USA > Texas > The bench and bar of Texas > Part 44
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ATTRIBUTES OF THE GOVERNOR.
First. To take care that the internal order and tranquility of the State be preserved, and its safety without - for both objects disposing of the militia of the State, of which he shall be commander-in-chief throughout the Territory. Second. To see that the constitutive act, the Federal and State Constitutions, the laws, decrees and orders of the general government, and of the Congress of said State, be fulfilled, issuing the proper orders and decrees for their execution. Third. To form, with the advice of the council, such instructions and regulations as he deems necessary for the better government of the departments of the public administration of the State, which he shall transmit to Con- gress for approval. Fourth. To appoint agreeably to the constitution and laws, all the officers of State, not chosen by the people, or otherwise provided by law. Fifth. To freely appoint and remove the Secretary of State. Sixth. To see that justice is fully and promptly administered by the tribunals and courts of the State, and that their judg- ments are executed. Seventh. To take care of the admin- istration and collection of all the State rents, and decree
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their disposition according to law. Eighth. To suspend from office, as long as three months, and deprive of even one-half their salary for the same length of time, after having the advice of the council, all officers of the execu- tive department for violating his orders or decrees, trans- mitting the data on the subject to the respective tribunal, should he think there is a just ground of action. Ninth To propose to the standing deputation, whenever he thinks proper, after hearing the advice of the council, the conven- ing of Congress to extra session.
RESTRICTIONS OF THE POWERS OF THE GOVERNOR.
The Governor shall not have power: First. To command the civic militia of the State in person without the express consent of Congress, or, during its recess, of the permanent deputation. Whenever he commands the said militia on the aforesaid condition the Vice-Governor shall discharge the duties of Governor. Second. To interfere in the ex- amination of causes pending, or dispose in any manner of the persons of those accused in criminal cases, during the trial. Third. To deprive any one of his liberty, or impose punishment upon him; but when the well being and safety of the State require the arrest of any person, he may effect it on condition of putting the person arrested, within forty- eight hours, at the disposal of a competent tribunal or judge. Fourth. To take possession of the property of any private individual or corporation, or disturb him in the pos- session, use, or benefit of the same, unless it should be necessary for a purpose of manifest public utility in the judgment of the executive council, in which case he may do so with the concurrence of the council, the approval of Congress, and, during the recess, of the permanent deputa. tion, always indemnifying the party interested agreeably to the opinion of appraisers chosen jointly by the executive and the said party. Fifth. To impede or embarrass in any manner, or under any pretense, the popular elections deter- mined by this Constitution and laws, so that they may not have their entire effect. Sixth. To leave the capital to go to any other part of the State for a longer time than one
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month. Should he require a longer time, or should he be under the necessity of leaving the State, he shall request license from Congress, and, during recess, from the perma- nent deputation.
414. For publishing the laws and decrees of the Congress of the State the Governor shall use the following form : -
" The Governor of the State of Coahuila and Texas, to all the inhabitants thereof : Be it known, that the Congress of said State has decreed as follows: [The original words of the law or decree to be here inserted. ] Wherefore, I command it to be printed, published, and duly fulfilled."
SECTION SECOND - VICE-GOVERNOR.
115. There shall likewise be a Vice-Governor in the State, having the same qualifications as those required for Governor; his term of office four years, and he can not be re-elected to the same office until in the fourth year from having ceased in his functions.
116. The Vice-Governor shall preside over the council, but without having any vote except in case of a tie. He shall also be the police chief of the department of the capital; and when he officiates as Governor the office of political chief shall be discharged by a substitute whom he shall appoint, provisionally with the approval of the council.
117. The Vice-Governor shall discharge the functions of Governor during the vacancy of that office, or when the latter in the opinion of Congress or the permanent deputa- tion, is impeded from serving.
118. When the Vice-Governor also fails, the councilor whom Congress appoints shall act in the place of Governor. Should it be during recess, the appointment shall be made provisionally, until the meeting of Congress, by the per- manent deputation.
119. In case of decease or absolute impossibility dur- ing the first two years of exercising their functions, a new Governor or Vice-Governor shall be chosen at the time of holding the next election for deputies to Congress.
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120. For crimes of any kind whatever, committed dur- ing his term of office, the Vice-Governor can be accused only before Congress.
SECTION THIRD - OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
121. For the better discharge of the duties of his office, the Governor shall have a body of consultation to be styled Executive Council, which shall be composed of three voters proprietary and two substitutes, of whom one only can be an ecclesiastic.
122. For being a member of the council the same quali- fications shall be required as for being a deputy. Those not eligible as deputies can not be councilors.
123. The council shall be renewed every two years, one voter proper and one substitute, the last chosen, retiring in the first instance, and the other members proper and the other substitute, in the second instance, and so on succes- sively.
124. No councilor can be re-elected until the fourth year from the expiration of his term of office.
125. When the Governor attends the council he shall preside without having a vote, and in that case the Vice- Governor shall not attend.
126. The secretary of the council shall be one of the members thereof, in the manner and form provided in its internal rules, which the council itself shall form and pre- sent to the executive who shall transmit them to Congress for approval.
127. The attributes of the council shall be as follows : -
First. To give the Governor a written report in all busi- ness wherein the law imposes on the latter the duty of requesting the same, and in other matters wherein the Gov- ernor himself thinks proper to consult said body. Second. To watch over the observance of the constitutive act, Fed- eral Constitution, general laws of the Union, and the particular laws of the State, apprising Congress of any violations it may observe. Third. To promote the estab- lishment of, and give activity to, all the branches of pros- perity of the State. Fourth. To propose nominations of
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three for filling those offices wherein the laws exact this requisite. Fifth. To concur with the permanent deputation agreeable to article eighty-nine, on the convocation of Con- gress to extra session, and meet with said deputation for the temporary measures that may be necessary in those cases mentioned in article ninety. Sixth. To explain the accounts of all the public funds, and transmit them to Con- gress for approval.
128. The council shall be responsible for all acts relating to the exercise of its attributes.
SECTION FOURTH - ELECTION OF GOVERNOR, VICE-GOVERNOR AND COUNCILORS.
129. On the day following the election of deputies to Congress each and every electoral district shall chose a Governor, Vice-Governor, three councilors proper and two substitutes, holding said election in the mode and manner prescribed in former articles of this Constitution.
130. Said election having closed, a list signed by the secretary of the assembly, confirming the names of the persons elected and offices for which they were chosen, shall be immediately posted in the most public place. The acts shall be signed by the President and electors, and at- tested copies thereof, authorized by the said President, secretary and teller shall be transmitted, enclosed in a cer- tified sheet, to the standing deputation.
131. On the day the first ordinary sessions of Congress are opened, the ex-president of the permanent deputation shall present the aforementioned attested copies, and after they are read, Congress shall choose a committee from its own body to which they shall be referred, and said com- mittee shall review the same and report thereon on the third day.
132. On said day Congress shall proceed to determine the elections made by the districts and compute the votes.
133. The person who receives the absolute majority of votes of the district electoral assemblies to be computed according to the whole number of voters composing the
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same, shall be Governor, Vice-Governor, or councilor, as the election under consideration may be.
134. Should no person receive the aforesaid majority Congress shall elect for said offices one of the two or more individuals having the highest number of votes, and the same shall be done when no one has said respective major- ity, but all an equal number of votes.
135. Should one person only receive the respective ma- jority, and two or more an equal number of votes, but greater than that of all the others, Congress shall elect one individual from among the former to be run in competition for the election with the person who received the respective majority.
136. In case of tie the balloting shall be repeated once only, and should there still be a tie it shall be determined by lot.
137. The offices of Governor, Vice-Governor and coun- cilors shall be discharged in preference to any other whatever in the State, and shall necessarily have the same pref- erence among themselves. Those elected to those stations shall take possession thereof on the first of March, and they can not decline serving ; except the deputies to Congress at the time of the election, and those who, in the judgment of Congress, are morally or physically incompetent.
138. Should the Governor-elect, from any cause, not be present on said day to enter on the performance of his functions, the Vice-Governor newly chosen shall enter on the discharge of the duties of the office, and should he be also absent, his default shall be supplied agreeably to arti- cle one hundred and eighteen.
SECTION FIFTH - SECRETARY OF STATE.
139. The dispatch of all business whatever pertaining to the executive department of the State shall be under the charge of a secretary to be styled - Secretary of State.
140. For holding said office, it shall be required to be a citizen in the exercise of his rights, over twenty-five years of age, a native of this Republic, an inhabitant of this State,
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with three years' residence therein, and one year imme- diately preceding his election. Ecclesiastics can not hold said office.
141. All laws, decrees, orders, regulations and instruc- tions circulated to the towns, or directed by the Governor to a particular corporation or person, as well as the copies emanating from the department shall be authorized by the . secretary, and without this requisite they shall not be obeyed or be productive of faith.
142. The secretary shall be responsible with his person and office for whatever he authorizes with his signature con- trary to the constitutive act, the Constitution and general laws of the Union, or the particular Constitution and laws of the State, and orders of the President of the Republic not manifestly opposed to said Constitution and laws, without availing him as an excuse, his having done so by order of the Governor.
143. For the internal administration of his office, the rules which the secretary shall form, and Congress approve, shall be observed.
144. Said public officer, also the Governor, Vice-Governor, and councilors shall cease, during their trust, to discharge the duties of any public station they are filling, as soon as they have taken possession of their office.
SECTION SIXTH - DEPARTMENT POLICE CHIEFS. AND DISTRICT CHIEFS.
145. In the capital of each department of the State there shall be an officer charged with the political adminis- tration thereof, to be styled Department Police Chief.
146. To be a department chief it shall be required to be a citizen in the exercise of his rights, to have attained the age of twenty-five years, to be an inhabitant of the State, with three years' residence therein, and one immediately preced- ing his election.
147. The Governor on the nomination of three persons by the council, supported by reports from the Ayuntamien tos of the respective departments, shall appoint the depart- ment chiefs, except the one in the capital.
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148. The chiefs of department shall be immediately sub- ject to the Governor, and in no way to each other.
149. In the capital of each district, except that in which the department chief resides, there shall be furthermore : subordinate or district chief, appointed by the executive from three persons nominated by the said chief of the de- partment.
150. The subordinate or district chief shall possess the same qualifications as the department chiefs, with the dif- ference that their domiciliation and residence must be within the precincts of the same district, and they shall furthermore have some honorable way of making a living, sufficient to afford them a suitable support.
151. The term of office of the district chiefs shall be the same as that of the department chiefs, and, on nomination by the latter, they may also continue in office.
152. No one can decline serving in said trusts, except in case of re-election to the same within four years from the time of serving, or from some other legal cause in the opin- ion of the Governor, who shall resolve after hearing the re- spective chief of department.
153. These, as well as the department chiefs, shall be responsible for all their acts of omission against the Consti- tution and general laws of the Republic, and those of the States, the former to said chiefs of department, under whose immediate orders they shall act, and the latter to the Governor.
154. The attributes of both chiefs and the manner in which they are to exercise the same shall be detailed in the regulations for the political economical administration of the towns.
SECTION SEVENTHI - AYUNTAMIENTOS
155. It shall belong to the Ayuntamientos to attend care- fully to the police and internal administration of the towns of the State, and there shall be Ayuntamientos in all those towns where they have before existed.
156. Ayuntamientos shall be established in towns where there are none, wherein it is proper they should exist, and
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they shall be established without fail in the district capitals, whatever be the population, and in towns which, of them- selves, or with the territory they embrace, contain a popula- tion to the amount of one thousand souls; unless said towns should be annexed to another municipality, from which it may not be proper for them to separate, in order that they may have an Ayuntamiento, it shall be so declared by Con- - · gress, after receiving the report of the Governor, and the dispatch that shall be formed, assigning the limits that are to embrace the new municipality.
157. Towns that do not possess the population assigned, and which find it practicable being advantageously annexed to another or others, shall continue to be municipalities, and the Ayuntamientos shall be established at the place most convenient in the opinion of the executive.
158. In towns wherein Ayuntamientos can not be estab- lished, and which are so distant from the other muicipalities that the latter can not attend to the internal administration thereof, the electoral juntas of that to which they belong shall choose a commissary of police and a sindico procura- dor to discharge the duties assigned them in the regulations for the political administration of the towns.
159. The Ayuntamientos shall be composed of the alcalde or alcaldes, sindico or sindicos, and regidores, whose num- ber shall be designated in the aforementioned regulations.
160. To be a member of the Ayuntamientos, it shall be required to be a citizen in the exercise of his rights, over twenty-five years of age, or twenty-one if married, an in- habitant within the jurisdiction of the Ayuntamiento, with three years' residence therein, one year immediately preced- ing the election, to have some capital or trade whereby to subsist, and to be able to read and write.
161. Public officers receiving a salary from the State, military and other officers of the general government in actual discharge of their duties, and ecclesiastics, can not members of the Ayuntamiento.
162. The alcades shall all be replaced every year, of the regidores, one-half their number, and sindicos procuradores
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the same, should there be two, should there be only one, he shall be replaced any year.
163. A person who has performed the duties of said trust, can not hold any other municipal office, or be re- elected to that which he filled until after two years from having ceased his functions.
164. The members of the Ayuntamientos shall be chosen by the municipal electoral meetings, which shall be holden in the same manner as the municipal meetings established for the election of deputies to Congress. The former juntas shall be convoked on the first Sunday in December ; and they shall meet and perform their duties on the second Sun- day and the day following.
165. Pursuant to the action of said meetings, those citizens who have received the greatest number of votes in the respective lists shall be considered constituionally elected as alcaldes, regidores and sindicos. In case of a tie between two or more persons, it shall be decided by lot by the Ayuntamiento acting at the time of election.
166. Should any member of the Ayuntamiento decease, or his office become vacant from any other cause, the per- son receiving the highest number of votes in the order of the respective list shall succeed him in the discharge of the duties.
167. Ayuntamientol offices shall be municipal charges, which no one can decline.
TITLE III.
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN GENERAL.
168. The administration of justice in civil and criminal cases shall belong exclusively to the tribunals and courts of justice, which agreeably to the constitution should exer- cise the judicial power.
169. Neither Congress or the Governor can remove cases pending from an inferior to a superior court, nor can the tribunals and courts of justice themselves open those already concluded.
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170. Every inhabitant of the State shall be judged by competent tribunals and judges, established prior to the act by which he is judged, and in no way by special commis- sion or retroactive law.
171. The laws shall regulate the order and formalities to be observed in suits at law. These shall be uniform in all the courts of justice and tribunals, and no authority can dispense therewith.
182. The tribunals and courts of justice, being authorized solely for applying the laws, shall never interpret the same, or suspend their execution.
173. Military men and ecclesiastics, residing in the State, shall continue subject to their respective authorities.
174. No affair shall have more than three processes and a like number of determinate decisions. The law shall pro- vide which of said sentences shall produce a warrant of attorney, and from said sentence no other appeal shall be admitted than that of nullity, in the form and for the pur- poses the law provides.
175. A judge who has rendered a decision in a case, in any process thereof, can not take cognizance anew in any other process whatever, or in appeal of nullity interposed in said case.
176. Bribery, subornation and prevarication are ground; for public action against the magistrate or judge who should commit the same.
177. Justice shall be administered in the name of the State, in the manner the laws prescribe.
PARAGRAPH ONE - ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN CIVIL MAT- TERS. .
178. Every inhabitant of the State shall be perfectly free to terminate his controversies, whatever be the state of trial, by means of arbitrators, or in any other extra-ju- dicial manner. His agreements in this particular shall be strictly observed, and the decisions of the arbitrators executed, should the parties on making the mutual promise not reserve the right of appeal.
179. Cases of a small amount shall be terminated by. exe-
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cutive measures which shall be executed without any re- course. A particular law shall fix the sum and mode of proceeding therein.
180. In other civil and criminal matters in respect to wrongs there shall be s trial by conciliation, and without proving that this means has been attempted a trial by writ- ing can not be established, except in cases which the law itself shall determine.
PARAGRAPH TWO -- ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN CRIMINAL MATTERS.
181. All criminal actions, for light transgressions that should be punished by correctional penalties, shall be decided by executive judgment without the form or shape of trial, and from the result no appeal or other recourse can be interposed. The law shall assign said penalties, and determine the crimes to which they correspond.
182. In grave offenses summary information of the fact shall be drawn up authoritatively, without which requisite and that of the corresponding consequent warrant that shall be notified to the accused, and a copy thereof communicated to the jailor, no person can be a prisoner.
183. Should the judges not be able immediately to fulfill the provision of the preceding articles, the person arrested shall not be considered a prisoner but in the light of one de- tained, and should the jail warrant not be made known to him within forty-eight hours, and communicated to the jailor, he shall be discharged.
184. A person who gives bail in said cases, wherein it is not expressly prohibited by law, shall not be taken to prison, and in whatever state of the case it appears that corporal penalty can not be imposed on the prisoner, he shall be released under bail.
185. Those who have to declare in criminal matters upon their own actions shall do so without being under oath.
186. All persons may arrest a delinquent in the act and conduct him to the presence of the judge.
187. The greatest care shall be taken that the jails serve only for securing, and not for molesting the accused.
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188. Criminal causes shall be public in the manner and form the laws provide as soon as it is proposed to receive the declaration of the accused in reply to the charges.
189. The confiscation of property shall forever be pro- hibited, and even the seizure thereof can only be effected on proceeding in crimes involving a pecuniary responsibility, and only in proportion thereto.
190. Torture and compulsion shall never be used; and penalties imposed, whatever be the crimes, shall never pass to the family of him who suffers them, but they shall have their effect solely upon the person who deserved them.
191. No authority of the State can issue a mandate for searching the houses, papers, and other effects of the inhabi- tants thereof, except in those cases, and in the form, the laws provide.
192. One of the main objects of attention of Congress shall be to establish the trial by jury in criminal cases, to extend the same gradually, and even to adopt it in civil cases in proportion as the advantages of this valuable insti- tution become practically known.
PARAGRAPH THREE - THE COURTS OF JUSTICE.
193. The inferior courts of justice shall continue in the manner and form that shall be prescribed by law, until in the judgment of Congress the State rents permit the estab- lishment of learned judges, who shall be appointed in each district.
194. In the capital of the State there shall be a supreme tribunal, divided into three halls, each composed of the magistrate, or magistrates, whom the law designated, and said tribunal shall have a fiscal, who shall dispatch all the subjects of the three halls. Should the hall consist of one minister only said special law shall determine whether col- leagues should be appointed, and the manner and form in which it shall be done.
195. The two first halls shall take cognizance in the second and third processes of civil cases of inferior courts of justice, and also of criminal cases according as the laws determine.
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