CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA OF 1864. ADOPTED IN CONVENTION, JULY 23, 1864. PREAMBLE. WE, the People of the State of Louisiana, do ordain and establish this Constitution. TITLE I. EMANCIPATION. ARTICLE 1. Slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, are hereby forever abolished and prohibited throughout the State. ART. 2. The Legislature shall make no law recognizing the right of property in man. TITLE II. DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS. ART. 3. The powers of the Government of the State of Louisiana shall be divided into three distinct departments, and each of them shall be confined to a separate body of magistracy, to wit: those which are legislative to one, those which are executive to another, and those which are judicial to another. ART. 4. No one of these departments, nor any person holding office in one of them, shall exercise power properly belonging to either of the others, except in the instances hereinafter expressly directed or permitted. TITLE III. LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT. ART. 5. The legislative power of the State shall be vested in two distinct branches, the one to be styled "the House of Representatives," the other "the Senate," and both "the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana.” ART. 6. The members of the House of Representatives shall continue in service for the term of two years from the day of the closing of the general elections. ART. 7. Representatives shall be chosen on the first Monday in November every two years, and the election shall be completed in one day. The General Assembly shall meet annually on the first Monday in January, unless a differezt day be appointed by law, and their sessions shall be held at the seat of Government. There shall also be a session of the General Assembly in the city of New Orleans, beginning on the first Monday of October, eighteen hundred and sixty-four; and it shall be the duty of the Governor to cause a special election to be held for members of the General Assembly, in all the parishes where the same may be held, on the day of the election for ratification or rejection of this Constitution to be valid in case of ratification; and in other parishes or districts he shall cause elections to be held as soon as it may become practicable, to fill the vacancies for such parishes or districts in the General Assembly. The term of office of the first General Assembly shall expire as though its members had been elected on the first Monday of November, eighteen hundred and sixty-three. ART. 8. Every duly qualified elector under this Constitution shall be eligible to a seat in the General Assembly; Provided, That no person shall be a Representative or Senator unless he be, at the time of his election, a duly qualified voter of the Representative or Senatorial District from which he is elected. ART. 9. Elections for the members of the General Assembly shall be held at the several election precincts established by law. ART. 10. Representation in the House of Representatives shall be equal and uniform, and shall be regulated and ascertained by the number of qualified electors. Each parish shall have at least one Representative. No new parish shall be created with a territory less than six hundred and twenty-five square miles, nor with a number of electors less than the full number entitling it to a Representative; nor when the creation of such new parish would leave any other parish without the said extent of territory and number of electors. The first enumeration by the State authorities, under this Constitution, shall be made in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-six, the second in the year eighteen hundred and seventy, the third in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-six; after which time the General Assembly shall direct in what manner the census shall be taken, so that it be made at least once in every period of ten years, for the purpose of ascertaining the total population, and the number of qualified electors in each parish and election district; and in case of informality, omission or error in the census returns from any district, the Legislature shall order a new census taken in such parish or election district. ART. 11. At the first session of the Legislature after the making of each enumeration, the Legislature shall apportion the representation amongst the several parishes and election districts on the basis of qualified electors as aforesaid. A representative number shall be fixed, and each parish and election district shall have as many Representatives as the aggregate number of its electors will entitle it to, and an additional Representative for any fraction exceeding one-half the representative number. The number of Representatives shall not be more than one hundred and twenty nor less than ninety. ART. 12. Until an apportionment shall be made, and elections held under the same, in accordance with the first enumeration to be made, as directed in article 10, the representation in the Senate and House of Representatives shall be as follows: 1 1 The parish of West Baton Rouge.. 1 For the parish of Orleans, forty-four Representatives, to be elected as follows: The parish of Corcordia... The parish of Madison. 1 1 1 2 4 2 2 The parish of Avoyelles.. 2 ...... 1 The parish of Rapides.. 3 1 The parish of Franklin.. ...... The parish of St. Mary........... 1 The parish of Assumption.... Total..... The parish of Jackson.. 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 1 3 The parish of Carroll.. 1 .... 3 2 And the State shall be divided into the following Senatorial Districts: All that portion of the parish of Orleans lying on the left bank of the Mississippi river shall be divided into two Senatorial Districts; the First and Fourth Districts of the city of New Orleans shall compose one district, and shall elect five Senators; and the Second and Third Districts of said city shall compose the other district, and shall elect four Senators. The parishes of Plaquemines, St. Bernard, and all that part of the parish of Orleans on the right bank of the Mississippi river, shall form one district, and shall elect one Senator. The parish of Jefferson shall form one district, and shall elect one Senator. The parishes of St. Charles and Lafourche shall form one district, and shall elect one Senator. The parishes of St. John the Baptist and St. James shall form one district, and shall elect one Senator. The parishes of Ascension, Assumption and Terrebonne shall form one district, and shall elect two Senators. The parish of Iberville shall form one district, and shall elect one Senator. The parish of East Baton Rouge shall form one district, and shall elect one Senator. The parishes of West Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupée and West Feliciana shall form one district, and shall elect two Senators. The parish of East Feliciana shall form one district, and shall elect one Senator. The parishes of Washington, St. Tammany, St. Helena and Livingston shall form one district, and shail elect one Senator. The parishes of Corcordia and Tensas shall form one district, and shall elect one Senator. The parishes of Madison and Carroll shall form one district, and shall elect one Senator. The parishes of Morehouse, Ouachita, Union and Jackson shall form one district, and shall elect two Senators. The parishes of Catahoula, Caldwell and Franklin shall form one district, and shall elect one Senator. The parishes of Bossier, Bienville, Claiborne and Winn shall form one district, and shall elect two Senators. The parishes of Natchitoches, Sabine, DeSoto and Caddo shall form one district, and shall elect two Senators. The parishes of St. Landry, Lafayette and Calcasieu shall form one district, and shall elect two Senators. The parishes of St. Martin and Vermilion shall form one district, and shall elect one Senator. The parish of St. Mary shall form one district, and shall elect one Senator. The parishes of Rapides and Avoyelles shall form one district, and shall elect two Senators. ART. 13. The House of Representatives shall choose its Speaker and other officers. ART. 14. Every white male who has attained the age of twenty-one years, and who has been a resident of the State twelve months next preceding the election, and the last three months thereof in the parish in which he offers to vote, and who shall be a citizen of the United States, shall have the right of voting. ART. 15. The Legislature shall have power to pass laws extending suffrage to such other persons, citizens of the United States, as by military service, by taxation to support the Government, or by intellectual fitness, may be deemed entitled thereto. ART. 16. No voter, on removing from one parish to another within the State, shall lose the right of voting in the former until he shall have acquired it in the latter. Electors shall, in all cases except treason, felony or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at, going to, or returning from clections. ART. 17. The Legislature shall provide by law that the names and residence of all qualified electors shall be registered in order to entitle them to vote; but the registry shall be free of cost to the elector. ART. 18. No pauper, no person under interdiction, nor under conviction of any crime punishable with hard labor, shall be entitled to vote at any election in this State. ART. 19. No person shall be entitled to vote at any election held in this State except in the parish of his residence, and, in cities and towns divided into election precincts, in the election precinct in which he resides. ART. 20. The members of the Senate shall be chosen for the term of four years The Senate, when assembled, shall have the power to choose its own officers. ART. 21. The Legislature, in every year in which they apportion representation in the House of Representatives, shall divide the State into Senatorial districts. ART. 22. No parish shall be divided in the formation of a Senatorial District, the parish of Orleans excepted. And whenever a new parish shall be created, it shall be attached to the Senatorial District from which most of its territory was taken, or to another contiguous district, at the discretion of the Legislature; but shall not be attached to more than one district. The number of Senators shall be thirty-six; and they shall be apportioned among the Senatorial Districts according to the electoral population contained in the several districts; Provided, That no parish be entitled to more than nine Senators. ART. 23. In all apportionments of the Senate, the electoral population of the |