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CONSTITUTION

OF

S. CAROLINA.

ARTICLE VIII.

profession.

Sec. 1. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and Free exercise of worship, without discrimination or preference, shall, forever hereafter, be any religious allowed within this state to all mankind; provided, that the liberty of Provis conscience thereby declared, shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this state.

Sec. 2. The rights, privileges, immunities, and estates, of both civil and Rights &c. religious societies and of corporate bodies, shall remain as if the consti- preserved to tution of this state had not been altered or amended.

corporate and other bodies.

ARTICLE IX.

Sec. 1. All power is originally vested in the people; and all free go- Declaration of vernments are founded on their authority, and are instituted for their rights. peace, safety and happiness.

Sec. 2. No freeman of this state shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized of his freehold, liberties, or privileges, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any manner destroyed, or deprived of his life, liberty, or property, but by the judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land; nor shall any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, ever be passed by the legislature of this state.

Sec. 3. The military shall be subordinate to the civil power.

Sec. 4. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel punishments inflicted.

Sec. 5. The legislature shall not grant any title of nobility, or hereditary distinction, nor create any office, the appointment to which shall be for any longer time than during good behaviour.

Sec. 6. The trial by jury, as heretofore used in this state, and the liberty of the press, shall be for ever inviolably preserved.

ARTICLE X.

Sec. 1. The business of the treasury shall be in future conducted by Treasury how two treasurers, one of whom shall hold his office and reside in Colum- conducted. bia; the other shall hold his office and reside in Charleston.

Sec. 2. The secretary of state, and the surveyor general, shall hold And secretary's office, &c. their offices both in Columbia and Charleston. They shall reside at one place, and their deputies at the other.

meet at Colum

Sec. 3. At the conclusion of the circuits, the judges shall meet and sit Judges shall at Columbia, for the purpose of hearing and determining all motions bia after circuit. which may be made for new trials, and in arrest of judgements, and such points of law as may be submitted to them. From Columbia they shall proceed to Charleston, and there hear and determine all such motions for new trials, and in arrest of judgement, and such points of law, as may be submitted to them.

Sec. 4. The governor shall always reside, during the sitting of the Governor shall legislature, at the place where their session may be held, and at all other reside where times, wherever, in his opinion, the public good may require.

legislature sits, during session.

CONSTITUTION

OF

S. CAROLINA.

Rights of primogeniture to be abolished.

Convention to be called by two-thirds of legislature. Constitution how to be altered.

Sec. 5. The legislature shall, as soon as may be convenient, pass laws for the abolition of the rights of primogeniture, and for giving an equitable distribution of the real estate of intestates.

ARTICLE XI.

No convention of the people shall be called, unless by the concurrence of two-thirds of both branches of the whole representation.

No part of this constitution shall be altered, unless a bill to alter the same shall have been read three times in the house of representatives, and three times in the senate, and agreed to by two-thirds of both branches of the whole representation; neither shall any alteration take place until the bill so agreed to, be published three months previous to a new election for members to the house of representatives; and if the alteration proposed by the legislature shall be agreed to in the first session, by two-thirds of the whole representation in both branches of the legislature, after the same shall have been read three times, on three several days, in each house, then, and not therwise, the same shall become a part of the constitution.

Done in convention at Columbia, in the State of South Carolina, the third day of June, in the Year of our Lord 1790, and in the 14th year of the Independence of the United States of America.

By the unanimous order of the Convention.

CHARLES PINCKNEY,

Attest,

JOHN S. DART, Secretary.

President.

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THAT NO INCONVENIENCE MAY ARISE FROM THE ALTERATIONS AND AMEND-
MENTS IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THIS STATE, IT IS HEREBY DECLARED

AND ORDAINED:

Sec. 1. That the government shall be administered as heretofore, until the meeting and sitting of the legislature, to be held under this constitution.

Sec. 2. And whereas, the existing laws render it highly inconvenient for the legislature to meet on the fourth Monday in November, next, it is therefore ordained, that instead thereof, the members of the senate and house of representatives, to be elected on the second Monday in October, and on the day following, shall meet at Columbia, the seat of government, on the first Monday in January next.

*The words "by two-thirds of the whole representation," are omitted in Grimke's copy of the Constitution of South Carolina-EDIT.

OF

Sec. 3. It is also ordained that the commissioners of the treasury shall, CONSTITUTION with all convenient dispatch, take a balance of the treasury books, which S. CAROLINA. bal uce shall be lodged in the treasurer's office in Columbia, and the original books in the treasurer's office in Charleston.

Sec. 4. It is the opinion of the convention, that the legislature, at the first session which shall be held under this constitution, should regulate and establish by law, all the fees of the respective courts and offices throughout this state.

Sec. 5. That they also provide for the annual and final settlement of the accounts of the commissioners of the treasury, so that the pecuniary interest of the state be duly attended to, and the persons who faithfully discharge the duties of that important office be quieted therein, and their sureties released in a fixed and reasonable time.

Sec. 6. That the legislature shall make effectual provision for revising, digesting and publishing the laws of this state, so as that a gener i knowledge thereof may be diffused among the citizens of this state.

Sec. 7. The legislature at their next meeting shall proceed to the election of justices of the peace throughout the state, and justices of the county courts where county courts are established, and that all former commissions of the peace then cease; and that in future all commissions of the peace expire at fixed periods, to be declared by law.

Sec. 8. That all rotatory officers, at the first meeting of the legislature under this constitution, may be re-elected, notwithstanding any time they may have before served under the former constitution.

By the unanimous order of the Convention, June 3, 1790.

CHARLES PINCKNEY,

Attest,

JOHN SANDFORD DART, Secretary.

President.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF
SOUTH CAROLINA.

AMENDMENTS, RATIFIED DECEMBER 17, 1808.

The following sections in amendment of the third, seventh, and ninth sections of the first article of the constitution of this State, shall be, and they are hereby declared to be valid parts of the said constitution: and the said third, seventh, and ninth sections, or such parts thereof as are repugnant to such amendments, are hereby repealed and made void. VOL. I.-25.

CONSTITUTION

OF

The house of representatives shall consist of one hundred and twentyS. CAROLINA. four members; to be apportioned among the several election districts of the State, according to the number of white inhabitants contained, and the amount of all taxes raised by the legislature, whether direct or indirect, or of whatever species, paid in each, deducting therefrom all taxes paid on account of property held in any other district, and adding thereto all taxes elsewhere paid on account of property held in such district; an enumeration of the white inhabitants for this purpose shall be made in the year one thousand eight hundred and nine, and in the course of every tenth year thereafter, in such manner as shall be by law directed; and representatives shall be assigned to the different districts in the above mentioned proportion, by act of the legislature at the session immediately succeeding the above enumeration.

If the enumeration herein directed should not be made in the course of the year appointed for the purpose by these amendments, it shall be the duty of the Governor to have it effected as soon thereafter as shall be practicable.

In assigning representatives to the several districts of this State, the legislature shall allow one representative for every sixty-second part of the whole number of white inhabitants in the State; and one representative also for every sixty-second part of the whole taxes raised by the legislature of the State. The legislature shall further allow one representative for such fractions of the sixty-second part of the white inhabitants of the State, and of the sixty-second part of the taxes raised by the Legislature of the State, as, when added together, form a unit.

In every apportionment of representation under these amendments, which shall take place after the first apportionment, the amount of taxes shall be estimated from the average of the ten preceding years; but the first apportionment shall be founded upon the tax of the preceding year; excluding from the amount thereof the whole produce of the tax on sales at public auction.

If in the apportionment of representatives under these amendments, any election district shall appear not to be entitled, from its population and its taxes, to a representative, such election district shall, nevertheless, send one representative; and if there should be still a deficiency of the number of representatives required by these amendments, such deficiency shall be supplied by assigning representatives to those election districts. having the largest surplus fractions, whether those fractions consist of a combination of population and taxes, or of population or of taxes separately, until the number of one hundred and twenty-four members be provided.

No apportionment under these amendments shall be construed to take effect in any manner, until the general election which shall succeed such apportionment.

The election districts for members of the House of Representatives, shall be and remain as heretofore established, except Saxegotha and Newberry, in which the boundaries shall be altered as follows, viz: That part of Lexington in the fork of Broad and Saluda rivers, shall no longer compose a part of the election district of Newberry, but shall be henceforth attached to and form a part of Saxegotha. And also except Orange and Barnwell, or Winton, in which the boundaries shall be altered as follows, viz: That part of Orange in the fork of Edisto, shall no longer compose a part of the election district of Barnwell or Winton, but shall be henceforth attached to and form a part of Orange election district.

OF

The Senate shall be composed of one Member from each election CONSTITUTION district, as now established for the election of members of the House S. CAROLINA. of Representatives, except the district formed by the Parishes of St. Philip and St. Michael, to which shall be allowed two Senators as heretofore.

The seats of those Senators who under the constitution shall represent two or more election districts, on the day preceding the second Monday of October, which will be in the year one thousand eight hundred and ten, shall be vacated on that day, and the new Senators who shall represent such districts under these amendments, shall, immediately after they shall have been assembled under the first election, be divided by lot into two classes; the seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, and of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year; and the number of these classes shall be proportioned, that one half of the whole number of senators may, as nearly as possible, continue to be chosen thereafter every second year.

None of these amendments becoming parts of the constitution of this State, shall be altered, unless a bill to alter the same shall have been read on three several days in the House of Representatives, and on three several days in the senate, and agreed to at the second and third reading, by two thirds of the whole representation, in each branch of the legislature; neither shall any alteration take place, until the bill so agreed to, be published three months previous to a new election for members to the House of Representatives; and if the alteration proposed by the legislature shall be agreed to in their first session, by two-thirds of the whole representation, in each branch of the Legislature, after the same shall have been read on three several days in each house, then, and not otherwise, the same shall become a part of the constitution.

AMENDMENT, RATIFIED DECEMBER 19, 1810.

That the fourth section of the first article of the constitution of this State be altered and amended to read as follows: Every free white man of the age of twenty-one years, paupers and non-commissioned officers and private soldiers of the army of the United States excepted, being a citizen of this State, and having resided therein two years previous to the day of election, and who hath a freehold of fifty acres of land or a town lot, of which he hath been legally seized and possessed at least six months before such election, or not having such freehold or town lot, hath been a resident in the election district in which he offers to give his vote, six months before the said election, shall have a right to vote for a member or members to serve in either branch of the legislature for the election district in which he holds such property, or is so resident.

AMENDMENT, Ratified DecEMBER 19, 1816.

That the third section of the tenth article of the Constitution of this State be altered and amended to read as follows: The judges shall, at

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