43G INSTITUTIONS, GOVERNMENT AND LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



Marriage and Divorce, [See mfra under '' Statute Law."] 

 Amendment and Revision of the Constitution. The Constitution 

 may be amended in the following manner : The proposed amendment 

 may be moved in either house. If two-thirds of the members elected to 

 each house agree to it, such amendment shall be entered on the journals, 

 and the yeas and nays recorded. It is then submitted to the qualified 

 electors of the State at the next general election thereafter for represen- 

 tatives, and if a majority of the voters vote in favor of it, and two-thirds 

 of each branch of the next General Assembly ratify such amendment, 

 after reading the same three separate times on three several days in each 

 house, it shall become a part of the Constitution. A convention to revise 

 the Constitution can onl}^ be called by a vote of two-thirds of the mem- 

 bers elected to each branch of the General Assembly, which action of the 

 General Assembly shall be submitted to the electors at the next election 

 for Representatives, and such electors shall vote for or against a conven- 

 tion. If a majority of all the electors voting at said election shall vote 

 for a convention, the next General Assembly shall provide by law for 

 calling the same, and such convention must consist of at least as many 

 members as compose the largest branch of the General Assembly. 



[Under these provisions several amendments to the Constitution of 

 18G8 have been made. The first prohibits the creation of any debt by 

 the State without the consent of the people, signified by a majority vote 

 of two-thirds of the qualified electors ; the second changes the time of 

 holding elections from October to November. Both these amendments 

 were adopted in the regular manner in the years 1870-73. The third 

 amendment, ratified March 5, 1875, changes the terms of office of the 

 Comptroller-General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Attornej'^-General, 

 Adjutant and Inspector-General, Superintendent of Education, from 

 four to two years. The fourth amendment, ratified January 2Gth, 1878, 

 provides for a county school tax to be levied in each county by the 

 Boards of County Commissioners, for the support of the public schools. 

 The fifth amendment, ratified December 13, 1880, relates to the home- 

 stead exemption, and settles the law upon that point, as more particu- 

 larly stated hereafter. Two amendments are now pending, one of which 

 adds to the list of crimes disqualifying any citizen for the suffrage, " burg- 

 lary, larceny, perjury, forgery, or any other infamous crime," and the 

 other relates to the mode of creating new counties. These last two 

 amendments have not yet been voted upon.] 



