434 INSTITUTIONS, GOVERNMENT AND LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



Justice every two years. The Circuit Judges hold office for four years ; 

 the Probate Judges and Trial Justices for two years. TJie Judges receive 

 a fixed compensation, and are allowed no fees nor perquisites of office. 

 The Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction only in cases of chancery, 

 and constitutes a court for the correction of errors at law. It has a gen- 

 eral supervisory control over all other courts in the State. Two of the 

 judges of the Supreme Court must concur to make a decision. The Cir- 

 cuit Judges interchange circuits. The Circuit Court has the usual civil 

 jurisdiction exercised by Courts of Common Pleas, and the distinction 

 between law and equity is abolished. The Court of Common Pleas must 

 sit at least twice a 3'^ear in each judicial district, and the Court of General 

 Sessions at least three times a year. Three persons are elected every two 

 years by the qualified electors of each couiity as a board of County Com- 

 missioners, who have jurisdiction over roads, highways, ferries, bridges, 

 and in all matters relating to taxes, disbursement of money for county 

 purposes, and the internal affairs and local concerns of the respective 

 counties. Appeals lie to the State courts from their decisions. Judges 

 are forbidden to charge juries in respect to matters of fact ; they may 

 state the testimony and declare the law. The Attorney General of the 

 State is elected for two years, and a Solicitor for each circuit for four 

 years. The electors of each county elect a Sheriff and Coroner for the 

 term of four years, who must reside in their respective counties during 

 their continuance in office, and who shall be disqualified for re-election 

 if in default of moneys collected by virtue of their offices. 



The Suffrage. In all elections by the people, the electors vote by 

 ballot. Every male citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one 

 years and upwards, not laboring under the disabilities named in the 

 Constitution, without distinction of race, color or previous condition, 

 who was a resident of the State at the time of the adoption of the Con- 

 stitution, or who, after that period, shall have resided in the State for one 

 year, and in the county in which he offers to vote sixty days next pre- 

 ceding any election, is entitled to vote in any election by the peojile. 

 But no person disqualified by the Constitution of the United States, nor 

 any person while kept in any alms house or asylum, or of unsound mind, 

 or while confined in any prison, can vote or hold office. Absence, while 

 employed in the service of the United States, or while engaged upon the 

 waters of the State or of the United States, or on the high seas, or tem- 

 porary absence from the State, does not forfeit residence for the purpose 

 of voting. On the other hand, the mere sojourning within the borders 

 of the State of any person there stationed as a soldier, mariner or seaman, 

 in the army or navy of the United States, does not confer residence for 

 the purpose of voting. The right to vote involves and implies the right 



