Page images
PDF
EPUB

SCHEDULE.

SEC. 1. That no evils or inconveniences may arise from the change of a territorial government to a permanent state government; it is declared by this Convention that all rights, suits, actions, prosecutions, claims, and contracts, both as it respects individuals and bodies corporate, shall continue as if no change had taken place in this government.

2. All fines, penalties, and forfeitures, due and owing to the territory of the United States, north-west of the Ohio river, shall inure to the use of the State. All bonds executed to the Governor, or any other officer in his official capacity in the territory, shall pass over to the Governor, or the other officers of the State, and their successors in office, for the use of the State, or by him or them to be respectively assigned over to the use of those concerned, as the case may be.

3. The Governor, secretary, and judges, and all other officers under the territorial government, shall continue in the exercise of the duties of their respective departments. until the said officers are superseded under the authority of this Constitution.

4. All laws and parts of laws now in force in this territory, not inconsistent with this Constitution, shall continue and remain in full effect until repealed by the legislature, except so much of the act entitled "An act regulating the admission and practice of attorneys and counsellors at law;" and of the act made amendatory thereto, as relates to the term of time which the applicant shall have studied law, his residence within the territory, and the term of time which he shall have practised as an attorney at law, before he can be admitted to the degree of a counsellor at law.

5. The Governor of the State shall make use of his private seal, until a state seal be procured.

6. The president of the Convention shall issue writs of election to the sheriffs of the several counties, requiring them to proceed to the election of Governor, members of the general Assembly, sheriffs, and coroners, at the respective election districts in each county, on the second Tuesday of January next, which elections shall

be conducted in the manner prescribed by the existing election laws of this territory; and the members of the general Assembly, sheriffs, and coroners then elected, shall continue to exercise the duties of their respective offices until the next annual or biennial election thereafter, as prescribed in this Constitution, and no longer.

7. Until the first enumeration shall be made, as directed in the second section of the first article of this Constitution, the county of Hamilton shall be entitled to four senators and eight representatives; the county of Clermont, one senator and two representatives; the county of Adams, one senator and three representatives; the county of Ross, two senators and four representatives; the county of Fairfield, one senator and two representatives; the county of Washington, two senators and three representatives; the county of Belmont, one senator and two representatives; the county of Jefferson, two senators and four representatives; and the county of Trumbull, one senator and two representatives.

Done in Convention, at Chillicothe, on the 29th day of November, in the year of our Lord 1802, and of the Independence of the United States of America the 27th. EDWARD TIFFIN, President.

Attest, THо. SCOTT, Secretary.

CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY.

ARTICLE 1.

Concerning the Legislative Department.

SEC. 1. The powers of the government of the State of Kentucky shall be divided into three distinct departments, and each of them be confided to a separate body of magis tracy, to wit: those which are legislative, to one; those which are executive, to another; and those which are judiciary, to another.

2. No person or collection of persons, being one of those departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others; except in the instances hereinafter expressly directed or permitted.

ARTICLE 2.

Concerning the Distribution of the Powers of the Government.

SEC. 1. The legislative power of this commonwealth shall be vested in two distinct branches; the one to be styled the House of Representatives, the other the Senate, and both together, the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

2. The members of the House of Representatives shall continue in service for the term of one year from the day of the commencement of the general election, and no longer.

3. Representatives shall be chosen on the first Monday in the month of August in every year; but the presiding officers of the several elections shall continue the same for three days, at the request of any one of the candidates.

4. No person shall be a representative, who at the time of his election is not a citizen of the United States, and hath not attained to the age of twenty-four years, and resided in this State two years next preceding his election, and the last year thereof in the county or town for which he may be chosen.

5. Elections for representatives for the several counties entitled to representation, shall be held at the places of holding their respective courts, or in the several election precincts into which the legislature may think proper, from time to time, to divide any or all of those counties: Provided, that when it shall appear to the legislature that any town hath a number of qualified voters equal to the ratio then fixed, such town shall be invested with the privilege of a separate representation, which shall be retained so long as such town shall contain a number of qualified voters equal to the ratio which may, from time to time, be fixed by law, and thereafter elections, for the county in which such town is situated, shall not be held therein.

6. Representation shall be equal and uniform in this commonwealth; and shall be for ever regulated and ascertained by the number of qualified electors therein. In the year eighteen hundred and three, and every fourth year thereafter, an enumeration of all the free male inhabitants of the State, above twenty-one years of age, shall be made, in such manner as shall be directed by law. The number of representatives shall, in the several years of making these enumerations, be so fixed as not to be less than fifty-eight, nor more than one hundred, and they shall be apportioned for the four years next following, as near as may be, among the several counties and towns, in proportion to the number of qualified electors: but, when a county may not have a sufficient number of qualified electors to entitle it to one representative, and when the adjacent county or counties may not have a residuum or residuums, which, when added to the small county, would entitle it to a separate representation, it shall then be in the power of the legislature to join two or more together, for the purpose of sending a representative: Provided, that when there are two or more counties adjoining, which have residuums over and above the ratio when fixed by law, if said residuums when added together will amount to such ratio, in that case one representative shall be added to that county having the largest residuum.

7. The House of Representatives shall choose its Speaker and other officers.

8. In all elections for representatives, every free male citizen (negroes, mulattoes, and indians excepted) who, at the time being, hath attained to the age of twenty-one years, and resided in the State two years, or the county or town in which he offers to vote one year next preceding the election, shall enjoy the right of an elector; but no person shall be entitled to vote, except in the county or town in which he may actually reside at the time of the election, except as is herein otherwise provided. Electors shall in all cases, except treason, felony, breach or surety of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at, going to, and returning from elections.

9. The members of the Senate shall be chosen for the term of four years; and when assembled shall have the power to choose its officers annually.

10. At the first session of the general Assembly after this Constitution takes effect, the senators shall be divided by lot, as equally as may be, into four classes: the seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the first year; of the second class, at the expiration of the second year; of the third class, at the expiration of the third year; and of the fourth class, at the expiration of the fourth year; so that one-fourth shall be chosen every year, and a rotation thereby kept up perpetually.

11. The Senate shall consist of twenty-four members at least, and for every three members above fifty-eight, which shall be added to the House of Representatives, one member shall be added to the Senate.

12. The same number of senatorial districts shall, from time to time, be established by the legislature, as there may then be senators allotted to the State; which shall be so formed as to contain, as near as may be, an equal number of free male inhabitants in each, above the age of twenty-one years, and so that no county shall be divided, or form more than one district; and where two or more counties compose a district, they shall be adjoining.

13. When an additional senator may be added to the Senate, he shall be annexed by lot to one of the four classes, so as to keep them as nearly equal in number as possible.

14. One senator for each district shall be elected by those qualified to vote for representatives therein, who shall give their votes at the several places in the counties or towns where elections are by law directed to be held.

15. No person shall be a senator who, at the time of his election, is not a citizen of the United States, and who hath not attained to the age of thirty-five years, and resided in this State six years next preceding his election, and the last year thereof in the district from which he may be chosen.

16. The first election for senators shall be general throughout the State, and at the same time that the general election for representatives is held; and thereafter there shall, in like manner, be an annual election for senators, to fill the places of those whose time of service may have expired.

« PreviousContinue »