- JUDGES. (See Courts.) — LEGISLATURES. All the state constitutions limit and define more or less fully the legislative powers of the body vari- | ously styled "the General Assembly," "the Legislature," and (in Massachusetts) "the General Court." The qualifications required for membership in state legislatures vary considerably, prescribing a greater or less term of residence in the state, a limit of age (in certain states only), and, in nearly all cases, the requirement of being qualified voters. The number of senators and representatives prescribed in the state constitutions varies greatly in different states. The senatorial bodies are conveniently small, running from nine members only in Delaware, to fifty-one in Illinois, while the members of the other house vary from twenty-one to 321 in number. The popular branch is usually styled "the House of Representatives," but is called "the Assembly" in California, Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Wisconsin; in Maryland, Virginia and | West Virginia it is styled "the House of Delegates," and in all the other states its constitutional designation is "the House of Representatives." The legislative sessions were formerly held annually in most of the states. Of late years, however, there has been a steady drift toward less frequent meetings of state legislatures, nearly every constitution adopted within thirty years providing that the sessions shall be held only biennially, unless special or extraordinary sessions are called. The states whose legislatures still meet every year are six only: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and South Carolina. In Ohio, however, the legislature holds adjourned sessions practically amounting to annual meetings. Some constitutions limit the length of session to terms variously running from forty days to 150. In sixteen states, however, the legislature is without limit save its own discretion as to length of session. The following table exhibits the numbers, terms of office and salaries of state legislatures: Salary. $4 per day and 10c. per mile. $6 per day. $8 per day, 10c. mileage, and $25. $4 per day and 15c. per mile. $800 and mileage. $3 per day and mileage. $6 per day and 10c. per mile. $4 per day and mileage. $5 per day, 10c. mileage and $50. $3 per day and 15c. per mile. $3 per day and 10c. per mile. $5 per day and mileage, and $30. $3 per day and 10c. per mile. $8 per day and 40c. per mile. $3 per day and mileage. $500 per year. $1,500 per year and 10c. per mile. $540 per year. $4 per day and 10c. per mile. STATES AND New York. Rhode Island Virginia. Sealed (CONTINUED.) Assault, replevin counts. slander, Open ac- Notes. and wit Judg. nessed ments. instru etc. ments. Years. Years. Years. Years. Years -LIBEL, AND LIBERTY OF THE PRESS. The declaration of rights in nearly every state constitution prohibits any laws to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. Many constitutions couple this with a provision that in all prosecutions for libel the truth may be given in evidence to a jury, and if they find the matter charged as libelous to be true, the party shall be acquitted. This clause is a part of the constitutions of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin. In the constitutions of the following states the jury is empowered to determine both the law and the facts in cases of libel: Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. - LIEUTENANT GOVERNORS. In twenty-seven states the lieutenant governor is ex officio president of the senate, and succeeds to the office of governor only upon the death, disability or resignation of that officer elect. The constitutions in eleven states provide for no such officer as lieuten-ginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. In the folant governor, viz., Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee and West Virginia. - LIMITATIONS, STATUTES OF. Limitation laws are designed to fix a reasonable time within which a party is permitted to sue for the recovery of his rights, and imply that his failure to do so furnishes legal presumption that he has no rights in the premises. The following table gives the present state of the laws, barring actions in civil and criminal matters in the various states and territories: -LOTTERIES. The mischiefs arising from the lottery system, as exhibited in the early decades of this century in many states of the Union, led to constitutional and legal interdiction of these demoralizing games of hazard. In seventeen states the constitution absolutely prohibits the leg. islature from authorizing any lottery, and in most of them requires it to pass laws prohibiting the sale of lottery tickets. These states are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas, Vir lowing eleven states the constitution itself prohibits lotteries absolutely: Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island and South Carolina. In Louisiana alone the constitution provides that "the general assembly shall have authority to grant lottery charters or privileges; provided, each charter or privilege shall pay not less than forty thousand dollars per annum in money into the treasury of the state; and provided, further, that all charters shall cease and expire on the first of January, 1895, from which time all lotteries are prohibited in this state." Kentucky tolerates lotteries by law. In the remaining nine states there is no constitutional provision on the subject, but lotteries are 10 illegal. - MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. In view of the vast importance of the marriage relation to the moral and material well-being of every com20 munity, the hasty and shifting legislation which makes a chaos of conflicting state laws, instead of a uniform system, can not be too much deplored. The recently growing laxity of the laws, and still more, of the practice under them, in many states, has led to an unprecedented multiplication of divorces. It is here proposed to note only the diversities prevailing in the statutes regulating mar20 riage and divorce in the various states. -Marriage is defined as a civil contract in the codes of fifteen states: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Wisconsin. Whether a marriage by simple consent of the parties (without civil or ecclesiastical formalities) is valid at common law, has been disputed; but the supreme 6 12 20 20 5 10 10 15 10 12 20 10 20 10 aa aaadaaaSuBaaadadaauko 7 10 4 6 10 10 16 10 court of the United States decided that the intervention of a clergyman is not necessary, and that in the absence of a statute containing express words of nullity, a marriage by mere consent is valid. (96 U. S. Reports, 76.) In two states only, California and Iowa, do the laws expressly recognize simple consent of the parties as adequate to constitute a binding marriage. On the other hand, three states declare void all marriages not solemnized by authorized persons. In twentytwo states whose laws do not declare such marriages invalid, the courts have usually sustained them, when followed by cohabitation, as valid under the common law. Six states, Maine, Mary land, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Tennessee and Vermont, do not recognize such marriages, but require consent before a magistrate or a minister. In some other states, both the law and its adjudication are doubtful on this point. Whether a valid marriage can be contracted between those of different race and color, is a question variously decided. The statutes of eighteen states prohibit or render void marriages between whites and persons of African descent, viz., California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. The required ages to render a marriage valid vary greatly. The old common law limit of at least fourteen years for the groom and twelve for the bride, is fixed by statute in Kentucky, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia; the ages of sixteen and fourteen are required in Iowa, North Carolina and Texas; seventeen and fourteen insertion, in thirty-seven states; 9, cruelty, in thirtyAlabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois and Indiana; eighteen and fifteen in California, Minnesota, Oregon and Wisconsin; and eighteen and sixteen in Delaware, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada and Ohio. In other states the common law limit of fourteen and twelve years is upheld without special statute. In seven states, marriages may be annulled because of impotence, and the same disability is made ground for divorce in thirty states. Consanguinity within certain degrees renders marriage void in twenty-seven states. A marriage between an uncle and a niece is valid in Maryland if contracted before 1878, and absolutely void in Connecticut. In thirty-one states a marriage license or certificate is required, and if the parties are minors, consent of parents must be shown. The persons before whom marriages must be solemnized are variously directed to be judges of courts, mayors, justices of the peace, notaries, elders, ministers of the gospel, etc. Public registration of marriages is required by law in thirty-sence is specified by statute.-PARDONING POWER. three states, but by no means generally enforced. -Regarding divorce, three widely different views prevail 1. That marriage is a sacrament, and indissoluble for any causes arising after marriage. This is the view of the Roman Catholic church. 2. That marriage is a sacred relation, and should be dissolved only for adultery and desertion. 3. That marriage is simply a civil contract, without any re | ligious element, which, while not revocable by mutual consent, may properly be dissolved for a variety of cogent reasons. The legislation of the various states now recognizes divorce as procurable for cause in all except South Carolina, which, in 1878, repealed all acts permitting divorces. The constitutions of several states prohibit the legislature from granting divorces by special acts; doubtless upon the principle that this is in its nature a judicial act, to be determined on evidence and inquiry, and that legislatures should be restrained from usurping (as the British parlia ment set the example of doing) the power to declare marriages dissolved. No such restriction of the legislature exists in the New England states, or in New York and Delaware. The latter, however, is the only state where individual cases of divorce are legislatively taken up, and in 1881, thirteen divorces were actually granted. The former law of Connecticut, permitting courts to grant divorces for "any misconduct permanently destroying the happiness of the petitioner, and defeating the purposes of marriage," in force for nearly thirty years, produced a scandalous and constantly increasing crop of divorces, and was repealed in 1878. Among the legal causes for divorce are: 1, previous marriage, undissolved, in seven states; 2, impotence, in thirty states; 3, insanity at time of marriage, in two states; 4, consanguinity, in five states; 5, pregnancy at time of marriage, without the husband's knowledge or agency, in nine states; 6, conviction of an infamous crime before marriage, concealed, in two states; 7, adultery, in thirty-seven states; 8, de seven states; 10, conviction of or imprisonment for crime, in thirty states; 11, habitual drunkenness, in thirty-five states; 12, neglect or refusal on the part of a husband to provide for his wife, in nine states; 13, gross neglect of duty in four states. In New York alone the sole recognized ground for an absolute divorce is adultery. As to desertion, willful absence continued for one year is ground for divorce in eight states-Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin; absence for two years, in nine states-Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada and Tennessee; absence for three years, in thirteen states-Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, and West Virginia; and desertion for five years, in three states-Louisiana, Rhode Island and Virginia. In the other states, no limit of willful ab In most of the states the governor is invested by the constitution with the power of granting pardons, reprieves or commutation of sentence to convicted criminals under sentence; exceptions are made, in the constitutions of twenty states, of treason and impeachment, as cases where no pardoning power can be exercised. In the constitutions of fourteen states impeachment alone with draws the convicted person from the exercise of the pardoning power. In Vermont alone the crime of murder is added to the two cases just named as beyond the reach of executive clemency. In Oregon the only crime not subject to pardon is treason. In Illinois the governor may grant pardon for all offenses without exception. In Kansas the governor is to exercise the pardoning power only under such restrictions as provided by law. While in twenty-seven states the gov. ernor alone is invested with the pardoning power, this power is vested in the governor and council in the states of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont; and in the governor and the senate in Rhode Island. Four state constitutions create a board of pardons, to share the responsibility of exercising this power. In New Jersey this board consists of the governor, the chancellor, and the six judges of the court of appeals, a majority of whom must concur in granting pardons. In Florida and Nevada the governor, the justices of the supreme court and the attorneygeneral, or a majority of them, of whom the governor must be one, may grant pardons. In Pennsylvania the governor may exercise the power of pardon only on the written recommendation of the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general and secretary of internal affairs, or any three of them, after full hearing and public notice recorded and filed in the secretary's office. In Connecticut the governor can grant reprieves only until the end of the next legislative session; he has no pardoning power. In California neither the governor nor the legislature can pardon when the convict has twice been convicted of felony, except on the recommendation of a majority of the judges of the supreme court. The states in which the governor alone is invested with the pardoning power are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. In Louisiana the governor can pardon only on the recommendation of the lieutenant governor, attorney general, and the presiding judge of the court trying the case, or of any two of them. - POLL TAX. While a capitation tax is imposed upon males over twenty-one years of age in most of the states by their constitutions or laws, Kansas, Maryland and Ohio have prohibited by their constitutions the levying of any poll tax. No capitation tax is levied in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York and Pennsylvania. In the remaining states a poll tax is levied, varying in amount from fifty cents to three dollars per annum. These states are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Ver | mont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The payment of this tax is a condition precedent of the right to vote in two states only, viz., Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In Virginia the making the payment of a poll tax a condition of suffrage was abolished by constitutional amendment in 1882. In Nevada the legislature may make such payment a condition of the right of voting. In Delaware and Pennsylvania a county tax must have been paid by all electors to entitle them to suffrage. The constitution of Kansas prohibits making the payment of a tax a qualification for exercising the right of suffrage. -REGISTRATION. In view of the great importance of a well-regulated registration system to secure fair elections, it is not surprising to find it required by law or constitution in twentynine states. The constitutions of Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and South Carolina require registration as a prerequisite to suffrage. Missouri's constitution requires it in cities only, doubtless on the theory that in country voting precincts fraud is more easily detected, and less probable, than in populous cities, with floating populations. In like manner the laws of New Jersey and New York require registration in all cities of 10,000 inhabitants and upward, but not elsewhere. No registration is required in Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. The constitutions of three states prohibit registration, viz., Arkansas, Texas and West Virginia. In the remaining states a registration system is established by law. It has been asserted (though not generally sustained) that acts of the legislature requir ing registration as a prerequisite to voting are unconstitutional in states where the constitution is silent as to registry, because it establishes a test for qualifications of electors not found in the fundamental law. - RELIGION. Most state constitutions embody in a bill of rights, or elsewhere, a declaration that no religious test shall be required for the enjoyment of any civil or political right. But persons who deny the existence of God are disqualified for office by the constitutions of Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee; while the constitutions of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas imply a belief in a Supreme Being as a qualification for office. Tennessee goes further in requiring belief in a future state of rewards and punishments as a qualification for office, and this after adopting, in its declaration of rights, a provision that "no religious test shall ever be required." The majority of constitutions declare that no preference shall be given by law to any religious sect; New Hampshire alone provides in its constitution that the legislature may authorize towns and parishes to provide for the maintenance of Protestant teachers of religion. Connecticut gives the same guarantee to every society or denomination of Christians. The free enjoyment of all religious sentiments and modes of worship is guaranteed in and within the voting precinct for various times running from only ten days to six months. The restrictions upon the right of suffrage are somewhat numerous, but of late years are becoming steadily lessened in number. A property qualification, which formerly prevailed in some states, now exists only in Rhode Island, where the possession of property to the value of 134 dollars in real estate over all incumbrances is required, or (as an alternative) the payment of a tax to the amount of one dollar. The payment of a tax is a prerequisite to the right of suffrage in Delaware, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. In all the states voters must be male citizens of twenty-one years of age or upward, although a limited suffrage has been extended to women, enabling them to vote at school district elections only, in Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and some other states. Illiteracy, it has been widely claimed, should be a bar to suffrage, but this view has prevailed continuously in two states only; Massachusetts requiring that a voter shall have the capacity to read the constitution and to write his name, and Connecticut that he shall be able to read the constitution or statutes. Among the most widely enforced disabilities, idiots and insane persons are expressly excluded from the suffrage by the constitutions of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Paupers are excluded in Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Persons convicted of crime are excluded by the constitutions of all the states except Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Vermont. In most other states the laws make the same exclusion. Persons under guardianship are excluded in Florida, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. Bribery, or offer to bribe an elector to influence votes, is made a disqualification for suffrage or office by the constitutions of Alabama, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wisconsin. Most of the other states have provided by law severe penalties for bribery, including, in some cases, exclusion from suffrage for a term of years or indefinitely. nearly all constitutions. The constitutions of the following states declare that no witness shall be held incompetent to testify because of his religious opinions: California, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Clergymen are ineligible to the legislature by the constitutions of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York and Tennessee, and in several of these states they are excluded from any civil office. - SUCCESSION. Various methods of providing for the succession to the chief magistracy, in case of the death, resignation or disability of the governor, prevail in the different states. Eleven states have no lieutenant governor, and in nine of these the constitution devolves the office of governor upon the president of the senate and the speaker of the house, successively, in case of vacancy. In Maryland the general assembly must elect a governor, if in session when the office is vacant; otherwise, it is filled as in other states. In Oregon, vacancy or inability in the office of governor, devolves it on, 1, the secretary of state, 2, the president of the senate. In nine states the succession falls, first, to the lieutenant governor; second, to the president of the senate pro tempore; third, to the speaker of the house. In twelve states the same constitutional provision exists, except that there is no provision for a vacancy in the third | degree. In Wisconsin the vacancy is filled, first, by the lieutenant governor, and secondarily by the secretary of state. In Massachusetts, if the offices of governor and lieutenant governor both become vacant, their duties devolve upon the council. In case of a double vacancy, the constitutions of Indiana, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia require the general assembly to provide by law what officer shall act as governor. SUFFRAGE. The right to participate in elections is fixed in each state by its own constitution and laws; these being subject only to the 15th amendment to the constitution of the United States prohibiting any disabilities as to suffrage on account of color or race. While aliens are generally excluded, fifteen states admit to the suffrage foreigners who have declared their intention to become actual citizens. Other qualifications for suffrage embrace in some states registration (see above), and in all, a certain time of residence within the state and locality | where the voter seeks to exercise the suffrage. The constitution of Kentucky requires two years' residence in the state before one can vote; and this is the longest residence required by any state. SUNDAY. The laws against desecration of the The constitutions of Maine and Michigan require first day of the week have no constitutional sanconly three months' residence in the state; and this tion except the recognition of Christianity (in the is the shortest period anywhere required. Nine constitutions of a few states) and the permission states require six months' residence, viz., Colo-to the legislature to make laws promoting religion rado, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire and Oregon. All the other states require one year's residence with. in their boundaries before conferring the right to vote. Residence within the county is required for periods varying from one month to one year, and morality. The prohibition of labor or sports on Sunday, although found in the laws of most states, is not rigidly or continuously enforced in any. While these laws may be defended on authority and long custom, the fact that their enforcement has more and more fallen into desue |