27. Taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout the State. All property in this State shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as directed by law; except such property as two-thirds of both Houses of the Legislature may think proper to exempt from taxation. The Legislature shall have power to lay an income tax, and to tax all persons pursuing any occupation, trade, or profession. Provided, that the term occupation, shall not be construed to apply to pursuits either agricultural or mechanical.

28. The Legislature shall have power to provide by law for exempting from taxation two hundred and fifty dollars' worth of the household furniture, or other property, belonging to each family in this State.

29. The Assessor and Collector of taxes, shall be appointed in such manner, and under such regulations, as the Legislature may direct. 30. No corporate body shall hereafter be created, renewed, or extended, with banking or discounting privileges.

31. No private corporation shall be created, unless the bill creating it, shall be passed by two-thirds of both Houses of the Legislature; and two-thirds of the Legislature shall have power to revoke and repeal all private corporations, by making compensation for the franchise. And the State shall not be part owner of the stock, or property, belonging to any corporation.

32. The Legislature shall prohibit by law, individuals from issuing bills, checks, promissory notes, or other paper, to circulate as money.

33. The aggregate amount of debts hereafter contracted by the Legislature, shall never exceed the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, except in case of war, to repel invasions, or suppress insurrections. And in no case shall any amount be borrowed, except by a vote of twothirds of both Houses of the Legislature.

34. The Legislature shall at the first session thereof, and may at any subsequent session, establish new counties for the convenience of the inhabitants of such new county or counties. Provided, that no new county shall be established, which shall reduce the county or counties, or either of them, from which it shall be taken, to a less area than nine hundred square miles, (except the county of Bowie,) unless by consent of two thirds of the Legislature; nor shall any county be laid off of less contents. Every new county, as to the right of suffrage and rep. resentation, shall be considered as part of the county or counties from which it was taken, until entitled by numbers, to right of separate representation.

35. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in the house or within the enclosure of any individual, without the consent of the owner; nor in time of war, but in a manner prescribed by law.

36. The salaries of the Governor and Judges of the Supreme and District Courts, are hereby fixed at the minimum established in the Constitution, and shall not be increased for ten years.

Mode of Amending the Constitution.

37. The Legislature, whenever two-thirds of each House shall deem it necessary, may propose amendments to this Constitution; which proposed amendments shall be duly published in the public prints of the State, at least three months before the next general election of

Representatives, for the consideration of the people; and it shall be the duty of the several returning officers, at the next election, which shall be thus holden, to open a poll for, and make a return to, the secretary of the State, of the names of all those voting for representatives, who have voted on such proposed amendments; and if, thereupon, it shall appear that a majority of all the citizens of this State, voting for Representatives, have voted in favor of such proposed amendments, and twothirds of each House of the next Legislature, shall, after such election, and before another, ratify the same amendments by yeas and nays, they shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as parts of this Constitution: Provided, that the said proposed amendments shall, at each of the said sessions, have been read on three several days in each House.

ARTICLE 8.
Slaves.

§ 1. The Legislature shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves, without the consent of their owners; nor without paying their owners, previous to such emancipation, a full equivalent in money, for the slaves so emancipated. They shall have no power to prevent emigrants to this State, from bringing with them such persons as are deemed slaves by the laws of any of the United States, so long as any person of the same age or description shall be continued in slavery, by the laws of this State: provided, that such slave be the bona fide property of such emigrants: provided, also, that laws shall be passed to inhibit the introduction into this State, of slaves who have committed high crimes in other states or territories. They shall have the right to pass laws to permit the owners of slaves to emancipate them, saving the rights of creditors, and preventing them from becoming a public charge. They shall have full power to pass laws, which will oblige the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity; to provide for their necessary food and clothing; to abstain from all injuries to them, extending to life or limb; and, in case of their neglect or refusal to comply with the directions of such laws, to have such slave or slaves taken from such owner, and sold for the benefit of such owner or own. ers. They may pass laws to prevent slaves from being brought into this State, as merchandize only.

2. In the prosecution of slaves for the crimes of a higher grade than petit larceny, the Legislature shall have no power to deprive them of an impartial trial by a petit jury.

3. Any person who shall maliciously dismember or deprive a slave of life, shall suffer such punishment as would be inflicted, in case the like offence had been committed upon a free white person, and on the like proof, except in case of insurrection of such slave.

ARTICLE 9.
Impeachment.

§ 1. The power of impeachment shall be vested in the House of Representatives.

2. Impeachments of the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Attorney. General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Comptroller, and of the Judges of the District Courts, shall be tried by the Senate.

3. Impeachments of Judges of the Supreme Court, shall be tried by the Senate. When sitting as a Court of Impeachment, the Senators shall be upon oath or affirmation; and no person shall be convicted, without the concurrnce of two-thirds of the Senators present.

4. Judgment, in cases of impeachment, shall extend only to removal from office, and disqualification from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit, under this State; but the parties convicted shall, nevertheless, be subject to indictment, trial, and punishment, according to law.

5. All officers against whom articles of impeachment may be preferred, shall be suspended from the exercise of the duties of their office, during the pendency of such impeachment: the appointing power may make a provisional appointment, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the suspension of an officer, until the decision on the impeachment.

6. The Legislature shall provide for the trial, punishment, and removal from office, of all other officers of the State, by indictment or otherwise.

ARTICLE 10.
Education.

§1. A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of this State to make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of public schools.

2. The Legislature shall, as early as practicable, establish free schools throughout the State, and shall furnish means for their support, by taxation on property; and it shall be the duty of the Legislature to set apart not less than one-tenth of the annual revenue of the State, derivable from taxation, as a perpetual fund, which fund shall be appropriated to the support of free public schools; and no law shall ever be made, diverting said fund to any other use; and until such time as the Legis lature shall provide for the establishment of such schools, in the several districts of the State, the fund thus created shall remain as a charge against the State, passed to the credit of the free common school fund.

3. All public lands which have been heretofore, or may hereafter be granted for public schools, to the various counties, or other political divisions in this State, shall not be alienated in fee, nor disposed of otherwise than by lease, for a term not exceeding twenty years, in such manner as the Legislature may direct.

4. The several counties in this State, which have not received their quantum of lands for the purposes of education, shall be entitled to the same quantity heretofore appropriated by the Congress of the Republic of Texas to other counties.

ARTICLE 11.

§ 1. All certificates for head-right claims to lands, issued to fictitious persons, or which were forged; and all locations and surveys thercon, are, and the same were null and void from the beginning.

2. The District Courts shall be opened until the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, for the establishment of certificates for head-rights not recommended by the Commissioners appointed under the act to detect fraudulent land certificates, and to provide for issuing patents to legal claimants; and the parties suing shall pro

duce the like proof, and be subjected to the requisitions which were necessary, and were prescribed by law, to sustain the original application for the said certificates; and all certificates above referred to, not established or sued upon before the period limited, shall be barred; and the said certificates, and all locations and surveys thereon, shall be forever null and void; and all re-locations made on such surveys shall not be disturbed, until the certificates are established as above directed.

ARTICLE 12.
Land-Office.

§ 1. There shall be one General Land-Office in the State, which shall be at the Seat of Government, where all titles which have heretofore emanated, or may hereafter emanate, from Governinent, shall be registered; and the Legislature may establish, from time to time, such subordinate offices as they may deem requisite.

ARTICLE 13.
Schedule.

§ 1. That no inconvenience may arise from a change of separate National Government to a State Government, it is declared that all process which shall be issued in the name of the Republic of Texas, prior to the organization of the State Government, under this Constitution, shall be as valid as if issued in the name of the State of Texas.

2. The validity of all bonds and recognizances, executed in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Texas, shall not be impaired by the change of government, but may be sued for, and recovered, in the name of the Governor of the State of Texas; and all criminal prosecutions, or penal actions, which shall have arisen prior to the organization of the State government, under this Constitution, in any of the courts of the Republic of Texas, shall be prosecuted to judgment and execution, in the name of said State. All suits at law and equity, which may be depending in any of the courts of the Republic of Texas, prior to the organization of the State government under this Constitution, shall be transferred to the proper court of the State, which shall have jurisdiction of the subject-matter thereof.

3. All laws or parts of laws now in force in the Republic of Texas, which are not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, the joint resolutions for annexing Texas to the United States, or to the provisions of this Constitution, shall continue and remain in force as the laws of this State, until they expire by their own limitation, or shall be altered or repealed by the Legislature thereof.

4. All fines, penalties, forfeitures, and escheats, which have accrued to the Republic of Texas, under the Constitution and laws, shall accrue to the State of Texas; and the Legislature shall, by law, provide a method for determining what lands may have been forfeited or escheated.

5. Immediately after the adjournment of this Convention, the President of the Republic shall issue his proclamation, directing the Chief Justices of the several counties of this Republic, and the several Chief Justices and their associates are hereby required, to cause polls to be opened in their respective counties, at the established precincts, on the second Monday of October next, for the purpose of taking the sense of the people of Texas, in regard to the adoption or rejection of this Con

stitution; and the votes of all persons entitled to vote under the existing laws, or this Constitution, shall be received. Each voter shall express his opinion by declaring by a "viva voce" vote for "the Constitution accepted," or "the Constitution rejected;" or some words clearly expressing the intention of the voter; and at the same time the vote shall be taken in like manner for and against annexation. The election shall be conducted in conformity with the existing laws regulating elections; and the Chief Justices of the several counties shall carefully and promptly make duplicate returns of said polls, one of which shall be transinitted to the Secretary of State of the Republic of Texas, and the other deposited in the Clerk's office of the county court.

6. Upon the receipt of the said returns, or on the second Monday of November next, if the returns be not sooner made, it shall be the duty of the President, in presence of such officers of his cabinet as may be present, and of all persons who may choose to attend, to compare the votes given for the ratification or rejection of this Constitution; and if it should appear from the returns, that a majority of all the votes given is for the adoption of the Constitution, then it shall be the duty of the President to make proclamation of that fact; and thenceforth this Constitution shall be ordained and established as the Constitution of the State, to go into operation, and be of force and effect, from and after the organization of the State government under this Constitution; and the President of this Republic is authorized and required to transmit to the President of the United States duplicate copies of this Constitution, properly authenticated, together with certified statements of the num ber of votes given for the ratification thereof, and the number for rejection, one of which copies shall be transmitted by mail, and one copy by a special messenger, in sufficient time to reach the seat of govern. ment of the United States early in December next.

7. Should this Constitution be accepted by the people of Texas, it shall be the duty of the President, on or before the second Monday in November next, to issue his proclamation, directing and requiring clections to be holden in all the counties of this Republic, on the third Monday in December next, for the office of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and members of the Senate and House of Representatives of the State Legislature, in accordance with the apportionment of representation directed by this Constitution. The returns for members of the Legislature of this State shall be made to the Department of State of this Republic; and those for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor shall be addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, endorsed "Election Returns of county, for Governor," and directed to the Department of State; and should, from any cause whatever, the Chief Justices of counties fail to cause to be holden any of the polls or elec tions provided for by this Constitution, at the times and places herein directed, the people of the precincts where such failure exists, are hereby authorized to choose managers, judges, and other officers, to conduct said elections.

8. Immediately on the President of this Republic receiving official information of the acceptance of this Constitution by the Congress of the United States, he shall issue his proclamation, convening, at an early day, the Legislature of the State of Texas, at the seat of government established under this Constitution; and after the said Legisla