USA > Louisiana > Louisiana; comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and persons, Volume I > Part 35
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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, forgery, bribery, or other crime punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, or who shall be under interdiction.
Art. 160. Members of the General Assembly and all officers, before 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 laws and Constitution 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 , according 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-
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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 legis- lative 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 obli- gations of contracts, shall be passed, nor vested rights be divested, unless for purposes of public utility, and for adequate compensation previously made.
Art. 167. Private property shall not be taken nor damaged for public 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 venne 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, except in case of impeachment or suspension.
Art. 173. The military shall be in subordination to the civil power, 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 resid- ing within its limits; provided, that every municipal corporation to which the powers of the police jury do not extend, shall sup- port its own infirm, sick, and disabled panpers.
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 power of the courts to punish for contempt shall be limited by law.
Art. 178. Lotteries, and the sale of lottery tickets, are prohib- ited 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
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shall be the judges of the law and of the facts on the question of guilt or innocence, 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 otherwise been entrusted with public money, shall be eligible to the General Assembly, or to any office 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 col- lections, and for all public 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 public money, when such 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 Assembly, 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 giving 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 the intent aforesaid, shall be guilty of bribery, and on 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 from holding any office, State, paro- chial, or municipal, and shall be forever ineligible to a seat in the General Assembly; provided, that this shall not be so construed 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 offense of bribery, and shall not be permitted to with- hold his testimony upon the ground that it may incriminate him or subject him to public infamy; but such testimony shall not afterwards 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 la- borers on buildings, streets, roads, railroads, canals, and other similar works, against the failure of contractors and sub-contrac- tors to pay their current wages when due, and to make the cor-
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poration, company, 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 ; provided, such tax liens, mortgages, and privileges, shall lapse in three years from the 31st day of December, in which the taxes are levied, and whether now or hereafter recorded.
Art. 187. Privileges on movable property shall exist without registration of the same, except in such cases as the General As- sembly 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 sup- press it.
Art. 191. No member of the General Assembly, or public offi- cer, or person elected or appointed to a public office under the laws of this State, shall directly or indirectly. ask, demand, accept, re- ceive, or consent to receive, for his own use or benefit, or for the use or benefit of another, any free pass, free transportation, frank- ing privilege, or discrimination in passenger, telegraph, or tele- phone 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 his office, at the suit of the Attorney-General. or the District Attorney, 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 transportation, franking privilege, or discrimination, shall be liable to punishment for each offense 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 whom such free pass, free transporta- tion, 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 dis- crimination, 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.
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Art. 192. Whenever the General Assembly shall authorize a suit against the State, it shall provide in the act 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 Su- preme 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 Legislature 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. Prescription shall not run against the State in any civil matter unless otherwise provided in this Constitution, or ex- pressly 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 examination 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 ap- purtenances, shall not be leased, nor alienated, nor shall the Caron- delet 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 employ- ment 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 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 hired, to any person or persons, or corporation, private or pub- lic, or quasi-public, or board, save as herein authorized. This article shall take effect upon the expiration of the penitentiary lease, made pursuant to Act No. 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 the State by the people, except as may be herein otherwise provided.
Sec. 1. He shall have been an actual bona fide resident of this
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State for two years, of the parish one year, and of the precinct in which he offers to vote six months next preceding the election ; provided, that removal from one precinct to another in the same parish shall not operate to deprive any person of the right to vote in the precinct from which he has removed, until six months after such removal.
Sec. 2. He shall have been at the time he offers to vote, legally enrolled as a registered voter on his personal application, in ac- cordance with the provisions of this Constitution, and the laws enacted thereunder. The qualifications of voters and the registra- tion laws in force prior to the adoption of this Constitution shall remain in force until December 31st, 1898, at which date all the provisions of this Constitution relative to suffrage, registration and election, except as hereinafter otherwise provided, shall go into effect, and the General Assembly shall, and is hereby directed, 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 demon- strate 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 , his mother tongue, which application shall contain the essential facts 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, without assistance or sug- gestion 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 applicant 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 dis- ability. 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: am a citizen of the State of Louisiana. My name is I was born in the State (or country) of
I country) of on the day of . Parish (or I am now .
days of age. years, months and in the year I have resided in this State since , in this parish ..... , and in Precinct No. . of Ward No. . . of this parish, since and I am not disfranchised by any provision of the Con- stitution of this State.
Sec. 4. If he be not able to read and write, as provided by Sec- tion three of 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 hundred dollars on the assessment roll of the
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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 per- sonal only, all taxes shall have been paid. The applicant for regis- tration under this section shall make oath before the registration officer 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 section one of this article, and that he is the owner of property assessed in this State to him at a valu- ation of not less than three hundred dollars, and if such property be personal only, that all taxes due thereon have been paid.
Sec. 5. No male person who was on January 1st, 1867, or at any date prior thereto, entitled to vote under the Constitution or stat- utes 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 January, 1898, shall be denied the right to register and vote in this State by reason of his failing to possess the edu- cational 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 regis- ter under this section after that date.
Every person claiming the benefit of this section shall make ap- plication to the proper registration officer or his deputy, for regis- tration, 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 Consti- tution or statutes of the State of wherein I then re-
sided (or, I am the son, or grandson) of who was on the ..... day of entitled to vote under the Constitu- tion or statutes of the State of wherein he then re- sided, and I desire to avail myself of the privileges conferred 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 officer of every parish, and for this purpose the registration officer of every parish shall keep his office open daily, Sundays and legal holidays excepted, from May 16th, 1898, until August 31st, 1898, both included, during the hours prescribed by Act No. 89 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 months 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 publication.
The registration of voters under this section shall close on the
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31st day of August, 1898, and immediately thereafter the registra- tion officer of every parish shall make a sworn copy, in duplicate, of the list of persons 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.
All persons whose names appear on said registration lists shall be admitted to register for all elections in this State without pos- sessing the educational or property qualifications prescribed by this Constitution, unless otherwise disqualified, and all persons who do not by personal application claim exemption from the pro- visions of sections 3 and 4 of this article before September 1st, 1898, shall be forever denied the right to do so.
The Legislature shall, at its first session after the adoption of this Constitution, provide the manner in which persons whose names appear upon said registration lists shall hereafter register, which mode may be different from that required for persons regis- tering under the other sections of this article; and shall also pro- vide a remedy whereby subsequently to the close of said registra- tion on August 31st, 1898, the names of any persons who may have obtained registration under this section by false statements of fact or other fraud, shall by appropriate proceedings be stricken from said roll.
Art. 198. No person less than sixty years of age shall be per- mitted to vote at any election in the State who shall not, in addi- tion to the qualifications above prescribed, have paid on or before the 31st day of December, of each year, for the two years preced- ing the year in which he offers to vote, a poll tax of one dollar per annum, to be used exclusively in aid of the public schools of the parish in which such tax shall have been collected; which tax is hereby imposed on every male resident of this State between the age of twenty-one and sixty years. Poll taxes shall be a lien only upon assessed property, and no process shall issue to enforce the collection of the same except against assessed property.
Every person liable for such tax shall, before being allowed to vote, exhibit to the Commissioners of Election his poll tax receipts for two years, issued on the official form, or duplicates thereof, in the event of loss, or proof of payment of such poll taxes may be made by a certificate of the tax collector, which shall be sent to the Commissioners of the several voting precincts, showing a list of those who have paid said two years' poll taxes as above pro- vided, and the dates of payment. It is hereby declared to be forgery, and punishable as such, for any tax collector or other per- son, to antedate, or alter, a poll tax receipt. Any person who shall pay the poll tax of another or advance him money for that pur- pose, in order to influence his vote, shall be guilty of bribery and
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punished accordingly. The provisions of this section as to the payment of poll taxes shall not apply to persons who are deaf and dumb, or blind, nor to persons under twenty-three years of age, who have paid all poll taxes assessed against them. This section shall not go into operation until after the general State election to be held in the year 1900, and the Legislature elected in the year 1908 shall have authority to repeal or modify the same.
Art. 199. Upon all questions submitted to the tax-payers, as such, of any municipal or other political subdivision of this State, the qualifications of such tax-payers as voters shall be those of age and residence prescribed by this article, and women tax-payers shall have the right to vote at all such elections, without registra- tion, in person or by their agents, authorized in writing; but all other persons voting at such elections shall be registered voters.
Art. 200. No person shall vote at any primary election or in any convention or other political assembly held for the purpose of a registered voter. And in all political conventions in this State the apportionment of representation shall be on the basis of popu- lation.
Art. 201. Any person possessing the qualifications prescribed by Section 3 or 4 of Article 197 of this Constitution, who may be denied registration, shall have the right to apply for relief to the District Court having jurisdiction of civil causes for the parish in which he offers to register, and the party cast in said suit shall have the right of appeal to the Supreme Court; and any citizen of the State shall have a like right to apply to said courts, to have stricken off any names illegally placed on said registration rolls under Sections 3 and 4 of Article 197, and such applications and appeals shall be tried by said courts by preference, in open court or at chambers. The General Assembly shall provide by law for such applications and appeals without cost, and for the prosecu- tion of all persons charged with illegal or fraudulent registration or voting, or any other crime or offence against the registration or election or primary election laws.
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