Election of Term four years. Representation in House of Delegates, until next census. Basis of repre- Legislative districts in Baltimore city may be changed. Governor to arrange the representation in House. Proclamation. Election of delegates. Term two years. Time of elections. SEC. 2. Each county in the State, and each of the three legislative districts of Baltimore city, as they are now, or may hereafter be defined, shall be entitled to one senator, who shall be elected by the qualified voters of the counties, and of the legislative districts of Baltimore city, respectively, and shall serve for four years from the date of his election, subject to the classification of senators, hereafter provided for. SEC. 3. Until the taking and publishing of the next national census, or until the enumeration of the population of this State, under the authority thereof, the several counties, and the city of Baltimore, shall have representation in the House of Delegates, as follows: Alleghany county, five delegates; Anne Arundel county, three delegates; Baltimore county, six delegates; each of the three legislative districts of the city of Baltimore, six delegates; Calvert county, two delegates; Caroline county, two delegates; Carroll county, four delegates; Cecil county, four delegates; Charles county, two delegates; Dorchester county, three delegates; Frederick county, six delegates; Harford county, four delegates; Howard county, two delegates; Kent county, two delegates; Montgomery county, three delegates; Prince George's county, three delegates; Queen Anne's county, two delegates; Saint Mary's county, two delegates; Somerset county, three delegates; Talbot county, two delegates ; Washington county, five delegates; and Worcester county, three delegates. SEC. 4. As soon as may be after the taking and publishing of the next national census, or after the enumeration of the population of this State, under the authority thereof, there shall be an apportionment of representation in the House of Delegates, to be made on the following basis, to wit: Each of the several counties of the State, having a population of eighteen thousand souls, or less, shall be entitled to two delegates; and every county, having a population of over eighteen thousand, and less than twenty-eight thousand souls, shall be entitled to three delegates; and every county, having a population of twentyeight thousand, and less than forty thousand souls, shall be entitled to four delegates; and every county, having a population of forty thousand, and less than fifty-five thousand souls, shall be entitled to five delegates; and every county, having a population of fifty-five thousand souls, and upwards, shall be entitled to six delegates, and no more; and each of the three legislative districts of the city of Baltimore shall be entitled to the number of delegates to which the largest county shall, or may be entitled, under the aforegoing apportionment. And the General Assembly shall have power to provide by law, from time to time, for altering and changing the boundaries of the three existing legislative districts of the city of Baltimore, so as to make them, as near as may be, of equal population; but said districts shall always consist of contiguous territory. SEC. 5. Immediately after the taking and publishing of the next national census, or after any State enumeration of population, as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of, the governor, then being, to arrange the representation in said House of Delegates, in accordance with the apportionment herein provided for; and to declare, by proclamation, the number of delegates, to which each county, and the city of Baltimore may be entitled, under such apportionment; and after every national census taken thereafter, or after any State enumeration of population, thereafter made, it shall be the duty of the governor, for the time being, to make similar adjustment of representation, and to declare the same by proclamation, as aforesaid. SEC. 6. The members of the House of Delegates shall be elected by the qualified voters of the counties, and the legislative districts of Baltimore city, respectively, to serve for two years, from the day of their election. SEC. 7. The first election for senators and delegates shall take place on the Tuesday next, after the first Monday in the month of November, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven; and the election for delegates, and as nearly as prac ticable, for one-half of the senators, shall be held on the same day, in every second year thereafter. SEC. 8. Immediately after the Senate shall have convened, after the first Classification of election, under this Constitution, the senators shall be divided by lot, into two senators. classes, as nearly equal in number as may be. Senators of the first class shall go out of office at the expiration of two years, and senators shall be elected on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, for the term of four years, to supply their places; so that, after the first election, one-half of the senators may be chosen every second year In case the number of senators be hereafter increased, such classification of the additional senators shall be made as to preserve, as nearly as may be, an equal number in each class. SEC 9. No person shall [be] eligible as a senator or delegate, who at the Qualifications time of his election is not a citizen of the State of Maryland, and who has not of senators and delegates. resided therein for at least three years, next preceding the day of his election, 4 H. & McH. 279. and the last year thereof in the county, or in the legislative district of Baltimore city, which he may be chosen to represent, if such county or legislative district of said city shall have been so long established; and if not, then in the county or city, from which in whole or in part the same may have been formed; nor shall any person be eligible as a senator unless he shall have attained the age of twenty-five years, nor as a delegate unless he shall have attained the age of twenty-one years, at the time of his election. SEC. 10. No member of Congress, or person holding any civil or military Persons office under the United States, shall be eligible as a senator or delegate; and if 1853, c. 280. ineligible. any person shall after his election as senator or delegate be elected to Congress, or be appointed to any office, civil or military, under the government of the United States, his acceptance thereof shall vacate his seat. SEC. 11. No minister or preacher of the Gospel, or of any religious creed or de- Persons nomination, and no person holding any civil office of profit or trust under this ineligible. State, except justices of the peace, shall be eligible as senator or delegate. SEC. 12. No collector, receiver, or holder of public money shall be eligible Defaulters ineligible. as senator or delegate, or to any office of profit or trust, under this State, until 1856, c. 16. he shall have accounted for and paid into the treasury all sums on the books thereof charged to and due by him. SEC. 13. In case of death, disqualification, resignation, refusal to act, expul- Vacancies in sion, or removal from the county or city for which he shall have been elected, Senate or House. of any person who shall have been chosen as a delegate or senator, or in case of a tie between two or more such qualified persons, a warrant of election shall be issued by the speaker of the House of Delegates or president of the Senate, as the case may be, for the election of another person in his place, of which election, not less than ten days' notice shall be given, exclusive of the day of the publication of the notice, and of the day of election; and, if during the recess of the legislature, and more than ten days before its termination, such death shall occur, or such resignation, refusal to act, or disqualification be communicated, in writing, to the governor by the person so resigning, refusing, or disqualified, it shall be the duty of the governor to issue a warrant of election to supply the vacancy thus created, in the same manner the said speaker or president might have done, during the session of the General Assembly; provided, however, that unless a meeting of the General Assembly may intervene, the election, thus ordered to fill such vacancy, shall be held on the day of the ensuing election for delegates and senators. SEC. 14. The General Assembly shall meet on the first Wednesday of Janu- Meetings of ary, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, and on the same day in every second legislature. year thereafter, and at no other time, unless convened by proclamation of the governor. Compensation of members. 1864, res. 4. Extra sessions. Books not to be purchased. Disqualifications to hold certain offices. Exemption for words in debate. Powers of each house. Quorum. Sessions to be open. Journals to be published. Yeas and nays. 1853, c. 36. Imprisonment of disorderly persons. Powers of the Grand inquest. for persons and SEC. 15. The General Assembly may continue its session so long as, in its judgment, the public interest may require, for a period not longer than ninety days; and each member thereof, shall receive a compensation of five dollars per diem, for every day he shall attend the session; but not for such days as he may be absent, unless absent on account of sickness, or by leave of the house of which he is a member; and he shall also receive such mileage as may be allowed by law, not exceeding twenty cents per mile; and the presiding officer of each house shall receive an additional compensation of three dollars per day. When the General Assembly shall be convened by proclamation of the governor, the session shall not continue longer than thirty days; and in such case, the compensation shall be the same as herein prescribed. SEC. 16. No book, or other printed matter, not appertaining to the business of the session, shall be purchased, or subscribed for, for the use of the members of the General Assembly, or be distributed among them, at the public expense. SEC. 17. No senator or delegate, after qualifying as such, notwithstanding he may thereafter resign, shall during the whole period of time for which he was elected, be eligible to any office which shall have been created, or the salary or profits of which shall have been increased, during such term. SEC. 18. No senator or delegate shall be liable in any civil action, or criminal prosecution, whatever, for words spoken in debate. SEC. 19. Each house shall be judge of the qualifications and elections of its members, as prescribed by the Constitution and laws of the State; shall appoint its own officers, determine the rules of its own proceedings, punish a member for disorderly or disrespectful behavior, and with the consent of twothirds of its whole number of members elected, expel a member; but no member shall be expelled a second time for the same offence. SEC. 20. A majority of the whole number of members elected to each house shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties, as each house may prescribe. SEC. 21. The doors of each house, and of the committee of the whole shall be open, except when the business is such as ought to be kept secret. SEC. 22. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and cause the same to be published. The yeas and nays of members on any question shall at the call of any five of them in the House of Delegates, or one in the Senate, be entered on the journal. SEC. 23. Each house may punish by imprisonment, during the session of the General Assembly, any person, not a member, for disrespectful or disorderly behavior in its presence, or for obstructing any of its proceedings, or any of its officers in the execution of their duties; provided such imprisonment shall not, at any one time, exceed ten days. SEC. 24. The House of Delegates may inquire, on the oath of witnesses, into all complaints, grievances, and offences as the grand inquest of the State, and may commit any person, for any crime, to the public jail, there to remain until discharged by due course of law. They may examine and pass all accounts of the State, relating either to the collection or expenditure of the revenue, and Power to send appoint auditors to state and adjust the same. They may call for all public or official papers and records, and send for persons, whom they may judge necessary, in the course of their inquiries, concerning affairs relating to the public interest, and may direct all office bonds which shall be made payable to the State, to be sued for any breach thereof; and with the view to the more certain prevention or correction of the abuses in the expenditures of the money of the State, the General Assembly shall create, at every session thereof, a joint standing committee of the Senate and House of Delegates, who shall have power to send for persons and examine them on oath, and call for public or official papers and records, and whose duty it shall be to examine and report upon all con Abuse in tracts made for printing, stationery, and purchases for the public offices, and Contracts. the library, and all expenditures therein, and upon all matters of alleged abuse in expenditures, to which their attention may be called by resolution of either expenditures. house of the General Assembly. SEC. 25. Neither house shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for Special more than three days at any one time, nor adjourn to any other place than that adjournments. in which the house shall be sitting, without the concurrent vote of two-thirds of the members present. SEC. 26. The House of Delegates shall have the sole power of impeachment Impeachment. in all cases; but a majority of all the members elected must concur in the impeachment. All impeachments shall be tried by the Senate, and, when sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be on oath, or affirmation, to do justice according to the law and the evidence; but no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the senators elected. bills. SEC. 27. Any bill may originate in either house of the General Assembly, Either house and be altered, amended, or rejected by the other; but no bill shall originate may originate in either house during the last ten days of the session, unless two-thirds of the members elected thereto shall so determine by yeas and nays; nor shall any bill become a law until it be read on three different days of the session in each house, unless two-thirds of the members elected to the house, where such bill is pending, shall so determine by yeas and nays; and no bill shall be read a third time until it shall have been actually engrossed for a third reading. SEC. 28. No bill shall become a law unless it be passed in each house by a Passage of bills. majority of the whole number of members elected, and, on its final passage, the yeas and nays be recorded; nor shall any resolution, requiring the action of both houses, be passed except in the same manner. Mode of enactment. M. 403; 34 Md. 163; 30 Ma. 112; Md. 512; 7 Md. 151; 1852, res. 46 Md. 631; 42 29 Md. 377; 23 14; 11 Md. 525; SEC. 29. The style of all laws of this State shall be, "Be it enacted by the Style of laws. General Assembly of Maryland ;" and all laws shall be passed by original bill; and every law enacted by the General Assembly shall embrace but one subject, and that shall be described in its title; and no law, nor section of law, shall be revived or amended by reference to its title or section only; nor shall any law be construed, by reason of its title, to grant powers, or confer rights which are not expressly contained in the body of the act; and it shall be the duty of the General Assembly, in amending any article or section of the Code 14 Md. 184; 22 of Laws of this State, to enact the same as the said article or section would Md. 126. read when amended. And whenever the General Assembly shall enact any public general law, not amendatory of any section or article in the said Code, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to enact the same, in articles and sections, in the same manner as the Code is arranged, and to provide for the publication of all additions and alterations which may be made to the said Code. SEC. 30. Every bill, when passed by the General Assembly, and sealed with the great seal, shall be presented to the governor, who, if he approves it, shall sign the same in the presence of the presiding officers and chief clerks of the Senate and House of Delegates. Every law shall be recorded in the office of the Court of Appeals, and in due time be printed, published, and certified under the great seal, to the several courts, in the same manner as has been heretofore usual in this State. the Bills to be sign ed by governor peals. When laws to take effect. 14 Md. 184; 19 31. SEC. 31 No law passed by the General Assembly shall take effect until first day of June, next after the session at which it may be passed, unless it be otherwise expressly declared therein. SEC. 32. No money shall be drawn from the treasury of the State by any Appropriations order or resolution, nor except in accordance with an appropriation by law, w to be made by and every such law shall distinctly specify the sum appropriated, and the object 29 Md. 377. to which it shall be applied; provided, that nothing herein contained shall pre- Contingent vent the General Assembly from placing a contingent fund at the disposal of Fund. 4 Md. 189. 1854, c. 16. Local and spe 47 Md. 16; 47 503; 29 Md. 516; 1 G. & J. 463; 6 G. & J. 461; 7 G. the executive, who shall report to the General Assembly at each session the amount expended, and the purposes to which it was applied. An accurate statement of the receipts and expenditures of the public money shall be attached to and published with the laws after each regular session of the General Assembly. SEC 33. The General Assembly shall not pass local or special laws in any of cial laws not to the following enumerated cases, viz.: For extending the time for the collection be passed. of taxes; granting divorces; changing the name of any person; providing Md. 153; 30 Md. for the sale of real estate belonging to minors, or other persons laboring under 1 H. & J. 236; 3 legal disabilities, by executors, administrators, guardians, or trustees; giving H. & J. 2, 43.302; effect to informal or invalid deeds or wills; refunding money paid into the State treasury, or releasing persons from their debts or obligations to the State, unless recommended by the governor, or officers of the treasury department. And the General Assembly shall pass no special law for any case for which provision has been made by an existing general law. The General Assembly, at its first session after the adoption of this Constitution, shall pass general laws providing for the cases enumerated in this section which are not already adequately provided for, and for all other cases where a general law can be made applicable. & J. 7, 191; 8 G. & J. 386; 9 G. & J. 365:11 G. & J 87; 12 G. & J. 257, 286, 400; 2 Bl. 209; 2 Md. 429. General laws to be provided. Debts not to be contracted. Credit of the given. 15 Md. 205. SEC. 34. No debt shall be hereafter contracted by the General Assembly unless such debt shall be authorized by a law providing for the collection of an annual tax or taxes sufficient to pay the interest on such debt as it falls due, and also to discharge the principal thereof within fifteen years from the time of contracting the same; and the taxes laid for this purpose shall not be repealed or applied to any other object, until the said debt, and interest thereon, shall be fully discharged. The credit of the State shall not in any manner be State not to be given or loaned to or in aid of any individual, association, or corporation; nor shall the General Assembly have the power, in any mode, to involve the State in the construction of works of internal improvement, nor in granting any aid thereto, which shall involve the faith or credit of the State; nor make any appropriation therefor, except in aid of the construction of works of internal improvement in the counties of St Mary's, Charles, and Calvert, which have had no direct advantage from such works as have been heretofore aided by the State; and provided, that such aid, advances, or appropriations, shall not exceed in the aggregate the sum of five hundred thousand dollars. And they shall not use or appropriate the proceeds of the internal improvement companies, or of the State tax, now levied, or which may hereafter be levied, to pay off the public debt, to any other purpose, until the interest and debt are fully paid, or the sinking fund shall be equal to the amount of the outstanding debt; but the General Assembly may, without laying a tax, borrow an amount never to exceed fifty thousand dollars, to meet temporary deficiencies in the treasury, and may contract debts to any amount that may be necessary for the defence of the State. Public debt of the State. Temporary deficiencies. Extra compen allowed. SEC. 35. No extra compensation shall be granted or allowed by the General sation not to be Assembly, to any public officer, agent, servant, or contractor, after the service shall have been rendered, or the contract entered into; nor shall the salary or compensation of any public officer be increased or diminished during his term of office. Lotteries prohibited. 12 G. & J. 1. Payment for slaves prohibited. 23 Md. 503. No imprisonment for debt. 5 Md. 337. 6 Md. 308. SEC. 36. No lottery grant shall ever hereafter be authorized by the General Assembly. SEC. 37. The General Assembly shall pass no law providing for payment, by this State, for slaves emancipated from servitude in this State; but they shall adopt such measures as they may deem expedient to obtain from the United States compensation for such slaves, and to receive and distribute the same equitably to the persons entitled. SEC. 38. No person shall be imprisoned for debt. |