USA > Indiana > Johnson County > The people's guide, a business, political and religious directory of Johnson Co., Ind. together with a collection of very important documents and statistics connected with our moral, political and scientific history; also, a historical sketch of Johnson County > Part 3
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Sec. 26. The operation of the laws shall never be suspend- ed, except by the authority of the General Assembly.
Sec. 27. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, except in case of rebellion or invasion; and then, only if the public safety demand it.
Sec. 28. Treason against the State shall consist only in levying war against it, and in giving aid and comfort to its enemies.
Sec. 29. No person shall be convicted of treason, except on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or upon his confession in open court.
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Sec. 30. No conviction shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture of estate.
Sec. 31. No law shall restrain any of the inhabitants of the State from assembling together in a peaceable manner, to consult for their common good; nor from instructing their representatives ; nor from applying to the General Assembly for redress of grievances.
Sec. 32. The people shall have a right to bear arms, for the defense of themselves and the State.
Sec. 33. The military shall be kept in strict subordination to the civil power.
Sec. 34. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner; nor, in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Sec. 35. The General Assembly shall not grant any title of nobility, nor confer hereditary distinctions.
Sec. 36. Emigration from the State shall not be prohibited.
Sec. 37. There shall be neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, within the State, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. No indenture of any Negro or Mulatto, made and executed out of the bounds of the State, shall be valid within the State.
ARTICLE II.
SUFFRAGE AND ELECTION.
SEC. 1. All elections shall be free and equal.
Sec. 2. In all elections, not otherwise provided for by this Constitution, every white male citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, who shall have resided in the State during the six months immediately pre- ceding such election; and every white male, of foreign birth, of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, who shall have resided in the United States one year, and shall have resided in this State during the six months immediately preceding such election, and shall have declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, conformably to the laws of the United States on the subject of naturalization, shall be enti- tled to vote in the township or precinct where he may reside.
Sec. 3. No soldier, seaman, or marine, in the army or navy of the United States, or of their allies, shall be deemed to
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have acquired a residence within the State, in consequence of having been stationed within the same ; nor shall any such soldier, seaman, or marine have the right to vote.
Sec. 4. No person shall be deemed to have lost his resi. dence in the State by reason of his absence, either on busi- ness of this State or of the United States.
Sec. 5. No Negro or Mulatto shall have the right of suf- frage.
Sec. 6. Every person shall be disqualified from holding of- fice during the term for which he may have been elected, who shall have given or offered a bribe, threat, or reward to pro- cure his election.
Sec. 7. Every person who shall give or accept a challenge to fight a duel, or who shall knowingly carry to another per- son such challenge, or who shall agree to go out of the State to fight a duel, shall be ineligible to any office of trust or profit.
Sec. 8. The General Assembly shall have power to deprive of the right of suffrage, and to render ineligible, any person convicted of an infamous crime.
Sec. 9. No person holding a lucrative office or appointment under the United States, or under this State, shall be eligible to a seat in the General Assembly ; nor shall any person hold more than one lucrative office at the same time, except as in this Constitution expressly permitted: Provided, that officers in the militia, to which there is attached no annual salary, and the office of Deputy Postmaster, where the compensation does not exceed ninety dollars per annum, shall not be deemed lu- crative : And provided, also, that counties containing less than one thousand polls, may confer the office of Clerk, Re- corder, and Auditor, or any two of said offices, upon the same person.
Sce. 10. No person who may hereafter be a collector or holder of public moneys, shall be eligible to any office of trust or profit, until he shall have accounted for, and paid over, according to law, all sums for which he may be liable.
Sec. 11. In all cases in which it is provided that an office shall not be filled by the same person more than a certain number of years continuously, an appointment pro tempore, shall not be reckoned a part of that term.
Sec. 12. In all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of
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the peace, electors shall be free from arrest, in going to elec- tions, during their attendance there, and in returning from the same.
Sec. 13. All elections by the people shall be by ballot; and all elections by the General Assembly, or by either branch thereof, shall be viva voce.
Sec. 14. All general elections shall be held on the second Tuesday in October.
ARTICLE III.
DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS.
SECTION 1. The powers of the Government are divided into three separate departments; the Legislative, the Executive, including the Administrative, and the Judicial; and no per- son, charged with official duties under one of these depart- ments, shall exercise any of the functions of another, except as in this Constitution expressly provided.
ARTICLE IV.
LEGISLATIVE.
SECTION 1. The Legislative authority of the State shall be vested in the General Assembly, which shall consist of a Sen- ate and a House of Representatives. The style of every law shall be: "Be it enacted by the General Assembly oi the State of Indiana; "' and no law shall be enacted except by bill.
Sec. 2. The Senate shall not exceed fifty, nor the House of Representatives one hundred members; and they shall be chosen by the electors of the respective counties or districts, into which the State may, from time to time, be divided.
Sec. 3. Senators shall be elected for the term of four years and Representatives for the term of two years, from the day next after their general election : Provided, however, that the Senators elect, at the second meeting of the General Assem- bly under this Constitution, shall be divided, by lot into two equal classes, as nearly as may be ; and the seats of Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of two years, and those of tho second class at the expiration of four years; so that one-half as nearly as possible, shall be chosen biennially forever thereafter. And in case of increase in the number of Senators. they shall be annexed, by lot, to one or
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the other of the two classes, as to keep them as nearly equal as practicable.
Sec. 4. The General Assembly shall, at its second session after the adoption of this Constitution, and every six years thereafter, cause an enumeration to be made of all the white male inhabitants over the age of twenty-one years.
Sec. 5. The number of Senators and Representatives shall, at the session next following each period of making such enumeration, be fixed by law, and apportioned among the sev- eral counties, according to the number of white male inhabi- tants above twenty-one years of age in each: Provided, that the first and second election of members of the General As- sembly under this Constitution shall be according to the ap- portionment last made by the General Assembly, before the adoption of this Constitution.
Sec. 6. A senatorial or representative district, where more than one county shall constitute a district, shall be composed of contiguous counties ; and no county for senatorial appor- tionment shall ever be divided.
Sec. 7. No person shall be a senator or a representative who at the time of his election is not a citizen of the United States ; nor any one who has not been, for two years next pre- ceding his election, an inhabitant of this State, and, for one year next preceding his election, an inhabitant of the county or district whence he may be chosen. Senators shall be at least twenty five, and Representatives at least twenty-one years of age.
Sec. 8. Senators and Representatives, in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, shall be privileged from arrest during the session of the General Assembly, and in going to and returning from the same, and shall not be sub- ject to any civil process during the session of the General Assembly, nor during the fifteen days next before the com- mencement thereof. For any speech or debate in either house, a member shall not be questioned in any other place.
Sec. 9. The session of the General Assembly shall be held biennially at the capital of the State, commencing on the Thursday next after the first Monday of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, and on the same day of every second year thereafter, unless a different day or place shall have been appointed by law. But if, in the
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opinion of the Governor, the public welfare shall require it, he may, at any time, by proclamation, call a special session.
Sec. 10. Each house when assembled shall choose its own officers (the President of the Senate excepted), judge of the elections, qualifications, and returns of its own members, de- termine its rules of proceeding, and sit upon its own adjourn- ment. But neither house shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any place other than that in which it may be sitting.
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Sec. 11. Two-thirds of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may meet, adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of absent members. A quorum being in attendance, if either house fail to effect an organization within the first five days thereafter, the members of the house so failing shall be entitled to no compensation from the end of the said five days, until an organization shall have been effected.
Sec. 12. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and publish the same. The yeas and nays, on any question, shall, at the request of any two members, be entered, together with the names of the members demanding the same, on the journal : Provided, that on a motion to adjourn, it shall reqiure one-tenth of the members present to order the yeas and nays.
Sec. 13. The doors of each house, and of committees of the whole, shall be kept open, except in such cases, as, in the opinion of either house, may require secrecy.
Sec. 14. Either house may punish its members for disor- derly behavior, and may, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member; but not a second time for the same cause.
Sec. 15. Either house, during its session, may punish by imprisonment, any person not a member, who shall have been guilty of disrespect to the house, by disorderly or contempt- uous behavior in its presence; but such imprisonment shall not at any time exceed twenty-four hours.
Sec. 16. Each house shall have all powers necessary for a branch of the legislative department of a free and indepen- dent State.
Sec. 17. Bills may originate in either house, but may be amended or rejected in the other, except that bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.
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Sec. 18. Every bill shall be read, by sections, on three sev- eral days, in each house; unless, in case of emergency, two- thirds of the house where such bill may be depending shall, by a vote of yeas and nays, deem it expedient to dispense with this rule; but the reading of a bill by sections, on its final passage, shall, in no case, be dispensed with; and the vote on the passage of every bill or joint resolution shall be taken by yeas and nays.
Sec. 19. Every act shall embrace but one subject and mat- ters properly connected therewith; which subject shall be expressed in the title. But if any subject shall be embraced in an act which shall not be expressed in the title, such act shall be void only as to so much thereof as shall not be ex- pressed in the title.
Sec. 20. Every act and joint resolution shall be plainly worded, avoiding, as far as practicable, the use of technical terms.
Sec. 21. No act shall ever be revised or amended by mere reference to its title; but the act revised, or section amended, shall be set forth and published at full length.
Sec. 22. The General Assembly shall not pass local or spe- cial laws, in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say :
Regulating the jurisdiction and duties of justices of the peace and of constables ;
For the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors ;
Regulating the practice in courts of justice ;
Providing for changing the venue in civil and criminal cases ;
Granting divorces ;
Changing the names of persons ;
For laying out, opening and working on, highways, and for the election or appointment of supervisors ;
Vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys, and public squares ;
Summoning and empanneling grand and petit juries, and providing for their compensation ;
Regulating the election of county and township officers, and their compensation ;
For the assessment and collection of taxes for State, county, township, or road purposes ;
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Providing for supporting common schools, and the preserva- tion of school funds ;
In relation to fees or salaries ; 1437130
In relation to interest on money;
Providing for opening and conducting elections of State, county, or township officers, and designating the places of voting ;
Providing for the sale of real estate belonging to minors or other persons laboring under legal disabilities, by executors, administrators, guardians, or trustees.
Sec. 23. In all the cases enumerated in the preceding sec- tion, and in all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, all laws shall be general, and of uniform operation throughout the State.
Sec. 24. Provisions may be made, by general law, for bring- ing suit against the State, as to all liabilities originating after the adoption of this Constitution; but no special act author- izing such suit to be brought, or making compensation to any person claiming damages against the State, shall ever be passed.
Sec. 25. A majority of all the members elected to each house, shall be necessary to pass every bill or joint resolution ; and all bills and joint resolutions so passed, shall be signed by the presiding officers of the respective houses.
Sec. 26. Any member of either house shall have the right to protest, and to have his protest, with his reasons for dissent, entered on the journal.
Sec. 27. Every statute shall be a public law, unless other- wise declared in the statute itself.
Sec. 28. No act shall take effect, until the same shall have been published and circulated in the several counties of this State, by authority, except in case of emergency ; which emer- gency shall be declared in the preamble, or in the body of the law.
Sec. 29. The members of the General Assembly shall re- ceive for their services, a compensation, to be fixed by law; but no increase of compensation shall take effect during the session at which such increase may be made. No session of the General Assembly, except the first under this Constitu- tion, shall extend beyond the term of sixty-one days, nor any special session beyond the term of forty days.
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Sec. 30. No Senator or Representative shall, during the term for which he may have been elected, be eligible to any office, the election to which is vested in the General Assem- bly; nor shall he be appointed to any civil office of profit, which shall have been created, or the emoluments of which have been increased, during such term; but this latter provis- ion shall not be construed to apply to any office elective by the people.
ARTICLE V
EXECUTIVE.
SECTION 1. The executive power of the State shall be vested in a Governor. He shall hold his office during four years, and shall not be eligible more than four years in any period of eight years.
Sec. 2. There shall be a Lieutenant-Governor, who shall hold his office during four years.
Sec. 3. The Governor and Lieutenant-Governor shall be elected at the times and places of choosing members of the General Assembly.
Sec. 4. In voting for Governor and Lieutenant Governor the electors shall designate for whom they vote as Governor, and for whom as Lieutenant-Governor. The returns of every election for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor shall be sealed up and transmitted to the seat of Government, directed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall open and publish them in the presence of both Houses of the General Assembly.
Sec. 5. The person, respectively, having the highest num- ber of votes for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, shall be elected ; but in case two or more persons shall have an equal, and the highest, number of votes for either office, the General Assembly shall, by joint vote, forthwith proceed to elect one of the said persons Governor or Lieutenant, as the case may be.
Sec. 6. Contested elections for Governor or Lieutenant- Governor, shall be determined by the General Assembly, in such manner as may be prescribed by law.
Sec. 7. No person shall be eligible to the office of Gover- nor or Lieutenant-Governor, who shall not have been five years a citizen of the United States, and also a resident of the
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State of Indiana during the five years next preceding his elec- tion, nor shall any person be eligible to either of the said offices, who shall not have attained the age of thirty years.
Sec. 8. No member of Congress, or person holding any office under the United States or under this State, shall fill the office of Governor or Lieutenant-Governor.
Seo. 9. The official term of the Governor and Lieutenant- Governor shall commence on the second Monday of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three ; and on the same day every fourth year thereafter.
Sec. 10. In case of the removal of the Governor from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the du- ties of the office, the same shall devolve on the Lieutenant- Governor; and the General Assembly shall, by law, provide for the case of removal from office, death, resignation, or ina- bility, both of the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, declar- ing what officer shall then act as Governor; and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a Governor be elected.
Sec. 11. Whenever the Lieutenant-Governor shall act as Governor, or shall be unable to attend as President of the Senate, the Senate shall elect one of its own members as President for the occasion.
Sec. 12. The Governor shall be commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces, and may call out such forces to exe- cute the laws, or to suppress insurrection or to repel invasion.
Sec. 13. He shall from time to time, give to the General Assembly information touching the condition of the State, and recommend such measures as he shall judge to be ex- pedient.
Sec. 14. Every bill which shall have passed the General Assembly, shall be presented to the Governor; if he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it, with his objec- tions, to the house in which it shall have originated; which house shall enter the objections, at large, upon its journals, and proceed to reconsider the bill. If, after such reconsidera- tion, a majority of all the members elected to that house, shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, with the Governor's objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered ; and, if approved by a majority of all the mem- bers elected to that house, it shall be a law. If any bill shall
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not be returned by the Governor within three days, Sundays excepted, after it shall have been presented to him, it shall be a law, without his signature, unless the general adjournment shall prevent its return ; in which case it shall be a law, unless the Governor, within five days next after such adjournment, shall file such bill, with his objections thereto, in the office of Secretary of State; who shall lay the same before the General Assembly, at its next session, in like manner as if it had been returned by the Governor. But no bill shall be presented to the Governor, within two days next previous to the final ad- journment of the General Assembly.
Sec. 15. The Governor shall transact all necessary business with the officers of the government, and may require informa- tion, in writing, from the officers of the administrative depart- ment, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respec- tive offices.
Sec. 16. He shall take care that the laws be faithfully exe- cuted.
Sec. 17. He shall have the power to grant reprieves, com- mutations, and pardons, after conviction, for all offenses, except treason and cases of impeachment, subject to such regulations as may be provided by law. Upon conviction for treason, he shall have power to suspend the execution of the sentence, until the case shall be reported to the General Assembly, at its next meeting; when the General Assembly shall either grant a pardon, commute the sentence, direct the execution of a sentence, or grant a further reprieve. He shall have power to remit fines and forfeitures, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law; and shall report to the General Assembly, at its next meeting, each case of reprieve, commu- tation, or pardon granted, and also the names of all persons in whose favor remission of fines and forfeitures shall have been made, and the several amounts remitted : Provided, however, that the General Assembly may, by law, constitute a council, to be composed of officers of State, without whose advice and consent the Governor shall not have power to grant pardons, in any case, except such as may, by law, be left to his sole power.
Sec. 18. When, during a recess of the General Assembly, a vacancy shall happen in anv office, the appointment to which is vested in the General Assembly; or when, at any time, a
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vacancy shall have occurred in any other State office, or in the office of judge of any court; the Governor shall fill such va- cancy by appointment, which shall expire when a successor shall have been elected and qualified.
Sec. 19. He shall issue writs of election, to fill such vacan- cies as may have occurred in the General Assembly.
Sec. 20. Should the seat of government become dangerous from disease, or a common enemy, he may convene the Gen- eral Assembly at any other place.
Sec. 21. The Lieutenant Governor shall, by virtue of his office, be President of the Senate; have a right, when in com- mittee of the whole, to join in debate, and to vote on all sub. jects; and, whenever the Senate shall be equally divided, he shall give the casting vote.
Sec. 22. The Governor shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the term for which he shall have been elected.
Sec. 23. The Lieutenant Governor, while he shall act as President of the Senate, shall receive for his services the same compensation as the Speaker of the House of Representa- tives ; and any person acting as Governor, shall receive the compensation attached to the office of Governor.
Sec. 24. Neither the Governor nor the Lieutenant Gover- nor shall be eligible to any other office, during the term for which he shall have been elected.
ARTICLE VI.
ADMINISTRATIVE.
SECTION 1. There shall be elected by the voters of the State an Auditor, a Treasurer of State, who shall, severally, hold their offices for two years. They shall perform such duties, as may be enjoined by law; and no person shall be eligible to either of said offices, more than four years in any period of six years. .
Sec. 2. There shall be elected, in each county, by the voters thereof, at the time of holding general elections, a clerk of the circuit court, auditor, recorder, treasurer, sheriff, coroner, and surveyor. The clerk, auditor, and recorder shall continue in office four years ; and no person shall be eligible to the office of clerk, recorder, or auditor, more than eight
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years, in any period of twelve years. The treasurer, sheirff, coroner, and surveyor, shall continue in office two years ; and no person shall be eligible to the office of treasurer or sheriff more than four years in any period of six years.
Sec. 3. Such other county and township officers as may be necessary, shall be elected, or appointed, in such manner as may be prescribed by law.
Sec. 4. No person shall be elected, or appointed as a county officer, who shall not be an elector of the county ; nor any one who shall not have been an inhabitant thereof during one year next preceding his appointment, if the county shall have been so long organized, but if the county shall not have been so long organized, then within the limits of the county or counties, out of which the same shall have been taken.
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