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 Administration.—The state is governed under the constitution of 1844, with subsequent amendments of 1875 and of 1897. The only other constitution under which the state has been governed was that of 1776 (see History below). The right of suffrage is conferred upon all males, twenty-one years of age and over, who have resided in the state for one year and in the county for five months preceding the election. Paupers, idiots, insane persons and persons who are convicted of crimes which exclude them from being witnesses and who have not been pardoned and restored to civil rights are disfranchised. The executive power is vested in a governor, who is elected for a term of three years and may not serve two successive terms, though he may be re-elected after he has been out of office for a full term. He must be at least thirty years of age, and must have been a citizen of the United States for a least twenty years, and a resident of the state seven years next preceding his election. He may not be elected by the legislature, during the term for which he is elected as governor, to any office under the state or the United States governments. He receives a salary of $10,000 a year. If the governor die, resign or be removed from office, or if his office be otherwise vacant, he is succeeded by the president of the Senate, who serves until another governor is elected and qualified. The governor’s powers under the constitution of 1776 were greatly limited by the constitution of 1844. His appointive power is unusually large. With the advice and consent of the state Senate he selects the secretary of state, attorney-general, superintendent of public instruction, chancellor, chief justice, judges of the supreme, circuit, inferior and district courts, and the so-called “lay” judges of the court of errors and appeals, in addition to the minor administrative officers who are usually appointive in all American states. The governor may make no appointments in the last week of his term. The state treasurer, comptroller and the commissioners of deeds are appointed by the two houses of the legislature in joint session. The governor is ex officio a member of the court of pardons, and his affirmative vote is necessary in all cases of pardon or commutation of sentence (see below).

The legislative department consists of a Senate and a General Assembly. In the Senate each of the 21 counties has one representative, chosen for a term of three years, and about one-third of the membership is chosen each year. The members of the General Assembly are elected annually, are limited to sixty (the actual number in 1909), and are apportioned among the counties according to population, with the important proviso, however, that every county shall have at least one member.

The judicial system is complex and is an interesting development from the English system of the 18th century. At its head is a court of errors and appeals composed of the chancellor, the justices of the supreme court and six additional “lay” judges. The supreme court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices, but it may be held by the chief justice alone or by any one of the associate justices. The state is divided into nine judicial districts, and each supreme court justice holds circuit courts within each county of a judicial district, besides being associated with the “president” judge of the court of common pleas of each county in holding the court of common pleas, the court of quarter sessions, the court of oyer and terminer and the orphans’ court. One of five additional judges may hold a circuit court in the absence of a justice of the supreme court, or the “president” judge of a court of common pleas may do so if the supreme court justice requests it. In each township there are from two to five justices of the peace, any one of whom may preside over the “small cause court,” which has jurisdiction of cases in which the matter in dispute does not exceed $200 and is not an action of replevin, one in which the charge is slander, trespass or assault, battery or imprisonment, or in which the title to real estate is in question.

For the purposes of local government the state is divided into counties, cities, townships, towns and boroughs. The government of the towns is administered through a council, clerk, collector, assessor, treasurer, &c., chosen by popular vote; that of the townships is vested in the annual town meeting, at which administrative officers are elected. Any township with more