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and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.

109. No ex post facto law, nor any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall be passed, nor vested rights be divested, unless for purposes of public utility, and for adequate compensation previously made.

110. The press shall be free. Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for an abuse of this liberty.

111. Emigration from the State shall not be prohibited.

112. The General Assembly, which shall meet after the first election of representatives under this Constitution, shall, within the first month after the commencement of the session, designate and fix the seat of government at some place not less than sixty miles from the city of New Orleans, by the nearest traveling route, and if on the Mississippi river, by the meanders of the same; and when so fixed, it shall not be removed without the consent of four-fifths of the members of both houses of the General Assembly. The sessions shall be held in New Orleans until the end of the year 1848.

113. The Legislature shall not pledge the faith of the State for the payment of any bonds, bills, or other contracts or obligations for the benefit or use of any person or persons, corporation, or body politic whatever. But the State shall have the right to issue new bonds in payment of its outstanding obligations or liabilities, whether due or not the said new bonds, however, are not to be issued for a larger amount, or at a higher rate of interest, than the original obligations they are intended to replace.

114. The aggregate amount of debts hereafter contracted by the Legislature, shall never exceed the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, except in the case of war, to repel invasions, or suppress insurrections, unless the same be authorized by some law, for some single object or work, to be distinctly specified therein; which law shall provide ways and means, by taxation, for the payment of running interest during the whole time for which said debt shall be contracted, and for the full and punctual discharge at maturity of the capital borrowed; and said law shall be irrepealable until principal and interest are fully paid and discharged, and shall not be put into execution until after its enactment by the first Legislature returned by a general election after its passage.

115. The Legislature shall provide by law for a change of venue in civil and criminal cases.

116. No lottery shall be authorized by this State, and the buying or selling of lottery tickets within the State is prohibited.

117. No divorce shall be granted by the Legislature.

118. Every law enacted by the Legislature, shall embrace but one object, and that shall be expressed in the title.

119. No law shall be revised or amended by reference to its title;

but in such case, the act revised, or section amended, shall be reenacted and published at length.

120. The Legislature shall never adopt any system or code of laws by general reference to such system or code of laws, but in all cases shall specify the several provisions of the laws it may enact. 121. The State shall not become subscriber to the stock of any corporation or joint stock company.

122. No corporate body shall be hereafter created, renewed, or extended, with banking or discounting privileges.

123. Corporations shall not be created in this State by special laws, except for political or municipal purposes, but the Legislature shall provide, by general laws, for the organization of all other corporations, except corporations with banking or discounting privileges, the creation of which is prohibited.

124. From and after the month of January, 1899, the Legislature shall have the power to revoke the charters of all corporations whose charters shall not have expired previous to that time, and no corporations hereafter to be created shall ever endure for a longer term than twenty-five years, except those which are political or municipal. 125. The General Assembly shall never grant any exclusive privilege or monopoly for a longer period than twenty years.

126. No person shall hold or exercise, at the same time, more than one civil office of emolument, except that of justice of the peace.

127. Taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout the State. After the year 1848, all property on which taxes may be levied in this State, shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as directed by law. No one species of property shall be taxed higer than another species of property of equal value, on which taxes shall be levied; the Legislature shall have power to levy an income tax. and to tax all persons pursuing any occupation, trade or profession.

128. The citizens of the city of New Orleans shall have the right of appointing the several public officers necessary for the administration of the police of the said city, pursuant to the mode of elections which shall be prescribed by the Legislature; provided, that the mayor and recorders shall be ineligible to a seat in the General Assembly; and the mayor, recorders, and aldermen shall be commissioned by the Governor as justices of the peace, and the Legis lature may vest in them such criminal jurisdiction as may be necessary for the punishment of minor crimes and offences, and as the police and good order of said city may require.

129. The Legislature may provide by law in what cases officers shall continue to perform the duties of their offices until their successors shall have been inducted into office.

130. Any citizen of this State who shall, after the adoption of this Constitution, fight a duel with deadly weapons, with a citizen of this State, or send or accept a challenge to fight a duel with deadly

weapons, either within this State or out of it, with a citizen of this State, or who shall act as second, or knowingly aid or assist in any manner, those thus offending, shall be deprived of holding any of fice of profit, and of enjoying the right of suffrage under this Con

stitution.

131. The Legislature shall have power to extend this Constitution, and the jurisdiction of this State over any territory acquired by compact with any state, or with the United States, the same being done by the consent of the United States.

132. The Constitution and laws of this State shall be promulgated in the English and French languages.

TITLE VII.-Public Education.

- ART. 133. There shall be appointed a superintendent of public education, who shall hold his office for two years. His duties shall be prescribed by law. He shall receive such compensation as the Legislature may direct.

134. The Legislature shall establish free public schools throughout the State, and shall provide means for their support by taxation on property, or otherwise.

135. The proceeds of all lands heretofore granted by the Uniteo States to this State for the use or support of schools, and of all lands which may hereafter be granted or bequeathed to the State, and not expressly granted or bequeathed for any other purpose, which hereafter may be disposed of by the State, and the proceeds of the estates of deceased persons to which the State may become entitled by law, shall be held by the State as a loan, and shall be and remain a perpetual fund, on which the State shall pay an annual interest of six per cent.; which interest, together with all the rents of the unsold lands, shall be appropriated to the support of such schools, and this appropriation shall remain inviolable.

136. All moneys arising from the sales which have been or may hereafter be made of any lands heretofore granted by the United States to this State, for the use of a seminary of learning, and from any kind of donation that may hereafter be made for that purpose, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which, at six per cent. per annum, shall be appropriated to the support of a seminary of learning for the promotion of literature and the arts and sciences, and no law shall ever be made diverting said fund to any other use than to the establishment and improvement of said seminary of learning.

137. An university shall be established in the city of New Orleans. It shall be composed of four faculties, to wit: one of law. one of medicine, one of the natural sciences, and one of letters.

138. It shall be called the "University of Louisiana," and the Medical College of Louisiana, as at present organized, shall constitute the faculty of medicine.

139. The Legislature shall provide by law for its further organization and government, but shall be under no obligation to contribute to the establishment or support of said University by appropriations.

TITLE VIII.

Mode of Revising the Constitution.

ART. 140. Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in the Senate or House of Representatives, and if the same shall be agreed to by three-fifths of the members elected to each house, and approved by the Governor, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on their journals with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and the Secretary of State shall cause the same to be published, three months before the next general election, in at least one newspaper in French and English, in every parish in the State in which a newspaper shall be published; and if in the Legislature next afterwards chosen, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each house, the Secretary of State shall cause the same again to be published in the manner aforesaid, at least three months previous to the next general election for representatives to the State Legislature, and such proposed amendment or amendments shall be submitted to the people at said election; and if a majority of the qualified electors shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments, the same shall become a part of the Constitution; if more than one amendment be submitted at a time, they shall be submitted in such manner and form that the people may vote for or against each amendment separately.

[graphic][subsumed]

THIS State was originally included in the charter of North Carolina. The Territory was ceded to the United States in 1790, and a territorial government was formed, called the Territory south-west of the Ohio river. In 1796, it was admitted into the union as a State. Its Constitution, which was then adopted, was revised and amended in 1835.

Area, 45,600 sq. m. Pop. in 1840, 829,210, of whom 183,059 were slaves, and 5,500 free blacks.

CONSTITUTION.

ARTICLE I-Declaration of Rights.

SEC. 1. That all power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their peace, safety, and happiness; for the advancement of those ends, they have, at all times, an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish the government in such manner as they may think proper.

2. That government being instituted for the common benefit, the doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive to the good and happiness of mankind.

3. That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience;

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