CONSTITUTION OF 1847. 



145 



thousand, while the senate is composed of two members from each 

 state, elected by the legislatures, one-third of that body being re- 

 newable every two years. There are now one hundred and forty 

 deputies, each of whom receives a salary of three thousand dollars ; 

 and sixty-three senators, whose yearly pay is three thousand five 

 hundred each. 



The executive power resides in a president, who is eligible every 

 four years, and cannot be re-elected except after an interval of four 

 years. There is no vice president; and. in case of the death or 

 perpetual incompetency of the president, congress, or in its recess 

 the council of government, shall call upon the state legislatures to 

 fill his place by election. The ordinary and regular election of the 

 chief magistrate, of deputies, senators and ministers of the supreme 

 court of justice, is to be regulated by general laws, and may be 

 either by the people directly or by electoral colleges ; but in these 

 indirect elections no one can be named, either as a primary or 

 secondary elector, who holds a political office or exercises civil, 

 ecclesiastical, or military jurisdiction in the district he represents. 

 The salary of the president is thirty-six thousand dollars a year. 

 During the recess of the general congress a council of government 

 is to be constantly in existence, composed of one half of the senate, 

 one member being retained from each state. The duties of this 

 council are confined chiefly to a salutary vigilance over the consti- 

 tution and laws, and to the convocation of extraordinary sessions 

 of the national legislature, either in conjunction with the president 

 or by its sole act. The cabinet consists of a minister of foreign 

 and domestic affairs ; a minister of justice ; a minister of finance ; 

 a minister of war and marine, each of whom receive an annual 

 salary of six thousand dollars. 



Each state government is independent within its local jurisdic- 

 tion, and, like the federal government has, executive, legislative 

 and judicial powers. The law making power of each of these gov- 

 ernments resides in a legislature composed of the number of mem- 

 bers which may be determined by its separate constituency, all of 

 whom shall be elected by the people and removable at the time 

 and in the manner they may think proper to decree. The persons 

 to whom the sovereign states confide their executive power, can 

 only exercise it for a time fixed by each respective state constitu- 

 tion. The power and jurisdiction of the national judiciary are 

 amply defined so as to avoid conflict. The state judicial power is 

 to be exercised by the tribunals created or appointed by the 

 state constitutions, and all civil or criminal causes recognized by 

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