in cases of impeachment, and cases arising in the army and navy, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger, and in cases of petit larceny and other inferior offences, no person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous, crime, unless on presentment or indictment of a grand jury. In any trial, in any court, the party accused shall be allowed to appear and defend in person and with counsel; to demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him, and to have a copy thereof; to meet the witnesses face to face, and to have compulsory process to procure the attendance of witnesses in his behalf, and a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the offence is alleged to have been committed; nor shall any person be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself, or be twice, put in jeopardy for the same offence. SEC. 11. Every citizen may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of the right; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech, or of the press. In all criminal prosecutions for libel, the truth may be given in evidence to the jury, and if it shall appear to the jury that the matter charged as libelous is true, and was published with good motives, and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted. SEC. 12. No person shall be transported out of the State for any offence committed within the same; and no conviction shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture of estate. SEC. 13. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner; nor, in time of war, except in the manner prescribed by law. SEC. 14. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and possessions, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, particularly describing the place to be searched and the person and things to be seized. SEC. 15. No person shall be imprisoned for debt in any civil action, or mesne or final process, unless in cases of fraud. SEC. 16. All courts shall be open, and every person, for an injury done him in his land, goods, person, or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law, and justice administered without denial or delay. |