General Assembly shall be convened by Pro-
clamation of the Governor, the session shall
not continue longer than thirty days.
Sec. 7. No person shall be eligible as a
Senator or Delegate, who, at the time of his
election is not a citizen of the United States,
and who has not resided at least three years
next preceding the day of his election in this
State, and the last year thereof in the county
or city which be may be chosen to represent,
if such county or city shall have been go long
established, and if not, then in the county
from which, in whole or in part, the same
may have been formed; nor shall any person
be eligible as a Senator unless be 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. 8. No member of Congress or person
holding any civil or military office under the
United States, shall be eligible as a Senator
or Delegate; and if any person shall, after
his election as a Senator or Delegate, be electee
to Congress, or be appointed to any office,
civil or military under the Government of;
the United States, his acceptance there of shall
vacate his seat.
Sec. 9. No minister or preacher of the Gos-
pel of any denomination, or of any religious
persuasion, society or sect, while be continues
to serve as such; and no person holding any
civil office of profit, or profit and trust under
this State, shall be eligible to the office of
Senator or Delegate.
Sec. 10. Each House shall bejudge of the
qualifications and elections of its members,
subject to the laws of the State—appoint its
own officers, determine the rules of its own
proceedings, punish a member for disorderly
or disrespectful behavior, and with the con-
sent of two-thirds of its whole number, expel
a member; but no member shall be expelled
a second time for the same offence.
Sec. 11. A majority of the whole number
of 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 undersuch penalties as each
House may prescribe.
Sec. 12. The doors of each House and of
Committees of the Whole shall beopen except
when the business is such as ought to be kept
secret.
Sec. 13. 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, 14. Neither House shall, without the
consent of the other, adjourn for more than
three days at any one time; nor to any other
place than that in which the House shall be
sitting, without the concurrent vote of two-
thirds of the members present. |
Sec. 15. The style of all laws of this State
shall be, "Be it enacted by the General As-
sembly 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 bedescribed in the
title, and no law or section of law shall b»
revived, amended or repealed by reference to
its title or section only; and it shall be the
duty of the General Assembly in amending
any article or section of the Code of laws of
this State, to enact the same as the said arti-
cle or section would 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 General Assembly to enact the
same in articles and sections, in the same
manner as the said Code is arranged, and to
provide for the publication of all additions
and alterations which may be made to the
said Code.
Sec. 16. Any bill may originate in either
House of the General Assembly and be alter-
ed, amended or rejected by the other; but no
bill shall originate in either House during the
last three days of the session, or become a
law, until it be read on three different days
of the session in each House, unless three-
fourths of the inembers of the House where
such bill is penning shall so determine.
Sec. 17. No bill shall become a law unless
it be passed in each House by a majority of
the whole number of inembers elected, and on
its final passage, the ayes and noes be re-
corded.
Sec. 18. No money shall ie drawn from
the treasury of the State except in accordance
with an appropriation made by law, and
every such law shall distinctly specify the
sum appropriated, and the object to which it
shall be applied, provided that nothing bere-
in contained shall prevent the General Assembly
from placing a contingent fund at the
disposal of 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. 19. No divorce shall be granted by
the General Assembly.
Sec. 20. No debt shall hereafter be con-
tracted 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 princi-
pal 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, and
the amount of debts so contracted and remain- |
