ARTICLE 3.

§ 1. The supreme executive powers of the state shall be vested in a governor.

§ 2. The governor shall be chosen by the citizens of the state.

The returns of every election for governor shall be sealed up, and immediately delivered by the returning officers of the several counties to the speaker of the senate, [or in case of the vacancy of the office of the speaker of the senate, or his absence from the state, to the secretary of state,] who shall keep the same until a speaker of the senate shall be appointed, to whom they shall be immediately delivered after his appointment, who shall open and publish the same in the presence of the members of both houses of the legislature. Duplicates of the said returns shall also be immediately lodged with the prothonotary of each county. The person having the highest number of votes shall be governor : but it two or more shall be equal in the highest number of votes, the members of the two houses shall, by joint ballot, choose one of them to be governor; and if, upon such ballot, two or more of them shall still be equal and highest in votes, the speaker of the senate shall have an additional casting vote.

Contested elections of a governor shall be determined by a joint committee, consisting of one-third of all the members of each branch of the legislature, to be selected by ballot of the house respectively: every person of the committee shall take an oath or affirmation, that in determining the said election, he will faithfully discharge the trust reposed in him and the committee shall always sit with open doors.

§3. The governor shall hold his office during [four] years from the third Tuesday in January next ensuing his election, and shall not be [eligible a second time to said office.]

§ 4. He shall be at least thirty years of age, and have been a citizen and inhabitant of the United States twelve years next before the first meeting of the legislature after his election, and the last six of that term an inhabitant of this state, unless he shall have been absent on the public business of the United States or of this state.

§ 5. No member of congress, nor person holding any office under the United States, or this state, shall exercise the office of governor.

§ 6. The governor shall, at stated times, receive for his services an adequate salary, to be fixed by law, which shall be neither increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected.

§ 7. He shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the state, and of the militia; except when they shall be called into service of the United States.

§ 8. He shall appoint all officers whose offices are established by this constitution, or shall be established by law, and whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for; but no person shall be appointed to an office within a county, who shall not have a right to vote for representatives, and have been an inhabitant therein one year next before his appointment, nor hold the office longer than he continues to reside in the county. No member of Congress, nor any person holding or exercising any office under the United States, shall at the same time hold or exercise the office of judge, treasurer, attorney-general, secretary, pro thonotary, register for the probate of wills and granting letters of administration, recorder, sheriff, or any office under this state, with a salary

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by law annexed to it, or any other office which the legislature shall declare imcompatible with offices or appointments under the United States. No person shall hold more than one of the following offices at the same time, to wit: treasurer, attorney-general, prothonotary, register, or sheriff. All commissions shall be in the name of the state, shall be sealed with the great seal, and be signed and tested by the governor.

§ 9. He shall have power to remit fines and forfeitures, and to grant reprieves and pardons, except in cases of impeachment. [He shall set forth in writing, fully, the grounds of all reprieves, pardons, and remis- . sions, to be entered in the register of his official acts, and laid before the general assembly at their next session.]

§ 10. He may require information in writing from the officers in the executive department, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices.

11. He shall from time to time give to the general assembly information of affairs concerning the state, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge expedient.

§ 12. He may, on extraordinary occasions, convene the general assembly; and in case of disagreement between the two houses with respect to the time of adjournment, adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper, not exceeding three months.

§ 13. He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

§ 14. [Upon any vacancy happening in the office of governor by his death, removal, resignation, or inability, the speaker of the senate shall exercise the office until a governor elected by the people shall be duly qualified. If there be no speaker of the senate, or upon a further vacancy happening in the office by his death, removal, resignation or inability, the speaker of the house of representatives shall exercise the office until a governor elected by the people shall be duly qualified. If the person elected governor shall die, or become disqualified, before the commencement of his term of office, or shall refuse to take the same, the person holding the office shall continue to exercise it, until a governor shall be elected and duly qualified. If upon a vacancy happening in the office of governor, there be no other person who can exercise said office within the provisions of the constitution, the secretary of state shall exercise the same until the next meeting of the general assembly, who shall immediately proceed to elect, by joint ballot of both houses, a person to exercise the office until a governor, elected by the people, shall be duly qualified. If a vacancy occur in the office of governor, or if the governor-elect die, or become disqualified, before the commencement of his term, or refuse to take the office, an election for governor shall be held at the next general election, unless the vacancy happen within six days next preceding the election, exclusive of the day of the happening of the vacancy and the day of the election: in that case, if an election for governor would not have been held at said election, without the happening of such vacancy, no election for governor shall be held at said election in consequence of such vacancy.] If the trial of a contested election shall continue longer than until the third Tuesday of January next ensuing the election of a governor, the governor of the last year, or the speaker of the senate, or of the house of representatives, who may then be in the exercise of the executive authority, shall continue therein until a determination of such contested election. The governor

shall not be removed from his office for inability, but with the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members of each branch of the legisla

ture.

§ 15. A secretary shall be appointed and commissioned during the governor's continuance in office, if he shall so long behave himself well. He shall keep a fair register of all the official acts and proceedings of the governor, and shall, when required by either branch of the legislature, lay the same, and all papers, minutes, and vouchers, relative thereto, before them, and shall perform such other duties as shall be enjoined him by law. He shall have a compensation for his services, to be fixed by law.

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ARTICLE 4.

§ 1. [All elections for governor, senators, representatives, sheriffs, and coroners, shall be held on the second Tuesday of November, and be by ballot And in such elections every free white male citizen of the age of twenty-two years or upwards, having resided in the state one year next before the election, and the last month thereof in the county where he offers to vote, and having within two years next before the election paid a county tax, which shall have been assessed at least six months before the election, shall enjoy the right of an elector; and every free white male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, and under the age of twenty-two years, having resided as aforesaid, shall be entitled to vote without payment of any tax: Provided, that no person in the military, naval, or marine service of the United States shall be considered as acquiring a residence in this state, by being stationed in any garrison, barrack, or military or naval place or station within this state; and no idiot, or insane person, or pauper, or person convicted of a crime deemed by law felony, shall enjoy the right of an elector; and that the legislature may impose the forfeiture of the right of suffrage as a punishment for crime.]

§ 2. Electors shall in all cases, except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from an arrest during their attendance at elections, and in going to and returning from them.

ARTICLE 5.

§ 1. The house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeaching: but two-thirds of all the members must concur in an impeachment. 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 the evidence. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the senators.

§ 2. The governor, and all other civil officers under this state, shall be liable to impeachment for treason, bribery, or any high crime or misdemeanor in office. Judgment in such cases shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold any office of honour, trust, or profit under this state; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law.

§3. Treason against this state shall consist only in levying war against it, or in adhering to the enemies of the government, giving

them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

ARTICLE 6.

§ 1. [The judicial power of this state shall be vested in a court of errors and appeals, a superior court, a court of chancery, an orphan's court, a court of oyer and terminer, a court of general sessions of the peace and jail delivery, a register's court, justices of the peace, and such other courts as the general assembly, with the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members of both houses shall from time to time establish.]

§ 2. [To compose the said courts there shall be five judges in the state. One of them shall be chancellor of the state: he shall also be president of the orphan's court: he may be appointed in any part of the state. The other four judges shall compose the superior court, the court of oyer and terminer, and the court of general sessions of the peace and jail delivery, as hereinafter prescribed. One of them shall be chief-justice of the state, and may be appointed in any part of it. The other three judges shall be associate judges, and one of them shall reside in each county.]

§ 3. [The superior court shall consist of the chief-justice and two associate judges. The chief-justice shall preside in every county, and in his absence the senior associate judge sitting in the county shall preside. No associate judge shall sit in the county in which he resides. Two of the said judges shall constitute a quorum. One may open and adjourn the court, and make all rules necessary for the expediting of business.

This court shall have jurisdiction of all causes of a civil nature, real, personal, and mixed, at common law, and all other the jurisdiction and powers vested by the laws of this state in the supreme court or court of common pleas.]

§4. [The court of general sessions of the peace and jail delivery shall be composed in each county of the same judges and in the same manner as the superior court. Two shall constitute a quorum. One may open and adjourn the court. This court shall have all the jurisdiction and powers vested by the laws of this state in the court of general quarter sessions of the peace and jail delivery.]

§ 5. [The chancellor shall hold the court of chancery. This court shall have all the powers vested by the laws of this state in the court of chancery.]

§ 6. [The court of oyer and terminer shall consist of all the judges except the chancellor. Three of the said judges shall constitute a quorum. One may open and adjourn the court. This court shall exercise the jurisdiction now vested in the courts of oyer and terminer and general jail delivery by the laws of this state. In the absence of the chief-justice the senior associate present shall preside.]

§ 7. [The court of errors and appeals shall have jurisdiction to issue writs of error to the superior court, and to receive appeals from the court of chancery, and to determine finally all matters in error in the judgments and proceedings of said superior court, and all matters of appeal in the interlocutory or final decrees and proceedings in chancery. The court of errors and appeals upon a writ of error to the superior

court shall consist of three judges at least: that is to say, the chancellor, who shall preside, the associate judge who could not on account of his residence sit in the cause below, and one of the judges who did sit in the said cause. The judges of the superior court to whom it appertains to hold the superior court in each county shall sit alternately in the court of errors and appeals in cases in error brought from the superior court held in such county, according to the following rotation, that is to say: If the judgment below be rendered in the court in New Castle county at the first term of the said court there, the chief-justice shall sit; if at the second term of said court there, the associate judge for Kent county.shall sit; and if at the third term of said court there, the associate judge for Sussex county shall sit. If the judgment below be rendered in the court in Kent county at the first term of said court there, the associate judge for Sussex county shall sit; if at the second term of the said court there, the associate judge for New Castle county shall sit; and if at the third term of the court there, the chief-justice shall sit. If the judgment below be rendered in the court in Sussex county at the first term of said court there, the associate judge for New Castle county shall sit; if at the second term of the said court there, the chief-justice shall sit, and if at the third term of the said court there, the associate judge for Kent county shall sit; and so from term to term, in every succeeding rotation the judges beginning and following each other in the same order. But if in any case in the court of errors and appeals, the judge who sat in the cause below, and ought according to this provision to sit in the court of errors and appeals, be absent, unable, or disqualified, then either of the other judges who sat in the cause below may sit; and the court shall have power to prevent any inconvenience or delay from observing the rotation above described, by making an order or regulation for either of the judges who sat in the cause below, to sit in such cause in the court of errors and appeals. If a judge did not sit in the cause below, he shall sit in the said cause in the court of errors and appeals, unless there be a legal exception to him; but the court, if there be three judges present, may proceed in his absence.

Whenever the superior court consider that a question of law ought to be decided before all the judges, they shall have power, upon the application of either party, to direct it to be heard in the court of errors and appeals; and in that case the chancellor and four judges shall compose the court of errors and appeals, the chancellor presiding, and any four of them being a quorum; and in the absence of the chancellor, the chief-justice shall preside. The superior court in exercising this power may direct a cause to be proceeded in to verdict and judgment in that court, or to be otherwise proceeded in, as shall be best for expediting justice.

Upon appeal from the court of chancery, the court of errors and appeals shall consist of the chief-justice and three associate judges; any three of them shall be a quorum.]

§ 8. [In matters of chancery jurisdiction in which the chancellor is interested, the chief-justice sitting in the superior court without the associate judges, shall have jurisdiction, with an appeal to the court of errors and appeals, which shall consist in this case of the three associate judges, the senior associate judge presiding.]

9. [The governor shall have power to commission a judge ad litem,