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elective franchise, and fixes terms, powers, duties, qualification and compensation of public officers and agents, and the manner of their election, appointment, and removal. Article V separates the legislative, executive, and judicial departments. Article VI treats of the legislative department; Article VII of the executive; Article VIII of the judiciary; Article IX of county organization; Article X of taxation and finance; Article XI of corporations; Article XII of education; Article XIII of land titles; and Article XIV of amendments.

4. Amendments.-There are two ways in which the Constitution may be altered or amended, namely, by a convention elected by the people for the purpose, and by specific amendments proposed by the Legislature. We shall now consider each of these methods in turn.

(1) By Convention.-In order to call a convention to alter the Constitution the following steps are necessary: (a) the Legislature must pass a law submitting to the voters of the State, not less than three months after the passage of the law, the question of calling a convention; (b) the passage of another law at the same or some subsequent time, providing for the time and place of meeting, membership, and all other details for the convention, provided it shall be authorized at the election at which the question is submitted to the voters; (c) the acts and ordinances of the convention must be submitted to the voters of the State for ratification or rejection.

(2) By Specific Amendment.-The steps necessary to be taken for the submission and final adoption of an amendment are the following: (a) proposal of amendment by bill in either House of the Legislature, which must be read on three several days in each house, and agreed to on third reading by at least two-thirds of all members elected to each House, by yeas and nays entered on the journal; (b) a law must then be passed submitting the proposed amendment to the voters of the State

for ratification or rejection at a general election, after having been published in a newspaper in every county at least three months before such election; (c) if ratified by a majority voting on the question, the amendment is in force as a part of the Constitution of the State, from the time of its ratification. A number of amendments may be submitted and voted on separately at the same time.

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CHAPTER XXXV.

THE STATE: THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

1. The Legislature. The legislature embraces the lawmaking power of the State. The Legislature of West Virginia is bicameral, that is, two-chambered, one house called the Senate, the other the House of Delegates. The article relating to the legislative power includes about one-fourth of the Constitution; and, if we include the Bill of Rights, which is largely made up of restrictions upon the legislative power, it embraces fully one-third of the Constitution. The Governor, as the Chief Executive, may participate in legislation to the extent that he may approve or reject any bill passed by the two houses. At this point the legislative and executive powers overlap.

2. The Senate.-The Senate as at present constituted consists of twenty-six members, two being elected from each of the thirteen Senatorial districts into which the State is divided; but the number may be increased by the Legislature after each census of the United States. Senators are divided into two classes so that one only is elected from each district in November of each even year, for the term of four years. In this way the Senate is a continuous body, always having holdover members with experience.

3. The House of Delegates.-The Constitution fixes the number of Delegates at sixty-five, subject to be increased after each Federal census. At present the House consists of sev86enty-one members, as determined by the apportionment following the census of 1890, elected for the term of two years by counties, and delegate districts composed of contiguous

counties. Some rules are laid down in the Constitution for the appointment of Delegates. The number of which the House is to consist shall be first ascertained. Next, the ratio of representation is obtained by dividing the whole population of the State by the total number of members. Every county containing a population of less than three-fifths of the ratio of representation so ascertained shall be attached to some contiguous county or counties to form a Delegate district. Every Delegate district, and every county not included in a Delegate district, is entitled to at least one Delegate. But in order to ascertain if they are entitled to more, the population of every Delegate district, and of every county not included in a Delegate district, is divided by the ratio of representation; and a Delegate is assigned to each, equal to the quotient so obtained excluding fractional remainders. The additional Delegates, necessary to make up the number of which the House is to consist, are then assigned to those Delegate districts, and counties not included in a Delegate district, which have the largest fractions.

4. Members: Compensation, Qualifications, Disabilities.The members or the Legislature receive for their services the sum of four dollars a day and ten cents a mile for each mile traveled in going to and returning from the capital by the most direct route. The Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate receive six dollars a day each. No extra compensation can lawfully be made to any member on any

account.

Each Senator must be at least twenty-five years of age, and must have been a citizen of the State for five years next preceding his election; but any citizen entitled to vote may be elected a Delegate. Every person elected as a Delegate or Senator must have been a resident within the district or county for which he is elected for one year next preceding his election, and if he remove from the district or county his seat is thereby vacated. The design of the law is that members shall be closely identified with the districts they represent.

No person holding a lucrative office under this State, the United States, or any foreign State; no member of Congress; no salaried officer of any railroad company; no sheriff, constable or clerk of any court of record; no felon; no defaulter in public money, is eligible to a seat in the Legislature. No Senator or Delegate may be elected or appointed, during his term, to any civil office of profit under the State, created, or whose emoluments were increased, during his term, except offices to be filled by the people; nor can he be interested in any contract with the State or any county, authorized by any law passed while he was a member. The reasons for these disabilities are apparent. The law contemplates that legislators shall be entirely disinterested, free, and unbiased by any personal or selfish interest.

5. Vacancies: How Filled. It is the duty of the Governor to issue a writ of election to fill a vacancy which occurs during a recess of the Legislature. It is the duty of the presiding officer of the House in which a vacancy occurs during a session, to issue the writ, as well as in any case in which a vacancy exists for which no writ has been issued prior to the meeting of the Legislature. The writ is directed to the sheriff of the county, or counties composing the district in which the vacancy exists, and fixes the day for an election; and every sheriff must give notice to the commissioners of election in the several election precincts of his county, and must also give notice of the time and purpose of the election by publication in some newspaper in his county and by posting a copy of the notice at every place of voting in his county.

6. The Capital.-When the State was formed the Constitution provided "The seat of government shall be at the city of Wheeling until a permanent seat of government be established by law." Wheeling is situated in the Panhandle, the extreme northwest arm of the State, and was always looked upon as located too much at one side to become the permanent capital. The citizens of Charleston on the Great Kanawha

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