county shall on the Tuesday next after the
first Monday in the month of November, in
the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and
every two years thereafter, elect a wreck mas-
ter for said county, whose duties and com-
pensation shall be the same as are now or may
be hereafter prescribed by law; the term of
office of said wreck master shall commence
on the first Monday of January next succeed-
ing his election, and a vacancy in said office
shall be filled by the county commissioners of
said county for the residue of the term,
Sec. 9. The general assembly may pro-
vide by law for the election or appointment
of such other officers as may be required, and
are not herein provided for and prescribe
their tenure of office, powers and duties.
ARTICLE VIII.
EDUCATION.
Section 1. The governor shall, within
thirty days after the ratification by the peo-
ple of this constitution, appoint, subject to
the confirmation of the senate, at its first ses-
sion thereafter, a State superintendent of pub-
lic instruction, who shall hold his office for
four years and until his successor shall have
been appointed and shall have qualified. He
shall receive an annual salary of twenty-five
hundred dollars, and such additional sum for
travelling and incidental expenses as the gen-
eral assembly may by law allow; shall re-
port to the general assembly within thirty
days after the commencement of its first ses-
sion under this constitution, a uniform sys-
tem of free public schools, and shall perform
such other duties pertaining to his office as
may from time to time be prescribed by law.
Sec. 2, There shall be a State board of
education, consisting of the governor, the
lieutenant governor, the speaker of the house
of delegates, and the State superintendent of
public instruction, which board shall per-
form such duties as the general assembly may
direct.
Sec. 3. There shall be in each county such
number of school commissioners as the State
superintendent of public instruction shall
deem necessary, who shall be appointed by the
State board of education; shall hold office
for four years, and shall perform such duties
and receive such compensation as the general
assembly or State superintendent may direct:
the school commissioners of Baltimore city
shall remain as at present constituted, and
shall be appointed, as at present, by the mayor
and city council, subject to such alterations
and amendments as may be made from time
to time by the general assembly, or the said
mayor and city council.
Sec. 4. The general assembly, at its first
session after the adoption of this constitution,
shall provide a uniform system of free public
schools, by which a school shall be kept open
and supported free of expense for tuition in each
school district, for at least six months ineach |
year; and in case of a failure on the part of
the general assembly so to provide, the sys-
tem reported to it by the State superintendent
of public instruction, shall become the system
of free public schools of the State; Provided,
That the report of the State superintendent
shall be in conformity with the provisions of
this constitution, and such system shall be
subject to such alterations, conformable to
this article, as the general assembly may from
time to time enact.
Sec. 5. The general assembly shall levy at
each regular session, after the adoption of this
constitution, an annual tax of not less than
ten cents on each hundred dollars of taxable
property throughout the State, for the sup-
port of the free public schools, which tax
shall be collected at the same time and by the
same agents as the general State levy; and
shall be paid into the treasury of the State,
and shall be distributed under such regula-
tions as may be prescribed by law, among the
counties and the city of Baltimore, in pro-
portion to their respective population between
the ages of five and twenty years: Provided,
That the general assembly shall not levy any
additional school tax upon particular coun-
ties, unless such county express by popular
vote its desire for such tax; the city of Bal-
timore shall provide for its additional school
tax as at present, or as may hereafter be pro-
vided by the general assembly, or by the
mayor and city council of Baltimore.
Sec. 6, The general assembly shall further
provide by law, at its first session after the
adoption of this constitution, a fund for the
support of the free public schools of the
State, by the imposition of an annual tax of
not less than five cents on each one hundred
dollars of taxable property throughout the
State the proceeds of which tax shall be
known as the public school fund, and shall
be invested by the treasurer, together with
its annual interest until such time as said
fund shall, by its own increase and any addi-
tions which may he made to it from time to
time, together with the present school fund,
amount to six millions of dollars, when the
tax of ten cents in the hundred dollars, au-
thorized by the preceding section, may be
discontinued in whole or in part, as the general
assembly may direct; the principal fund
of six millions hereby provided, shall remain
forever inviolate as the free public school
fund of the State, and the annual interest of
said school fund shall be disbursed for edu-
cational purposes only, as may be prescribed
by law.«
ARTICLE IX.
MILITIA AND MILITARY AFFAIRS.
Section 1. The militia shall be composed
of all able-bodied male citizens, residents of
this State, being eighteen years of age, and
under the age of forty-five years, who shall
be enrolled in the militia, and perform mili
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