purpose of repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection, or defending the State in war, (for payment of which the faith of the State shall be pledged), shall be contracted, unless the law authorizing the same shall, at a general election, have been submitted to the people, and have received a majority of the votes cast for members of the General Assembly at such election. The General Assembly shall provide for the publication of said law, for three months, at least, before the vote of the people shall be taken upon the same; and provisions shall be made at the time, for the payment of the interest annually, as it shall accrue, by a tax levied for the purpose, or from other sources of revenue; which law, providing for the payment of such interest by such tax, shall be irrepealable until such debt be paid: And Provided, further, that the law levying the tax shall be submitted to the people with the law authorizing the debt to be contracted. $ 19. The General Assembly shall never grant or authorize extra compensation, fee or allowance to any public officer, agent, servant or contractor, after service has been rendered or a contract made, nor authorize the payment of any claim, or part thereof, hereafter created against the State under any agreement or contract made without express authority of law; and all such unauthorized agreements or contracts shall be null and void: Provided, the General Assembly may make appropriations for expenditures incurred in suppressing insurrection or repelling invasion. § 20. The State shall never pay, assume, or become responsible for the debts or liabilities of, or in any manner give, loan or extend its credit to or in aid of any public or other corporation, association or individual. PAY OF MEMBERS. § 21. The members of the General Assembly shall receive for their services the sum of five dollars per day, during the first session held under this Constitution, and ten cents for each mile necessarily travelled in going to and returning from the seat of government, to be computed by the Auditor of Public Accounts, and thereafter such compensation as shall be prescribed by law, and no other allowance or emolument, directly or indirectly, for any purpose whatever, except the sum of fifty dollars per session to each member, which shall be in full for postage, stationery, newspapers, and all other incidental expenses and perquisites; but no change shall be made in the compensation of members of the General Assembly during the term for which they may have been elected. The pay and mileage allowed to each member of the General Assembly shall be certified by the Speakers of their respective Houses, and entered on the journals, and published at the close of each session. § 22. SPECIAL LEGISLATION PROHIBITED. The General Assembly shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say: for Granting Divorces; Changing the names of persons or places; Laying out, opening, altering and working roads or highways; Vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys, and public grounds; Locating or changing county seats; Regulating county and township affairs; Regulating the practice in Courts of Justice; Regulating the jurisdiction and duties of Justices of the Peace, Police Magistrates and Constables; Providing for changes of venue in civil and criminal cases; Incorporating cities, towns or villages, or changing or amending the charter of any town, city or village; Providing for the election of members of the Board of Supervisors in townships, incorporated towns or cities; Summoning and impanelling grand or petit juries; Providing for the management of common schools; The opening and conducting of any election, or designating the place of voting; The sale or mortgage of real estate belonging to minors or others under disability; The protection of game or fish; Chartering or licensing ferries or toll bridges; Remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures; Creating, increasing or decreasing fees, percentage or allowances of public officers, during the term for which said officers are elected or appointed; Changing the law of descent; Granting to any corporation, association or individual the right to lay down railroad tracks, or amending existing charters for such purpose; Granting to any corporation, association or individual any special or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever. In all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted. § 23. The General Assembly shall have no power to release or extinguish, in whole or in part, the indebtedness, liability or obligation of any corporation or individual to this State, or to any municipal corporation therein. IMPEACHMENT. § 24. The House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment; but a majority of all the members elected must concur therein. All impeachments shall be tried by the Senate; and when sitting for that purpose, the Senators shall be upon oath, or affirmation, to do justice according to law and evidence. When the Governor of the State is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senators elected. But judgment in such cases shall not extend further than removal from office, and disqualification to hold any office of honor, profit or trust under the government of this State. The party, whether convicted or acquitted, shall, nevertheless, be liable to prosecution, trial, judgment and punishment according to law. MISCELLANEOUS. § 25. The General Assembly shall provide, by law, that the fuel, stationery, and printing paper furnished for the use of the State, the copying, printing, binding and distributing the laws and journals, and all other printing ordered by the General Assembly, shall be let by contract to the lowest responsible bidder; but the General Assembly shall fix a maximum price, and no member thereof or other officer of the State shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in such contract. But all such contracts shall be subject to the approval of the Governor, and if he disapprove the same, there shall be a re-letting of the contract in such manner as shall be prescribed by law. § 26. The State of Illinois shall never be made defendant in any court of law or equity. § 27. The General Assembly shall have no power to authorize lotteries or gift enterprises, for any purpose, and shall pass laws to prohibit the sale of lottery or gift enterprise tickets in this State. § 28. No law shall be passed which shall operate to extend the term of any public officer after his election or appointment. § 29. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to pass such laws as may be necessary for the protection of operative miners, by providing for ventilation, when the same may be required, and the construction of escapement-shafts or such other appliances as may secure safety in all coal mines, and to provide for the enforcement of said laws by such penalties and punishments as may be deemed proper. 30. The General Assembly may provide for establishing and opening roads and cartways, connected with a public road, for private and public use. § 31. The General Assembly may pass laws permitting the owners or occupants of lands to construct drains and ditches, for agricultural and sanitary purposes, across the lands of others. § 32. The General Assembly shall pass liberal homestead and exemption laws. $33. The General Assembly shall not appropriate out of the State Treasury, or expend on account of the new Capitol Grounds, and construction, completion, and furnishing of the State House, a sum exceeding, in the aggregate, three and a half millions of dollars, inclusive of all appropriations heretofore made, without first submitting the proposition for an additional expenditure to the legal voters of the State, at a general election, nor unless a majority of all the votes cast at such election shall be for the proposed additional expenditure. ARTICLE V. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. SECTION I. The Executive Department shall consist of a Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor of Public Accounts, Treasurer, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Attorney General, who shall each, with the exception of the Treasurer, hold his office for the term of four years from the second Monday of January next after his election, and until his successor is elected and qualified. They shall, except the Lieutenant Governor, reside at the seat of government during their term of office, and keep the public records, books and papers there, and shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by law. § 2. The Treasurer shall hold his office for the term of two years, and until his successor is elected and qualified, and shall be ineligible to said office for two years next after the end of the term for which he was elected. He may be required by the Governor to give reasonable additional security, and in default of so doing his office shall be deemed vacant. ELECTION. § 3. An election for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor of Public Accounts, and Attorney General, shall be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, and every four years thereafter; for Superintendent of Public Instruction, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy, and every four years thereafter, and for Treasurer on the day last above mentioned, and every two years thereafter, at such places and in such manner as may be prescribed by law. $ 4. The returns of every election for the above named officers shall be sealed up and transmitted, by the returning officers, to the Secretary of State, directed to "The Speaker of the House of Representatives," who shall, immediately after the organization of the House, and before proceeding to other business, open and publish the same in the presence of a majority of each House of the General Assembly, who shall, for that purpose, assemble in the hall of the House of Representatives. The person having the highest number of votes for either of said offices shall be declared duly elected; but if two or more have an equal, and the highest number of votes, the General Assembly shall, by joint ballot, choose one of such persons for said office. Contested elections for all of said offices shall be determined by both Houses of the General Assembly, by joint ballot, in such manner as may be prescribed by law. ELIGIBILITY. § 5. No person shall be eligible to the office of Governor or Lieutenant Governor, who shall not have attained the age of thirty years and been for five years next preceding his election a citizen of the United States and of this State. Neither the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Auditor of Public Accounts, Secretary of State, Superintendent of Public Instruction nor Attorney General shall be eligible to any other office during the period for which he shall have been elected. |