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partment to which the subject belongs, and without this prerequisite they shall not be obeyed.

119. The Secretaries of State shall give to each House, as soon as their annual sessions are opened, an account of the state of their respective departments.

120. The Secretaries of State shall be responsible for the acts of the President, unauthorized by their signatures, contrary to the Constitution, constitutional act, and general laws and constitutions of the States.

121. To be a Secretary of State it is necessary to be a Mexican citizen by birth.

122. The Secretaries of State shall form a regulation for the better distribution and direction of their duties, which shall be passed by the Government to the Congress for their approbation.

TITLE 5th. SECTION 1st.-Of the Judicial Power of the

Confederation.

123. The Judicial power of the Federation shall reside in one Supreme Court of Justice, and in the Circuit and District Courts.

SECTION 2nd. Of the Supreme Court of Justice, the Election, Term of Service, and Oath of its Members.

124. The Supreme Court of Justice shall be composed of eleven members divided into three halls, and one Attorney-General. Congress may augment or diminish its number as it may deem necessary.

Sec

The following articles to No. 136 refer to the election of the Judges, their qualification and tenure of office. tions third and fourth relate to the "attributions" of the Supreme Court and "the mode of judging its members."

SECTION 5th. Of the Circuit Courts.

SECTION 6th. Of the District Courts.

SECTION 7th.-General Rules to which all the States and Territories in the Federation shall conform in the Administration of Justice.

TITLE 6th. SECTION 1st.-Of the individual government of the States.

157. The government of each State shall be divided for its exercise in three powers, Legislative, Executive, and

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Judicial, and never can be united two or more of these in one corporation or person, nor the Legislature deposited in one individual.

158. The legislative power of each State shall reside in one Legislature, composed of the number of individuals which their respective constitutions may determine, to be elected popularly, and removable in the time and manner which said constitutions may designate.

159. The person or persons to whom the States confide their executive power, cannot exercise it except for a definite time, which shall be fixed by their respective constitutions.

160. The judicial power of each state shall be exercised by the Tribunals that the Constitution may establish or designate, and all cases, civil or criminal, which appertain to the cognizance of those Tribunals, shall be conducted in them to final judgment and execution.

SECTION 2nd. Of the obligations of the States.

161. Each one of the States is obliged-First, to organize its interior government and administration, without opposing this Constitution nor the constitutional act. Second, to publish by means of their Governors, their respective Constitutions, laws, and decrees. Third, to obey, and cause to be obeyed, the Constitution and general laws of the Union, and treaties made, and those that henceforward may be made, by the supreme authority of the Federation with any foreign Power. Fourth, to protect its inhabitants in the free use and liberty which they have to write, print, and publish their political ideas, without the necessity of license, revision, or approbation previous to publication, always taking care to observe the general laws on the subject. Fifth, to deliver immediately, the criminals of other states, to the authority which reclaims them. Sixth, to deliver the fugitives of other states, to the person that justly reclaims them, or compel them in some other mode to satisfy the interested party. Seventh, to contribute for the consolidation and extinguishment of the debts acknowledged by the general Congress. Eighth, to remit annually to each one of the Houses of Congress, a general, circumstantial, and comprehensive note, of the ingress and egress in all the treasuries they may have in their respective districts, with a relation of the origin of one and the other, of the situation in which are found the branches of industry,

agriculture, commerce and manufactures, of the new branches of industry which they can introduce and extend, designating the means by which it can be obtained, and of their respective population and means of protecting and augmenting it. Ninth, to remit to both Houses, and in their recess, to the Council of Government, and likewise to the Supreme Executive Power, authorised copies of the constitutions, laws, and decrees.

SECTION 3rd.-Restrictions of the Powers of the State.

162. None of the States can-First, establish, without the consent of the General Congress, any tonnage duty, nor other port duty. Second, impose, without the consent of the general Congress, contributions or duties on importations or exportations, whilst the law does not regulate it as it must do. Third, hold, at no time, a permanent troop nor vessels of war, without the consent of the general Congress. Fourth, enter into no agreement or compact with any foreign power, nor declare war against them, resisting in case of actual invasion, or in such danger as will not admit of delay, giving immediate notice thereof to the President of the Republic. Fifth, enter into no agreement or compact with other States of the Federation, without the previous consent of the general Congress or its posterior approbation, if the transaction were upon the regulation of limits.

TITLE 7th. ONLY SECTION.-Of the Observance, Interpretation, and Amendment of the Constitution and Constitutional Act.

163. Every public functionary, without exception to the class, previous to entering on the discharge of his duties, must take the oath to obey the Constitution and Constitutional Act.

164. The Congress shall dictate all laws and decrees, which they may deem necessary to render effective the responsibility of those who violate this Constitution or the Constitutional Act.

165. The general Congress alone can resolve doubts, which may occur about the meaning or understanding of the Articles of this Constitution and of the Constitutional Act.

166. The Legislatures of the States can make such observations as they may deem proper about particular Articles

of this Constitution and the Constitutional Act, but the general Congress will not take them into consideration until the year 1830.

167. The Congress in that year shall confine itself to examining the observations that merit the deliberation of the next Congress, and this declaration they shall communicate to the President, who shall publish and circulate them without any observations.

168. The following Congress in the first year of its ordinary sessions, shall occupy itself in examining these observations submitted to their deliberation, in order to make such amendments as may be deemed necessary, but the same Congress which makes the examination provided in the last Article, cannot decree the amendments.

169. The amendments and additions that are proposed in the year following the 30th, shall be taken into consideration by the Congress in the second year of each biennial, and if rendered necessary, in conformity with the provisions made in the preceding Article, they shall publish this resolution, in order that the next Congress may notice them.

170. In order to reform or amend this Constitution or the Constitutional Act, shall be observed, besides the rules prescribed in the foregoing Articles, all the requisites provided for the formation of laws, excepting the right to make observations granted to the President in Article 106.

171. The Articles of this Constitution and the Constitutional Act which establishes the Liberty and Independence of the Mexican Nation, its Religion, form of Government, Liberty of the Press, and division of the Supreme Powers of the Federation, and of the States, can never be reformed. Given in Mexico, 4th October, 1824, fourth year of Independence, third of Liberty, and second of the Fede

ration.

Signed by the members of Congress, and the Supreme Executive Power.

APPENDIX.-N. II.

THE

CONSTITUTION

OF

COAHUILA AND TEXAS.

THE Governor of the Free State of Coahuila and Texas, to all its inhabitants-Know, that the Constituent Congress of the same State has Decreed and sanctioned the following political Constitution of the free State of Coahuila and Texas.

PRELIMINARY DISPOSITIONS.

ARTICLE 1. The State of Coahuila and Texas consists in the union of all its inhabitants.

2. It is free and independent of the other united Mexican states, and of every other foreign power and dominion.

3. The Sovereignty of the State resides originally and essentially in the general mass of the individuals who compose it; but these do not of themselves execute any other acts of sovereignty than those designated in this Constitution, and in the form which it prescribes.

4. In all matters relating to the Mexican Federation, the State delegates its faculties and powers to the General Congress of the same, but in all that properly relates to the administration and entire government of the State, it retains its liberty, independence, and sovereignty.

5. THEREFORE, Belongs exclusively to the same State, the right to establish by means of its representatives, its fundamental laws, conformably to the basis sanctioned in the Constitutional Act and the General Constitution.

6. The Territory of the State is the same which comprehends the Provinces heretofore known by the name of Coahuila and Texas. A constitutional law shall fix their limits

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