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the profits of any office, held by any other person; and that he does not hold the same office in trust, or for the benent of any other person."

LIII. That if any Governor, Chancellor, Judge, Register of the Land Office, Register of the Chancery Court, or any Clerk of the Common Law Courts, Tret surer, Naval Officer, Sheriff, Surveyor, or Auditor of Public Accounts, &c. shall receive directly or indirectly at any time, the profits, or any part of the profits of any office, held by any other person, during his acting in the office to which he is appointed; his election, apappointment, and commission (on conviction, in a Court of law, by oath of two credible witnesses) shall be void, and he shall suffer the punishment for wilful and corrupt perjury, or be banished this State forever, or disqualified forever, from holding any office or place of trust or profit, as the Court may adjudge.

LIV. That if any person shall give any bribe, present or reward, or any promise, or any security for the payment or delivery of any money, or any other thing, to obtain or procure a vote, to be Governor, Senator, Delegate to Congress, or Assembly, Member of the Council, or Judge, or to be appointed to any of the said offices, or to any office of profit or trust, now created, or hereafter to be created in this State-the person giving, and the person receiving the same (on conviction in a Court of law) shall be forever disqualified to hold any office of trust or prost in this State.

LV. That every person, appointed to any office of profit or trust, shall, before he enters on the execution thereof, take the following oath, to wit, "I, A. B. do swear, That I do not hold myself bound in allegiance to the King of Great Britian, and that I will be faithful, and bear true allegiance to the State of Maryland,” and shall also subscribe a declaration of his belief in the Christian Religion.

LVI. That there be a Court of Appeals, composed of persons of integrity and sound judgment in the law, whose judgment shall be final and conclusive, in all cases of appeal, from the General Court, Court of Chancery, and Court of Admiralty; that one person

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of integrity and sound judgment in the law, be appointed Chancellor; that three persons of integrity and sound judgment in the law, be appointed Judges of the Court now called the Provincial Court; and that the same court be hereafter called and known by the name of The General Court: which Court shall sit on the western and eastern shores, for transacting and determining the business of the respective shores, at such times and places, as the future Legislature of this State shall direct and appoint.

LVII. That the style of all laws run thus: "Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland.” That all public commissions and grants run thus: "The State of Maryland," &c. and shall be signed by the Governor, and attested by the Chancellor, with the seal of the State annexed-except military commissions, which shall not be attested by the Chancellor, or have the seal of the State annexed; that all writs shall run in the same style, and be attested, sealed, and signed as usual. That all indictments shall conclude, "Against the peace, government, and dignity of the State."

LVIII. That all penalties and forfeitures, heretofore going to the King or proprietary, shall go to the State -save only such, as the General Assembly may abolish or otherwise provide for.

LIX. That this Form of Government, and the Declaration of Rights, and no part thereof, shall be altered, changed, or abolished, unless a bill so to alter, change, or abolish the same, shall pass the General Assembly, and be published at least three months before a new election, and shall be confirmed by the General Assembly, after a new election of Delegates, in the first session after such new election; provided, that nothing in this Form of Government, which relates to the eastern shore particularly, shall at any time hereafter be altered, unless for the alteration and confirmation thereof, at least two-thirds of all the members of each branch of the General Assembly shall concur.

LX. That every bill, passed by the General Assembly, when engrossed, shall be presented by the Speaker of the House of Delegates, in the Senate, to the Go

vernor for the time being, who shall sign the same, and thereto affix the great seal, in the presence of the Members of both Houses: every law shall be recorded in the General Court Office of the western shore, and in due time printed, published, and certified under the great seal to the several County Courts, in the same manner as hath been heretofore used in this State.

This Form of Government was assented to, and passed in Convention of the Delegates of the Freemen of Maryland, begun and held at the City of Annapolis, the 14th day of August, A. D. 1776.

By order of the Convention,

M. TILGHMAN, President.

AMENDMENTS TO THIS CONSTITUTION. ALL those parts of the Constitution and Form of Government that prevent a citizen, conscientiously scrupulous of taking an oath in any case, and who are permitted by the Constitution to affirm in certain cases, from taking a seat in the Legislature, or from being an elector of the Senate, without taking an oath of support to this government, shall be repealed; and hereafter a solemn affirmation, or declaration of support to this Government may be taken, and shall be received instead of an oath, by any citizen chosen a delegate or elector of the Senate, conscientiously scrupulous of taking an oath in any case, and who is permitted by theConstitution to affirm in certain cases.Nov. 1788, C.42, § 2. comfirmed by 1789. C. 1.

Every person being a member of either of the sects or societies called Quakers, Menonists, Dunkers, or Ni、 colites, or new Quakers, and who shall be conscientious. ly scrupulous of taking an oath on any occasion, being otherwise qualified and duly elected a Senator, Delegate, or Elector of the Senate, or being otherwise qualifed and duly appointed or elected to any office of profit or trust, on making affirmation, instead of taking the several oaths appointed by the Constitution and Form of Government, and the several Acts of Assembly of th's State now in force, or that hereafter may be made, such person may hold and exercise any office of

profit

profit or trust to which he may be appointed or elected, and may, by such affirmation, qualify himself to take a seat in the Legislature, and to act therein as a member of the same in all cases whatever, or to be an elector of the Senate, in as full and ample manner, as persons are now competent and qualified to act who are not conscientiously scrupulous of taking such oaths; and the several clauses and sections of the Constitution contrary to the provisions of this Act, so far as they respect either of the sects or societies aforesaid, shall be repealed, on the confirmation hereof. — 1794, C. 49, § 1, 3, confirmed by 1795, C. 11.

That all and every part of the Constitution and Form of Government relating to the judges, time, place, and manner of holding elections in the city of Baltimore, and all and every part of the second, third, fifth, fourteenth and forty-second sections of the Constitution and Form of Government of this State, which relate to the judges, place, time, and manner of holding the several elections for Delegates, Electors of the Senate, and the Sheriffs of the several counties, be and the same are hereby abrogated, repealed, and annulled, and the same shall hereafter be regulated by law.-Passed 1798; confirıned 1799.

Every free white male citizen of this State, and no other, above 21 years of age, having refided 12 months in the county next preceding the election at which he offers to vote, and every free white male citizen of this State above 21 years of age, and having obtained a residence of 12 months next preceding the election in the city of Baltimore, or the city of Annapolis, and at which he offers to vote, shall have a right of suffrage, ́and shall vote, by ballot, in the election of such county or city, or either of them, for Delegates to the General Assembly, Electors of the Senate, and Sheriffs.-Passed 1801; confirmed 1802.

[The rest of the alterations of this Constitution relate only to the number and boundaries of election districts in the respective counties of the State.]

VIRGINIA.

The CONSTITUTION, or Form of Government, agreed to and refolved upon by the Delegates and Reprefentatives of the feveral Counties and Corporations of Virginia, in a General Convention held at Williamsburgh, on the 6th of May, and continued by adjournments to the 5th of July 1776.

WE,

E, the Delegates and Reprefentatives of the good People of Virginia, do declare the future form of Government of Virginia to be as followeth :

The Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary Departments, fhall be feparate and diftin&, fo that neither exercife the powers properly belonging to the other; nor fhall any perfon exercife the powers of more than one of them at the fame time, except that the Justices of the County Courts fhall be eligible to either Houfe of Affembly.

The Legislative fhall be formed of two diftin&t branches, who, together, fhall be a complete Legislature. They fhall meet once, or oftener, every year, and hall be called, The General Affembly of Virginia. One of thefe fhall be called, The House of Delegates, and confift of two Representatives, to be chofen for each county, and for the diftrict of Wett-Augufta, annually, of fuch mẹn as actually refide in, and are freeholders of the fame, or duly qualified, according to law, and also of one Delegate or Reprefentative, to be chofen annually for the city of Williamsburgh, and one for the borough of Norfolk, and a Reprefentative for each of such other cities and boroughs, as may hereafter be allowed particular reprefentation by the Legiflature; but when any city or borough shall so decrease, as that the number of perfons, having right of fuffrage therein, shall have been, for the ipace of feven years fucceflively, lefs than half the number of voters in fome one county in Virginia, fuch city or borough thenceforward

fhall

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