Page:The Federal and state constitutions vol1.djvu/616

574 from office on impeachment, or for inability, the speaker of the senate at that time shall exercise the office of governor, until a new governor shall be duly qualified, and on the death or resignation of the speaker of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives at that time shall exercise the office, until it be regularly vested in a new governor. If the trial of a Contested election shall continue longer than until the third Tuesday of January next ensuing the election of a governor, the governor of the last year, or the speaker of the senate, or of the house of representatives, who may then be in the exercise of the executive authority, shall continue therein until a determination of such contested election. The governor shall not be removed from his office for inability, but with the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members of each branch of the legislature.

A secretary shall be appointed and commissioned during the governor’s continuance in office, if he shall so long behave himself well. He shall keep a fair register of all the official acts and, proceedings of the governor, and shall, when required by either branch of the legislature, lay the same, and all papers, minutes, and vouchers relative thereto, before them, and shall perform such other duties as shall be enjoined him by law. He shall have a compensation for his services to be fixed by law.

All elections of governor, senators, and representatives shall be by ballot. And in such elections every white free man of the age of twenty-one years, having resided in the State two years next before the election, and within that time paid a State or county tax, which shall have been assessed at least six months before the election, shall enjoy the right of an elector; and the sons of persons so qualified shall, between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-two years, be entitled to vote, although they shall not have paid taxes.

Electors shall in all cases, except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at elections, and in going to and returning from them.

The house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeaching; but two-thirds of all the members must concur in an impeachment. All impeachments shall be tried by the senate; and, when sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be upon oath or affirmation to do justice according to the evidence. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the senators.

The governor, and all other civil officers under this State, shall be liable to impeachment for treason, bribery, or any high crime or misdemeanor in office. Judgment in such cases shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under this State; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law.

Treason against this State shall consist only in levying war against it, or in adhering to the enemies of the government, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.