USA > Texas > A School History of Texas: From Its Discovery in 1685 to 1893. For the Use of Schools, Academies, Convents, Seminaries, and all Institutions of Learning > Part 26
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SECTION 1. Members of the legislature and all officers, before they enter upon the duties of their offices, shall take the following oath or affirmation : " I, . . . . . ... do solemnly swear (or affirm), that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as. according to the best of my skill and ability, agreeably to the constitution and laws of the United States and of this state; and I do further solemnly swear (or affirm), that since the adoption 'of the constitution of this state, I, being a citizen of this state, have not fought a duel with deadly weapons, within this state nor out of it, nor have I sent or accepted a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, nor have I acted as second in carrying a challenge, or aided, advised or assisted any person thus offending : And I furthermore solemnly swear (or affirm), that I have not, directly nor indirectly, paid, offered or prom- ised to pay, contributed nor promised to contribute, any money or valu- able thing, or promised any public office or employment, as a reward for the giving or withholding a vote at the election at which I was elected (or, if the office is one of appointment, to secure my appointment) : So help me God."
SEC. 2. Laws shall be made to exclude from office, serving on juries, and from the right of suffrage, those who may have been or shall here- after be convicted of bribery, perjury, forgery or other high crimes. The privilege of free suffrage shall be protected by laws regulating elections, and prohibiting under adequate penalties all undue influence therein from power, bribery, tumult, or other improper practice.
SEC. 3. The legislature shall make provision whereby persons convicted of misdemeanors and committed to the county jails in default of payment of fines and costs, shall be required to discharge such fines and costs by manual labor, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law.
SEC. 4. Any citizen of this state who shall, after the adoption of this constitution, fight a duel with deadly weapons, or send or accept a chal- lenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, either within this state or out of it, or who shall act as second, or knowingly assist in any manner those thus offending, shall be deprived of the right of suffrage, or of holding any office of trust or profit under this state.
SEC. 5. Every person shall be disqualified from holding any office of profit or trust in this state who shall have been convicted of having given or offered a bribe to procure his election or appointment.
SEC. 6. No appropriation for private or individual purposes shall be
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made. A regular statement under oath, and an account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money, shall be published annually, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law.
SEC. 7. The legislature shall in no case have power to issue "treasury warrants," "treasury notes," or paper of any description intended to cir- culate as money.
SEC. 8. Each county in the state may provide, in such manner as may be prescribed by law, a manual labor poor-house and farm, for taking care of, managing, employing and supplying the wants of its indigent and poor inhabitants.
SEC. 9. Absence on business of the state or of the United States shall not forfeit a residence once obtained, so as to deprive any one of the right of suffrage, or of being elected or appoint to any office, under the excep- tions contained in this constitution.
SEC. 10. The legislature shall provide for deductions from the salaries of public officers who may neglect the performance of any duty that may be assigned them by law.
SEC. 11. The legal rate of interest shall not exceed eight per cent per annum, in the absence of any contract as to the rate of interest ; and by contract parties may agree upon any rate not to exceed twelve per cent per annum. All interest charged above this last named rate shall be deemed usurious, and the legislature shall at its first session provide appropriate pains and penalties to prevent and punish usury. [Const. 1876.]
[Sec. 11, Art. 16, declared adopted September 22, 1891.]
SEC. 11. All contracts for a greater rate of interest than ten per centum per annum shall be deemed usurious, and the first legislature after this amendment is adopted shall provide appropriate pains and penalties to prevent the same ; but when no rate of interest is agreed upon, the rate shall not exceed six per centum per annum.
SEC. 12. No member of congress, nor person holding or exercising any office of profit or trust under the United States, or either of them, or under any foreign power, shall be eligible as a member of the legislature, or hold or exercise any office of profit or trust under this state.
SEC. 13. It shall be the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as may be necessary and proper to decide differences by arbitration, when the parties shall elect that method of trial.
SEC. 14. All civil officers shall reside within the state, and all district or county officers within their districts or counties, and shall keep their offices at such places as may required by law ; and failure to comply with this condition shall vacate the office so held.
SEC. 15. All property, both real and personal, of the wife, owned or claimed by her before marriage, and that acquired afterward by gift, devise or descent, shall be her separate property ; and laws shall be passed more clearly defining the rights of the wife in relation as well to her sepa- rate property as that held in common with her husband. Laws shall also be passed providing for the registration of the wife's separate prop- erty.
SEC. 16. No corporate body shall hereafter be created, renewed or extended with banking or discounting privileges.
SEC. 17. All officers within this state shall continue to perform the duties of their offices until their successors shall be duly qualified.
SEC. 18. The rights of property and of action, which have been acquired
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under the constitution and the laws of the republic and state, shall not be divested ; nor shall any rights or actions which have been divested, barred, or declared null and void by the constitution of the republic and state, be reinvested, renewed, or reinstated by this constitution ; but the same shall remain precisely in the situation which they were before the adoption of this constitution, unless otherwise herein provided ; and provided further, that no cause of action heretofore barred shall be revived.
SEC. 19. The legislature shall prescribe by law the qualification of grand and petit jurors.
SEC. 20. The legislature shall, at its first session, enact a law whereby the qualified voters of any county, justice's precinct, town or city, by a majority vote, from time to time, may determine whether the sale of intoxicating liquors shall be prohibited within the pre- scribed limits. [Const. 1876.]
[Sec. 20, Art. 16, declared adopted September 22, 1891.]
SEC. 20. The legislature shall at its first session enact a law whereby the qualified voters of any county, justice's precinct, town, city (or such subdivision of a county as may be designated by the commissioner's court of said county) may by a majority vote determine from time to time whether the sale of. intoxicating liquors shall be prohibited within the prescribed limits.
SEC. 21. All stationery and printing, except proclamations and such printing as may be done at the deaf and dumb asylum, paper and fuel used in the legislative and other departments of the government, except the judicial department, shall be furnished and the printing and binding of the laws, journals and department reports, and all other printing and binding, and the repairing and furnishing the halls and rooms used for the meetings of the legislature and its committees, shall be performed under contract, to be given to the lowest responsible bidder, below such maximum price and under such regulations as shall be prescribed by law. No member or officer of any department of the government shall be in any way interested in such contracts ; and all such contracts shall be subject to the approval of the governor, secretary of state and comp- troller.
SEC. 22. The legislature shall have the power to pass such fence laws, applicable to any subdivision of the state or counties, as may be needed to meet the wants of the people.
SEC. 23. The legislature may pass laws for the regulation of live stock, and the protection of stock-raisers in the stock-raising portion of the state, and exempt from the operation of such laws other portions, sections or counties ; and shall have power to pass general and special laws for the inspection of cattle, stock and hides, and for the regulation of brands ; provided, that any local law thus passed shall be submitted to the freeholders of the section to be affected thereby, and approved by them before it shall go into effect.
SEC. 24. The legislature shall make provision for laying out and work- ing public roads, for the building of bridges, and for utilizing fines, for- feitures and convict labor to all these purposes.
SEC. 25. That all drawbacks and rebatement of insurance, freight, transportation, carriage, wharfage, storage, compressing, baling, repair- ing, or for any other kind of labor or service, of or to any cotton, grain
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or any other produce or article of commerce in this state, paid or allowed or contracted for, to any common carrier, shipper, merchant, commis- sion merchant, factor, agent, or middle man of any kind, not the true and absolute owner thereof, are forever prohibited, and it shall be the duty of the legislature to pass effective laws punishing all persons in this state who pay, receive, or contract for or respecting the same.
SEC. 26. Every person, corporation or company that may commit a homicide, through wilful act or omission or gross neglect, shall be responsible in exemplary damages to the surviving husband, wife, heirs of his or her body, or such of them as there may be, without regard to any criminal proceeding that may or may not be had in relation to the homicide.
SEC. 27. In all elections to fill vacancies of office in this state, it shall be to fill the unexpired term only.
SEC. 28. No current wages for personal service shall ever be subject to garnishment.
SEC. 29. The legislature shall provide by law for defining and punish- ing barratry.
SEC. 30. The duration of all offices not fixed by this constitution shall never exceed two years.
SEC. 31. The legislature may pass laws prescribing the qualifications of practitioners of medicine in this state, and to punish persons for mal- practice, but no preference shall ever be given by law to any schools of medicine.
SEC. 32. The legislature may provide by law for the establishment of a board of health and vital statistics, under such rules and regulations as it may deem proper.
SEC. 33. The accounting officers of this state shall neither draw nor pay a warrant upon the treasury in favor of any person, for salary or compensation as agent, officer or appointee, who holds at the same time any other office or position of honor, trust or profit, under this state or the United States, except as prescribed in this constitution.
SEC. 34. The legislature shall pass laws authorizing the governor to lease or sell to the government of the United States a sufficient quantity of the public domain of the state necessary for the erection of forts, bar- racks, arsenals, and military stations or camps, and for other needful military purposes ; and the action of the governor therein shall be sub- ject to the approval of the legislature.
SEC. 35. The legislature shall, at its first session, pass laws to protect laborers on public buildings, streets, roads, railroads, canals and other similar public works, against the failure of contractors and sub-contract- ors to pay their current wages when due, and to make the corporation, company or individual for whose benefit the work is done, responsible for their ultimate payment.
SEC. 36. The legislature shall, at its first session, provide for the pay- ment or funding, as they may, deem best, of the amounts found to be justly due to the teachers in the public schools by the state, for service rendered prior to the 1st day of July, 1873, and for the payment by the school districts in the state of amounts justly due teachers of public schools by such district to January, 1876.
SEC. 37. Mechanics, artisans and material men, of every class, shall
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have a lien upon the buildings and articles made or repaired by them, for the value of their labor done thereon, or material furnished therefor ; and the legislature shall provide by law for the speedy and efficient enforcement of said liens.
SEC. 38. The legislature may, at such time as the public interest may require, provide for the office of commissioner of insurance, statistics and history, whose term of office, duties and salary shall be prescribed by law.
SEC. 39. The legislature may, from time to time, make appropriations for preserving and perpetuating memorials of the history of Texas, by means of monuments, statues, printings, and documents of historical value.
SEC. 40. No person shall hold or exercise, at the same time, more than one civil office of emolument, except that of justice of the peace, county commissioner, notary public and postmaster, unless otherwise specially provided herein.
SEC. 41. Any person who shall, directly or indirectly offer, give or promise, any money or thing of value, testimonial, privilege or personal advantage, to any executive or judicial officer or member of the legisla- ture, to influence him in the performance of any of his public or official duties, shall be guilty of bribery, and be punished in such manner as shall be provided by law. And any member of the legislature, or execu- tive or judicial officer, who shall solicit, demand or receive, or consent to receive, directly or indirectly, for himself or for another, from any com- pany, corporation or person, any money, appointment, employment, tes- timonial, reward, thing of value or employment, or of personal advantage or promise thereof, for his vote or official influence, or for withholding the same, or with any understanding, expressed or implied, that his vote or official action shall be in any way influenced thereby, or who shall solicit, demand and receive any such money or other advantage, matter or thing aforesaid, for another, as the consideration of his vote or official influence, in consideration of the payment or promise of such money, advantage, matter or thing to another, shall be held guilty of bribery, within the meaning of the constitution, and shall incur the disabilities provided for said offenses, with a forfeiture of the office they may hold, and such other additional punishment as is or shall be provided by law.
SEC. 42. The legislature may establish an inebriate asylum, for the cure of drunkenness and reform of inebriates.
SEC. 43. No man or set of men shall ever be exempted, relieved or discharged, from the performance of any public duty or service imposed by general law, by any special law. Exemptions from the performance of such public duty or service shall only be made by general law.
SEC. 44. The legislature shall prescribe the duties, and provide for the election, by the qualified voters of each county in this state, of a county treasurer and a county surveyor, who shall have an office at the county seat, and hold their office for two years, and until their successors are qualified ; and shall have such compensation as may be provided by law.
SEC. 45. It shall be the duty of the legislature to provide for collecting, arranging and safely keeping such records, rolls, correspondence, and other documents, civil and military, relating to the history of Texas, as
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may be now in the possession of parties willing to confide them to the care and preservation of the state.
SEC. 46. The legislature shall provide by law for organizing and dis- ciplining the militia of the state, in such manner as they shall deem expe- dient, not incompatible with the constitution and the laws of the United States.
SEC. 47. Any person who conscientiously scruples to bear arms, shall not be compelled to do so, but shall pay an equivalent for personal service.
SEC. 48. All laws and parts of laws now in force in the State of Texas, which are not repugnant to the constitution of the United States or to this constitution, shall continue and remain in force as the laws of this state until they expire by their own limitation or shall be amended or repealed by the legislature.
SEC. 49. The legislature shall have power, and it shall be its duty, to protect by law from forced sale a certain portion of the personal property of all heads of families, and also of unmarried adults, male and female.
SEC. 50. The homestead of a family shall be, and is hereby protected from forced sale, for the payment of all debts except for the purchase money thereof, or a part of such purchase money, the taxes due thereon, or for work and material used in constructing improvements thereon, and in this last case only when the work and material are contracted for in writing, with the consent of the wife given in the same manner as is required in making a sale and conveyance of the homestead ; nor shall the owner, if a married man, sell the homestead without the consent of the wife, given in such manner as may be prescribed by law. No mort- gage, trust deed or other lien on the homestead shall ever be valid, except for the purchase money therefor, or improvements made thereon, as herein before provided, whether such mortgage, or trust deed, or other lien, shall have been created by the husband alone or together with his wife ; and all pretended sales of the homestead involving any condition of defeas- ance shall be void.
SEC. 51. The homestead not in a town or city shall consist of not more than two hundred acres of land, which may be in one or more parcels, with the improvements thereon ; the homestead in a city, town or village, hall consist of lot or lots, not to exceed in value five thousand dollars at the time of their designation as the homestead, without reference to the value of any improvements thereon ; provided, that the saine shall be used for the purposes of a home, or as a place to exercise the calling or business of the head of a family ; provided, also, that any temporary renting of the homestead shall not change the character of the same, when no other homestead has been acquired.
SEC. 52. On the death of the husband or wife, or both, the homestead shall descend and vest in like manner as other real property of the de- ceased, and shall be governed by the same laws of descent and distribu- tion, but it shall not be partitioned among the heirs of the deceased during the lifetime of the surviving husband or wife, or so long as the survivor may elect to use or occupy the same as a homestead, or so long as the guardian of the minor children of the deceased may be permitted, under the order of the proper court having the jurisdiction, to use and occupy the same.
SEC. 53. That no inconvenience may arise from the adoption of this
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constitution, it is declared that all process and writs of all kinds which have been or may be issued and not returned or executed when this consti- tution is adopted, shall remain valid, and shall not be in any way affected by the adoption of this constitution.
SEC. 54. It shall be the duty of the legislature to provide for the cus- tody and maintenance of indigent lunatics, at the expense of the state, under such regulations and restrictions as the legislature may prescribe.
SEC. 55. The legislature may provide annual pensions, not to exceed one hundred and fifty dollars per annum, to surviving soldiers or volun- teers in the war between Texas and Mexico, from the commencement of the revolution in 1835, until the 1st of January, 1837 ; and also to the surviving signers of the declaration of independence of Texas ; and to the surviving widows, continuing unmarried, of such soldiers and signers ; provided, that no such pension be granted except to those in indigent cir- cumstances, proof of which shall be made before the county court of the county where the applicant resides, in such manner as may be provided by law.
SEC. 56. The legislature shall have no power to appropriate any of the public money for the establishment and maintenance of a bureau of im- migration, or for any purpose of bringing immigrants to this state.
SEC. 57. Three million acres of the public domain are hereby appro- priated and set apart for the purpose of erecting a new state capitol and other necessary public buildings at the seat of government, said lands to be sold under the direction of the legislature ; and the legislature shall pass suitable laws to carry this section into effect.
ARTICLE XVII. MODE OF AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION OF THIS STATE.
SECTION 1. The legislature, at any biennial session, by a vote of two- thirds of all the members elected to each house, to be entered by yeas and nays on the journals, may propose amendments to the constitution, to be voted upon by the qualified electors for members of the legislature, wha proposed amendments shall be duly published once a week for four weeks, commencing at least three months before an election, the time of which shall be specified by the legislature, in one weekly newspaper of each county in which such a newspaper may be published ; and it shall be the duty of the several returning officers of said election to open a poll for, and make returns to the secretary of state of the number of legal votes cast at said election for and against said amendments ; and if more than one be proposed, then the number of votes cast for and against each of them ; and if it shall appear from said return that a majority of the votes cast have been cast in favor of any amendment the said amendment so receiv- ing a majority of the votes cast shall become a part of this constitution, and proclamation shall be made by the governor thereof.
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APPENDIX.
TEXAS FLAGS.
IT would be difficult, at this remote period and with insufficient data, to settle positively the several claims which have been urged to the origin of the lone star flag. It is due to the memory of the Georgia battalion who were murdered at Goliad with Fannin, also a Georgian, and to the brave Alabamians, to place upon record the claims of their lone star flag, presented to them at Knoxville, Tennessee, in their pas- sage through that State, en route for Texas, by Miss Troutman of that city.
Miss Troutman's flag was constructed of white silk, with an azure star of five points. On one side was the motto, "Liberty or Death; " on the reverse, in Latin, " Where Liberty dwells, there is my Country." This flag was floating at Goliad, and on the evening of the 8th of March, after a day of rejoicing over the news of the declaration of independ- ence, in attempting to lower it as the sunset gun was fired, it became entangled in the cordage, and was so torn that it was left for time to destroy shred by shred.
A lone star flag was made and presented in 1835, by Mrs. Sarah R. Dawson of Harrisburg, Texas, to a Harrisburg company under Captain Andrew Robertson. This flag was red, white, and blue ; the star, white and five pointed, was set in a ground of red.
Over the cabin in which the declaration of independence was signed, floated a flag with the design of a sinewy hand grasping a red sword, and underneath this a lone star flag. The flag under which those consecrated men in the Alamo laid down their lives was the emblem of constitutional
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liberty in Mexico-the Mexican tri-color, with "1824" stamped upon it .. The news of the declaration of independ- ence never reached them.
The volunteer companies from the United States brought with them colors presented by their lady friends in the locality, and were thrown to the breeze wherever the foes of Texas were to be met ; General Sidney Sherman's flag, pre- . sented by the ladies of Newport, Kentucky, waved at San Jacinto, and was afterward presented to Mrs. Sherman by the war department, with the justly bestowed praises of that brave officer and his chivalrous band.
The present national banner of Texas was adopted by the first Congress of the Republic. It is red, white, and blue. The star is white, five pointed, the fifth point at the top, set in a perpendicular light blue ground which is next to the staff, and one-third the width of the whole flag; from this come the two stripes, one red and at the bottom, the white being above.
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GOVERNORS AND PRESIDENTS OF TEXAS.
Provisional Governor before the Republic. HENRY SMITH, 1835-36. President ad interim of the Republic.
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