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Supreme court, where holden.

State to be di

cuits.

the first session of the general assembly, which shall be begun and held after the first day of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred an twenty-five.

SEC. 4. The supreme court shall be holden at the seat of government, but may adjourn to a different place, if that shall have become dangerous from an enemy, or from disease.

SEC. 5. The state shall be divided into convenient circuits, vided into cir- and each circuit shall contain not less than three, nor more than six counties: and from each circuit there shall be appointed a judge, who shall, after his appointment, reside in the circuit for which he may be appointed.

Jurisdiction of circuit courts.

When held.

Chanc'y courts how establish

ed.

Courts of

ed.

pro

SEC. 6. The circuit court shall have original jurisdiction in all matters civil and criminal, within this state, not otherwise excepted in this constitution; but in civil cases, only when the matter or sum in controversy exceeds fifty doliars.

SEC. 7. A circuit court shall be held in each county in the state, at least twice in every year, and the judges of the several circuit courts may hold courts for each other when they deem it expedient, and shall do so when directed by law.

SEC. 8. The general assembly shall have power to establish a court or courts of chancery, with original and appellate equity jurisdiction; and until the establishment of such court or courts the said jurisdiction shall be vested in the judges of the circuit courts respectively: Provided, that the judges of the several circuit courts shall have power to issue writs of injunction, returnable into the courts of chancery.

SEC. 9. The general assembly shall have power to establish, bate establish- in each county within this state, a court of probate, for the granting of letters testamentary and of administration and for orphans' business.

Justices of

risdiction.

SEC. 10. A competent number of justices of the peace shall peace, their ju- be appointed in and for each county, in such mode and for such term of office as the general assembly may direct. Their jurisdiction in civil cases shall be limited to causes in which the amount in controversy shall not exceed fifty dollars. And in all cases, tried by a justice of the peace, right of appeal shall be secured, under such rules and regulations as may scribed by law.

Compensation of judges.

How elected.

Term of service

be pre

SEC. 11. Judges of the supreme and circuit courts, and courts of chancery, shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation, which shall be fixed by law, and shall not be diminished during their continuance in office: but they shall receive no fees or perquisites of office, nor hold any other office of profit or trust under this state, the United States, or any other power.

SEC. 12. Chancellors, judges of the supreme court, judges of the circuit courts, and judges of the inferior courts, shall be elected by joint vote of both houses of the general assembly. SEC. 13. The judges of the several courts in this state shall hold their offices during good behavior; and for wilful neglect How removed. of duty, or other reasonable cause, which shall not be sufficient ground for impeachment, the governor shall remove any of them, on the address of two-thirds of each house of the general assembly; Provided, however, that the cause or causes, for which such removal shall be required, shall be stated at length in such address, and entered on the journals of each house;

And provided further, that the cause or causes shall be notified to the judge so intended to be removed, and he shall be admitted to a hearing in his own defence, before any vote for such address shall pass; and in all such cases the vote shall be taken by yeas and nays, and entered on the journals of each house respectively; And provided also, that the judges of the several circuit courts who shall be appointed before the commencement of the first session of the general assembly which shall be begun and held after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, shall only hold their offices during good behavior, until the end of the said session, at which time their commissions shall expire.*

SEC. 14. No person who shall have arrived at the age of se-. Age disqualiventy years shall be appointed to, or continue in, the office of fies. judge in this state.

SEC. 15. Clerks of the circuit and inferior courts in this Clerks of courts state shall be elected by the qualified electors in each county, how elected. for the term of four years, and may be removed from office for Term of service such causes and in such manner as may be prescribed by law;

and should a vacancy occur, subsequent to an election, it shall Vacancies how be filled by the judge or judges of the court in which such filled. vacancy exists; and the person so appointed shall hold his of

fice until the next general election: Provided, however, that Proviso.
after the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six the
general assembly may prescribe a different mode of appoint-
ment, but shall not make such appointment.

Conservators

SEC. 16. The judges of the supreme court shall, by virtue of their offices, be conservators of the peace throughout the state, of the peace. as also the judges of the circuit courts in their respective districts, and judges of the inferior courts in their respective coun

ties.

SEC. 17. The style of all process shall be "The State of Style of proAlabama," and all prosecutions shall be carried on in the name,

and by the authority of the state of Alabama, and shall conclude "against the peace and dignity of the same."

cess.

SEC. 18. There shall be an attorney-general for the state, and Attorney geneas many solicitors as the general assembly may deem necessary,

ral & solicitors.

to be elected by a joint vote thereof, who shall hold their offices for the term of four years, and shall receive for their ser- Term of service and compensavices a compensation, which shall not be diminished during tion. their continuance in office.

Impeachments.

SEC. 1. The house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeaching.

SEC. 2. All impeachments shall be tried by the senate: when sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be on oath or affirmation and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present.

Who to im peach.

How tried.
Who liable.

To take an oath
How convicted

Who liable to

SEC. 3. The governor and all civil officers shall be liable to impeachment for any misdemeanor in office; but judgment in impeachment.

*This section was amended 1830.-See Amendment.

To what extend such cases shall not extend further than removal from office, and to disqualification to hold any office of honor, trust or profit, under the state; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, and punishment, according to law.

Oath to be taken.

Treason defined.

ARTICLE VI.

General Provisions.

SEC. 1. The members of the general assembly, and all officers, executive and judicial, before they enter on the execution of their respective offices, shall take the following oath or affirmation, to wit: "I solemnly swear (or affirm as the case may be,) that I will support the constitution of the United States, and constitution of the state of Alabama, so long as I continue a citizen thereof, and that I will faithfully discharge, to the best of my abilities, the duties of, according to law: So help me God."

SEC. 2. Treason against the state shall consist only in levying war against it, or in adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unHow convicted less on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or his own confession in open court.

Duelling.

Bribery

Disqualifying

laws.

SEC. 3. The general assembly shall have power to pass such penal laws to suppress the evil practice of duelling, extending to disqualification from office or the tenure thereof, as they may deem expedient.

SEC. 4. Every person shall be disqualified from holding any office or place of honor or profit, under the authority of the state, who shall be convicted of having given or offered any bribe to procure his election or appointment.

SEC. 5. Laws shall be made to exclude from office, from suffrage, and from serving as jurors, those who shall hereafter be convicted of bribery, perjury, forgery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors. The privilege of free suffrage shall be supFree suffrage ported by laws regulating elections, and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, all undue influence thereon, from power, bribery, tumult, or other improper conduct.

secured.

Elections by

SEC. 6. In all elections by the general assembly, the memgeneral assem- bers thereof shall vote viva voce, and the votes shall be entered bly. on the journals.

Public money. SEC. 7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of an appropriation made by law; and a regular Treasurer to statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all make report. public moneys shall be published annually.

Lands taxed.

State may be

sued.

Deductions

SEC. 8. All lands liable to taxation in this state, shall be taxed in proportion to their value.

SEC. 9. The general assembly shall direct, by law, in what manner, and in what courts, suits may be brought against the

state.

SEC. 10. It shall be the duty of the general assembly to regfrom salary for ulate, by law, the cases in which deductions shall be made neglect of duty. from the salaries of public officers, for neglect of duty in their official capacities, and the amount of such deduction.

SEC. 11. Absence on business of this state, or of the United Residence, &c. States. or on a visit, or necessary private business, shall not cause a forfeiture of a residence once obtained.

offices.

SEC. 12. No member of congress, nor any person holding Who disqualiany office of profit or trust under the United States, (the office fied from state of post-master excepted) or either of them, or any foreign power, shall hold or exercise any office of profit under this state. SEC. 13. Divorces from the bonds of matrimony shall not Divorces. be granted but in cases provided for by law, by suit in chancery: and no decree for such divorce shall have effect until the same shall be sanctioned by two thirds of both houses of the general assembly.

tried.

SEC. 14. In prosecutions for the publishing of papers inves- Libels, how tigating the official conduct of officers or men in public capacity, or when the matter published is proper for public information, the truth thereof may be given in evidence; and in all indictments for libels, the jury shall have a right to determine the law and the facts, under the direction of the courts.

SEC. 15. Returns of all elections for officers who are to be Election recommissioned by the governor, and for members of the gene- turns. ral assembly, shall be made to the secretary of state.

&c.

SEC. 16. No new county shall be established by the general Establishment assembly, which shall reduce the county or counties, or either of new counties of them, from which it shall be taken, to a less content than nine hundred square miles; nor shall any county be laid off of

less contents. Every new county as to the right of suffrage Right of sufand representation, shall be considered as a part of the county frage. or counties from which it was taken, until entitled by numbers

to the right of separate representation.

SEC. 17. The general assembly shall, at their first session Regulation of which may be holden in the year eighteen hundred and twenty- counties, &c. eight, or at the next succeeding session, arrange and designate boundaries for the several counties within the limits of this state, to which the Indian title shall have been extinguished, in such manner as they may deem expedient, which boundaries shall not be afterwards altered, unless by the agreement of twothirds of both branches of the general assembly; and in all cases of ceded territory acquired by the state, the general assembly may make such arrangements and designations of the boundaries of counties within such ceded territory, as they may deem expedient, which shall only be altered in like manner: Provided, that no county hereafter to be formed shall be of less extent than nine hundred square miles.

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SEC. 18. It shall be the duty of the general assembly to such laws as may be necessary and proper to decide differences by arbitrators, to be appointed by the parties, who may choose that summary mode of adjustment.

SEC. 19. It shall be the duty of the general assembly, as soon as circumstances will permit, to form a penal code founded on principles of reformation, and not of vindictive justice.

Arbitrations.

Penal code.

SEC. 20. Within five years after the adoption of this consti- Digest laws. tution, the body of our laws, civil and criminal, shall be revised, digested and arranged, under proper heads, and promulgated in such manner as the general assembly may direct: and a like revision, digest, and promulgation, shall be made within every subsequent period of ten years.

Internal improvement.

SEC. 21. The general assembly shall make provisions by law for obtaining correct knowledge of the several objects proper for improvement in relation to the navigable waters, and to the roads in this state, and for making a systematic and economical application of the means appropriated to those objects.

SEC. 22. In the event of the annexation of any foreign territory to this state, by a cession from the United States, laws may be passed, extending to the inhabitants of such territory all the rights and privileges which may be required by the terms of such cession; anything in this constitution to the contrary notwithstanding.

Schools estab lished and encouraged.

State bank and its

how establish

ed.

Education.

Schools, and the means of education, shall for ever be encouraged in this state; and the general assembly shall take measures to preserve, from unnecessary waste or damage, such lands as are or hereafter may be granted by the United States for the use of schools within each township in this state, and apply the funds, which may be raised from such lands, in strict conformity to the object of such grant. The general assembly shall take like measures for the improvement of such lands as have been or may be hereafter granted by the United States to this state, for the support of a seminary of learning, and the moneys which may be raised from such lands, by rent, lease, or sale, or from any other quarter, for the purpose aforesaid, shall be and remain a fund for the exclusive support of a state university for the promotion of the arts, literature and the sciences; and it shall be the duty of the general assembly, as early as may be, to provide effectual means for the improvement and permanent security of the funds and endowments of such institution.

Establishment of Banks.

SEC. 1. One state bank may be established, with such numbranches, ber of branches as the general assembly may, from time to time, deem expedient: Provided, that no branch bank shall be established, nor bank charter renewed, under the authority of this state, without the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses of the general assembly; and provided, also, that not more than one bank nor branch bank shall be estabished, nor bank charter renewed, at any one session of the general assembly, nor shall any bank or branch bank be established, or bank charter renewed, but in conformity with the following rules. 1. At least two-fifths of the capital stock shall be reserved for the state.

Rules.

2. A proportion of power in the direction of the bank shall be reserved to the state, equal at least to its proportion of stock

therein.

3. The state and the individual stockholders, shall be liable, respectively, for the debts of the bank, in proportion to their stock holden therein.

4. The remedy for collecting debts shall be reciprocal, for and against the bank.

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