USA > Vermont > Outlines of the geography, natural and civil history and constitution of Vermont. Also the Constitution of the United States. with notes and queries > Part 20
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ART. 7. The senate shall have the sole power of trying and deciding upon all impeachments ; - when sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath, or affirmation, and no person shall be con- vieted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members pres- ent. Judgment, in cares of impeachment, shall not extend farther than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold or enjoy any office of honor, or profit or trust, under this sinte. But the party convicted, shall, nevertheless, be liable, and subject to in- dietinent, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law.
ART. 8. The supreme executive power of the state shall be exercised by the governor, or in case of bis absence of disability, by the lieutenant governor ; who shall have all the powers and perform all the duties vested in and enjoined upon the governor and council, by the eleventh and twenty-seventh sections of the second chapter of the Constitution, as ut present established, except- ing that he shall not sit as a judge, in case of impeachment, nor grant reprieve, or pardon, in any such case ; nor shall he command the forces of the state in person, in the of war, or insurrection, unless by the advice and consent of the senate ; and no longer than they shall approve thereof. The governor herv have a secretary of civil and military affairs, Le in by bim appointed during pleasure, whose services he may at all times cartaand ; and for whose com- pensation, provision shall be made by law.
ART. 9. The votes for governor. lieu enut governor. and treat- urer of the state, shall be sorted and counted, and the result declared by a committee, appointed by the senate and house of representatives. If, at any time, there ebiit be no election, by the freemen, of governor, lieutenant governor, and treasurer of the state, the senate and house of representatives chall, by a joint bal- lot, elect to fill the office, not filled by the freemen as aforesaid, one of the three candidates for such office, (if there be so many, ) for whom the greatest number of votes shall have been returned.
ART. 10. The secretary of state, and all officers whode elections
248
APPENDIX.
are not otherwise provided for, and who, under the existing pro- visions of the Constitution, are elected by the council and house of representatives, shall, hereafter, be elected by the senate and house of representatives, in joint assembly, at which the presiding officer of the senate shall preside ; and such presiding offieer, in such joint assembly, shall have a casting vote, and no other.
ART. 11. Every bill, which shall have passed the senate and house of representatives, shall. before it become a law, be presented to the governor : if he approve, he shall sign it : if not, he shall return it, with his objections in writing, to the house in which it shall have originated ; which shall proceed to reconsider it. If. upon such reconsideration, a majority of the house shall pass the bill, it shall, together with the objections, bo sent to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, nud if approved by a majority of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases, the votes of both houses shall be taken by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons, voting for or against the bill, shall be entered on the journal of each house, respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the governor, as aforeraid, within five days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall become a law, in hike manner as if he had signed it; unless the two houses, by their adjournment, within three days after the presentiuent of such bill, shall prevent its return ; in which case it shall not become a law.
ART. 12. The writ of habeas corpus shall, in no case, be sue- pended. It shall be a writ, issuable of right ; and the general assembly shall make provision to render it a speedy and effectual remedy in all cases proper therefor.
ART. 13. Such parts and provisions, only, of the Constitution of this state, established by convention, on the ninth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, as are altered or superseded by any of the foregoing amendments, or are repugnant thereto, shall hereafter cease to have effect.
ART. 14. The assistant judges of the county court shall be elected by the freemen of their respective counties.
ART. 15. Sheriff's and high haififfe shall be elected by the free- men of their respective countier.
ART. 16. State's Attorneys shall be elected by the freemen of their respective counties.
ART. 17. Judges of probate shall be elected by the freemen of their respective probate districts.
ART. IS. Justices of the peace shall be elected by the freemen of their respective towns ; and towns having less than one thousand inhabitants may elect any number of justices of the peace not ex- ceeding five ; towns having one thousand, and less than two thou- rand inhabitants, may cleet seren; towns having two thousand, and less than three thousand inhabitants, may clect ten; towns having three thousand and less than five thousand, may elect
249
APPENDIX.
twelve; and towns having five thousand, or more, inhabitants, may elect fifteen justices of the peace.
ART. 19. All the officers named in the preceding articles of amendment (Articles XIV. to XVIII. ) shall be annually elected by ballot and shall hold their offices for one year, said year com- meneing on the first day of December next after their election.
ART. 20. The election of the several officers mentioned in the preceding articles, ( Articles XIV. to XVIII,) excepting town rep- resentatives, shall be made at the times and in the manner now directed in the Constitution for the choice of senators. And the presiding officer of cach freemen's meeting, after the vote shall have been taken, sorted, and counted, shall, in open meeting, make a certificate of the names of each person voted for, with the num- ber of votes given for each, annexed to his name and designating the office for which the votes were given, a record of which shall be made in the town clerk's office, and he shall seal up said certifi- cate, and shall write thereon the name of the town and the words, Certificate of rotex for , and add thereto, in writing, the title of the office voted for, as the case may be, and shall deliver such certificate to tome representative chosen as a member of the general assembly, whose duty it shall be to cause such certificate of votes to be delivered to the committee of the general assembly appointed to canvas, the same. And at the sitting of the general assembly, next after such balloting for the officers aforesaid, there shall be a committee appointed of and by the general assembly, who shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of their duty, and whose duty it shall be to examine such certificates and ascertain the number of votes given for each candidate, and the persons receiving the large.t number of votes for the respective offices shall be declared duly elected, and by such committee be reported to the general assembly, and the officers so elected shall be commissioned by the governor. And if two or more persons designated for any one of said offices shall have received an equal number of votes, the general assembly shall elect one of such persons to such office.
ART. 21. The term of office of the governor, lieutenant-gov- ernor, and treasurer of the state, respectively, shall commence when they shall be chosen and qualified, and shall continue for the terin of one year, or until their successors shall be chosen and qualified, or to the adjournment of the session of the legislature, at which, by the Constitution and Fiwa, their snecessors are required to be chosen, and not after snch adjourminent. And the legisl- ture shall provide, by general law, declaring what officer shall act as governor whenever there shall be a vacancy in both the offices of governor and lieutenant governor, occasioned by a failure to elect, or by the removal from office, or by the death, resignation, or inability of both governor and lieutenant-governor, to exercise the powers and discharge the duties of the office of governor ; and wuchi officer, so designated, shall exercise the powers and discharge the duties appertaining to the office of governor accordingly, until
250
APPENDIX.
the disability shall be removed, or a governor shall be elected. And in case there shall be a vacancy in the office of treasurer, by reason or any of the enuses enumerated, the governor shall appoint a treasurer for the time being, who shall act as treasurer until the disability shall be removed, or a new election shall be made.
ART. 22. The treasurer of the state shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, give sufficient security to the secretary of state, in behalf of the state of Vermont before the governor of the state, or one of the judges of the supreme court. And sheriffs and high bailiffs, before catering upon the duties of their respective offices, shall give sufficient security to the treasurer of their respeet- ive counties, before one of the judges of the supreme court, or the two assistant judges of the county court of their respective coun- ties, in such manner and in sach rums as shall be directed by the legislature.
ART. 23. The senate shall be composed of thirty senators, to be of the freemien of the county for which they are elected, re- spectively, who shall have attained the age of thirty years, and they shall be elected annually by the freemen of each county re- spectively ..
The senators shall be apportioned to the several counties, ac- cording to the population, as ascertained by the census taken under the authority of congress in the year 1810, regard being always had, in such apportionment, to the counties having the largest fraction, and giving to each county at least one senator.
The legislature shall make a new apportionment of the senators to the several counties, after the inking of cach coneua of the Uni- ted States, or after a census taken for the purpose of such appor- tionment, under the authority of this state, always regarding the above provisions of this article.
[NOTE. The first Constitution of Vermont was adopted by a convention of dele- gatos which met at Windsor, on The second day of July, A. D. 1777, and was revised by the samo convention at a zrbsequent meeting at Windsor, on the twenty-fourth day of December of the same year.
To this Constitution amendments were made by a convention holden at Man- chester, on the last Thursday of June, A. D. 1780. Further amendments were made by a convention which met at Windsor, on the third day of July. A. D. 1793, and the Constitution as thaus amended consisted of those of the foregoing articles and sections which precede them designated a . " articles of amendoimut."
The first of the above designated articles of amendment was adopted by a con- vention holden at Montpelier, on the twenty -sith day of June. A. D. 1528 ; those numbered from two to Parter, inclusive, were adopted by a convention, held at Montpelier, on the sixth day wi January, A. 1 1-36; and those numbered from fourteen to twenty three inclusive, were ademed l. a convention, held at Montpelier. on the second day of funmary, A. P. 1 23.
The convention of 1793, ia-teal of promulgating only the amendments which they had adopted, as has been the practico since, engrossed and ret forth the whole Constitution without making any distinction between the articles previously in force and those then adopted ; this engrossnient, which was signed by the officers of that convention, and deposited in the secretary of state's office, is styled in a title-page prefixed to it, " The Corsiication of Vermont, as adopted by the convention, holdeu at Windsor, July fourth, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three," and in consequence of this error, those articles which had been previously established by the conventions of 1726 and 1777 have, in connection with the amendments adopted in 1793, been uniformly alluded to and designated as the Constitution " established " of " adopied " by the convention of 1794.
251
APPENDIX.
It is nhvions, from a comparison, that a majority of the articles and sectiora in this Constitution had their origin and adoption in the conventions of 1786 and 1777, and that it is ad incorrect to speak of the whole Constitution as being adopied or establisbed in 1793 as it would be to say of the whole of our present Constitution, that it was adopted by the convention of 1850.
The convention of 1793 was called by the council of censors " for the purpose (Ľ considering and adopting the amendments of the Constitution, as proposed by this council ; " in the news papers of those daye it was spoken of as " the coovention lor ratitying or rejecting the amendments to the Constitution of this state as proposed by the council of censors." That it was the understanding of the convention that they were merely amending an already established and existing Constitution, is apparent from the only account of their proceedings which the compiler has been able to find ; and that such was the understanding of its thembets, and the construction givea both by them and by the legislature of the state at its session in October, 1793, ie evident from the questions winch then arose, and the decisions which were made respecting the right of several towns to have two representatives at that session, under the provisions of the seventh section of the second chapter of the l'onstitution as then promulgated.]
Questions.
Where are courts of justice to be maintained? What office ate the judges of the supreme court to hold in every part of the state ? County judges in their respective counties ? What exceptions ? What court may be erected by the legislature ? What is provided respecting the legislative, executive of judiciary departments ? What pro- vision is made in section VIL ? Does this provision now exist ? What kind of men should be selected for representatives : When to be chosen ? What time convene ? What is the legislature sty led ? Umier what circumstances may a majority of the members legally act ? What officers may the legislature choose ? In what particulars i- section IX amended ? When and how is a governor and lieutenant governor, and treasurer to be elected ? Who is to preside at the mecting, when the members of the legislature are chosen? What committee to be chosen at the opening of the legisla- ture ? In what respects is section X attended ? (See eighth and ninth articles of amendment.) What duties is the governor to discharge ? What military power > he to exercive ? In what respects has section XI been amended ? What is the form of oath oraffirmation, to be taken by each member of the legislat ire ? What is required in section XIII ? What mn section XIV ? What is the style of the laws of the state ? How has section XVI been amended ? What is the governor required to do it he disapproves of a bib ? When thay a bill become a law, notwithstanding the gov- ernuts objection ? How ? In what way can money be drawn from the treasury of the state ? How long must a person reside in the state before he can be elected as a representative? How long in a town? Are members of the Senate or House of Representatives allowed to receive a fee for introducing a bill ? What right is re- fused to the legislature respectiog freason or felony ? What are the qualifications of a freeman ? What oath must be taken before being allowed to vote ? What is re- quired by section XXII? Section XXIII ? What ought every freeman to have ? What compensation should those receive who are called ihto public service ? What penalty for taking unlawful fees ? The holding of what offices do qualities one from holding at the same time any other ? Can ofte who holds an office of profit of trust under Congress, be eligible to office by appointment of the legislature ? What is required of the state treasurer ? (See XX article of amendment.) What is re- quired by section XXVIII ? Section XXIX ? How long must a person reside in the «tate before he can be elected governor ? When may trials proceed without a jury ? How shall all prosecutions be commenced ? How shall all indiements conclude ? How shall all fines be proportioned ? When may a debtor be discharged from prison ? What prisoners may procure bail ? What ought to be the character of all elections ? What penalty for receiving gifts or rewards tor casting vores ? Where shall all deeds or conveyances of land be recorded ? How shall the legislature regulate entails ? What means ought to be provided to deter frein the commission of mines ? What provision respecting the cstates of persons who destroy their own livos ? What righte are reserved to those who come to settle in th's state ? What liberties are granted in section XI. ? What laws ought to be constantly in i ree ? What vorieties ate to be encouraged ? What is declared to be a part of the l'institution? When is a council of censoir to be chosen ? Number ? How otten? What are the duties required of theur ? What power is given to that council? How long must proposed articles of amendments to the Constitution be promulgated, before the day appointed for the election of a convention to art on thetn ? Describe each article of amendment.
TABLE
Showing the number of males and females in each County of the State, in 1860, whether white, black or mulatto, born in the United States, and the number of the same description born in foreign countries ; the total number of each class, and the total population of each County.
-
BORN IN UNITED STATES.
WHITE.
BLACK.
MULATTO.
COUNTIES.
Mal ..
Female.
Total,
Male.
Female.
Total.
Male
l'emale.
Total.
Total native born.
WHIIL.
BLACK. MULATTO.
Total foreign born.
Aggregate pop
Male.
Female
Male.
Female
Total.
+male.
Total.
Addison,
17 2~3
19 554
21 837
23
3)
53 18 12
20 9261
1.65 +
1,421
3 041
30-1
21.010
Bennington,
17 444
41
91
17 5550
Caledonia.
10 190
20 232
10
10
21
20 252
82+
1,452
2
:>
4
1.456
21713
Chienden.
10,933
11 207
22:00
20
13
33 30 31 01
21,2 14
3.015
2.857
5,872
4
1
5
5.277
27,171
755
2 453
5 218
5 219
333
235.
Franklin.
11 089
11.121
22.213
11
3.
22 219
25%)
2 4 10
1
1
1
1
031. 1
12 311
Orange,
12 257
1'321
21 578
3
3
7 13
20
24 601
49=
Orleans,
8.33 )
8 251
16 581
11
19
16 6 F)
1,985
1 095
2 3-0
1
1
2.341
1 -. 941
Rutland.
15 171
15 019
30.180
:1
50, 127
3)325
:1,090
2 52 )
5, 616
3
5 621.
35 916
Washington,
12786
12,19%
25 283
9
16
25 2019
1 242
1,070
1
1
2.313
27.612
Windham,
13,133
12.9.+1
26 137.
13
x
21
12
26.070
410
472
912
9121
26,99!
Windsor.
17 761
17 979
35,740
39
39
78
22 23
45
731
594
1 325
3.
4
1 330
37,193
Total,
1|140.414 149.729 251,671' 208 234 532 89 93 182 222,355 | 17,473 15 215 22,718
BORN IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
tion.
APPENDIX.
252
27 231
Grand I-le,
1 739
1 635
3.395
3
1
1
3 3980
43i
441
8.1
Lmamville.
5.857
5.817
11,674
1
1
F
11,075
3-14
272
1
6541
25.454
i
1
1
-
8 : 15 6 4 10 32,743|| 315,09:
1,651
19 433
3.736
E-sex.
-1 274
4 4
35,853
253
APPENDIX.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of man- kind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with ertain un- alienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are in- stituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of there ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, Liying ity foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in sach form, as to them shall seein most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dietate that govermnente, long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and, accord- ingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when n long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce thein under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such goverment, and to proivde new gnards for their future security Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the prevert king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct object, the establishment of an chsolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be sulanitted to a candid world :
He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and neces- sary for the publie good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediato and pressing importance, unlere suspended in their operation till his
254
APPENDIX.
assent should be obtained ; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
lie has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.
Hle has called together legislative bodies nt places unusual, un- comfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
lle has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.
lle has refused, for a long time after such diesolutions, to cause others to be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exer- cise ; the state remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from withont, and convulsions within.
Ile has endeavored to prevent the population of these states ; for that purpose, obstrueting the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
Hle has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to Lara's our people, and cat out their substance.
Ho has kept among ne, in times of peace, standing armies, with- out the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independent of, and supe- rior to, the civil power.
He has combined, with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation.
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among 18 :
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commuit on the inhabitants of these stated :
For cutting off. our trade with all parts of the world :
For imposing taxes on us withont our consent :
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefit of trial by jury :
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended of- fenses :
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and en- larging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colo- Dies :
255
APPENDIX.
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments :
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign merce- naries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with circumstances of' cruelty and perfidy seareely paralleled in the most barborous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the cxecution- ers of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
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