Page:The Federal and state constitutions v5.djvu/299

Rh facto law ought to be made. No law taxing retrospectively sales, purchases, or other acts previously done, ought to be passed.

Slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than for crime, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be and are hereby forever prohibited within the State.

The limits and boundaries of the State shall be and remain as they now are.

All courts shall be open; and every person for an injury done him in his lands, goods, person or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law, and right and justice administered without sale, denial or delay.

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

This enumeration of rights shall not be construed to impair or deny others retained by the people; and all powers not herein delegated remain with the people.

The legislative authority shall be vested in two distinct branches, both dependent on the people, to-wit, a Senate and House of Representatives.

The Senate and House of Representatives shall meet biennially on the first Wednesday after the first Monday in January next after their election; and, when assembled, shall be denominated the General Assembly. Neither House shall proceed upon public business unless a majority of all the members are actually present.

The Senate shall be composed of fifty Senators, biennially chosen by ballot.

The Senate Districts shall be so altered by the General Assembly, at the first session after the return of every enumeration by order of Congress, that each Senate District shall contain, as near as may be, an equal number of inhabitants, excluding aliens and Indians not taxed, and shall remain unaltered until the return of another enumeration, and shall at all times consist of contiguous territory; and no county shall be divided in the formation of a Senate District, unless such county shall be equitably entitled to two or more Senators.

The House of Representatives shall be composed of one hundred and twenty Representatives, biennially chosen by ballot, to be elected by the counties respectively, according to their population, and each county shall have at least one representative in the House of Representatives, although it may not contain the requisite ratio of representation; this apportionment shall be made by the General Assembly at the respective times and periods when the Districts of the Senate are hereinbefore directed to be laid off.

In making the apportionment in the House of Representatives, the ratio of representation shall be ascertained by dividing the amount of the population of the State, exclusive of that comprehended within those counties, which do not severally contain the one hundred and twentieth part of the population of the State, by the