SEC. 4. Every elector shall be eligible to any office in this State, except in cases provided for in this constitution.

SEC. 5. The selectmen and town clerk of the several towns shall decide on the qualifications of electors, at such times and in such manner as may be prescribed by law.

SEC. 6. Laws shall be made to support the privilege of free suffrage, prescribing the manner of regulating and conducting meetings of the electors, and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, all undue influence therein, from power, bribery, tumult, and other improper conduct.

SEC. 7. In all elections of officers of the State, or members of the general assembly, the votes of the electors shall be by ballot.

SEC. 8. At all elections of officers of the State or members of the general assembly the electors shall be privileged from arrest during their attendance upon, and going to and returning from the same, on any civil process.

SEC. 9. The meetings of the electors for the election of the several State officers, by law annually to be elected, and members of the general assembly of this State, shall be holden on the first Monday of April in each year.

ARTICLE VII.

OF RELIGION.

SECTION 1. It being the duty of all men to worship the Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver of the Universe, and their right to render that worship in the mode most consistent with the dictates of their consciences, no person shall by law be compelled to join or support, nor be classed with, or associated to, any congregation, church, or religious association; but every person now belonging to such congregation, church, or religious association, shall remain a member thereof until he shall have separated himself therefrom, in the manner hereinafter provided. And each and every society or denomination of Christians in this State shall have and enjoy the same and equal powers, rights, and privileges; and shall have power and authority to support and maintain the ministers or teachers of their respective denominations, and to build and repair houses for public worship by a tax on the members of any such society only, to be laid by a major vote of the legal voters assembled at any society meeting, warned and held according to law, or in any other manner.

SEC. 2. If any person shall choose to separate himself from the society or denomination of Christians to which he may belong, and shall leave a written notice thereof with the clerk of such society, he shall thereupon be no longer liable for any future expenses which may be incurred by said society.

ARTICLE VIII.

OF EDUCATION.

SECTION 1. The charter of Yale College, as modified by agreement with the corporation thereof, in pursuance of an act of the general assembly, passed in May, 1792, is hereby confirmed.

SEC. 2. The fund called the school fund shall remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated to the support and encouragement of the public or common schools throughout the State, and for the equal benefit of all the people thereof. The value and amount of said fund shall, as soon as practicable, be ascertained in such manner as the general assembly may prescribe, published, and recorded in the comptroller's office; and no law shall ever be made authorizing said fund to be diverted to any other use than the encouragement and support of public or common schools among the several school societies, as justice and equity shall require.

ARTICLE IX.

OF IMPEACHMENTS.

SECTION 1. The house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeaching. SEC. 2. All impeachments shall be tried by the senate. When sitting for that purpose they shall be on oath or affirmation. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. When the governor is impeached the chief-justice shall preside.

SEC. 3. The governor, and all other executive and judicial officers, shall be liable to impeachment; but judgment in such cases shall not extend further than to removal from office and disqualifications to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under this State. The party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, and punishment according to law.

SEC. 4. Treason against the State shall consist only in levying war against it, or 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 on confession in open court. No conviction of treason or attainder shall work corruption of

blood or forfeiture.

ARTICLE X.

GENERAL PROVISIONS.

SECTION 1. Members of the general assembly, and all officers, executive and judicial, shall, before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, take the following oath or affirmation, to wit:

"You do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that you will support the Constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the State of Connecticut, so long as you continue a citizen thereof; and that you will faithfully discharge, according to law, the duties of the office of to the best of your abilities. So help

you God."

SEC. 2. Each town shall annually elect selectmen, and such officers of local police as the laws may prescribe.

SEC. 3. The rights and duties of all corporations shall remain as if this constitution had not been adopted; with the exception of such regulations and restrictions as are contained in this constitution. All judicial and civil officers now in office, who have been appointed by the general assembly, and commissioned according to law, and all such officers as shall be appointed by the said assembly, and commissioned as aforesaid, before the first Wednesday of May next, shall continue to hold their offices until the first day of June next, unless they shall, before that time, resign, or be removed from office according to law. The treasurer and secretary shall continue in office until a treasurer and secretary shall be appointed under this constitution. All military officers shall continue to hold and exercise their respective offices until they shall resign or be removed according to law. All laws not contrary to, or inconsistent with, the provisions of this constitution, shall remain in force until they shall expire by their own limitation, or shall be altered or repealed by the general assembly, in pursuance of this constitution. The validity of all bonds, debts, contracts, as well of individuals as of bodies-corporate, or the State, of all suits, actions, or rights of action, both in law. and equity, shall continue as if no change had taken place. The governor, lieutenant-governor, and general assembly, which is to be formed in October next, shall have and possess all the powers and authorities not repugnant to, or inconsistent with, this constitution, which they now have and possess, until the first Wednesday of May next. SEC. 4. No judge of the superior court, or of the supreme court of errors; no member of Congress; no person holding any office under the authority of the United States; no person holding the office of treasurer, secretary, or comptroller; no sheriff or sheriff's deputy, shall be a member of the general assembly.

Whenever a majority of the house of representatives shall deem it necessary to alter or amend this constitution, they may propose such alterations and amendments; which proposed amendments shall be continued to the next general assembly, and be published with the laws which may have been passed at the same session; and if two-thirds of each house, at the next session of said assembly, shall approve the amendments proposed, by yeas and nays, said amendments shall, by the secretary, be transmitted to the town clerk in each town in the State, whose duty it shall be to present the same to the inhabitants thereof, for their consideration, at a town meeting, legally warned and held for that purpose; and, if it shall appear, in a manner to be provided by law, that a majority of the electors present at such meetings shall have approved such amendments, the same shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of this constitution.

Done in convention, on the fifteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States the forty-third.

By order of the convention.

JAMES LANMAN,

ROBERT FAIRCHILD,

OLIVER WOLCOTT, President.

Clerks.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF 1818.

RATIFIED NOVEMBER, 1828.

ARTICLE I. From and after the first Wednesday of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty, the senate of this State shall consist of not less than eighteen nor more than twenty-four members, and be chosen by districts.

RATIFIED NOVEMBER, 1828.

ART. II. The general assembly, which shall be holden on the first Wednesday of May, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, shall divide the State into districts for the choice of senators, and shall determine what number shall be elected in each, which districts shall not be less than eight nor more than twenty-four in number, and shall always be composed of contiguous territory, and in forming them no town shall be divided; nor shall the whole or part of one county be joined to the whole or part of another county to form a district, regard being had to the population in said apportionment, and in forming said districts in such manner that no county shall have less than two senators. The districts, when established, shall continue the same until the session of the general assembly next after the completion of the next census of the United States; which said assembly shall have power to alter the same, if found necessary to preserve a proper equality between said districts in respect to the number of inhabitants therein, according to the principles above recited; after which said districts shall not be altered, nor the number of senators altered, except at any session of the general assembly next after the completion of a census of the United States, and then only according to the principles above prescribed.

RATIFIED NOVEMBER, 1828.

ART. III. At the meeting of the electors on the first Monday of April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty, and annually thereafter, immediately after the choice of representatives, the electors qualified by law to vote in the choice of such rep

resentatives, shall be called upon, by the presiding officer in such meeting, in the several towns within their districts, respectively, to bring in their ballots for such person or number of persons to be senator or senators for such districts in the next general assembly as shall by law be allowed to such districts respectively; which person or persons, at the time of holding such meetings, shall belong to and reside in the respective districts in which they shall be so balloted for as aforesaid. And each elector present at such meeting, qualified as aforesaid, may thereupon bring in his ballot or suffrage for such person or persons as he shall choose, to be senators for such district, not exceeding the number by law allowed to the same, with the name or names of such person or persons fairly written on one piece of paper. And the votes

so given in shall be received, counted, canvassed, and declared, in the same manner now provided by the constitution for the choice of senators. The person or persons (not exceeding the number by law allowed to the districts in which such votes shall be given in) having the highest number of votes, shall be declared to be duly elected. for such districts. But in the event of an equality of votes between two or more of the persons so voted for, the house of representatives shall, in the manner provided for by the constitution, designate which of such person or persons shall be declared to be duly elected.

RATIFIED NOVEMBER, 1832.

ART. IV. There shall annually be chosen and appointed a lieutenant-governor, a treasurer and secretary, in the same manner as is provided in the second section of the fourth article of the constitution of this State for the choice and appointment of a gov

ernor.

RATIFIED NOVEMBER, 1836.

ART. V. A comptroller of public accounts shall be annually chosen by the electors, in their meeting in April, and in the same manner as the treasurer and secretary are chosen, and the votes for comptroller shall be returned to and counted, canvassed, and declared by the treasurer and secretary.

RATIFIED NOVEMBER, 1836.

ART. VI. The electors in the respective towns, on the first Monday of April in each year, may vote for governor, lieutenant-governor, treasurer, secretary, senators and representatives in the general assembly, successively, or for any number of said officers at the same time. And the general assembly shall have power to enact laws regulating and prescribing the order and manner of voting for said officers, and also providing for the election of representatives, at some time subsequent to the first Monday of April, in all cases when it shall so happen that the electors in any town shall fail on that day to elect the representative or representatives to which such town shall be by law entitled: Provided, That in all elections of officers of the State, or members of the general assembly, the votes of the electors shall be by ballot, either written or printed.

RATIFIED OCTOBER, 1838.

ART. VII. A sheriff shall be appointed in each county by the electors therein, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law, who shall hold his office for three years, removable by the general assembly, and shall become bound with sufficient sureties, to the treasurer of the State, for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office.

RATIFIED OCTOBER, 1845.

ART. VIII. Every white male citizen of the United States who shall have attained the age of twenty-one years, who shall have resided in this State for a term of one year next preceding, and in the town in which he may offer himself to be admitted to the privileges of an elector at least six months next preceding the time he may so offer himself, [altered by amendment of 1855,] and shall sustain a good moral character, shall, on his taking such oath as may be prescribed by law, be an elector.

*Altered by amendment of 1836.

RATIFIED OCTOBER, 1850.

ART. IX. The judges of probate shall be appointed by the electors residing in the several probate districts, and qualified to vote for representatives therein, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law.

RATIFIED OCTOBER, 1850.

ART. X. The justices of the peace for the several towns in this State shall be appointed by the electors in such towns; and the time and the manner of their election, the number for each town, and the period for which they shall hold their offices, shall be prescribed by law.

RATIFIED OCTOBER, 1855.

ART. XI. Every person shall be able to read any article of the constitution, or any section of the statutes of this State, before being admitted as an elector.

RATIFIED OCTOBER, 1856.

ART. XII. The judges of the supreme court of errors and of the superior court, appointed in the year 1855, and thereafter, shall hold their offices for the term of eight years, but may be removed by impeachment, and the governor shall also remove them on the address of two-thirds of each house of the general assembly. No judge of the supreme court of errors, or of the superior court, shall be capable of holding office, after he shall have arrived at the age of seventy years.

RATIFIED AUGUST, 1864.

ART. XIII. Every elector of this State who shall be in the military service of the United States, either as a drafted person or volunteer, during the present rebellion, shall, when absent from this State, because of such service, have the same right to vote in any election of State officers, Representatives in Congress, and electors of President and Vice-President of the United States, as he would have if present at the time appointed for such election, in the town in which he resided at the time of his enlistment into such service. This provision shall in no case extend to persons in the regular Army of the United States, and shall cease and become inoperative and void upon the termination of the present war. The general assembly shall prescribe by law in what manner and in what time the votes of electors absent from this State, in the military service of the United States, shall be received, counted, returned, and canvassed.

ADOPTED OCTOBER, 1873.

ART. XIV. All annual and special sessions of the general assembly shall, on and after the first Wednesday of May, A. D. 1875, be held at Hartford; but the person administering the office of governor may, in case of special emergency, convene said assembly at any other place in this State.

ADOPTED OCTOBER, 1874.

ART. XV. The house of representatives shall consist of electors residing in towns from which they are elected. Every town which now contains, or hereafter shall contain, a population of five thousand, shall be entitled to send two representatives, and every other one shall be entitled to its present representation in the general assembly. The population of each town shall be determined by the enumeration made under the authority of the census of the United States, next before the election of representatives is held.

ADOPTED OCTOBER, 1875.

ART. XVI. SECTION 1. A general election for governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, treasurer, comptroller, and members of the general assembly, shall be held