PROCLAMATION.

BY THE GOVERNOR.

I, John J. Jacob, Governor of the State of West Virginia, do issue my proclamation, and declare that the Honorable Samuel Price, President of the Convention, which assembled at the seat of government on the third Tuesday in January last, "to consider, discuss and propose a new Constitution, or alterations and amendments to the existing Constitution of this State," has certified to me an accurate transcript of the Constitution and Schedule adopted by the said Convention, April ninth, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, a copy of which Constitution and Schedule is hereto annexed. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the State to be affixed at Charleston, this tenth day of April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, and of the State, the ninth.

L. S.

By the Governor :

JOHN M. PHELPS,

JOHN J. JACOB.

Secretary of State.

1. The State of West Virginia is, and shall remain, one of the United States of America. The Constitution of the United States of America, and the laws and treaties made in pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme law of the land.

2. The government of the United States is a government of enumerated powers, and all powers not delegated to it, nor inhibited to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people thereof. Among the pewers so reserved by the States, is the exclusive regulation of their own internal government and police; and it is the high and solemn duty of the several departments of government, created by this Constitution, to guard and protect the people of this State, from all encroachments upon the rights so reserved.

3. The provisions of the Constitution of the United States, and of this State, are operative alike in a period of war as in time of peace, and any departure therefrom, or violation thereof, under the plea of necessity, or any other plea, is subversive of good government, and tends to anarchy and despotism.

4. For the election of representatives to Congress, the State shall be divided into districts, corresponding in number with the represent

atives to which it may be entitled; which districts shall be formed of contiguous counties, and be compact. Each district shall contain, as nearly as may be, an equal number of population, to be determined according to the rule prescribed in the Constitution of the United States.

ARTICLE II.

THE STATE.

1. The territory of the following counties, formerly parts of the Commonwealth of Virginia, shall constitute and form the State of West Virginia, viz:

The counties of Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Braxton, Brooke, Cabell, Calhoun, Clay, Doddridge, Fayette, Gilmer, Grant, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Kanawha, Lewis, Lincoln, Logan, Marion, Marshall, Mason, McDowell, Mercer, Mineral, Monongalia, Monroe, Morgan, Nicholas, Ohio, Pendleton, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Ritchie, Roane, Summers, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Upshur, Wayne, Webster, Wetzel, Wirt, Wood and Wyoming. The State of West Virginia includes the bed, bank and shores of the Ohio river, and so much of the Big Sandy river as was formerly included in the Commonwealth of Virginia; and all territorial rights and property in, and jurisdiction over, the same, heretofore reserved by, and vested in, the Commonwealth of Virginia, are vested in, and shall hereafter be exercised by. the State of West Virginia. And such parts of the said beds, banks and shores, as lie opposite, and adjoining the several counties of this State, shall form parts of said several counties respectively.

2. The powers of government reside in all the citizens of the State. and can be rightfully exercised only in accordance with their will and appointment.

3. All persons residing in this State, born, or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, shall be citizens of this State.