705 



crcnce to legislative enactments, as Welles to 

 reprieves mid pardons. 



I'niioerning tho third department, the judi- 

 cial power "is vested in one Supremo Court, 

 and in such Circuit, Chancery, and other in- 

 : courts as tho Legislature shall from time 

 t > time ordain and establish in the judges 

 tluTi-of, and in justices of the peace. The 

 Legislature may also vest such jurisdiction in 

 corporation courts as may bo deemed neces- 

 sary ; courts to bo holdon by justices of tho 

 peace may also bo established. Tho Supreme 

 Court shall consist of five judges, of whom not 

 more than two shall reside in any one of tho 

 grand divisions of tho State. Tho judges shall 

 designate one of their own number who shall 

 preside as Chief Justice. Tho concurrence of 

 three of tho judges shall in every case be ne- 

 cessary to a decision." 



All State and county officers are to be chosen 

 by tho people at tho ballot-box, in general or 

 local elections. The following are the principal 

 exceptions to this rnle: "A Secretary of State, 

 the Treasurer or Treasurers, and the Comptrol- 

 ler of the Treasury, are to be appointed by tho 

 joint vote of both Houses of the General As- 

 sembly. An Attorney-General and Reporter 

 for the State shall bo appointed by the judges 

 of tho Supremo Court. An Attorney for the 

 State, for any circuit or district for which a 

 judge having criminal jurisdiction shall be 

 provided by law, shall bo elected by the quali- 

 fied voters of such circuit or district. Judges 

 of tho Supreme Courts shall appoint their 

 clerks ; chancellors shall appoint their clerks 

 and masters ; " but " the clerks of the inferior 

 courts holden in tho respective counties OF dis- 

 tricts shall bo elected by the qualified voters 

 thereof. The election of all officers and the 

 filling of all vacancies, not otherwise directed 

 or provided by this constitution, shall be made 

 in such manner as the Legislature may direct." 

 The respective terms of office are for judges 

 of tho Supremo, Circuit, Chancery, and other 

 inferior courts as well as for the State At- 

 torneys, general and local, eight years; for the 

 clerks of tho three first-named courts, six 

 years ; for the Secretary of State, four years ; 

 for the Governor, Treasurer, or Treasurers, 

 and the Comptroller of the Treasury, and 

 members of the General Assembly, two years. 



Priests and ministers of the Gospel, of any 

 denomination, on acconnt of the duties of their 

 calling, to which they must devote all their at- 

 tention, are declared "ineligible to a seat in 

 either House of tho Legislature." 



All persons who fight a duel, or send or ac- 

 cept a challenge to fight a duel, as well as 

 their abettors and aiders, are "deprived of the 

 right to hold any office of honor or profit in 

 tho State, and shall be punished otherwise in 

 such manner as the Legislature may prescribe." 



Among the miscellaneous provisions, the fol- 

 lowing seem to deserve a special notice : 



ARTIOLB XI. Section 7. Tho Legislature shall fix 



the rate of interest, and tho rute so established shall 



VOL. 



bo equal and uniform throughout the State, but tho 

 Litgittlnturo may provide by law for a conventional 

 ruto of intcrcbt, not to exceed ten per cunt, per an- 

 num. 



6V<?. 11. A homestead, in tho hand* of each head 

 of a family, in thin State, occupied an a residence, 

 together with all tho improvements on the same, to 

 tho vuluo of, in all, one thousand dollars, shall bu 

 exempt from Mill! under legul procenH during the iifu 

 of Mich hcud of a family, to mure to tho benefit of 

 the widoWj and Hhall be exempt dnringtho minority 

 of their children occupying tho same. Nor shall said 



Eroperty bo alienated without the joint convent of 

 uslmnd and wile, when that relation exiata. This 

 exemption shall not operate against public taxes, nor 

 debts contracted for tho purchase money of uuch 

 homestead, or for improvements thereon. 



In this connection it may be mentioned that 

 the citizens of Tennessee are also secured from 

 imprisonment on account of their debts, sec- 

 tion 18 of Article I., on the Bill o;' Eights, pro- 

 viding, " The Legislature shall pass no law au- 

 thorizing imprisonment for debt in civil cases." 



The education of youth and the school in- 

 terest generally are recommended and provided 

 for in Article XL, as follows : 



SECTION 12. Knowledge, learning, and virtue, be- 

 ing essential to the preservation 01 republican insti- 

 tutions, and the diffusion of the opportunities and 

 advantages of education throughout the different 

 portions of the State being highly conducive to the 

 promotion of this end, it shall be the duty of the 

 General Assembly in all future periods of this gov- 

 ernment, to cherish literature and science. And the 

 fund culled the common-school fund, and all the lands 

 and proceeds thereof, dividends, stocks, and other 

 property of every description whatever, heretofore 

 by law appropriated by the General Assembly of 

 this State for the use of common schools, and all 

 such as shall hereafter be appropriated, shall remain 

 & perpetual fund, the principal of which shall never 

 be diminished by legislative appropriation ; and the 

 interest thereof shall be inviolably appropriated to 

 the support and encouragement of common schools 

 throughout the State, and for the equal benefit of all 

 the people thereof ; and no law shall be made author- 

 izing said fund or any part thereof to be diverted to 

 any other use than the support and encouragement 

 of common schools. The State taxes derived here- 

 after from polls shall be appropriated to educational 

 purposes, in such manner as trie General Assembly 

 shall from time to time direct by law. 



Section 14 ordains as follows : 



The intermarriage of white persons with negroes, 

 mulattoes, or persons of mixed blood, descendants 

 from a negro, to the third generation, inclusive, or the 

 living together as man and wife in this State, is pro- 

 hibited. The Legislature shall enforce this section 

 by appropriate legislation. 



In educational matters, also, the children of 

 white and negro parents must be taught sepa- 

 rately, the one from the other. The foregoing 

 12th section, after the above-recited pas- 

 sage, has the following: "No school estab- 

 lished, or aided under this section, shall allow 

 white and negro children to be received as 

 scholars in the same school." Section 16 is as 

 follows: 



The declaration of rights heretofore prefixed is de- 

 clared to be a part of tho constitution of this State, 

 and shall never be violated on any pretence what- 

 ever. And to guard against transgression of the 

 hiirh powers we have "delegated, \ve declare tliat 

 every thing in tho Bill of Eights contained is ex- 



