four years, and shall receive for his services such compensation as shall be fixed by law.

SECTION 29. There shall be one Solicitor for each Circuit, who shall reside therein, to be elected by the qualified electors of the Circuit, who shall hold his office for the term of four years, and shall receive for his services such compensation as shall be fixed by law. In all cases where an attorney for the State, of any Circuit, fails to attend and prosecute according to law, the Court shall have power to appoint an attorney pro tempore.

SECTION 30. The qualified electors of each County shall elect a Sheriff and a Coroner, for the term of four years, and until their successors shall be elected and qualified; they shall reside in their respective Counties during their continuance in office, and be disqualified for the office a second time, if it should appear that they, or either of them, are in default for moneys collected by virtue of their respective offices.

A. D. 1868.

Solicitors.

Sheriffs and Coroners.

cesses.

SECTION 31. All writs and processes shall run, and all prosecu- Writs and protions shall be conducted in the name of the State of South Carohna; all writs shall be attested by the Clerk of the Court from which they shall be issued; and all indictments shall conclude against the peace and dignity of the State.

Decisions of the Supreme

SECTION 32. The General Assembly shall provide by law for the speedy publication of the decisions of the Supreme Court made Court. under this Constitution.

SECTION 33. The first General Assembly convened under this Constitution, at their first session, immediately after their permanent organization, shall ratify the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, known as the Fourteenth Article, proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress.

Constitutional amendment.

SECTION 34. All contracts, whether under seal or not, the consid- Slave contracts. eration of which were for the purchase of slaves, are hereby declared null and void and of no effect, and no suit, either at law or equity, shall be commenced or prosecuted for the enforcement of such contracts, and all proceedings to enforce satisfaction or payment on judgments or decrees, rendered, recorded, enrolled or entered upon such contracts, in any Court of this State, are hereby prohibited, and all orders heretofore made in this State, in relation to such contracts, whereby property is held subject to decision as to validity of such contracts, are also hereby declared null and void and of no effect.

ARTICLE V.

JURISPRUDENCE.

SECTION 1. The General Assembly shall pass such laws as may Arbitrators.

be necessary and proper to decide differences by arbitrators, to be appointed by the parties who may choose that summary mode of adjustment.

SECTION 2. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to pass the necessary laws for the change of venue in all cases, civil and criminal, over which the Circuit Courts have original jurisdiction, upon a proper showing, supported by affidavit, that a fair and impartial trial cannot be had in the County where such trial or prosecution was commenced.

SECTION 3. The General Assembly, at its first session after the adoption of this Constitution, shall make provision to revise, digest and arrange, under proper heads, the body of our laws, civil and criminal, and form a penal code, founded upon principles of reformation, and have the same promulgated in such manner as they may direct; and a like revision, digest and promulgation shall be made within every subsequent period of ten years. That justice may be administered in a uniform mode of pleading without distinction between law and equity, they shall provide for abolishing the distinct forms of action, and for that purpose shall appoint some suitable person or persons, whose duty it shall be to revise, simplify and abridge the rules, practice, pleadings and forms of the Courts now in use in this State.

ARTICLE VI.

EMINENT DOMAIN.

Eminent domain.

Land titles.

Ultimate right of property.

SECTION 1. The State shall have concurrent jurisdiction on all rivers bordering on this State, so far as such rivers shall form a common boundary to this and any other State bounded by the same; and they, together with all other navigable waters within the limits of the State, shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of this State as to the citizens of the United States, without any tax or impost therefor, unless the same be expressly provided for by the General Assembly.

SECTION 2. The title to all lands and other property which have heretofore accrued to this State by grant, gift, purchase, forfeiture, escheats, or otherwise, shall vest in the State of South Carolina the same as though no change had taken place.

SECTION 3. The people of the State are declared to possess the ultimate property in and to all lands within the jurisdiction of the State; and all lands, the title to which shall fail from defect of heirs, shall revert or escheat to the people.

ARTICLE VII.

IMPEACHMENTS.

SECTION 1. The House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment. A vote of two-thirds of all the members elected shall be required for an impeachment, and any officer impeached shall thereby be suspended from office until judgment in the case shall have been pronounced.

SECTION 2. All impeachments shall be tried by the Senate, and when sitting for that purpose, they shall be under oath or affirmation. No person shall be convicted except by a vote of twothirds of all the members elected. When the Governor is impeached, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, or the senior Judge, shall preside, with a casting vote in all preliminary questions.

SECTION 3. The Governor and all other executive and judicial officers shall be liable to impeachment; but judgment in such cases shall not extend further than removal from office. The persons convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable to indictment, trial and punishment according to law.

SECTION 4. For any willful neglect of duty, or other reasonable cause, which shall not be sufficient ground of impeachment, the Governor shall remove any executive or judicial officer on the address of two-thirds of each House of the General Assembly: Provided, That the cause, or causes, for which said removal may be required, shall be stated at length in such address, and entered on the journals of each House: And provided, further, That the officer intended to be removed shall be notified of such cause or causes, and shall be admitted to a hearing in his own defence, before any vote for such address; and in all cases the vote shall be taken by yeas and nays, and be entered on the journals of each House respectively.

A. D. 1868.

Impeachment.

How tried.

Who liable.

Causes of impeachment.

ARTICLE VIII.

RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE.

SECTION 1. In all elections by the people the electors shall vote by ballot.

The ballot.

Qualification of

SECTION 2. Every male citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, not laboring under the disabilities electors. named in this Constitution, without distinction of race, color, or former condition, who shall be a resident of this State at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, or who shall thereafter reside in this State one year, and in the County in which he offers to vote

A. D. 1868.

Registration.

Residence.

Soldiers and

sailors.

Exemption from

arrest.

Eligibility to

office.

Disqualifications

Presidential

Electors.

to.

Who elected.

Not applicable

sixty days next preceding any election, shall be entitled to vote for all officers that are now, or hereafter may be, elected by the people, and upon all questions submitted to the electors at any elections : Provided, That no person shall be allowed to vote or hold office who is now, or hereafter may be, disqualified therefor by the Constitution of the United States, until such disqualification shall be removed by the Congress of the United States: Provided, further, That no person, while kept in any alms house or asylum, or of unsound mind, or confined in any public prison, shall be allowed to vote or hold office.

SECTION 3. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide from time to time for the registration of all electors.

SECTION 4. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have lost his residence by reason of absence while employed in the service of the United States, nor while engaged upon the waters of this State or the United States, or of the high seas, nor while temporarily absent from the State.

SECTION 5. No soldier, seaman or mariner in the army or navy of the United States shall be deemed a resident of this State in consequence of having been stationed therein.

SECTION 6. Electors shall, in all cases, except treason, felony or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest and civil process during their attendance at elections, and in going to and returning from the same.

SECTION 7. Every person entitled to vote at any election shall be eligible to any office which now is, or hereafter shall be, elective by the people in the County where he shall have resided sixty days previous to such election, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution or the Constitution and laws of the United States.

SECTION 8. The General Assembly shall never pass any law that will deprive any of the citizens of this State of the right of suffrage, except for treason, murder, robbery, or duelling, whereof the persons shall have been duly tried and convicted.

SECTION 9. Presidential electors shall be elected by the people. SECTION 10. In all elections held by the people under this Constitution, the person or persons who shall receive the highest number of votes shall be declared elected.

SECTION 11. The provision of this Constitution concerning the term of residence necessary to enable persons to hold certain offices therein mentioned, shall not be held to apply to officers chosen by the people at the first election, or by the General Assembly at its first session.

SECTION 12. No person shall be disfranchised for felony or other Former slaves crimes committed while such person was a slave.

not disfranchised

ARTICLE IX.

FINANCE AND TAXATION.

SECTION 1. The General Assembly shall provide by law for a uniform and equal rate of assessment and taxation, and shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of all property, real, personal and possessory, except mines and mining claims, the proceeds of which alone shall be taxed; and also excepting such property as may be exempted by law for municipal, educational, literary, scientific, religious, or charitable

purposes.

SECTION 2. The General Assembly may provide annually for a poll tax, not to exceed one dollar on each poll, which shall be applied exclusively to the public school fund. And no additional poll tax shall be levied by any municipal corporation.

SECTION 3. The General Assembly shall provide for an annual tax sufficient to defray the estimated expenses of the State for each year; and whenever it shall happen that such ordinary expenses of the State for any year shall exceed the income of the State for such year, the General Assembly shall provide for levying a tax for the ensuing year sufficient, with other sources of income, to pay the deficiency of the preceding year, together with the estimated expenses of the ensuing year.

SECTION 4. No tax shall be levied except in pursuance of a law, which shall distinctly state the object of the same; to which object such tax shall be applied.

SECTION 5. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to enact laws for the exemption from taxation of all public schools, colleges and institutions of learning, all charitable institutions in the nature of asylums for the infirm, deaf and dumb, blind, idiotic. and indigent persons, all public libraries, churches and burying grounds; but property of associations and societies, although con nected with charitable objects, shall not be exempt from State, County or municipal taxation: Provided, That this exemption shall not extend beyond the buildings and premises actually occupied by such schools, colleges, institutions of learning, asylums, libraries, churches and burial grounds, although connected with charitable objects.

SECTION 6. The General Assembly shall provide for the valuation and assessment of all lands and the improvements thereon prior to the assembling of the General Assembly of one thousand eight hundred and seventy, and thereafter on every fifth year.

SECTION 7. For the purpose of defraying extraordinary expendi- Public debts. tures, the State may contract public debts; but such debts shall be