USA > Louisiana > A history of Louisiana, revised edition > Part 25
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From the remaining eighty per cent. of said fund there shall be paid monthly the current salaries and expenses of the offices from which same is derived, including the salary of the docket and minute clerks of the Court of Appeal, as now constituted and until the elec- tion of the clerk of the said court, as above provided, together with such authorized expenses of said offices as are not required to be paid by the City of New Orleans ; and the surplus of said eighty per cent., if any, shall be paid by the 'Treasurer to the said Board of Liquidation, and shall be used to redeem or pay said bonds and certificates as hereinbefore and hereinafter provided.
But if said eighty per cent. during the six months ending July 31, or January 31 of any year, should prove inadequate to pay said salaries and expenses, the comptroller shall prorate the deficit among those entitled to payment, and shall issue certificates there- for in sums not less than ten dollars, which shall bear interest at the rate of four per cent. per annum from date, and shall be paid from the funds herein set apart and reserved only after all the bonds is- sued in payment of outstanding warrants shall have first been re- deemed or paid.
All disbursements from said fund for stationery shall be made upon the requisitions of the officers requiring same; said requisitions to be approved by the Mayor of the City of New Orleans; and in all cases such disbursements and all salaries shall be paid by the treas- urer of the City of New Orleans upon warrants drawn against said fund by the comptroller of said city, approved, so far as the Civil District Court is concerned by the presiding judge thereof, for the office of the recorder of mortgages and the office of the register of conveyances, by the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, and for the offices of the respective City Courts by the judge or judges thereof, and for the officers of the Court of Appeal by one of the judges thereof.
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Until the full and final payment of all of said bonds and certificates hereinbefore provided for, the salaries of the employes of the various offices hereinafter named shall remain as now fixed by law, and there shall be no increase in the number of employes now authorized by law for the offices of recorder of mortgages or register of convey - ances, unless otherwise ordered by the Civil District Court sitting on banc: and the number of employes of the Civil District Court shall be as determined by a majority of the judges thereof.
The clerks of the First and Second City Courts, until the organiza- tion of the City Courts hereinbefore provided for, may each appoint with the approval of the judge thereof, an additional deputy clerk at fifty dollars per month, but no other employes, nor larger salaries than those now fixed by law, shall be allowed to the City Courts.
The said Board of Liquidation hereinbefore named shall have the right to reject any and all bids made for the redemption of bonds issued as hereinabove provided, and should there be no bids, or none be accepted, then said Board of Liquidation, on the second Thes- day in February and August of each year, with whatever amount has been paid to said Board by the Treasurer as herein provided, shall, after paying the interest, pay said bonds in numerical order.
After the payment of all of said bonds, the twenty per cent. re- serve herein provided, and any surplus of the remaining eighty per cent. shall be used by the City Treasurer in paying the certificates herein provided for, if any, in the order of their issue. When said Judicial Expense Fund Bonds and Comptroller's certificates, if any of the latter shall be issued, shall have been retired and canceled, the salaries and expenses of the various offices affected by this article and the revenue of said offices shall be regulated and disposed of as may be determined by the General Assembly.
This article shall take effect from the last day of the current month in which this Constitution is adopted, and all amounts arising from the Judicial Expense Fund, which shall remain in the hands of the State Treasurer on that date, shall be paid by him to the Board of Liquidation of the City Debt, and be used by said board as part of the funds bereinabove referred to.
Art. 157. Vacancies occurring from any cause in the judicial of- fices of the Parish of Orleans or City of New Orleans, shall be filled by appointment by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, for the nnexpired term.
Art. 158. The fact that the officers and deputies herein provided for are paid by the City of New Orleans shall not make them officers or employes thereof.
GENERAL PROVISIONS.
Art. 159. No person shall be permitted to act as a juror, who, in due course of law, shall have been convicted of treason, perjury, for- gery, bribery or other crime punishable by imprisonment in the peni- tentiary. or who shall be under interdiction.
Art. 160. Members of the General Assembly and all officers, be-'
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fore entering upon the duties of their respective offices, shall take the following oath or affirmation :
"I (A. B.) do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of this State; and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me as -, ac- cording to the best of my ability and understanding. So help me God."
Art. 161. The seat of government shall be and remain at the City of Baton Rouge.
Art. 162. Treason against the State shall consist only in levying war against it, or adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and com- fort. No person shall be convicted of treason except on the testi - mony of two witnesses to the same overt act, on his confession in open Court.
Art. 163. All civil officers shall be removable by an address of two-thirds of the members elected to each House of the General Assembly, except those whose removal is otherwise provided for by this Constitution.
Art. 164. No member of Congress, nor person holding or exer- cising any office of trust or profit under the United States, or any State, or under any foreign power, shall be eligible as a member of the General Assembly, or hold or exercise any office of trust or profit under the State.
Art. 165. The laws, public records, and the judicial and legislative written proceedings of the State, shall be promulgated, preserved and conducted in the English language; but the General Assembly may provide for the publication of the laws in the French language, and provide that judicial advertisements, in certain designated cities and parishes, shall also be made in that language.
Art. 166. No ex-post facto law, nor any law impairing the obliga - tions of contracts, shall be passed, nor vested rights be divested, un- less for purposes of public utility, and for adequate compensation previously made.
Art. 167. Private property shall not be taken nor damaged for pub- lic purposes without just and adequate compensation being first paid.
Art. 168. No power of suspending the laws of this State shall be exercised unless by the General Assembly, or by its authority.
Art. 169. The General Assembly shall provide by law for change of venue in civil and criminal cases.
Art. 170. No person shall hold or exercise, at the same time, more than one office of trust or profit, except that of justice of the peace or notary public.
Art. 171. The General Assembly may determine the mode of filling vacancies in all offices, for the filling of which provision is not made in this Constitution.
Art. 172. All officers shall continue to discharge the duties of their offices until their successors shall have been inducted into office, ex- cept in case of impeachment or suspension.
Art. 173. The military shall be in subordination to the civil power,
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and no soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any; house without the consent of the owner.
Art. 174. The General Assembly shall make it obligatory upon every parish to support all infirm, sick, and disabled paupers re- siding within its limits; provided, that every municipal corporation to which the powers of the police jury do not extend, shall support its own infirm, sick and disabled paupers.
Art. 175. No soldier, sailor or marine, in the service of the United States, shall hereafter acquire a domicile in this State by reason of being stationed or doing duty in the same.
Art. 176. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to pass such laws as may be proper and necessary to decide differences by arbitration.
Art. 177. The powers of the courts to punish for contempt shall be limited by law.
Art. 178. Lotteries, and the sale of lottery tickets, are prohibited in this State.
Art. 179. In all proceedings or indictments for libel, the truth thereof may be given in evidence. The jury in all criminal cases shall be the judges of the law and of the facts on the question of guilt or innocenee, having been charged as to the law applicable to the case by the presiding judge.
Art. 180. No officer whose salary is fixed by the Constitution shall be allowed any fees or perquisites of office, except where otherwise provided for by this Constitution.
Art. 181. The regulation of the sale of alcoholic or spirituous liquors is declared a police regulation, and the General Assembly may enact laws regulating their sale and use.
Art. 182. No person who, at any time, may have been a collector of taxes, whether State, parish or municipal, or who may have been otherwise entrusted with public money, shall be eligible to the Gen- eral Assembly, or to any oflice of honor, profit or trust under the State government, or any parish, or municipality thereof, until he shall have obtained a discharge for the amount of such collections. and for all publie moneys with which he may have been entrusted : and the General Assembly is empowered to enact laws providing for the suspension of public officials charged with the collection of pub- lie money when sneh officials fail to account for the same.
Art. 183. Any person who shall, directly or indirectly, offer or give any sum or sums of money, bribe, present, reward, promise or any other thing to any officer, State, parochial or municipal, or to any member or officer of the General Assembly, with the intent to induce or influence such officer or member of the General Assem- bly to appoint any person to office, to vote or exercise any power in him vested, or to perform any duty of him required, the person giv- ing or offering to give, and the officer or member of the General Assembly so receiving any money, bribe, present, reward, promise, contract, obligation or security, with intent aforesaid, shall be guilty of bribery, and upon being found guilty thereof by any court of competent jurisdiction, or by either house of the General Assembly of which he may be a member or officer, shall be forever disqualified
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from holding any office, State, parochial or municipal, and shall be forever ineligible to a seat in the General Assembly; provided that this shall not be so construed so as to prevent the General Assembly from enacting additional penalties.
Art. 184. Any person may be compelled to testify in any lawful . proceeding against any one who may be charged with having com- mitted the offence of bribery, and shall not be permitted to with - hold his testimony upon the ground that it may criminate him or subject him to publie infamy ; but such testimony shall not after- wards be used against him in any judicial proceedings, except for perjury in giving such testimony.
Art. 185. The General Assembly shall pass laws to protect laborers on buildings, streets, roads, railroads, canals and other similar works against the failure of contractors and subcontractors to pay their current wages when due, and to make the corporation, com- pany or individual for whose benefit the work is done responsible for their ultimate payment.
Art. 186. No mortgage or privilege on immovable property shall affect third persons unless recorded or registered in the parish where the property is situated, in the manner and within the time as is now or may be prescribed by law, except privileges for expenses of last illness and privileges for taxes, State, parish or municipal; pro- vided, such tax liens, mortgages and privileges shall lapse in three years from the 31st day of December in the year in which the taxes are levied, and whether now or hereafter recorded.
Art. 187. Privileges on movable property shall exist without reg- istration of the same, except in such cases as the General Assembly may prescribe by law.
Art. 188. Gambling is a vice, and the Legislature shall pass laws to suppress it.
Art. 189. The pernicious practice of dealing or gambling in futures on agricultural products or articles of necessity, where the intention of the parties is not to make an honest and bona fide delivery, is declared to be against public policy ; and the Legislature shall pass laws to suppress it.
Art. 190. It shall be unlawful for persons or corporations, or their legal representatives, to combine or conspire together, or to unite or pool their interests for the purpose of forcing up or down the price of any agricultural product or article of necessity for speculative purposes; and the Legislature shall pass laws to suppress it.
Art. 191. No member of the General Assembly, or public officer. or person elected or appointed to a public office under the laws of this State, shall directly, or indirectly, ask, demand, accept, receive, or consent to receive, for his own use or benefit, or for the use or benefit of another, any free pass, free transportation, franking privi- lege, or discrimination in passenger, telegraph, or telephone rates, from any person or corporation, or make use of the same himself or in conjunction with another.
. Any person who violates any provision of this Article shall forfeit L18 office, at the suit of the AttorneyGeneral, or the District Attor-
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ney, to be brought at the domicile of the defendant, and shall be subject to such further penalty as may be prescribed by law.
Any corporation, or officer, or agent thereof, who shall give, or offer, or promise, to a public officer any such free pass, free trans- portation, franking privilege, or discrimination, shall be liable to punishment for each offence by a fine of five hundred dollars, to be recovered at the suit of the Attorney General, or District Attorney. to be brought at the domicile of the officer to whoin such free pass, free transportation, franking privilege, or discrimination, was given, offered, or promised.
No person, or officer, or agent of a corporation, giving any such free pass, free transportation, franking privilege, or discrimination, hereby prohibited, shall be privileged from testifying in relation thereto; but he shall not be liable to civil or criminal prosecution therefor, if he shall testify to the giving of the same.
Art. 192. Whenever the General Assembly shall authorize a suit against the State it shall provide in the aet authorizing the same, that such suit be instituted before the District Court at the State Capital; that citation to answer such suit shall be served both upon the Governor and the Attorney General; that the Supreme Court of the State shall have appellate jurisdiction in such suit, without regard to the amount involved; that the only object of such suit, and the only effect of the judgment therein, shall be a judicial interpretation of the legal rights of the parties for the consideration of the Legisla- ture in making appropriations; that the burden of proof shall rest upon the plaintiff or claimant to show that the claim sued upon is a legal and valid obligation of the State, incurred in strict conformity to law, not in violation of the Constitution of the State or of the United States, and for a valid consideration, and that all these things shall be affirmatively declared by the Supreme Court before any judgment is recognized for any purpose against the State.
Art. 193. Prescriptions shall not run against the State in any Civil matter, unless otherwise provided in this Constitution, or expressly by law.
Art. 194. There shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a State Examiner of State Banks, who shall be an expert accountant, and who shall make ex- aminations of all State banks at least twice in every year. His term of office shall be four years and the Legislature shall define his duties and fix his compensation.
Art. 195. The New Basin Canal and Shell Road, and their appurten- ances, shall not be leased, nor alienated, nor shall the Carondelet Canal and Bayou St. John, and their appurtenances, be leased, or alienated when they shall come into the possession of the State.
Art. 196. The General Assembly may authorize the employment under State supervision and the proper officers and employes of the State, of convicts on public roads or other public works, or convict farms, or in manufactories owned or controlled by the State, under such provisions and restrictions as may be imposed by law, and shall enact laws necessary to carry these provisions into effect; and no convict sentenced to the State penitentiary shall ever be leased, or
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hired to any person or persons, or corporation. private or public, or quasi-public, or board, save as herein authorized. This article shall take effect upon the expiration of the penitentiary lease, made pur- suant to Act 114, approved July 10th, 1890.
Suffrage and Elections.
Art. 197. Every male citizen of this State and of the United States, native born or naturalized, not less than twenty-one years of age, and possessing the following qualifications, shall be an elector, and shall be entitled to vote at any election in this State by the people, except as may be herein otherwise provided.
Seetion 1. He shall have been an actual bona fide resident of this State for two years, of the parish one year and of the precinet in which he offers to vote six months next preceding the election ; pro- vided, that removal from one precinet to another in the same parish shall not operate to deprive any person of the right to vote in the preeinet from which he has removed, until six months after such removal.
See. 2. He shall have been at the time he offers to vote legally enrolled aa a registered voter on his personal application, in accord - anee with the provisions of this Constitution, and the laws enacted thereunder.
The qualifications of voters and the registration laws in force prior to the adoption of this Constitution shall remain in force until December 31, 1898, at which date all the provisions of this Constitu- tion, relative to suffrage, registration and election, except as here- inafter otherwise provided, shall go into effect, and the General Assembly shall, and is hereby direeted, at its regular session in 1898, to enact a general registration law to carry into effect the provisions of this Constitution relative to the qualifications and registration of voters.
Sec. 3. He shall be able to read and write, and shall demonstrate his ability to do so when he applies for registration, by making, under oath administered by the registration officer or his deputy, written application therefor, in the English language, or in his mother tongue, which application shall contain the essential faets necessary to show that he is entitled to register and vote, and shall be entirely written, dated and signed by him, in the presence of the registration officer or his deputy, withont assistance or suggestion from any person or any memorandum whatever, except the form of . application hereinafter set forth; provided, however, that if the applicant be unable to write his application in the English language, he shall have the right, if he so demands, to write the same in his mother tongue from the dictation of an interpreter; and if the appli- cant is unable to write his application by reason of physical disability, the same shall be written at his dictation by the registration officer or his deputy, upon his oath of such disability. The application for registration, above provided for, shall be a copy of the following form, with the proper names, dates and numbers substituted for the blanks appearing therein, to- wit ;
1
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I am a citizen of the State of Louisiana. My name is ] was born in the State (or country) of ., parish (or county of
, on the day of in the year I am now .. years, ... months and .... days of age. I have resided in this State since in this parish , and in precinet No. ....... 01 ward No. ..... , of this parish, since , and I am not disfranchised by any provision of the Constitution of this State.
Sec. 4. If he be not able to read and write, as provided by Sec. 3 01 this article, then he shall be entitled to register and vote if he shall at the time he offers to register, be the bona fide owner of property assessed to him in this State at a valuation of not less than three hun- dred dollars on the assessment roll of the current year in which he offers to register, or on the roll of the preceding year, if the roll of the current year shall not then have been completed and filed, and on which, if such property be personal only, all taxes due shall have been paid. The applicant for registration under this section shah make oath before the registration offleer or his deputy, that he is a citizen of the United States and of this State, over the age of twenty- one years; that he possesses the qualifications prescribed in Sec. 1 01 this article, and that he is the owner of property assessed in this State to him at a valuation of not less than three hundred dollars, and if such property be personal only, that all taxes due thereon have been paid.
See. 5. No male person who was on January 1, 1867, or at any date prior thereto, entitled to vote under the Constitution or statutes of any State of the United States, wherein he then resided, and no son or grandson of any such person not less than twenty-one years of age at the date of the adoption of this Constitution, and no male person of foreign birth, who was naturalized prior to the first day of Jannary, 1898, shall be denied the right to register and vote in this State by reason of his failure to possess the educational or property qualifications prescribed by this Constitution ; provided he shall have resided in this State for five years next preceding the date at which he shall apply for registration, and shall have registered in accordance with the terms of this article prior to September 1, 1898, and no person shall be entitled to register under this section after said date.
Every person claiming the benefit of this section shall make appli- cation to the proper registration officer, or his deputy, for registra- tion, and he shall make oath before such registration officer or his deputy, in the form following, viz. : I am a citizen of the United States and of this State, over the age of twenty-one years; I have resided in this State for five years next preceding this date. I was on the ..... . day of , entitled to vote under the Constitution or , herein I then resided (or, I am the statutes of the State of son, or grandson ) of ... who was on the ...... .. day of . entitled to vote under the Constitution or statutes of the State of , wherein he then resided, and I desire to avail myself of the privileges con- ferred by Section 5 of Article 197 of the Constitution of this State.
-. A separate registration of voters applying under this section shall be made by the registration officers of every parish, and for
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this purpose the registration officer of every parish shall keep his office open daily, Sundays and legal holidays excepted, from May 16, 1898, until August 31, 1898, both included, during the hours pre- scribed by Act No. 80 of the General Assembly of 1896. In every parish, except the parish of Orleans, he shall keep his office at the courthouse at least during the month of May, June and August, and during the month of July he shall keep it for at least one day at or near each polling place, giving thirty days' notice thereof by publi- cation.
The registration of voters under this section shall close on the 31st day of August, 1898, and immediately thereafter the registration ofliver of every parish shall make a sworn copy, in duplicate, of the list of persons registered under this section, showing in detail whether the applicant registered as a voter of 1867, or prior thereto, or as the son of such voter, or as the grandson of such voter, and deposit one of said duplicates in the office of the Secretary of State, to be by him recorded and preserved as a part of the permanent records of his office, and the other of said duplicates shall be by him filed in the office of the clerk of the District Court of the parish, and in the parish of Orleans, in the office of the Recorder of Mortgages, there to remain a permanent record.
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