The American's Guide: Comprising the Declaration of Independence, the ...

mination of each session; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place.

24. The members of the general assembly shall severally receive from the public treasury a compensation for their services, which may, from time to time, be increased or diminished by law; but no alteration, increasing or tending to increase the compensation of members, shall take effect during the session at which such alteration shall be made.

25. The general assembly shall direct by law in what manner, and in what courts, suits may be brought against the state. 26. The general assembly shall not have power to pass laws, 1. For the emancipation of slaves without the consent of their owners; or without paying them, before such emancipation, a full equivalent for such slaves so emancipated; and,

2. To prevent bona fide emigrants to this state, or actual settlers therein, from bringing from any of the United States, or from any of their territories, such persons as may there be deemed to be slaves, so long as any persons of the same description are allowed to be held as slaves by the laws of this

state.

They shall have power to pass laws,

1. To prohibit the introduction into this state of any slaves who may have committed any high crime in any other state or territory.

2. To prohibit the introduction of any slave for the purpose of speculation, or as an article of trade or merchandise.

3. To prohibit the introduction of any slave or the offspring of any slave, who heretofore may have been, or who hereafter may be imported from any foreign country into the United States, or any territory thereof, in contravention of any existing statute of the United States; and,

4. To permit the owners of slaves to emancipate them, saving the right of creditors, where the persons so emancipating will give security that the slave so emancipated shall not become a public charge.

It shall be their duty, as soon as may be, to pass such laws as may be necessary,

1. To prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to, and settling in this state, under any pretext whatsoever; and, 2. To oblige the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity, and to abstain from all injuries to them extending to life or limb.

27. In prosecutions for crimes, slaves shall not be deprived of an impartial trial by jury, and a slave convicted of a capital offence shall suffer the same degree of punishment, and no other, that would be inflicted on a white person for a like offence; and courts of justice, before whom slaves shall be tried, shall assign them counsel for their defence.

28. Any person who shall maliciously deprive of life, or

dismember a slave, shall suffer such punishment as would be inflicted for the like offence if it were committed on a free white person.

29. The governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, attorney general, and all judges of the courts of law and equity, shall be liable to impeachment for any misdemeanor in office; but judgment in such cases shall not extend further than removal from office, and disqualification to hold any office of honour, trust, or profit, under this state. The party impeached, whether convicted or acquitted, shall, nevertheless, be liable to be indicted, tried, and punished, according to law.

30. The house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment. All impeachments shall be tried by the senate; and, when sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be on oath or affirmation to do justice according to law and evidence. When the governor shall be tried, the presiding judge of the supreme court shall preside; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the senators present.

31. A state treasurer shall be biennially appointed by joint vote of the two houses of the general assembly, who shall keep his office at the seat of government. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and an accurate account of the receipts and expenditures of the public money shall be annually published.

32. The appointment of all officers, not otherwise directed by this constitution, shall be made in such manner as may be prescribed by law; and all officers both civil and military, under the authority of this state, shail, before entering on the duties of their respective offices, take an oath or affirmation to support the constitution of the United States, and of this state, and to demean themselves faithfully in office.

33. The general assembly shall meet on the third Monday in September next; on the first Monday in November, eighteen hundred and twenty-one; on the first Monday in November, eighteen hundred and twenty-two, and thereafter the general assembly shall meet once in every two years, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in November, unless a different day shall be appointed by law.

34. No county now established by law shall ever be reduced, by the establishment of new counties, to less than twenty miles square; nor shall any county hereafter be established, which shall contain less than four hundred square miles.

35. Within five years after the adoption of this constitution, all the statute laws of a general nature, both civil and criminal, shall be revised, digested, and promulgated, in such manner as the general assembly shall direct, and a like revision, digest,

and promulgation, shall be made at the expiration of every subsequent period of ten years.

36. The style of the laws of this state shall be, "Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri.”

ARTICLE 4.

Of the Executive Power.

§ 1. The supreme executive power shall be vested in a chief magistrate, who shall be styled, "The Governor of the state of Missouri."

2. The governor shall be at least thirty-five years of age, and a natural born citizen of the United States, or a citizen at the adoption of the constitution of the United States, or an inhabitant of that part of Louisiana now included in the state of Missouri at the time of the cession thereof from France to the United States, and shall have been a resident of the same at least four years next before his election.

3. The governor shall hold his office for four years, and until a successor be duly appointed and qualified. He shall be elected in the manner following: At the time and place of voting for members of the house of representatives, the qualified electors shall vote for a governor; and when two or more persons have an equal number of votes, and a higher number than any person, the election shall be decided between them by a joint vote of both houses of the general assembly, at their next session.

4. The governor shall be ineligible for the next four years after the expiration of his term of service.

5. The governor shall be commander in chief of the militia and navy of this state, except when they shall be called into the service of the United States; but he need not command in person, unless advised so to do by a resolution of the general assembly.

6. The governor shall have power to remit fines and forfeitures; and, except in cases of impeachment, to grant reprieves and pardons.

7. The governor, shall, from time to time, give to the general assembly information relative to the state of the government, and shall recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall deem necessary and expedient. On extraordinary occasions, he may convene the general assembly, by proclamation, and shall state to them the purposes for which they are convened.

8. The governor shall take care that the laws be distributed and faithfully executed: and he shall be a conservator of the peace throughout the state.

9. When any office shall become vacant, the governor shall

appoint a person to fill such vacancy, who shall continue in office until a successor be duly appointed and qualified according to law.

10. Every bill which shall have been passed by both houses of the general assembly, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the governor for his approbation. If he approve, he shall sign it; if not, he shall return it with his objections to the house in which it shall have originated, and the house shall cause the objections to be entered at large on its journals, and shall proceed to reconsider the bill. If, after such reconsideration, a majority of all the members elected to that house shall agree to pass the same, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall be in like manner reconsidered, and if approved by a majority of all the members elected to that house, it shall become a law. In all such cases the votes of both houses shall be taken by yeas and nays, the names of the members voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the governer within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall become a law, in like manner as if the governor had signed it; unless the general assembly, by its adjournment, shall prevent its return, in which case it shall not become a law.

11. Every resolution to which the concurrence of the senate and house of representatives may be necessary, except on cases of adjournment, shall be presented to the governor, and before the same shall take effect shall be proceeded upon in the same manner as in the case of a bill.

12. There shall be an auditor of public accounts, whom the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, shall appoint. He shall continue in office four years, and shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by law. His office shall be kept at the seat of government.

13. The governor shall, at stated times, receive for his services an adequate salary, to be fixed by law, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during his continuance in office, and which shall never be less than two thousand dollars annually.

14. There shall be a lieutenant governor, who shall be elected at the same time, in the same manner, for the same term, and shall possess the same qualifications as the governor. The electors shall distinguish for whom they vote as governor, and for whom as lieutenant governor.

15. The lieutenant governor shall, by virtue of his office be president of the senate. In committee of the whole he may debate on all questions; and when there is an equal division, he shall give the casting vote in senate, and also in joint votes of both houses.