MISSISSIPPI. 



509 



time to time, and discussions followed, of more 

 or less length and animation, according to the 

 interest felt in the topics to which they re- 

 lated ; and finally, after a session of 115 days, 

 the organic law of the State was completed, 

 and received the signatures of a majority of 

 the delegates. 



The first article embraces the Bill of Eights, 

 which is contained in thirty-two sections. Be- 

 sides the provisions usually contained in such 

 instruments, are the following sections, which 

 are hy no means universal in our State consti- 

 tutions : 



SECTION 16. The rights of married women shall 

 be protected by law, in property owned previous to 

 marriage ; and, also ; in all property acquired in good 

 faith by purchase, gift, devise, or bequest, after mar- 

 riage : Provided, That nothing herein contained shall 

 be so construed as to protect said property from being 

 applied to the payment of their lawful debts. 



SEC. 17. No property qualification for eligibility 

 to office shall ever be required. 



SEC. 18. No property or educational qualification 

 shall ever be required for any person to become an 

 elector. 



SEC. 19. There snail be neither slavery nor in- 

 voluntary servitude in this State, otherwise than in 

 the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall 

 have been duly convicted. 



SEC. 20. The right to withdraw from the Federal 

 Union, on account of any real or supposed grievances, 

 shall never be assumed by_ tbis Stata, nor snail any 

 law be passed in derogation of the paramount al- 

 legiance of the citizens of this State to the Govern- 

 ment of the United States. 



SEC. 21. No public money or moneys shall be ap- 

 propriated for any charitable or other public institu- 

 tions in this State, making any distinction among the 

 citizens thereof : Provided, That nothing herein con- 

 tained shall be so construed as to prevent the Legis- 

 lature from appropriating the school fund in accord- 

 ance with the article in this constitution relating to 

 public schools. 



SEC. 22. No distinction shall ever be made, by law, 

 between citizens and alien friends in reference to 

 the possession, enjoyment, or descent of property. 



SEC. 27. No person's life shall be perilled by the 

 practice of duelling, and any person who shall here- 

 after fight a duel, or assist in the same as second, or 

 send, accept, or knowingly carry a challenge there- 

 for, or go out of the State to fight a duel, shall be 

 disqualified from holding any office under this con- 

 stitution, and [shall forever be disfranchised in this 

 State. 



SEC. 29. No person shall ever be elected or ap- 

 pointed to any office in this State for life or during 

 good behavior, but the term of all offices shall be for 

 some specified period. 



The legislative article declares that the 

 political year shall begin on the first Monday 

 in January, and the Legislature shall meet on 

 the following Tuesday, in each year. The 

 general election is to take place once in two 

 years, on the Tuesday after the first Monday 

 in November. Representatives are to be chosen 

 for two years, and Senators for four years. 

 For any person to give or receive a bribe, is 

 made an offence punishable with disfranchise- 

 inent and disqualification for office. The Gov- 

 ernor and other executive officers hold their 

 places four years. The judicial power is vested 

 in the Supreme Court, Circuit Court, Chancery 

 Courts, and such lower tribunals as may be 



established hy law. The judges are to bo ap- 

 pointed hy the Governor for a term of years. 

 The three judges of the Supreme Court are to 

 be appointed for nine years, and their respec- 

 tive terms of office are to be so adjusted, that 

 one shall go out at the end of every three 

 years. The terms of the circuit judges are for 

 six years. 



The topic which demanded by far the largest 

 amount of attention of any treated hy the con- 

 vention, was that of fixing the qualifications 

 to be imposed upon the exercise of the right 

 of suffrage, and the privilege of holding of- 

 fice. The discussion on this subject began 

 early in February, when the section of the 

 Bill of Eights prohibiting any educational or 

 property qualifications for voters was under 

 consideration, and continued at intervals until 

 the article relating to the franchise was adopt- 

 ed, in the latter part of April. Earnest and 

 able speeches were made in favor of a discrim- 

 ination which would prevent the blacks, so 

 recently freed from a condition which neces- 

 sarily left them ignorant and unaccustomed to 

 the responsibility which ought to accompany 

 citizenship, from taking a leading part in the 

 control of public affairs. It was contended 

 that the African race was physically and men- 

 tally the inferior of the whites, and that any 

 scheme which clothed them with the right of 

 suffrage at once would give them control of 

 interests which they could not understand, and 

 make them politically superiors to some of 

 the most cultivated citizens of the State. On 

 the other hand, strong appeals were made in 

 favor of universal suffrage, and some of the 

 ablest speeches on the subject were delivered 

 by colored delegates. After the report of the 

 committee on the general subject of the elec- 

 tive franchise had been submitted, a long and 

 excited debate followed, and amendments were 

 offered which represented every shade of po- 

 litical opinion on this important subject. "When 

 the fifth section of the article was under con- 

 sideration, so earnest did the discussion become 

 that several bitter personal altercations took 

 place, one of which led to a violent assault 

 upon the president of the convention hy a con- 

 servative member. The franchise article was 

 finally adopted by a vote of 44 to 25, where- 

 upon 12 delegates immediately resigned their 

 seats. The full text of the article is as fol- 

 lows: 



ARTICLE VII. Section I. All elections by the peo- 

 ple shall be by ballot. 



Section 2. All male inhabitants of this State, ex- 

 cept idiots and insane persons, and Indians, not 

 taxed, citizens of the United States, or naturalized, 

 twenty-one years old and upward } who have resided 

 in this State six months, and in the county one 

 month next preceding the day of election, at which 

 said inhabitant offers to vote, and who are duly 

 registered according to the requirements of section 

 three of this article, and who are not disqualified by 

 reason of any crime, are declared to be qualified 

 electors. 



Section 3. The Legislature shallprovide, by law, for 

 the registration of all persons entitled to vote at any 



