Section ner to consult for the common good. 17. The courts of the State shall be open and justice shall be administered without sale or delay. 18. No conviction shall work cor ruption of blood or forfeiture of estate. 19. No hereditary honors or privi leges shall be conferred. 20. Free government and liberty. ARTICLE IV. Elections and Officers. 1. Those who are entitled to vote. 2. Elections by the people to be by ballot. 3. When electors are privileged from arrest. 4. Requirements for State and county officers. 5. Officers to take oath of affirma tion. 6. Removal of officers for miscon duct, etc. 7. When general elections shall be held. 8. The terms of office, powers, du ties and compensation of pub lic offices prescribed by law. 9. Impeachment. 10. Duelling a bar to holding office. 11. Legislature shall prescribe man ner of conducting elections. 12. No citizen to be denied the right to vote when his name has not been registered. Section 3. Senators elected for four years, Delegates two years. 4. State divided into twelve Sena torial districts. 5. Enumeration of the same. 6. For the election of Delegates. 7. Apportionment of Delegates after every census. 8. Until a new apportionment shall be declared they shall be as enumerated. 9. The same continued. 10. The arrangement of Senatorial and Delegate districts. 11. Additional territory may be ad mitted and become part of the State. 12. Qualifications to be a Senator or Delegate. 13. No person holding a lucrative office under the State, etc., shall be eligible to a seat in the Legislature. 14. Bribery, perjury, etc., a bar to a seat in the Legislature. 15. No Senator or Delegate shall be elected to an office created during his term of office. 16. Oath of affirmation of members. 17. When members of the Legisla ture are privileged from ar rest. 18. Legislature shall assemble bl ennially. 19. The Governor may convene the Legislature. 20. The seat of government shall be at Charleston. 21. May be convened at another place. 22. Session of the Legislature to be forty-five days. 23. Neither house shall adjourn for more than three days. 24. Majority of the members of each house shall constitute a quorum. 25. Each house may punish its own members. 26. The powers of each house. 27. Certain laws to be enacted and enforced. ARTICLE V. Division of Powers. 1. Legislative, executive and ju dicial departments shall be separate and distinct. ARTICLE VI. Legislature. 1. Legislative power vested in Sen ate and House of Delegates. 3. The Senate shall be composed of twenty-four, and the House of sixty-five members. Section 28. Bills may originate in either house. 29. No bill shall become a law until read on three different days in each house, except. 30. No bill shall contain more than one subject. 81. In regard to amendments of a bili proposed by one house and amended by the other. 32. Definition of the words a ma jority of the members, etc. 33. Pay and mileage of members. 34. Legislature to provide by law for fuel, stationery, etc. 35. The State shall never be made defendant in any court of law or equity. 36. Lotteries prohibited. 37. No law to be passed to extend the term of an office. 38. No extra compensation allowed or granted. 39. The Legislature shall not pass local or special laws in the following enumerated cases. 40. Judges to have no power to ap point to office. 41. Each house to keep a journal. 42. Bills making appropriations shall contain no other pro vision. 43. The Legislature shall never au thorize or establish any board or court of registration of voters. 44. Vote to be viva voce in the Legislature. 45. Punishment of bribery. 46. Laws may be passed prohibit ing sale of intoxicating liquors. 47. No charter of incorporation shall be granted any church or religious denomination. 48. Homestead exemption to the value of one thousand dollars, and personal property to the value of two hundred. 49. The Legislature may pass laws to protect the property of married women. 60. Proportional representation in the Senate. ARTICLE VII. Executive Department. Section 1. To consist of Governor, Secre tary of State, State Superintendent of Free Schools, Auditor, Treasurer and Attorney General. 2. Election of the same.-When to be held. 3. Speaker of the House of Dele gates to receive election re turns. 4. The above-named officers may not hold any other office dur ing the term of their service. 5. Chief executive power vested in the Governor. 6. Governor's message. 7. The Governor may on extraor dinary occasions convene the Legislature. 8. Officers who may be nominated by the Governor. 9. In case of vacancy during the recess of the Senate.-How filled. 10. Governor may remove the same. 11. Governor may remit fines and penalties. 12. Governor Commander-in-Chief of the military forces of the State. 13. Security from State officers. 14. Every bill passed by the Legio lature shall be presented to the Governor to be signed. 15. Bills making appropriations of money to be presented to tho Governor. 16. Who to act as Governor in case of his disability. 17. In case of vacancy of State offices how filled. 18. The Governor may require in formation in writing from the officers of his department. ARTICLE VIII. Judicial Department. 1. Judicial power of State shall be vested in a Supreme Court of Section be elected for a term of office, etc. 24. County Court to have custody of all deeds, etc. 25. In regard to actions, suits, etc., not embraced in the next pre ceding section. 26. Clerk of the County Court. His term of office, duties and compensation. 27. Justices of the peace. 28. Their jurisdiction and au thority. 29. The County Court may be al tered or modified. 30. The office of commissioner and justice of the peace not compatible. ARTICLE IX. County Organizuiion. 1. The voters of each county shall elect a surveyor of lands. 2. Also a constable, and if the population exceeds 1,200, others. 3. The same person shall not be elected sheriff for two suc cessive terms. 4. County Court officers shall be subject to indictment. 5. The Legislature shall provide for commissioning such of the officers herein mentioned as Section Appeals and Circuit Courts, etc. 2. The Supreme Court of Appeals to consist of four judges. Their term of office. 3. Shall have original jurisdiction in certain cases enumerated. 4. In regard to decisions of the Supreme Court of Appeals. 6. In regard to the affirmation or reversal of a decision by the Supreme Court of Appeals. appeals, shall be allowed only peals. Court of Appeals how filled. 8. The officers of the Supreme Court of Appeals, how ap pointed. 9. At least two terms to be held annually. 10. The State shall be divided into thirteen sections. 11. A court to be held in every county at least three times in each year. 12. The Circuit Court, supervision and control of the same. by law for holding regular Circuit Court. sioned by the Governor. 17. They may be removed. 18. Clerk of the Circuit Court.-His duties and compensation. 19. Courts of limited jurisdiction, 20. In regard to the property of soldiers of the late war of either side. are in force and not repug- tinue, etc. of the State a County Court. 23. Commissioners of the same to it may deem proper. 6. It shall further provide for the compensation, duties, etc., of the same. 7. Conservators of the peace. 8. No new county to be formed with an area of less than 400 ARTICLE X. 1. Taxation shall be equal and uniform. 2. An annual capitation tax of one dollar. 3. No money to be drawn from the Treasury but by appropriation. Section 11. Parallel or competing lines may not consolidate. 12. The right of eminent domain not to be abridged. ARTICLE XII. Education. Section 4. No debt to be contracted by the State, etc. 5. The power of taxation by the Legislature. 6. The credit of the State not to be granted to any of its sub divisions. 7. County taxes not to exceed for one year ninety-five cents on one hundred dollars. 8. The limit of indebtedness in county, city, etc. 9. Certain corporate bodies may be authorized to assess and collect taxes. ARTICLE XI. Corporations. 1. Legislature to provide for the organization of. 2. What stockholders shall be lia ble for the indebtedness of corporations. 3. All existing charters or grants under which organization shall not have taken place within two years from the time this Constitution takes effect, shall be invalid. 4. Law to provide for the election of directors or managers of incorporated companies.-Stockholders shall have the right to vote in person or by proxy. 5. Street railroads may not be con structed in any city, town or incorporated village without the consent of the local au thorities. 6. A general banking law for the creation and organization of banks. 7. Every railroad corporation do ing business in the State shall make a report to the Auditor of public accounts. 8. The rolling stock and moveable property of railroads shall be considered personal property. 9. Railroads are public highways. 10. In regard to the establishment of stations. 1. The Legislature shall provide by general law for a system of free schools. 2. The State Superintendent.-His duties. 3. The Legislature may provide for county superintendents and other officers.—Their duties and powers and compen sation. 4. School fund. 5. Interest of the school fund to be used for the support of free schools. 6. The school districts into which any county is now divided shall continue until changed by law. 7. In regard to levies for the sup port of free schools. 8. White and colored persons shall not be taught in the same schools. 9. No person connected with the free school system of the State shall be interested in the sale of books, etc., used therein. 10. No independent free school dis trict shall hereafter be cre ated, except. 11. No appropriations shall hereaf ter be made to any State Normal school except those al ready established. 12. The Legislature shall encour age moral, intellectual, scientific and agricultural improvement. ARTICLE XIII. Land Titles. 1. All private rights in lands in this State derived from the Section entered on the land books of Section laws of the State of Virginia shall remain valid. 2. No entry by warrant on land in this State shall hereafter be made. 3. In regard to title of forfeited lands. 4. Waste and unappropriated land in this State to be sold to the highest bidder. land may receive the excess over the taxes, ARTICLE XIV. Amendments. 1. No convention shall be called having the authority to alter the Constitution of this State, unless. 2. Any amendment to the Consti tution may originate at either house. ARTICLE I. Relations to the Government of the United States. 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 powers so reserved to 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 encroach. ments 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 representatives 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. |