of Commons, although it may not contain the requisite ratio of population.

This apportionment shall be made by the General Assembly, at the respective times and periods when the districts for the Senate are herein before directed to be laid off; and the said apportionment shall be made according to an enumeration to be ordered by the General Assembly, or according to the Census which may be taken by order of Congress, next preceding the period of making such apportionment.

In making the apportionment in the House of Commons, the ratio of representation shall be ascertained by dividing the amount of federal population of the State, after deducting that comprehended within those counties which do not severally contain the one hundred and twentieth part of the entire Federal population aforesaid, by the number of Representatives less than the number assigned to the said counties. To each county containing the said ratio, and not twice the said ratio, there shall be assigned one representative; to each county containing twice, but not three times the said ratio, there shall be assigned two Representatives, and so on progressively, and then the remaining Representatives shall be assigned severally to the counties having the largest fractions.

SECTION II.

Until the first session of the General Assembly which shall be had after the year eighteen hundred and forty-one, the Senate shall be composed of members to be elected from the several districts hereinafter named, that is to say, the 1st district shall consist of the counties of Perquimans and Pasquotank; the 2d district, of Camden and Currituck; the 3d disErict, of Gates and Chowan; the 4th district, Washington and Tyrrell; the 5th district, Northampton; the 6th district, Hertford; the 7th district, Bertie; the 8th district, Martin; the 9th district, Halifax; the 10th district, Nash; the 11th dis trict, Wake; the 12th district, Franklin; the 13th district, Johnston; the 14th district, Warren; the 15th district Edge

combe; the 16th district, Wayne; the 17th district, Greene and Lenoir; the 18th district, Pitt; the 19th district, Beaufort and Hyde; the 20th district, Carteret and Jones; the 21st district, Craven; the 22d district, Chatham; the 23d district, Granville; the 24th district, Person; the 25th district, Cumberland; the 26th district, Sampson; the 27th district, New Hanover; the 28th district, Duplin; the 29th district, Onslow; the 30th district, Brunswick, Bladen and Columbus; the 31st district, Robeson and Richmond; the 32d district, Anson; the 33d district, Cabarrus; the 34th district, Moore and Montgomery; the 35th district, Caswell; the 36th district, Rockingham; the 37th district, Orange; the 38th district, Randolph; the 39th district, Guilford; the 40th district, Stokes; the 41st district, Rowan; the 42d district, Davidson; the 43d district, Surry; the 44th district, Wilkes and Ashe; the 45th district, Burke and Yancy; the 46th district, Lincoln; the 47th district, Iredell; the 48th district, Rutherford; the 49th district, Buncombe, Haywood and Macon; and the 50th district, Mecklenburg; each district to be entitled to one Senator.

Until the first session of the General Assembly after the year eighteen hundred and forty-one, the House of Commons shall be composed of members elected from the counties in the following manner, viz: The counties of Lincoln and Orange shall elect four members each. The counties of Burke, Chatham, Granville, Guilford, Halifax, Iredell, Mecklenburg, Rowan, Rutherford, Surry, Stokes and Wake, shall elect three members each. The counties of Anson, Beaufort, Bertie, Buncombe, Cumberland, Craven, Caswell, Davidson, Duplin, Edgecombe, Franklin, Johnston, Montgomery, New Hanover, Northampton, Person, Pitt, Randolph, Robeson, Richmond, Rockingham, Sampson, Warren, Wayne and Wilkes, shall elect two members each. The counties of Ashe, Bladen, Brunswick, Camden, Columbus, Chowan, Currituck, Carteret, Cabarrus, Gates, Greene, Haywood, Hertford, Hyde, Jones, Lenoir, Macon, Moore, Martin, Nash, Onslow, Pas

quotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell, Washington and Yancey, shall elect one member each.

SECTION III.

Each member of the Senate shall have usually resided in the district for which he is chosen, for one year immediately preceding his election, and for the same time shall have possessed and continue to possess, in the district which he represents, not less than three hundred acres of land in fee.

All freemen of the age of twenty-one years, (except as is hereinafter declared) who have been inhabitants of any one district within the State, twelve months immediately preceding the day of any election, and possessed of a freehold within the same district of fifty acres of land, for six months next before and at the day of election, shall be entitled to vote for a member of the Senate.

No free negro, free mulatto, or free person of mixed blood, descended from negro ancestors, to the fourth generation, inclusive, (though one ancestor of each generation may have been a white person,) shall vote for members of the Senate or House of Commons.

SECTION IV.

In the election of all officers, whose appointment is conferred on the General Assembly by the Constitution, the vote shall be viva voce.

The General Assembly shall have power to pass laws regulating the mode of appointing and removing Militia Officers. The General Assembly shall have power to pass general laws, regulating divorce and alimony, but shall not have power to grant a divorce, or secure alimony, in any individual case.

The General Assembly shall not have power to pass any private law, to alter the name of any person, or to legitimate any persons not born in lawful wedlock, or to restore to the rights of citizenship, any person convicted of an infamous

crime; but shall have power to pass general laws regulating the same.

The General Assembly shall not pass ary private law, unless it shall be made to appear, that thirty days notice of application to pass such law shall have been given, under such directions and in such manner as shall be provided by law.

If vacancies shall occur by death, resignation or otherwise, before the meeting of the General Assembly, writs may be issued by the Governor, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law.

The General Assembly shall meet biennially, and at each biennial session shall elect, by joint vote of the two Houses, a Secretary of State, Treasurer, and Council of State, who shall continue in office for the term of two years.

ARTICLE II.

The Governor shall be chosen by the qualified voters for the members of the House of Commons, at such time and places as the members of the General Assembly are elected.

He shall hold his office for the term of two years from the time of his installation, and until another shall be elected and qualified; but he shall not be eligible more than four in any term of six years.

years

The returns of every election for Governor, shall be sealed up and transmitted to the seat of Government, by the returning officers, directed to the Speaker of the Senate, who shall open and publish them in the presence of a majority of the members of both Houses of the General Assembly. The person having the highest number of votes shall be Governor; but if two or more shall be equal and highest in votes, one of them shall be chosen Governor by joint vote of both Houses of the General Assembly.

Contested elections for Governor, shall be determined by both Houses of the General Assembly, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law.

The Governor elect shall enter on the duties of the office, on the first day of January next after his election, having previously taken the oaths of office in presence of the members of both branches of the General Assembly, or before the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who, in case the Governor elect should be prevented from attendance before the General Assembly, by sickness or other unavoida ble cause, is authorized to administer the same.

ARTICLE III.

SECTION I.

The Governor, Judges of the Supreme Court, and Judges of the Superior Courts, and all other officers of this State, (except Justices of the Peace and Militia officers,) may be impeached for wilfully violating any Article of the Constitution, mal-administration, or corruption.

Judgment, in cases of impeachment, shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under this State; but the party convicted may, nevertheless, be liable to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law.

The House of Commons shall have the sole power of impeachment. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments; no person shall be convicted upon any impeachment, unless two-thirds of the Senators present shall concur in such conviction; and before the trial of any im. peachment, the members of the Senate shall take an oath or affirmation, truly and impartially to try and determine the charge in question, according to evidence.

SECTION II.

Any Judge of the Supreme Court, or of the Superior Courts, may be removed from office for mental or physical inability, upon a concurrent resolution of two-thirds of both branches of the General Assembly. The Judge against whom the Leg