USA > Mississippi > School history of Mississippi; for use in public and private schools > Part 31
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SECTION 222. The legislature shall empower the board of super- visors of each county in the State to aid in supporting a military company or companies, of the Mississippi National Guard, within
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its borders, under such regulations, limitations and restrictions as may be prescribed by law.
ARTICLE X .- THE PENITENTIARY AND PRISONS.
SECTION 223. No penitentiary convict shall ever be leased or hired to any person or persons, or corporation, private or public or quasi public, or board, after December the 31st, A. D. 1894, save as authorized in the next section, nor shall any previous lease or hiring of convicts extend beyond that date; and the legislature shall abandon the system of such leasing or hiring as much sooner than the date mentioned as may be consistent with the economic safety of the State.
SECTION 224. The legislature may authorize the employment under State supervision, and the proper officers and employees of the State, of convicts on public roads or other public. works, or by any levee board on any public levees, under such provis- ions and restrictions as it may from time to time see proper to impose; but said convicts shall not be let or hired to any contrac- tors under said board, nor shall the working of convicts on public roads, or public works, or by any levee board ever interfere with the preparation for or the cultivation of any crop which it may be intended shall be cultivated by the said convicts, nor interfere with the good management of the State farm, nor put the State to any expense.
SECTION 225. The legislature may place the convicts on a State farm or farms, and have them worked thereon under State super- vision exclusively, in tilling the soil or manufacturing, or both, and may buy farms for that purpose. It may establish a reform- atory school or schools, and provide for keeping of juvenile offenders from association with hardened criminals. It may pro- vide for the commutation of the sentence of convicts for good behavior, and for the constant separation of the sexes, and for the separation of the white and black convicts as far as practica- ble, and for religious worship for the convicts.
SECTION 226. Convicts sentenced to the county jail shall not be hired or leased to any person or corporation outside the county of their conviction, after the first day of January, A. D. 1893, nor for a term which shall extend beyond that date.
ARTICLE XI .- LEVEES.
SECTION 227. A levee system shall be maintained in the State as provided in this article.
SECTION 228. The division heretofore made by the legislature of the alluvial land of the State into two levee districts-viz .: The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee District, and the Mississippi Levee District, as shown by the laws creating the same, and the amendments thereto, is hereby recognized, and said districts shall so remain until changed by law: but the legislature may here- after add to either of said districts any other alluvial land in the State.
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SECTION 229. There shall be a board of levee commissioners for the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee District, which shall con- sist of two members from each of the counties of Coahoma and Tunica, and one member from each of the remaining counties or parts of counties, now or hereafter embraced within the limits of said district, and the governor may appoint a stockholder in the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railway Company as an additional commissioner; and there shall also be a board of levee commissioners for the Mississippi Levee District, which shall consist of two members from each of the counties of Bolivar and Washington, and one from each of the counties of Issaquena and Sharkey. In the event of the formation of a new county or counties out of the territory embraced in either or both of said levee districts, such new counties shall each be entitled to repre- sentation and membership in the proper board or boards.
SECTION 230. All of said commissioners shall be qualified electors of the respective counties or parts of counties from which they may be chosen, except the one selected for the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railway Company; and the legislature shall provide that they shall each give bond for the faithful performance of his duties and shall fix the penalty thereof; but the penalty of such bond in no instance shall be fixed at less than $10,000, and the sureties thereon shall be freeholders of the district.
SECTION 231. When the terms of the present levee commis- sioners shall expire, or whenever a vacancy shall occur or be about to occur, in either of said boards, the governor shall make appointments to fill vacancies, subject to the confirmation of the Senate. The terms of office of said commissioners shall remain as provided by law at the adoption of this constitution, but this provision shall not require the appointment of a commissioner for the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railway Company, except in the discretion of the governor, as provided.
SECTION 232. The commissioners of said levee districts shall have supervision of the erection, repair, and maintenance of the levees in their respective districts.
SECTION 233. The levee boards shall have and are hereby granted authority and full power to appropriate private property in their respective districts for the purpose of constructing, maintaining and repairing levees therein; and when any owner of land, or any other person interested therein, shall object to the location or building of the levee thereon, or shall claim compen- sation for any land that may be taken, or for any damages he may sustain in consequence thereof, the president or other proper officer or agent of such levee board, or owner of such land, or other person interested therein, may forthwith apply for an assessment of the damages to which said person claiming the same may be entitled; whereupon the proceedings as now pro- vided by law shall be taken, viz .: in the Mississippi Levee Dis- trict, in accordance with the terms and provisions of section 3 of an act entitled "an act to amend an act to incorporate the Board of Levee Commissioners for Bolivar, Washington and
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Issaquena counties, and for other purposes," approved November 27, A. D. 1865, and to revise acts amendatory thereof, approved March 13, A. D. 1884; and in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee District, in accordance with the terms and provisions of section 3 of an act entitled "an act to incorporate the board of levee commissioners for the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, and for other- purposes," approved February 28, A. D. 1884, and the amendments thereto; but the legislature shall have full power to alter and amend said several acts, and to provide different manners of procedure.
SECTION 234. No bill changing the boundaries of the district or affecting the taxation or revenue of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee District, or the Mississippi Levee District, shall be considered by the legislature unless said bill shall have been published in some newspaper in the county in which is situated the domicile of the board of levee commissioners of the levee district to be affected thereby, for four weeks prior to the intro- duction thereof into the legislature; and no such bill shall be considered for final passage by either the senate or house of representatives, unless the same shall have been referred to, and reported on, by an appropriate committee of each house in which the same may be pending; and no such committee shall consider or report on any such bill unless publication thereof shall have been made as aforesaid.
SECTION 235. Each levee board shall make at the end of each fiscal year, to the governor of this State, a report showing the condition of the levees, and recommending such additional legis- lation on the subject of the system as shall be thought necessary, and showing the receipts and expenditures of the board, so that each item, the amount and consideration therefor, shall distinctly appear, together with such other matters as it shall be thought proper to call to the attention of the legislature.
SECTION 236. The legislature shall impose for levee purposes, in addition to the levee taxes heretofore levied or authorized by law, a uniform tax of not less than two nor more than five cents an acre, per annum, upon every acre of land now, or hereafter, embraced within the limits of either, or both, of said levee dis- tricts. The taxes so derived shall be paid into the treasury of the levee board of the district in which the land charged with the same is situated; and the legislature, by the act imposing said tax, shall authorize said levee boards to fix the annual rate of taxation per acre within the limits aforesaid, and thereby require said levee boards, whenever a reduction is made by them in their other taxes, to make a proportionate reduction in the acreage tax hereinbefore mentioned; but said acreage tax shall not be reduced below two cents an acre per annum; and all reductions in such taxation shall be uniform in each of said districts; but the rate of taxation need not be the same in both of them; and such specific taxes shall be assessed on the same assessment roll, and collected under the same penalties as the ad valorem taxes for levee purposes, and shall be paid at the same time with the latter. And no levee board shall be permitted to
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buy lands when sold for taxes; but the State shall have a prior lien for the taxes due thereto. The legislature may provide for the continuance of the tax on cotton, but not in such manner as to affect outstanding bonds based on it, and on the discon- tinuance of the tax on cotton shall impose another tax in lieu - thereof; but the legislature may repeal the acreage taxes required to be levied hereby, after the 1st day of January, A. D. 1895.
SECTION 237. The legislature shall have full power to provide such system of taxation for said levee districts as it shall from time to time deem wise and proper.
SECTION 238. No property situated between the levee and the Mississippi river shall be taxed for levee purposes, nor shall damage be paid to any owner of land so situated because of it being left outside a ievee.
SECTION 239. The legislature shall require the levee boards to publish at each of their sessions an itemized account embracing their respective receipts since the prior session, and such appro- priations as have been made or ordered by them respectively, in some newspaper or newspapers of the district.
ARTICLE XII .- FRANCHISE.
SECTION 240. All elections by the people shall be by ballot.
SECTION 241. Every male inhabitant of this State, except idiots, insane persons and Indians not taxed, who is a citizen of the United States, twenty-one years old and upwards, who has resided in this State two years, and one year in the election district, or in the incorporated city or town, in which he offers to vote, and who is duly registered as provided in this article, and who has never been convicted of bribery, burglary, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretenses, perjury, forgery, embezzlement or bigamy, and who has paid, on or before the first day of February of the year in which he shall offer to vote, all taxes which may have been legally required of him, and which he has had opportunity of paying according to law, for the two preceding years, and who shall produce to the officers hold- ing the election satisfactory evidence that he has paid said taxes, is declared to be a qualified elector; but any minister of the Gospel in charge of an organized church shall be entitled to vote after six months' residence in the election district, if otherwise qualified.
SECTION 242. The legislature shall provide by law for the registration of all persons entitled to vote at any election, and all persons offering to register shall take the following oath or affirmation: " I -, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I am twenty-one years old (or I will be before the next election in this county), and that I will have resided in this State two years, and - election district of - county one year next preceding the ensuing election " (or if it be stated in the oath that the person proposing to register is a minister of the gospel in charge of an organized church, then it will be sufficient to aver therein two years' residence in the State and six months
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in said election district); "and am now in good faith a resident of the same, and that I am not disqualified from voting by reason of having been convicted of any crime named in the constitution of this State as a disqualification to be an elector; that I will truly answer all questions propounded to me concerning my antecedents so far as they relate to my right to vote, and also- as to my residence before my citizenship in this district; that I will faithfully support the constitution of the United States and of the State of Mississippi, and will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. So help me God." In registering voters in cities and towns not wholly in one election district, the name of such city or town may be substituted in the oath for the elec- tion district. Any willful and corrupt false statement in said affidavit, or in answer to any material question propounded as herein authorized, shall be perjury.
SECTION 243. A uniform poll tax of two dollars, to be used in aid of the common schools and for no other purpose, is hereby imposed on every male inhabitant of this State between the ยท ages of twenty-one and sixty years, except persons who are deaf and dumb or blind, or who are maimed by loss of hand or foot; said tax to be a lien only upon taxable property. The board of supervisors of any county may, for the purpose of aiding the common schools in that county, increase the poll tax in said county, but in no case shall the entire poll tax exceed in any one year three dollars on each poll. No criminal proceedings shall be allowed to enforce the collection of the poll tax.
SECTION 244. On and after the first day of January, A. D. 1892, every elector shall, in addition to the foregoing qualifications, be able to read any section of the constitution of this State; or he shall be able to understand the same when read to him, or give a reasonable interpretation thereof. A new registration shall be made before the next ensuing election after January the first, A. D. 1892.
SECTION 245. Electors in municipal elections shall possess all the qualifications herein prescribed, and such additional qualifi- cations as may be provided by law.
SECTION 246. Prior to the first day of January, A. D. 1896, the elections by the people in this State shall be regulated by an ordinance of this convention.
SECTION 247. The legislature shall enact laws to secure fair- ness in party primary elections, conventions or other methods of naming party candidates.
SECTION 248. Suitable remedies by appeal or otherwise shall be provided by law, to correct illegal or improper registration and to secure the elective franchise to those who may be illegally or improperly denied the same.
SECTION 249. No one shall be allowed to vote for members of the legislature or other officers who has not been duly registered under the constitution and laws of this State, by an officer of
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this State, legally authorized to register the voters thereof. And registration under the constitution and laws of this State by the proper officers of this State is hereby declared to be an essential and necessary qualification to vote at any and all elections.
SECTION 250. All qualified electors and no others shall be eligible to office, except as otherwise provided in this constitution.
SECTION 251. Electors shall not be registered within four months next before any election at which they may offer to vote; but appeals may be heard and determined and revision take place at any time prior to the election; and no person who, in respect to age and residence, would become entitled to vote, within the said four months, shall be excluded from registration on account of his want of qualification at the time of registration.
SECTION 252. The term of office of all elective officers under this constitution shall be four years, except as otherwise pro- vided herein. A general election for all elective officers shall be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of November, A. D. 1895, and every four (4) years thereafter; provided, the legislature may change the day and date of general elections to any day and date in October, November or December.
SECTION 253. The legislature may by a two-thirds vote of both houses, of all members elected, restore the right of suffrage to any person disqualified by reason of crime; but the reasons therefor shall be spread upon the journals, and the vote shall be by yeas and nays.
ARTICLE XIII .- APPORTIONMENT.
SECTION 254. The number of representatives in the lower house of the legislature shall be one hundred and thirty-three, to be apportioned as follows:
First-The counties of Choctaw, Covington, Greene, Hancock, Issaquena, Jones, Lawrence, Leflore, Marion, Neshoba, Pearl River, Perry, Quitman, Scott, Sharkey, Simpson, Smith, Sun- flower, Tallahatchie, Tishomingo, Tunica, Wayne and Webster, each shall have one representative.
Second -- The counties of Alcorn, Amite, Attala, Boliver, Cal- houn, Carroll, Chickasaw, Clay, Coahoma, DeSoto, Kemper, Lafayette, Madison, Newton, Pike, Pontotoc, Prentiss Rankin, Tate, Union, Wilkinson and Yalobusha, each shall have two representatives.
Third-The counties of Copiah, Holmes, Marshall, Monroe, Noxubee, Panola, Warren and Washington, each shall have three representatives.
Fourth-The counties of Franklin and Lincoln each shall have one representative and a floater between them.
Fifth-The counties of Tippah and Benton each shall have one representative and a floater between them.
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Sixth-The counties of Claiborne and Jefferson each shall have one representative and a floater between them.
Seventh-The counties of Clarke and Jasper each shall have one representative and a floater between them.
Eighth-The counties of Grenada and Montgomery each shall have one representative and a floater between them.
Ninth-The counties of Leake and Winston each shall have one representative and a floater between them.
Tenth-The counties of Harrison and Jackson each shall have one representative and a floater between them.
Eleventh-The county of Yazoo shall have three representa- tives, and the county of Hinds shall have three representatives, and they shall have a floater between them.
Twelfth-The county of Lauderdale shall have three repre- sentatives, one to be elected by the city of Meridian, one by the county outside the city limits, and one by the whole county, including Meridian.
Thirteenth-The county of Adams outside of the city of Natchez shall have one representative and the city of Natchez one representative.
Fourteenth-The county of Lowndes shall have three repre- sentatives, two of whom shall be elected by that part of the county east of the Tombigbee River, and one by that portion of the county west of said river.
Fifteenth-The county of Oktibbeha shall have two represen- tatives, one of whom shall be elected by that portion of the county east of the line running north and south between ranges thirteen and fourteen, and the other by that portion of the county west of said line.
Sixteenth-The county of Lee shall have two representatives, the county of Itawamba one, and a floater between them.
Seventeenth-In counties divided into legislative districts, any citizen of the county eligible for election to the house of repre- sentatives shall be eligible to represent any district thereof.
THE SENATE.
SECTION 255. The number of senators shall be forty-five and are apportioned as follows:
First-The counties of Hancock, Harrison and Jackson shall constitute the first district, and elect one senator.
Second-The counties of Wayne, Jones, Perry and Greene the second district, and elect one senator.
Third-The counties of Jasper and Clark the third district, and elect one senator.
Fourth-The counties of Simpson, Covington, Marion and Pearl River the fourth district, and elect one senator.
Fifth-The counties of Rankin and Smith the fifth district, and elect one senator.
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Sixth-The counties of Pike and Franklin the sixth district, and elect one senator.
Seventh-The counties of Amite and Wilkinson the seventh district, and elect one senator.
Eighth-The counties of Lincoln and Lawrence the eighth district, and elect one senator.
Ninth-the county of Adams the ninth district, and elect one senator.
Tenth-The counties of Claiborne and Jefferson the tenth dis- trict, and elect one senator.
Eleventh-The county of Copiah the eleventh district, and elect one senator.
Twelfth-The counties of Hinds and Warren the twelfth dis- trict, and elect one senator each and a senator between them, to be chosen from the counties alternately, beginning with Hinds.
Thirteenth-The counties of Scott and Newton the thirteenth district, and elect one senator.
Fourteenth-The county of Lauderdale the fourteenth district, and elect one senator.
Fifteenth-The counties of Kemper and Winston the fifteenth district, and elect one senator.
Sixteenth-The county of Noxubee the sixteenth district, and elect one senator.
Seventeenth-The counties of Leake and Neshoba the seven- teenth district, and elect one senator.
Eighteenth-The county of Madison the eighteenth district, and elect one senator.
Nineteenth-The county of Yazoo the nineteenth district, and elect one senator.
Twentieth-The counties of Sharkey and Issaquena the twen- tieth district, and elect one senator.
Twenty-first-The county of Holmes the twenty-first district, and elect one senator.
Twenty-second-The county of Attala the twenty-second dis- trict, and elect one senator.
Twenty-third-The counties of Oktibbeha and Choctaw the twenty-third district, and elect one senator.
Twenty-fourth-The counties of Clay and Webster the twenty- fourth district, and elect one senator.
Twenty-fifth-The county of Lowndes the twenty-fifth district, and elect one senator.
Twenty-sixth-The counties of Carroll and Montgomery the twenty-sixth district, and elect one senator.
Twenty-seventh-The counties of Leflore and Tallahatchie the twenty-seventh district, and elect one senator.
Twenty-eighth-The counties of Yalobusha and Grenada the twenty-eighth district, and elect one senator.
Twenty-ninth-The counties of Washington and Sunflower the twenty-ninth district; the county of Washington shall elect
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one senator, and the counties of Washington and Sunflower a senator between them.
Thirtieth-The county of Bolivar the thirtieth district, and elect one senator.
Thirty-first-The counties of Chickasaw, Calhoun and Pon- totoc the thirty-first district, and elect two senators; both sena- tors shall at no time be chosen from the same county.
Thirty-second-The county of Lafayette the thirty-second dis- trict, and elect one senator.
Thirty-third-The county of Panola the thirty-third district, and elect one senator.
Thirty-fourth-The counties of Coahoma, Tunica and Quitman the thirty-fourth district, and elect one senator.
Thirty-fifth-the county of DeSoto the thirty-fifth district, and elect one senator.
Thirty-sixth-The counties of Union, Tippah, Benton, Mar- shall and Tate the thirty-sixth district, and elect three senators; the counties of Tate, Marshall and Benton shall be entitled to one, not to be from the same county, and the counties of Union and Tippah one.
Thirty-seventh-The counties of Tishomingo, Alcorn and Pren- tiss the thirty-seventh district, and elect one senator.
Thirty-eighth-The counties of Monroe, Lee and Itawamba the thirty-eighth district, and elect two senators, one of whom shall be a resident of the county of Monroe and the other a resident of Lee or Itawamba counties.
SECTION 256. The legislature may at the first session after the State census of 1895, and decennially thereafter, make a new apportionment of senators and representatives. At each appor- tionment, each county then organized shall have at least one representative. New counties afterwards created shall be repre- sented as may be provided by law, until the next succeeding apportionment. The counties of Tishomingo, Alcorn, Prentiss, Lee, Itawamba, Tippah, Union, Benton, Marshall, Lafayette, Pontotoc, Monroe, Chickasaw, Calhoun, Yalobusha, Grenada. Carroll, Montgomery, Choctaw, Webster, Clay, Lowndes and Oktibbeha, or the territory now composing them, shall together never have less than forty-four representatives. The counties of Attala, Winston, Noxubee, Kemper, Leake, Neshoba, Lauder- dale, Newton, Scott, Rankin, Clarke, Jasper, Smith, Simpson, Copiah, Franklin, Lincoln, Lawrence, Covington, Jones, Wayne. Greene, Perry, Marion, Pike, Pearl River, Hancock, Harrison and Jackson, or the territory now composing them. shall together never have less than forty-four representatives nor shall the remaining counties of the State, or the territory now composing them, ever have less than forty-four representatives. A reduc- tion in the number of senators and representatives may be made by the legislature if the same be uniform in each of the three said divisions but the number of representatives shall not be less
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