Sixth. For the legal or taxable fees of any public officer or officer of a court.
SEC. 191. The said exemption shall not be claimed or held in a shifting stock of merchandise, or in any property, the conveyance of which by the homestead claimant has been set aside on the ground of fraud or want of consideration.
SEC. 192. The General Assembly shall prescribe the manner and the conditions on which a householder or head of a family shall set apart and hold for himself and family a homestead in any of the property hereinbefore mentioned. But this section shall not be construed as authorizing the General Assembly to defeat or impair the benefits intended to be conferred by the provisions of this article.
SEC. 193. Nothing contained in this article shall invalidate any homestead exemption heretofore claimed under the provisions of the former Constitution; or impair in any manner the right of any householder or head of a family existing at the time that this Constitution goes into effect, to select the exemption, or any part thereof, to which he was entitled under the former Constitution; provided that such right, if hereafter exercised, be not in conflict with the exemptions set forth in sections One Hundred and Ninety and One Hundred and Ninety-one. But no person who has selected and received the full exemption allowed by the former Constitution shall be entitled to select an additional exemption under this Constitution; and no person who has selected and received part of the exemption allowed by the former Constitution shall be entitled to select an additional exemption beyond the difference between the value of such part and a total valuation of two thousand dollars. So far as necessary to accomplish the purposes of this section the provisions of chapter One Hundred and Seventy-eight of the Code of Virginia, and the acts amendatory thereof, shall remain in force until repealed by the General Assembly. The provisions of this article shall be liberally construed.
SEC. 194. The General Assembly is hereby prohibited from passing any law staying the collection of debts, commonly known as “stay laws”; but this section shall not be construed as prohibiting any legislation which the General Assembly may deem necessary to fully carry out the provisions of this article.
HEIRS OF PROPERTY.
SEC. 195. The children of parents, one or both of whom were slaves at and during the period of cohabitation, and who were recognized by the father as his children, and whose mother was recognized by such father as his wife, and was cohabited with as such, shall be as capable of inheriting any estate whereof such father may have died seized, or possessed, or to which he was entitled, as though they had been born in lawful wedlock.
ARTICLE XV.
FUTURE CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION.
SEC. 196. Any amendment or amendments to the Constitution may be proposed in the Senate or House of Delegates, and if the same shall be agreed it by a majority of the members elected to each of the two houses, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on their journals, with the ayes and noes taken thereon, and referred to the General Assembly at its first regular session held after the next general election of members of the House of Delegates, and shall be published for three months previous to the time of such election. If, at such regular session the proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to each house, then it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to submit such proposed amendment or amendments to the people, in such manner and at such times as it shall prescribe; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments by a majority of the electors, qualified to vote for members of the General Assembly, noting thereon, such Amendment or amendments shall become part of the Constitution.
SEC. 197. At such time as the General Assembly may provide, a majority of the members elected to each house being recorded in the affirmative, the question, “shall there be a convention to revise the Constitution and amend the same?” shall be submitted to the electors qualified to vote for members of the General Assembly; and in case a majority of the electors so qualified, voting thereon, shall vote in favor of a convention for such purpose, the General Assembly, at its next session, shall provide for the election of delegates to such convention; and no convention for such purpose shall be otherwise called.
SCHEDULE.
That no inconvenience may arise from the adoption of this Constitution, and in order to provide for carrying it into complete operation, it is hereby ordained that:
SECTION 1. The common law and the statute laws in force at the time this Constitution goes into effect, so far as not repugnant thereto or repealed thereby, shall remain in force until they expire by their own limitation, or are altered or repealed by the General Assembly.
SEC. 2. All ordinances adopted by this Contention and appended to the official original draft of the Constitution delivered to the Secretary of the Commonwealth shall have the same force and effect, as if they were parts of this Constitution.
SEC. 3. Except as modified by this Constitution, all writs, actions and causes of action, prosecutions, lights of individuals, of bodies corporate or politic, and of the State, shall continue. All legal proceedings, civil and criminal, pending at the time this Constitution goes into effect, or instituted prior to the first day of February, nineteen hundred and four, in any county or circuit court as now existing, shall be prosecuted therein: provided, that all such matters, which are not finally terminated before the day last above mentioned, shall, on that date, by operation of this Constitution and Schedule, be transferred to the circuit court of the county or city created under this Constitution, and shall be proceeded with therein. All such matters pending in the city courts, preserved by this Constitution, when the same goes into effect, or thereafter instituted therein, shall continue in said courts, and be therein proceeded with, until otherwise provided by law. All matters before justices of the peace or police justices at the time this Constitution goes into effect, shall be proceeded with before them, until otherwise provided by law. All legal proceedings prosecuted after this Constitution goes into effect, whether in any of the courts now existing, or in those created by this Constitution, shall be proceeded with in the manner now or hereafter provided by law, except as otherwise required by this Constitution.
SEC. 4. All taxes, fines, penalties, forfeitures and escheats, accrued or accruing to the Commonwealth, or to any political subdivision thereof, under the present Constitution, or under the laws now in force, shall, under this Constitution, enure to the use of the Commonwealth, or of such subdivision thereof
SEC 5 All recognizances, and other obligations, and all other instruments entered into or executed before the adoption of this Constitution, or before the complete organization of the departments thereunder, to the Commonwealth, or to any county, or political subdivision thereof, city, town board, or other public corporation, or institution therein, or to any public officer, shall remain binding and valid, and rights and liabilities thereunder shall continue and may be enforced or prosecuted in the courts of this State as now or here after provided by law
SEC 6 From the day this Constitution goes into effect, the present judges of the Supreme Court of Appeals, or their successors then in office, shall be the judges of the Supreme Court of Appeals created by this Constitution, and continue in office, unless sooner removed, until February the first, nineteen hundred and seven. The jurisdiction of the court shall be as now or hereafter provided by law, subject to the provisions of this Constitution. All proceedings, then pending in the court as now organized, shall, by virtue of this Constitution, be transferred to and disposed of by the court created by this Constitution.
SEC 7 The present judicial system of county and circuit courts of the Commonwealth is continued, and the terms of the several judges thereof, with the powers and duties now possessed by them respectively, are continued, until the first day of February, nineteen hundred and four, as if this Constitution had not been adopted, on which day the judicial system of circuit courts created by this Constitution shall go into operation. The terms of the judges of the city courts, as preserved by this Constitution, of the cities of Alexandria, Charlottesville, Danville, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, Petersburg, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Richmond, Staunton, Manchester, Roanoke, Winchester, and Newport News, shall continue until the first day of February, nineteen hundred and seven, and the terms of the judges of the city courts, as preserved by this Constitution, of the cities of Bristol, Radford and Buena Vista, shall continue until the first day of February, nineteen hundred and four, unless the said courts shall be sooner abolished The privilege now allowed by statute to judges of county courts and to judges of certain city courts to practice law, shall continue during the terms of the judges whose terms are continued by the Schedule, unless otherwise provided by-law
SEC 8 The terms of the clerks of the county and circuit courts now in office, or their successors, shall continue until the first day of February, nineteen hundred and four, and thereupon, the several clerks of the county courts in those counties in which such clerks are now ex-officio clerks of the circuit courts of said counties shall be and become the county clerks of their respective counties, and the clerks of all the other county courts of the State, except the counties of Accomac, Augusta, Bedford, Campbell, Elizabeth City, Fairfax, Lee, Loudoun Hanover Henrico, Rockingham, Nansemond, Southampton, Pittsylvania, Nelson and Fauquier, and, as such, the clerks of the circuit courts created therefor by this Constitution, and shall hold office as such until the first day of January, nineteen hundred and six, unless sooner removed, and then successors shall be elected on Tuesday after the first Monday in November, nineteen hundred and five, provided that the first term of the clerks so elected be for six years. In the counties of Accomac, Augusta, Bedford, Campbell, Elizabeth City, Fairfax, Lee, Loudoun, Hanover, Henrico, Rockingham, Nansemond, Southampton, Pittsylvania, Nelson and Fauquier, in which there are now separate clerks for the county and circuit courts thereof, there shall be elected on Tuesday after the first Monday in November nineteen hundred and three, county clerks for such counties. The terms of the clerks now in office, or their successors, of the several city courts preserved by this Constitution, shall continue until the first day of January, nineteen hundred and seven, and their successors shall be elected on Tuesday after the first Monday in November, nineteen hundred and five, but if any of such city courts shall be sooner abolished as provided in this Constitution or by law, then the term of the clerk of any such court shall thereupon determine.
SEC 9 The first election of the Governor and of all officers required by this Constitution, to be chosen by the qualified voters of the State at large, shall be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, nineteen hundred and five, and their terms of office shall begin on the first day of February following their election. The present incumbents of said offices, or their successors, shall continue in office until the last named day.
SEC 10 The first election of members of the House of Delegates, and of all county and district officers, to be elected by the people under this Constitution, except as otherwise provided in this Schedule, shall be held on Tuesday after the first Monday in November, in the year nineteen hundred and three, and the terms of office of the several officers elected at that or any subsequent election shall begin on the first day of January, next after their election, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution or in this Schedule. And the terms of the office of the sheriff, commonwealth’s attorney, treasurer, commissioners of the revenue, superintendents of the poor, supervisors of the several counties, justices of the peace, and overseers of the poor, and of any incumbent of any other county or district office not abolished by this Constitution, nor herein specifically mentioned, now in office, or their successors, or whose terms of office shall begin on the first day of July, nineteen hundred and two, are continued until January the first, nineteen hundred and four.
The terms of the present members of the House of Delegates, and the terms of the senators now in office, or (in case of vacancies therein), their successors, representing the senatorial districts bearing even numbers, are extended until the second Wednesday in January, nineteen hundred and four, provided, that the term of the senator, now residing m the city of Richmond, who by the provisions of the apportionment act, approved April the second, nineteen hundred and two, is continued in office as one of the senators from the thirty-eighth senatorial district thereby created, be extended until the second Wednesday in January, nineteen hundred and six. The terms of the senators now in office, or (in case of vacancies therein), their successors, representing the senatorial districts bearing odd numbers are extended until the second Wednesday in January, nineteen hundred and six.
In the senatorial districts bearing even numbers, there shall be elected, on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, nineteen hundred and three, for a term of four years, to begin on the second Wednesday in January succeeding their election, members of the Senate to represent such districts; in the senatorial districts bearing odd numbers, and in the city of Richmond to fill the vacancy, which will, as above provided, occur on the second Wednesday in January, nineteen hundred and six, there shall be elected, on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, nineteen hundred and five, for a term of two years, to begin on the second Wednesday in January succeeding their election, members of the Senate to represent such districts; and on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, nineteen hundred and seven, there shall be elected, for the term of four years, to begin on the second Wednesday in January succeeding their election, a senator from each senatorial district in the State.
SEC. 11. All other state, county, and district officers, and their successors, who may be in office at the time this Constitution goes into effect, except the Auditor of Public Accounts, the Second Auditor, the Register of the Land Office, the Superintendent of Public Printing, the Commissioner of Labor and Industrial Statistics, Railroad Commissioner, notaries public, the Adjutant-General, the Superintendent and the Surgeon of the Penitentiary, the Manager and the Surgeon of the State Prison Farm, the superintendents of the several state hospitals, and the school superintendents for counties and cities, and school trustees, shall, unless their respective offices be abolished, or unless otherwise provided by this Constitution or Schedule, hold their respective offices, and discharge the respective duties and exercise the respective powers thereof, until January the first, nineteen hundred and four. The terms of the present incumbents in the offices of Auditor of Public Accounts, Second Auditor, Register of the Land Office, Superintendent of Public Printing, and Commissioner of Labor and Industrial Statistics, shall continue until March the first, nineteen hundred and four. The term of the Railroad Commissioner shall end as soon as the State Corporation Commission shall be organized. Notaries public shall continue in office until their respective commissions shall expire. The term of the office of Adjutant-General shall expire March the first, nineteen hundred and six. The Superintendent and the Surgeon of the Penitentiary, the Manager and the Surgeon of the State Prison Farm, the superintendents of the several state hospitals, shall continue in office until their successors shall be appointed by the respective boards empowered under this Constitution to make the several appointments. The school superintendents for counties and cities shall remain in office for their respective terms, and until their successors are appointed. School trustees now in office, or their successors, shall remain in office until otherwise provided by law. Electoral boards with the powers conferred by existing laws, except the appointment of registrars, shall remain in office until March, the first, nineteen hundred and four.
SEC. 12. The terms of the State Board of Education, the State Corporation Commission, and the Board of Agriculture and Immigration, the directors of public institutions and prisons, and of each state hospital, and the Commissioner of State Hospitals, to be first elected, or appointed, under this Constitution, shall begin on March the first, nineteen hundred and three. The board of any of the above-named departments and institutions as now constituted shall continue until the boards created under this Constitution for such departments and institutions respectively are duly organized. And the terms of the members of the Board of Fisheries are continued until March the first, nineteen hundred and six. The terms of the trustees or visitors of the state educational institutions, and other honorary appointments made by the Governor, are continued until otherwise provided by law.
SEC. 13. Charters of incorporation may, until the first day of April, nineteen hundred and three, be granted or amended by the courts of the State in accordance with the laws in force when this Constitution goes into effect, unless the General Assembly shall sooner provide for the creation of corporations as required by this Constitution.
SEC. 14. The terms of all officers elected by the qualified voters of a city, and of their successors, in office at the time this Constitution goes into effect, or whose terms of office begin on the first day of July, nineteen hundred and two, except the terms of mayors, of members of city councils and of the clerks of city courts, are continued until January the first, nineteen hundred and six; and their successors shall be elected on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, nineteen hundred and five. The terms of all city officers, not so elected, shall expire as provided in the charters of the several cities, or as may be provided by law.
SEC. 15. Until otherwise provided by law, the mayors of the several cities shall continue in office until September the first, nineteen hundred and four, and their successors shall be elected the second Tuesday in June, nineteen hundred and four. Until otherwise provided by law, the members of the several city councils shall continue in office for the terms prescribed in the charters of their respective cities, except that where their terms are prescribed as ending on the first day of July of any year, they shall be extended until the first day of September following.
SEC. 16. Vacancies in any office, the term of which is confirmed or extended by this Schedule, occurring during such term or extension thereof, shall be filled in the manner prescribed by law.
Sec. 17. All officers, whose terms of office are extended by this Schedule, required by law or municipal ordinance to give bond for the faithful discharge of the duties of their respective offices, shall, prior to the expiration of the terms for which they were respectively chosen, before the court or other authority before whom such officer was required by law or municipal ordinance to give such bond, enter into a new bond, in the same penalty and with such security as was prescribed by law or municipal ordinance in respect to his former bond, and with like conditions as therein prescribed, for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office for the extended term herein provided for, and until his successor shall have been duly chosen, and shall have qualified according to law. Upon failure to give such bond within the time above prescribed, the office shall, upon the expiration of the term for which the incumbent thereof was chosen, become vacant,
SEC. 18. In all elections held after this Constitution goes into effect, the qualifications of electors shall be those required by Article Two of this Constitution.
SEC. 19. The General Assembly which convened on the first Wednesday in December, nineteen hundred and one, shall be called by the Governor to meet in session at the Capitol at twelve o’clock P.M., on Tuesday, the fifteenth day of July, nineteen hundred and two. It shall be vested with all the powers, charged with all the duties, and subject to all the limitations prescribed by this Constitution in reference to the General Assembly, except as to the limitation upon the period of its session, qualifications of members, and as to the time at which any of its acts shall take effect; but the ineligibility of the members thereof to be elected to any other office during their terms as members of the General Assembly shall be such as is imposed by this Constitution. The said General Assembly shall elect judges for all of the circuit courts provided for in this Constitution, and also of the corporation courts for Bristol, Radford, and Buena Vista, unless said city courts are sooner abolished.
SEC. 20. The said General Assembly shall enact such laws as may be deemed proper, including those necessary to put this Constitution into complete operation; to confirm those officers whose appointment is made by this Constitution subject to confirmation by the General Assembly or either house thereof; and to transact other proper business; and such session shall continue so long as may be necessary. The members shall receive for their services four dollars per day, for the time when the General Assembly is actually in session, including Sundays and recesses of not exceeding five days, and the mileage provided by law; the Speaker of the House of Delegates and President of the Senate shall each receive seven dollars per day for the same period and the mileage provided by law; and the other officers and employees shall receive such compensation for their services as the General Assembly may prescribe. Provision may be made for compensation at said rate of four dollars per day of members of legislative committees which may sit during any recess of said session.
SEC. 21. The compensation and duties of the Clerk of the House of Delegates and of the Clerk of the Senate shall continue as now fixed by law until the first day of January, nineteen hundred and three, after which date their compensation shall be as prescribed by section Sixty-six of this Constitution.
SEC. 22. When the General Assembly convenes on the fifteenth day of July, nineteen hundred and two, its members and officers, before entering upon the discharge of their duties, shall severally take and subscribe the oath or affirmation prescribed by section Thirty-four of the Constitution. And not later than the twentieth day of July, nineteen hundred and two, the Governor and all other executive officers of the State, whose offices are at the seat of government, and all judges of courts of record, shall severally take and subscribe such oath or affirmation; and upon the failure of any such officer, executive or judicial, to take such oath by the day named, his office shall thereby become vacant. Such oaths or affirmations shall be taken and subscribed before any person authorized by existing laws to administer an oath. The Secretary of the Commonwealth shall cause to be printed the necessary blanks for carrying into effect this provision, and the said oaths and affirmations so taken and subscribed, except of the members and officers of the General Assembly, shall be returned to and filed in his office; and those taken by the members and officers of the General Assembly shall be preserved in the records of the respective houses.
SEC. 23. The official copy of the Constitution and Schedule, and of any ordinance adopted by the Convention, shall, as soon as they shall be enrolled, be signed by the President and attested by the Secretary of the Convention, and the President will thereupon cause the same to be delivered to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, who will file and preserve the same securely, among the archives of the State in his custody.
The Secretary of the Commonwealth will cause the Constitution, Schedule, and said ordinances to be transcribed in a book to be provided for the purpose and safely kept in his office.
The Secretary of the Convention will immediately upon the adoption of this Schedule, deliver a certified copy of the Constitution and Schedule, and of said ordinances, to the Governor of the Commonwealth.
SEC. 24. The Governor is authorized and directed to immediately issue his proclamation announcing that this revised and amended Constitution has been ordained by the people of Virginia, assembled in Convention, through their representatives, as the Constitution for the government of the people of the State, and will go into effect as such, subject to the provisions of the Schedule annexed thereto, on the tenth of July, nineteen hundred and two, at noon, and calling upon all the people of Virginia to render their true and loyal support to the same, as the organic law of the Commonwealth.
SEC. 25. This Constitution shall, except as is otherwise provided in the Schedule, go into effect on the tenth day of July, nineteen hundred and two, at noon.
This Schedule shall take effect from its passage.
THE POPULATION OF VIRGINIA AT VARIOUS DATES.
YEAR. POPULATION. AUTHORITY.
1616 350 Cooke’s Virginia. 1622 4,000 Cooke’s Virginia. 1648 15,300, of which 300 were slaves Cooke’s Virginia. 1670 40,000, of which 2,000 were slaves Cooke’s Virginia. 1700 70,000, white and colored Cooke’s Virginia. 1715 90,000, of which 23,000 were slaves Fiske’s Old Virginia. 1756 293,000, of which 120,000 were slaves Cooke’s Virginia. 1790 746,610, white and colored United States Census. 1800 880,200, white and colored United States Census. 1810 974,600, white and colored United States Census. 1820 1,065,116, white and colored United States Census. 1830 1,211,405, white and colored United States Census. 1840 1,239,797, white and colored United States Census. 1850 1,421,661, of which 526,861 were colored United States Census. 1860 1,596,318, of which 548,947 were colored United States Census. 1870 1,225,163, of which 512,841 were colored United States Census. 1880 1,512,565, of which 631,616 were colored United States Census. 1890 1,655,980, of which 635,438 were colored United States Census. 1900 1,854,980, white and colored United States Census.