Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/521



Under the constitution of 1895 the governor holds office for two years and is eligible for re-election. The governor and the lieutenant-governor must be thirty years old and must have been citizens of the United States and citizens and residents of the state for five years. The governor has a veto power, extending to the separate items in appropriation bills, which may be overcome by a two-thirds majority in each house of the General Assembly; three days (excluding Sunday) are allowed to the governor for vetoing bills or joint resolutions passed by the General Assembly, or only two days if the General Assembly adjourn before three days have elapsed. The lieutenant-governor is the presiding officer of the senate, and succeeds the governor if the governor is removed from office by impeachment, death, resignation or otherwise. Other administrative officers of the state, each elected for two years, are a secretary of state, a comptroller-general, an attorney general, a treasurer, an adjutant and inspector-general, and a superintendent of education.

The state legislature is officially styled the General Assembly, and is composed of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The House of Representatives is composed of 124 members elected every two years and apportioned among the counties according to population; the Senate of one member from each county, elected for a term of four years, the term of one-half of the senators ending every two years. Annual sessions of the General Assembly are held, beginning on the second Tuesday in January. In 1904 the legislature submitted an amendment providing for biennial sessions and it was ratified by a popular vote, but inasmuch as the constitution requires a subsequent ratification by the legislature, the question came up again in the session of 1905. Attention was then called to the fact that the new amendment would make other changes in the constitution necessary, and the matter was referred to a legal commission.

The judicial power is vested in a Supreme Court and two circuit courts, a court of common pleas having civil jurisdiction, and a court of general sessions having criminal jurisdiction. The supreme court consists of a chief justice and three associates, elected by a joint viva voce vote of the General Assembly for a term of eight years. In each of the eight circuits is a circuit judge elected in a similar manner for four years. The magistrates or justices of the peace are appointed by the governor—a wise provision, because under the constitution of 1868 negroes were frequently elected who could neither read nor write.