"For the punishment of crimes and misde-
meanors, regulating the practice of courts of
Justice, or authorizing or directing the trial
of any case in any court;
"For the assessment and collection of taxes
for State or county purposes, or extending the
time for the collection of taxes ;
"Providing for the support of public
schools, the preservation of school funds, the
location or the regulation of school houses;
" Granting divorces;
" Changing the names of persons ;
" Conferring the rights of citizenship upon
minors or foreigners;
" Relating to fees or salaries;
"Relating to the interest on money ;
" Providing for regulating the election or
compensation of State or county officers, or
designating the places of voting;
" Providing far the sale of real estate be-
longing to minors or other persona laboring
under legal disabilities, by executors, ad-
ministrators, guardians or trustees;
"Giving effect to informal or invalid deeds
or wills;
"Refunding money paid into the State
treasury, or releasing persona from their debts
or obligations to the State ;
" Or establishing, locating or affecting the
construction of roads."
As the Convention will observe, the amend-
ment which I have offered includes a large
number of cases. As it will be difficult to
understand them in all their bearings, by a
Single reading, in order that my amendment
may be acted on intelligently by the Conven-
tion, I move that this section with the pend-
ing amendment be informally passed over
until some time hereafter, when the amend-
ment will have been printed in the Journal,
and the Convention can then take it up and
act upon it understandingly.
The question being then taken upon post-
poning the further consideration of section
nineteen for the present, it wag agreed to.
STATE INDEBTEDNESS.
Section twenty was then read as follows :
"No debt shall hereafter be contracted by
the General Assembly unless such debt shall
be authorized by a law providing for the col-
tion 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 contract-
ing the same, and the taxes laid for this pur-
pose shall not be repealed or applied to any
other object until the said debt and interest
thereon shall be fully discharged, and the
amount of debts so contracted and remain-
ing unpaid shall never exceed one hundred
thousand dollars. The credit of the State
shall not in any manner be given or loaned
to, or in aid of, any individual, association
or corporation, nor shall the General Assem-
bly have the power in any mode to involve |
the State in the construction of works of in-
ternal improvement, or in any enterprise
which shall involve the faith or credit of the
State, or make any appropriations therefor,
and they shall not use or appropriate the pro-
ceeds of the internal improvement compa-
nies, or of the State tax now levied, or which
may hereafter he 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 outstand-
ing 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."
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I move to amend this
section by striking out the words,
"And the amount of the debts so contract-
ed and remaining unpaid shall never exceed
one hundred thousand dollars."
I make this motion, because the section as
it now stands seems to me to be vague. I
would like belore voting on it to have some
explanation from the committee that reported
it. As it. stands now, it seems to me that
even for the purpose of maintaining the credit
of the State, and to meet the interest upon
the State debt, we cannot impose an amount
of debt to exceed one hundred thousand dol-
lars. If this section does not mean that, then
I am at a loss to know what it does mean, I
hope that the committee will give us some
explanation of it so that we may act under-
standingly.
The question being then taken upon the
amendment, it was agreed to.
No further amendment was offered to section
twenty.
EXTRA COMPENSATION TO OFFICERS, &C.
Section twenty-one was then read as follows;
"No extra compensation shall be granted
or allowed by the General Assembly to any
public officer, agent, servant or contractor,
after the services 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."
Mr. MILLER. I move to amend the last
clause of this section by striking out the
words "increased or," so that it will read,
"nor shall the salary or compensation of any
public officer be diminished during his term
of office." I will briefly state the object of
this amendment. I know this has been the
provision of the present Constitution, and is
perhaps in the constitutions of several of the
States. But the circumstances of the times
are now such, the depreciation of the currency
is so great, that it is almost impossible to say
what will be its condition a short time from
now. And when we fix the salary for an of-
ficer of the State at the time he is elected at |
