ARTICLE XI All certificates for head-right claims to land, issued to fictitious persons, or which were forged, and all locations and surveys thereon, are, and the same were, null and void from the beginning. ARTICLE XII LAND-OFFICE There shall be one general land-office in the State, which shall be at the seat of government, where all titles which have heretofore emanated, or may hereafter emanate, from government shall be regis tered, and the legislature may establish, from time to time, such subordinate officers as they may deem requisite. Done in convention by the deputies of the people of Texas, at the city of Austin, this second day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six. In testimony whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names. J. W. THROCKMORTON, President. LEIGH CHALMERS, Secretary. CONSTITUTION OF TEXAS—1868 * a We, the people of Texas, acknowledging with gratitude the grace of God in permitting us to make a choice of our form of government, do hereby ordain and establish this constitution: ARTICLE I BILL OF RIGHTS That the heresies of nullification and secession, which brought the country to grief, may be eliminated from future political discussion; that public order may be restored, private property and human life protected, and the great principles of liberty and equality secured to us and our posterity, we declare that- SECTION 1. The Constitution of the United States, and the laws and treaties made and to be made in pursuance thereof, are acknowledged to be the supreme law; that this constitution is framed in harmony with and in subordination thereto; and that the fundamental principles embodied herein can only be changed subject to the national authority. * Verified by "The Constitution of Texas, Adopted by the Constitutional Convention, Austin, Texas; Printed at the Daily Republican Office, 1869.” This constitution was framed by a convention called, under the reconstruction acts of Congress, by Major-General Hancock, which met at Austin June 1, 1868, and, after two adjournments, completed its labors in December, 1868. It was submitted to the people November 30 to December 3, 1869, and ratified by 72,395 votes against 4,924 votes. This constitution was laid before Congress March 30, 1869, and an act was passed March 30, 1870, readmitting Texas to representation upon certain fundamental conditions. SEC. 2. All freemen, when they form a social compact, have equal rights; and no man or set of men is entitled to exclusive separate public emoluments or privileges. SEC. 3. No religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office of public trust in this State. SEC. 4. All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. No man shall be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry, against his consent. No human authority ought, in any case whatever, to control or interfere with the rights of conscience in matters of religion; and no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religious societies or mode of worship. But it shall be the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as may be necessary to protect every religious denomination in the peaceable enjoyment of their own mode of public worship. SEC. 5. Every citizen shall be at liberty to speak, write, or publish his opinions on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that privilege; and no law shall ever be passed curtailing the liberty of speech or of the press. SEC. 6. In prosecutions for the publication of papers investigating the official conduct of officers, or of men in a public capacity, or when the matter published is proper for public information, the truth thereof may be given in evidence; and in all prosecutions for libels the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the facts, under the direction of the court as in other cases. SEC. 7. The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and possessions from all unreasonable seizures or searches; and no warrant to search any place, or to seize any person, or thing, shall issue, without describing such place, person, or thing, as near as may be, nor without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation. SEC. 8. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have a speedy public trial, by an impartial jury. He shall not be compelled to give evidence against himself. He shall have the right of being heard by himself, or by counsel, or both; shall be confronted with the witnesses against him, and shall have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor. And no person shall be holden to answer for any criminal charge but on indictment or information, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, of offences against the laws regulating the militia. SEC. 9. All prisoners shall be bailable upon sufficient sureties, unless for capital offences, when the proof is evident; but this provision shall not be so construed as to prohibit bail after indictment found, upon an examination of the evidence by a judge of the supreme or district court, upon the return of the writ of habeas corpus, returnable in the county where the offence is committed. SEC. 10. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, except by act of the legislature, in case of rebellion or invasion, when the public safety may require it. SEC. 11. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel nor unusual punishment inflicted. All courts shall be open, and every person, for an injury done him in his lands, goods, person, or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law. SEC. 12. No person, for the same offence, shall be twice put in jeopardy of life; nor shall a person be again put upon trial for the same offence, after a verdict of not guilty; and the right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate. SEC. 13. Every person shall have the right to keep and bear arms, in the lawful defence of himself or the State, under such regulations as the legislature may prescribe. SEC. 14. No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, retroactive law, or any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall be made; and no person's property shall be taken or applied to public use without just compensation being made, unless by the consent of such person; nor shall any law be passed depriving a party of any remedy for the enforcement of a contract which existed when the contract was made. SEC. 15. No person shall be imprisoned for debt. SEC. 16. No citizen of this State shall be deprived of life, liberty, property, privileges, outlawed, exiled, or in any manner disfranchised, except by due course of the law of the land. SEC. 17. The military shall at all times be subordinate to the civil authority. SEC. 18. Perpetuities and monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free government, and shall never be allowed, nor shall the law of primogeniture or entailments ever be in force in this State. to SEC. 19. The people shall have the right, in a peaceable manner, assemble together for their common good, and to apply to those invested with powers of government for redress of grievances, or other purposes, by petition, address, or remonstance. SEC. 20. No power of suspending laws in the State shall be exercised, except by the legislature, or its authority. SEC. 21. The equality of all persons before the law is herein recognized, and shall ever remain inviolate; nor shall any citizen ever be deprived of any right, privilege, or immunity, nor be exempted from any burden or duty, on account of race, color, or previous condition. SEC. 22. Importations of persons under the name of "coolies," or any other name or designation, or the adoption of any system of peonage, whereby the helpless and unfortunate may be reduced to practical bondage, shall never be authorized or tolerated by the laws of this State; and neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall ever exist in this State. SEC. 23. To guard against transgressions of the high powers herein. delegated, we declare that everything in this bill of rights is excepted out of the general powers of government, and shall forever remain inviolate; and all laws contrary thereto, or the following provisions, shall be void. ARTICLE II DIVISION OF THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT The powers of the government of the State of Texas shall be divided into three distinct departments, and each of them be confided to a separate body of magistracy, to wit: those which are legislative to one, those which are executive to another, and those which are judicial to another; and no person, or collection of persons, being of one of those departments, shall exercise any power properly attached to either of the others, except in the instances herein expressly permitted. ARTICLE III LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT SECTION 1. Every male person who shall have attained the age of twenty-one years, and who shall be (or who shall have declared his intention to become) a citizen of the United States, or who is at the time of the acceptance of this constitution by the Congress of the United States a citizen of Texas, and shall have resided in this State one year next preceding an election, and the last six months within the district or county in which he offers to vote, and is duly registered, (Indians not taxed excepted,) shall be deemed a qualified elector; and should such qualified electors happen to be in any other county, situated in the district in which he resides, at the time of an election, he shall be permitted to vote for any district officer: Provided, That the qualified electors shall be permitted to vote anywhere in the State for State officers: And provided further, That no soldier, seaman, or marine in the Army or Navy of the United States shall be entitled to vote at any election created by this constitution. SEC. 2. Electors in all cases shall be privileged from arrest during their attendance at elections, and in going to and returning from the same, except in cases of treason, felony, or breach of the peace. SEC. 3. The legislative power of the State shall be vested in two distinct branches; the one to be styled the senate and the other the house of representatives; and both together, the legislature of the State of Texas. The style of the laws shall be: "Be it enacted by the legislature of the State of Texas." SEC. 4. The members of the house of representatives shall be chosen by the qualified electors, and their term of office shall be two years from the day of general election; and the sessions of the legislature shall be annual, at such times as shall be prescribed by law. SEC. 5. No person shall be a representative unless he be a citizen of the United States, and shall have been a citizen of this State two years next preceding his election, and the last year thereof a citizen of the county, city, or town from which he shall be chosen, and shall have attained the age of twenty-one years at the time of his election. SEC. 6. All elections for State, district, and county officers shall be held at the county seats of the several counties until otherwise provided by law; and the polls shall be opened for four days, from 8 o'clock a. m. until 4 o'clock p. m. of each day. SEC. 7. The house of representatives shall consist of ninety members, and no more. SEC. 8. The senators shall be chosen by the qualified electors hereafter for the term of six years. Those elected at the first election shall be divided by lot into three classes, as nearly equal as can be. The seats of senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the first two years, and of the second class at the expiration of four years, and of the third class at the expiration of six years; so that one-third thereof shall be chosen biennially thereafter. SEC. 9. Such mode of classifying new additional senators shall be observed as will, as nearly as possible, preserve an equality of number in each class. SEC. 10. The senate shall consist of thirty senators, and no more. SEC. 11. A new apportionment for representative and senatorial districts shall be made by the first legislature in session, after the official publication of the United States census, every ten years. SEC. 12. When a senatorial district shall be composed of two or more counties, it shall not be separated by any county belonging to another district. SEC. 13. No person shall be a senator unless he be a citizen of the United States, and shall have been a citizen of this State three years next preceding the election, and the last year thereof a resident of the district for which he shall be chosen, and have attained the age of twenty-five years. SEC. 14. No person shall be eligible to any office, State, county, or municipal, who is not a registered voter in the State. SEC. 15. The house of representatives, when assembled, shall elect a speaker and its other officers; and the senate shall choose a president, for the time being, and its other officers. Each house shall adjudge of the elections and qualifications of its own members; but contested elections shall be determined in such manner as shall be directed by law. Two-thirds of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each house may provide. SEC. 16. Each house may determine the rules of its own proceedings, punish members for disorderly conduct, and, with the consent of two-thirds, expel a member. SEC. 17. Each house shall keep a journal of its own proceedings, and publish the same; and the yeas and nays of the members of either house, on any question, shall, at the desire of any three members present, be entered upon the journals. SEC. 18. Any member of either house shall have liberty to dissent from or protest against any act or resolution which he may think injurious to the public or an individual, and have the reasons for dissent entered on the journals. SEC. 19. When vacancies happen in either house, the governor, or the person exercising the power of the governor, shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies; and should the governor fail to issue a writ of election to fill such vacancies, the returning officer for the district or county shall be authorized to order an election for that purpose. SEC. 20. Senators and representatives shall in all cases, except in treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during the session of the legislature and in going to and returning from the same, allowing one day for every twenty-five miles such member may reside from the place at which the legislature is convened. SEC. 21. Each house, during the session, may punish, by imprisonment, any person, not a member, for disrespectful or disorderly conduct in its presence, or for obstructing any of its proceedings, provided such imprisonment shall not at any one time exceed forty-eight hours. SEC. 22. The doors of each house shall be kept open, except upon a call of either house, and when there is an executive session of the senate. SEC. 23. Neither house shall, without the consent of the other, |