porations. Feb. 14, 1859. § 9. No county, city, town, or other municipal corMunicipal corporation, by vote of its citizens or otherwise, shall become a stockholder in any joint-stock company, corporation, or association whatever, or raise money for, or loan its credit to, or in aid of, any such company, corporation, or association. Limitation upon powers § 10. No county shall create any debts or liabilities of counties to which shall singly or in the aggregate exceed the sum of five thousand dollars, except to suppress insurrection or repel invasion; but the debts of any county at the time this constitution takes effect shall be disregarded in estimating the sum to which such county is limited. State printer. Salaries of state officers. ARTICLE XII. STATE PRINTER. § 1. There shall be elected by the qualified electors of the state, at the times and places of choosing members of the legislative assembly, a state printer, who shall hold his office for the term of four years. He shall perform all the public printing for the state which may be provided by law. The rates to be paid to him for such printing shall be fixed by law, and shall neither be increased nor diminished during the term for which he shall have been elected. He shall give such security for the performance of his duties as the legislative assembly may provide. ARTICLE XIII. SALARIES. § 1. The governor shall receive an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars. The secretary of state shall receive an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars. The treasurer of state shall receive an annual salary of eight hundred dollars. The judges of the supreme court shall each receive an annual salary of two thousand dollars. They shall receive no fees or perquisites whatever for the performance of any duties connected with their re spective offices; and the compensation of officers, if not Feb. 14, 1859. fixed by this constitution, shall be provided by law. Secretary draws governor's governor, as provided in § 8 of art. salary, when. -The secretary of 5, is entitled to the salary of goverstate, while performing the duties of nor: Chadwick v. Earhart, 11 Or. 389. ARTICLE XIV. SEAT OF GOVERNMENT. ment. § 1. The legislative assembly shall not have power to seat of govern establish a permanent seat of government for this state. But at the first regular session after the adoption of this constitution, the legislative assembly shall provide by law for the submission to the electors of this state at the next general election thereafter, the matter of the selection of a place for a permanent seat of government; and no place shall ever be the seat of government under such law, which shall not receive a majority of all the votes cast on the matter of such election. Seat of government settled by vote. By act of October 19, 1860, the location of the seat of government was submitted to the popular vote at the next general election in June, 1862, and every general election thereafter, until "some one point" should receive a majority of all the votes cast, upon the question. At the election in 1862, no point received § 2. No tax shall be levied, or money of the state ex- State house. pended, or debt contracted for the erection of a state house prior to the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five. ment, how re 3. The seat of government, when established as pro- Seat of governvided in section 1, shall not be removed for the term moved. of twenty years from the time of such establishment; nor in any other manner than as provided in the first section of this article; provided, that all the public institutions Public instituof the state, hereafter provided for by the legislative of assembly, shall be located at the seat of government. ARTICLE XV. MISCELLANEOUS. § 1. All officers, except members of the legislative assembly, shall hold their offices until their successors are elected and qualified. tions, location Feb. 14, 1859. Tenure of office. 11 Or. 114. 14 Or. 247. 20 Or. 876. Oath of officer. 14 Or. 99. 14 Or. 112. Lotteries prohibited. Property of married women. 3 Or. 267. New counties. § 2. When the duration of any office is not provided for by this constitution, it may be declared by law; and if not so declared, such office shall be held during the pleasure of the authority making the appointment. But the legislative assembly shall not create any office, the tenure of which shall be longer than four years. § 3. Every person elected or appointed to any office under the constitution shall, before entering on the duties thereof, take an oath or affirmation to support the constitution of the United States, and of this state, and also an oath of office. § 4. Lotteries, and the sale of lottery tickets, for any purpose whatever, are prohibited, and the legislative assembly shall prevent the same by penal laws. § 5. The property and pecuniary rights of every married woman, at the time of marriage, or afterward acquired by gift, devise, or inheritance, shall not be subject to the debts or contracts of the husband; and laws shall be passed providing for the registration of the wife's separate property. Property of married women. Whatever property a woman has at the time of her marriage, or afterward acquires by gift, devise, or inheritance, remains hers until she, by her own consent, express or implied, parts with it: Brummet v. Weaver, 2 Or. 173; Rugh v. Ottenheimer, 6 Id. 231; Besser v. Joyce et al., 9 Id. 310. Such property is, by the constitution, the separate property of the wife: Rugh v. Ottenheimer, supra; Starr v. Hamilton, 1 Deady, 272; Stubblefield v. Menzies, 8 Saw. 41. In Starr v. Hamilton, the proposition is declared by Judge Deady to be the law, "so far, at least, as third persons are concerned"; but in Stubblefield v. Menzies, the same learned judge held the proposition correct without the qualification suggested in Starr v. Hamilton. does not affect rights vested in the husband before the constitution took effect: Starr v. Hamilton, 1 Deady, 274. The protection given by this provision of the constitution to the property of married women extends as well to those who were married before the constitution was adopted as to those who married afterward: Rugh v. Ottenheimer, supra. But see Starr v. Hamilton and Stubblefield v. Menzies, supra. Contracts between husband and wife. The constitutional provisions in relation to the property of married women do not abrogate the common-law rule that husband and wife are incapable of entering into contracts with each other: Pitman v. Pitman, 4 Or. 298; Elfelt v. Hinch, 5 Id. 255. This provision of the constitution § 6. No county shall be reduced to an area of less than four hundred square miles; nor shall any new county be established in this state containing a less area, nor unless such new county shall contain a population of at least twelve hundred inhabitants. § 7. No state officers or members of the legislative Feb. 14, 1859. assembly shall directly or indirectly receive a fee, or be officers to reengaged as counsel, agent, or attorney in the prosecution certain cases. of any claim against this state. ceive fee in to hold real estate, or work § 8. No Chinaman, not a resident of the state at the Chinamen not adoption of this constitution, shall ever hold any real estate or mining claim, or work any mining claim unless. therein. The legislative assembly shall provide by law in the most effectual manner for carrying out the above provision. mining claim, 4 Saw. 28. ARTICLE XVI. BOUNDARIES. state. § 1. In order that the boundaries of the state may be Boundaries of known and established, it is hereby ordained and declared that the state of Oregon shall be bounded as follows, to wit: Beginning one marine league at sea, due west from the point where the forty-second parallel of north latitude intersects the same; thence northerly at the same distance from the line of the coast lying west and opposite the state, including all islands within the jurisdiction of the United States, to a point due west and opposite the middle of the north ship channel of the Columbia River; thence easterly to and up the middle channel of said river, and when it is divided by islands, up the middle of the widest channel thereof, and in like manner up the middle of the main channel of Snake River to the mouth of the Owyhee River; thence due south to the parallel of latitude forty-two degrees north; thence west along said parallel to the place of beginning, including jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases upon the Columbia River and Snake River, concurrently with states and territories of which those rivers form a boundary in common with this state. But the Congress of the United States, in providing for the admission of this state into Feb. 14, 1859. the Union, may make the said northern boundary conform to the act creating the territory of Washington. Boundaries. The north boundary of the state as provided by the constitution was changed by the act of Congress admitting the state, by substituting for the words, "and in like manner up the middle of the main channel of Snake River," the words "to a point near Fort Walla Walla, where the forty-sixth parallel of north latitude crosses said river; thence east, on said parallel, to the middle of the main channel of the Shoshone or Snake River, thence up the middle of the main channel of said river": See Act of Admission, § 1. Amendments to constitution. Two or more amendments. ARTICLE XVII. AMENDMENTS. § 1. Any amendment or amendments to this constitution may be proposed in either branch of the legisla tive assembly, and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to each of the two houses, such proposed amendment or amendments shall, with the yeas and nays thereon, be entered on their journals, and referred to the legislative assembly to be chosen at the next general election; and if, in the legis lative assembly so next chosen, such 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 legislative assembly to submit such amendment or amendments to the electors of the state, and cause the same to be published without delay at least four consecutive weeks in several newspapers published in this state; and if a majority of said electors shall ratify the same, such amendment or amendments shall become a part of this constitution. § 2. If two or more amendments shall be submitted in such manner that the electors shall vote for or against each of such amendments separately, and while an amendment or amendments which shall have been agreed upon by one legislative assembly shall be awaiting the action of a legislative assembly, or of the electors, no additional amendment or amendments shall be proposed. |