ARTICLE XIII. SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. SEC. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by appropriate legislation. ARTICLE XIV. Slavery abol ished. Who are citi SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United zens. States, and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any Privileges. person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. SEC. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed; but when the right to vote at any election for the choice of Electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. of Apportionment representa tion. Basis of repre sentation. Political disa SEC. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or Elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, bilities. civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State Legisla- · ture, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the Removal of enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of political disabili each house remove such disability. ties. Validity of the SEC. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pen- pub.ic debt. sions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or re rebellion or for slaves invalid. Debts of the bellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. Power of Congress to enforce. SEC. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this Article. ARTICLE XV. Right to vote not abridged by previous condition. SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote race, color or shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by appropriate legislation. [NOTE.-The Constitution was adopted 17th September, 1787, by the unanimous consent of the States present in the Convention appointed in pursuance of the resolution of the Congress of the confederation, of the 21st February, 1787, and was ratified by the Conventions of the sev eral States, as follows, viz: By Convention of Delaware, 7th December, 1787; Pennsylvania, 12th December, 1787; New Jersey, 18th December, 1787; Georgia, 24 January, 1788; Connecticut, 9th January, 1788; Massachu-etts, 6th February, 1788; Maryland, 28th April, 1788; South Carolina, 23d May, 1788; New Hampshire, 21st June, 1788; Virginia, 26th June, 1788; New York, 26th July, 1788; North Carolina, 21st November, 1789; Rhode Island, 29th May, 1790. The first ten of the amendments were proposed at the first session of the first Congress of the United States, 25th September, 1789, and were finally ratified by the constitutional number of States on the 15th day of December, 1791. The eleventh amendment was proposed at the first session of the third Congress, 5th March, 1794, and was declared in a message from the Presi dent of the United States to both Houses of Congress, dated 8th January, 1798, to have been adopted by the constitutional number of States. The twelfth amendment was proposed at the first session of the eighth Congress, 12th Decem. ber, 1803, and was adopted by the constitutional number of States in 1801, according to a public notice thereof by the Secretary of State, dated 25th September of the same year. The thirteenth Article was submitted to the Legislatures of the several States, there being then thirty-s x States, by a resolution of Congress passed on the 1st of February, 1865, at the second session of the Thirty-eighth Congress, and was ratified, according to a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated December 18, 1865. The fourteenth Article was submitted to the Legislatures of the several States, there being then thirty-seven States, by a resolution of Congress passed on the 16th of June, 1866, at the first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress, and was ratified, according to a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated July 28, 1868. The fifteenth Article was submitted to the Legislatures of the several States, there being then thirty-seven States, by a resolution of Congress passed on the 27th of February, 1869, at the first session of the Forty-first Congress, and was ratified, according to a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated March 30, 1870.] CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF SOUTH CAROLINA. A. D. 1868. Declaration of We, the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention DECLARATION OF RIGHTS AND FORM OF GOVERN- ARTICLE I. DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. SECTION 1. All men are born free and equal-endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are the rights men. of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties, of acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness. SECTION 2. Slavery shall never exist in this State; neither shall involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. Equality of Slavery prohib.ted. Political power vested in the SECTION 3. All political power is vested in and derived from the people only; therefore they have the right, at all times, to modify people. their form of government in such manner as they may deem expedient, when the public good demands. SECTION 4. Every citizen of this State owes paramount allegiance Paramount to the Constitution and government of the United States, and no allegiance. law or ordinance of this State in contravention or subversion thereof can have any binding force. A. D. 1868. The Union indissoluble. Right of peti SECTION 5. This State shall ever remain a member of the American Union, and all attempts, from whatever source, or upon whatever pretext, to dissolve the said Union, shall be resisted with the whole power of the State. SECTION 6. The right of the people peaceably to assemble to contion and discus- sult for the common good, and to petition the Government, or any department thereof, shall never be abridged. sion. Freedom of SECTION 7. All persons may freely speak, write and publish their speech and of sentiments on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and no laws shall be enacted to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. the press. Trials for libel. Freedom of conscience. Religious worship protected. Trial by jury. Personal rights. Rights of nccused persons. Ex post facto SECTION 8. In prosecutions for the publication of papers investigating 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 libel, the jury shall be the judges of the law and the facts. SECTION 9. No person shall be deprived of the right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience: Provided, That the liberty of conscience hereby declared shall not justify practices inconsistent with the peace and moral safety of society. SECTION 10. No form of religion shall be established by law ; but it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to pass suitable laws to protect every religious denomination in the peaceable enjoyment of its own mode of worship. SECTION 11. The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate. SECTION 12. No person shall be disqualified as a witness, or be prevented from acquiring, holding and transmitting property, or be hindered in acquiring education, or be liable to any other punishment for any offence, or be subjected in law to any other restraints or disqualifications, in regard to any personal rights, than such as are laid upon others under like circumstances. SECTION 13. No person shall be held to answer for any crime or offense until the same is fully, fairly, plainly, substantially and formally described to him; or be compelled to accuse or furnish evidence against himself; and every person shall have a right to produce all proofs that may be favorable to him, to meet the witnesses against him face to face, to have a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, and to be fully heard in his defense by himself or by his counsel, or by both, as he may elect. SECTION 14. No person shall be arrested, imprisoned, despoiled laws prohibited. or dispossessed of his property, immunities or privileges, put out of the protection of the law, exiled or deprived of his life, liberty or estate, but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land. And the General Assembly shall not enact any law that shall sub ject any person to punishment without trial by jury; nor shall he be punished but by virtue of a law already established, or promulgated prior to the offense, and legally applied. SECTION 15. All Courts shall be public, and every person, for any injury that he may receive in his lands, goods, person or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law, and justice administered without unnecessary delay. SECTION 16. All persons shall, before conviction, be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses, when the proof is evident or the presumption great; and excessive bail shall not, in any case, be required, nor corporal punishment inflicted. A. D. 1868. Publicity of Courts. Right of bail. SECTION 17. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not Habeas Corpus be suspended, except when, in case of insurrection, rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it. Not triable twice for the SECTION 18. No person, after having been once acquitted by a jury, shall again, for the same offense, be put in jeopardy of his life same offence. or liberty. SECTION 19. All offences less than felony, and in which the punishment does not exceed a fine of one hundred dollars, or imprisonment for thirty days, shall be tried summarily before a Justice of the Peace, or other officer authorized by law, on information under oath, without indictment or intervention of a Grand Jury, saving to the defendant the right of appeal; and no person shall be held to answer for any higher crime or offence unless on presentment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land and naval service, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger. Punishments. Imprisonment SECTION 20. No person shall be imprisoned for debt, except in cases of fraud; and a reasonable amount of property, as a home- for debt. stead, shall be exempted from seizure or sale for the payment of any debts or liabilities, except for the payment of such obligations as are provided for in this Constitution. Obligation of Right of search. SECTION 21. No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, nor any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall ever be enacted; and contracts. no conviction shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate. SECTION 22. All persons have a right to be secure from unreasonable searches or seizures of their persons, houses, papers or possessions. All warrants shall be supported by oath or affirmation, and the order of the warrant to a civil officer to make search or seizure in suspected places, or to arrest one or more suspected persons, or to seize their property, shall be accompanied with a special designation of the persons or objects of search, arrest or seizure; and no warrant shall be issued but in the cases and with the formalities prescribed by the laws. |