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Section 1. The members of the General Assembly, and
all officers, executive and judicial, before they enter on the execution
of their respective offices, shall take the following oath or affirmation,
to wit: "I do solemnly swear [or affirm, as the case may be] that I
will support the Constitution of the State of Alabama so long as I continue
a citizen thereof, and that I will faithfully discharge, to the best of
my abilities, the duties of_______________ according to law, so help me
God!"
Section 2. Treason against the State shall consist only
in levying war against it, or in adhering to its enemies, 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 his own confession in open court.
Section 3. The General Assembly shall have power to pass
such penal laws to suppress the evil practice of duelling, extending to
disqualification from office, or the tenure thereof, as they may deem expedient.
Section 4. Every person shall be disqualified from holding
any office or place of honor or profit, under the authority of the State,
who shall be convicted of having given or offered any bribe to procure his
election or appointment.
Section 5. Laws shall be made to exclude from office, from
suffrage, and from serving as jurors, those who shall hereafter be convicted
of bribery, perjury, forgery, or other high crimes, or misdemeanors. The
privelege of free suffrage shall be supported by laws regulating elections,
and prohibiting under adequate penalties, all undue influence thereon from
power, bribery, tumult, or improper conduct.
Section 6. In all elections by the General Assembly, the
members thereof shall vote viva voce , and the votes shall
be entered on the journals.
Section 7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but
in consequence of an appropriation made by law; and a regular statement
and account of receipts and expenditures of all public moneys shall be published
annually.
Section 8. All lands liable to taxation in this State,
shall be taxed in proportion to their value.
Section 9. The General Assembly shall direct, by law, in
what manner, and in what courts, suits may be brought against the State.
Section 10. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly
to regulate, by law, the cases in which deductions shall be made from the
salaries of public officers, for neglect of duty in their official capacities,
and the amount of such deduction.
Section 11. Temporary absence from this State, shall not
cause a forfeiture of a residence once obtained.
Section 12. No member or delegate to any Congress of other
States or powers, nor persons holding any office of profit or trust under
any foreign power, shall hold or exercise any office of profit under this
State: Provided , that this section does not apply to any deputy,
delegate or commissioner elected by this convention.
Section 13. Divorces from the bonds of Matrimony shall
not be granted, but in cases provided for by law in chancery. But decrees
for divorce shall be final, unless appealed from within three months from
the date of the enrollment thereof.
Section 14. In prosecutions for the publishing of papers
investigating the official conduct of officers, or men in public capacity,
or when the matter published is proper for public information, the truth
thereof may be given in evidence; and in all indictments for libels, the
jury shall have the right to determine the law and the facts under the direction
of the courts.
Section 15. Returns of all elections for officers who are
to be commissioned by the Governor, and for members of the General Assembly,
shall be made to the Secretary of State.
Section 16. The General Assembly may, by a vote of two-thirds
of both branches thereof, arrange and designate boundaries for the several
counties of this State, which shall not be altered, except by a like vote
of the General Assembly. But no new county shall be hereafter formed of
less extent than nine hundred square miles, nor shall it contain, at the
time, less than one hundredth part of the population of the State, and no
existing county shall be hereafter reduced below such area or population
by the formation of a new county.
Section 17. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly
to pass such laws as may be necessary and proper to decide differences by
arbitrators, to be appointed by the parties, who may choose that summary
mode of adjustment.
Section 18. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly,
as soon as circumstances will permit, to form a penal code, founded on principles
of reformation.
Section 19. Within five days after the adoption of this
Constitution, the body or our laws, civil and criminal, shall be revised,
digested and arranged, under proper heads, and promulgated, in such manner
as the General Assembly may direct: and a like revision, digest, and promulgation,
shall be made within every subsequent period of ten years.
Section 20. The General Assembly shall make provisions
by law for obtaining correct knowledge of the several objects proper for
improvement in relation to the navigable waters, and to the roads in this
State, and for making a systematic and economical application of the means
appropriated to those objects.
Section 21. In the event of the annexation of any foreign
territory to this State, laws may be passed, extending to the inhabitants
of such territory, all the rights and privileges which may be required by
the terms of such acquisition: anything in this constitution to the contrary
notwithstanding.
EDUCATION
Schools, and the means of education, shall forever be encouraged
in this State; and the General Assembly shall take measures to preserve,
from unnecessary waste or damage, such lands as have been granted by the
United States for the use of schools, within each township in this State,
and apply the funds, which may be raised from such lands, in strict conformity
to the object of such grant. The General Assembly shall take like measures
for the improvement of such lands as have been granted by the United States
to this State, for the support of a seminary of learning, and the moneys
which may be raised from such lands, by rent, lease, or sale, or from any
other quarter, for the purpose aforesaid, shall be and remain a fund for
the exclusive support of a State University, for the promotion of the arts,
literature and the sciences; and it shall be the duty of the General Assembly,
as early as may be, to provide effectual means for the improvement and permanent
security of the funds and endowments of such institution.
BANKING
Section 1. No bank shall be established, nor bank charter renewed
under the authority of this State, without the concurrence of two-thirds
of each house of the General Assembly.
Section 2. Not more than one bank shall be established,
nor bank charter renewed at any one session of the General Assembly, nor
shall any bank be established, or bank charter renewed, but in conformity
with the following rules.
SLAVERY
Section 1. No slave in this State shall be emancipated by any act
done to take effect in this State, or any other country.
Section 2. The humane treatment of slaves shall be secured
by law.
Section 3. Laws may be enacted to prohibit the introduction
into this State, of slaves who have committed high crimes in other States
or territories, and to regulate or prevent the introduction of slaves into
this State as merchandise.
Section 4. In the prosecution of slaves for crimes, of
a higher grade than petit larceny, the General Assembly shall have no power
to deprive them of an impartial trial by a petiti jury.
Section 5. Any person who shall maliciously dismember or
deprive a slave of life, shall suffer such punishment as would be inflicted
in case the like offense had been committed on a free white person, and
on the like proof, except in case of insurrection of such slave.
EXPLANATORY PROVISIONS
PART I.
Relating To The Change From The Territorial To The State Form Of Government
Section 1. That no inconvience may arise from a change of territorial
to a permanent State government, it is declared that all rights, actions,
prosecutions, claims, and contracts, as well of individuals, as of bodies
corporate, shall continue as if no such change had taken place; and all
process, which shall, before the third Monday in September next, be issued
in the name of the Alabama territory, shall be as valid as if issued in
the name of the State.
Section 2. All fines, penalties, forfeitures, and escheats,
accruing to the Alabama territory, shall accrue to the use of the State.
Section 3. The validity of all bonds and recognizances,
executed to the Governor of the Alabama territory, shall not be impaired
by the change of government, by may be sued for and recovered in the name
of the Governor of the State of Alabama, and his successors in office; and
all criminal and penal actions, arising or now depending within the limits
of this State, shall be prosecuted to judgment and execution in the name
of said State, all causes of action arising to individuals, and all suits
at law or in equityn now depending in the several courts, within the limits
of this State, and not already barred by law, may be commenced in, or transferred
to, such courts as may have jurisdiction thereof.
Section 4. All officers, civil or military, now holding
commissions under the authority of the United States, or of the Alabama
territory, within this State, shall continue to hold and exercise their
respective offices under the authority of this State, until they shall be
superseded under the authority of this Constitution, and shall receive from
the treasury of this State, the same compensation which they heretofore
received, in proportion to the time they shall be so employed. The Governor
shall have power to fill vacancies by commissions, to expire so soon as
elections or appointments can be made to such offices, by authority of this
Constitution.
Section 5. All laws and parts of laws, now in force in
the Alabama territory, which are not repugnant to the provisions of this
Constitution, shall continue and remain in force as the laws of this State,
until they expire by their own limitation, or shall be altered, or repealed,
by the Legislature thereof.
PART II
Relating To The Secession Of The State Of Alabama From The Government Of
The United States
CHAPTER I.
Section 1. Be it declared and ordained by the people of the
State of Alabama in Convention assembled , That the State of Alabama
now withdraws, and is hereby withdrawn from the Union known as "the
United States of America", and henceforth ceases to be one of said
United States, and is, and of right ought to be a Sovereign
and Independent State .
Section 2. Be it further declared and ordained by
the people of the State of Alabama in Convention assembled , That
all the powers over the territory of said State, and over the people thereof,
heretofore delegated to the government of the United States of America,
be, and they are hereby withdrawn from said government, and are hereby resumed
and vested in the people of the State of Alabama.
Section 3. Be it ordained by the people of Alabama
in Convention Assembled, That the Constitution framed and adopted
on the 11th day of March, 1861, by the Deputies from the States of South
Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas,
in convention assembled, at Montgomery, Alabama, be, and the same is hereby
Approved, Ratified and Adopted , as the
Federal Constitution for the people of Alabama.
CHAPTER II.
Section 1. No law enacted by the authority of the State of Alabama,
in force on the 11th day of January, A. D., 1861, and consistent with the
Constitution of this State, and not inconsistent with the ordinances of
this Convention, is affected by the ordinance known as the Ordinance of
Secession, adopted on said day, and entitled "An Ordinance to dissolve
the Union between the State of Alabama and other States, united under the
compact styled the Constitution of the United States."
Section 2. No office, civil or military, created by this
State, or under the authority of its laws, in force on the eleventh day
of January, A. D., 1861, and no officer lawfully exercising the powers or
duties of such office, is affected by said Ordinance of Secession, except
the offices of the members of the House of Representatives, and of the Senators
of the Congress of the United States of America, and these are abrogated.
Section 3. No offense against the laws of this State, committed
before or since the adoption of said Ordinance of Secession, is affected
by said ordinance, and no offender against said laws, is relieved or discharged
from the consequences of such offense by said ordinance; and no amercement,
fine, penalty, forfeiture, escheat, bond, or recognizance, accruing or enuring,
in whole or in part, to the State of Alabama, whether in action or in judgment,
is affected by said ordinance.
Section 4. No bond issued by authority of the laws of this
State, or bills or coin lawfully used as money in this State, and no bond,
obligation, debt or duty, due or owing to this State, or enuring, in whole
or in part, to this State, before or since the adoption of said ordinance,
is affected thereby.
Section 5. No process or proceeding of any Court of this
State, is affected by said Ordinance of Secession.
Section 6. No right, title, franchise, easement, license
or privilege given, granted or conferred to, or upon any person or body
corporate, under and by authority of the laws of this State, and no right
of possession of property, action or prosecution, title, claim, contract,
agreement, obligation, debt or duty, of any person or body corporate, is
affected by said Ordinance of Secession, unless the same is inconsistent
with said ordinance, or is affected by some other ordinance of this Convention.
Section 7. No rights acquired, or vested in any body corporate
under the Constitution of the United States, or under any act of Congress
passed in pursuance thereof, or under any law of this State, and not incompatible
with said Ordinance of Secession, is affected by said ordinance.
PART III.
Relating To The Changes In The Constitution Of Alabama
Section 1. Be it ordained by the people of the State of Alabama
in Convention assembled , That no change made in the Constitution
of the State of Alabama, by this Convention, shall have the effect to divest
any right, title, or legal trust existing at the time of making such change.
But all such changes shall have a prospective and not a retrospective effect,
unless otherwise declared in the change itself.
Section 2. Be it ordained by the people of Alabama
in Convention assembled , That, an ordinance adopted by the people
of this State, in Convention, at Huntsville, on the second day of August,
one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, disclaiming forever all right to
the waste or unappropriated lands lying within this State, is hereby repealed;
but the navigable waters of this State shall remain forever free to the
citizens of this State, and of such States as may unite with the State of
Alabama, in a Southern slaveholding Confederacy. But no right heretofore
obtained, by any person or corporation, to erect a bridge, or bridges, across
the navigable waters of this State, shall be affected by this ordinance;
Provided , That the navigation of such rivers be not obstructed
thereby.
Mode Of Amending Or Revising The
Constitution
The General Assembly, whenever two-thirds of each House
shall deem it necessary, may propose amendments to this Constitution, which
proposed amendments, shall be duly published in print, at least three months
before the next general election of Representatives, for the consideration
of the people, and it shall be the duty of the several returning officers,
at the next general election which shall be held for Representatives, to
open a poll for, and make a return to the Secretary of State, for the time
being, of the names of all those voting for Representatives, who have voted
on such proposed amendments, and if, thereupon, it shall appear that a majority
of all the citizens of this State, voting for Representatives, have voted
in favor of such proposed amendments, and two-thirds of each House of the
next General Assembly, shall, after such an election, and before another,
ratify the same amendments by yeas and nays ,
they shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as parts of this Constitution:
Provided , That the said proposed amendments shall, at each
of the said sessions, have been read three times, on three several days,
in each House; Provided further , That a Convention of the
people of the State may be called by a vote of two-thirds of each branch
of the General Assembly, under such rules and regulations as the Legislature
may prescribe, to amend the Constitution or for any other purpose.
Adopted by the people of Alabama by the unanimous vote of their delegates
in Convention assembled, at the Capitol, in the city of Montgomery, on this
the twentieth day of March, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-one, and of the Confederate States of America the first
year.
WILLIAM M. BROOKS
President of the Convention of the people of the State of Alabama
Attest - A. G. HORN
Secretary of the Convention