Page:California State Constitution of 1879.djvu/20

xlii shall be valid or binding unless the same he approved and ratified by a majority of the qualified electors of the State voting therefor at a general State election, under such regulations and provisions as the Legislature, by a two thirds vote of each House, may provide, submitting the question of change to the people.

. 2. Any citizen of this State who shall, after the adoption of this Constitution, fight a duel with deadly weapons, or send or accept a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, either within this State or out of it, or who shall act as second, or knowingly aid or assist in any manner those thus offending, shall not be allowed to hold any office of profit, or to enjoy the right of suffrage under this Constitution.

. 3. Members of the Legislature, and all officers, executive and judicial, except such inferior officers as may be by law exempted, shall, before they enter upon the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be,) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of, according to the best of my ability."

And no other oath, declaration, or test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust.

. 4. All officers or Commissioners whose election or appointment is not provided for by this Constitution, and all officers or Commissioners whose offices or duties may hereafter be created by law, shall be elected by the people, or appointed, as the Legislature may direct.

. 5. The fiscal year shall commence on the first day of July.

. 6. Suits may be brought against the State in such manner and in such Courts as shall be directed by law.

. 7. No contract of marriage, if otherwise duly made, shall be invalidated for want of conformity to the requirements of any religious sect.

. 8. All property, real and personal, owned by either husband or wife before marriage, and that acquired by either of them afterwards by gift, devise, or descent, shall be their separate property.

. 9. No perpetuities shall be allowed except for eleemosynary purposes.

. 10. Every person shall be disqualified from holding any office of profit in this State who shall have been convicted of having given or offered a bribe to procure his election or appointment.

. 11. Laws shall be made to exclude from office, serving on juries, and from the right of suffrage, persons convicted of bribery, perjury, forgery, malfeasance in office, or other high crimes. The privilege of free suffrage shall be supported by laws regulating elections and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, all undue influence thereon from power, bribery, tumult, or other improper practice.

. 12. Absence from this State, on business of the State or of the United States, shall not affect the question of residence of any person.

. 13. A plurality of the votes given at any election shall constitute a choice, where not otherwise directed in this Constitution.

. 14. The Legislature shall provide, by law, for the maintenance and efficiency of a State Board of Health.

. 15. Mechanics, material men, artisans, and laborers of every class, shall have a lien upon the property upon which they have bestowed labor or furnished material for the value of such labor done and material furnished; and the Legislature shall provide, by law, for the speedy and efficient enforcement of such liens.

. 16. When the term of any officer or Commissioner is not provided for in this Constitution, the term of such officer or Commissioner may be declared by law; and, if not so declared, such officer or Commissioner shall hold his position as such officer or Commissioner during the pleasure of the authority making the appointment; but in no case shall such term exceed four years.

. 17. Eight hours shall constitute a legal day's work on all public work.

. 18. No person shall, on account of sex, be disqualified from entering upon or pursuing any lawful business, vocation, or profession.

. 19. Nothing in this Constitution shall prevent the Legislature from providing, by law, for the payment of the expenses of the Convention framing this Constitution, including the per diem of the Delegates for the full term thereof.

. 20. Elections of the officers provided for by this Constitution, except at the election in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, shall be held on the even numbered years next before the expiration of their respective terms. The terms of such officers shall commence on the first Monday after the first day of January next following their election.

1. The boundary of the State of California shall be as follows: Commencing at the point of intersection of the forty-second degree of north latitude with the one hundred and twentieth degree of longitude west from Greenwich, and running south on the line of said one hundred and twentieth degree of west longitude until it intersects the thirty-ninth degree of north latitude; thence running in a straight line, in a southeasterly direction, to the River Colorado, at a point where it intersects the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude; thence down