The Texas Constitution Of 1876 Essay, Research Paper

The Constitution of 1876 is the 6th fundamental law by which Texas has been governed since independency from Mexico was achieved in 1836. It was framed by the Constitutional Convention of 1875 and adopted on February 15, 1876, by a ballot of 136,606 to 56,652, and it remains the basic organic jurisprudence of Texas. The fundamental law contains some commissariats that are unambiguously Texan, many of which are merchandises of the province & # 8217 ; s unusual history. Some, for illustration, may be traced to Spanish and Mexican influence. Among them are subdivisions covering with land rubrics and land jurisprudence in general, debitor alleviation, judicial processs, matrimonial dealingss and acceptance, and H2O and other mineral rights. Other untypical commissariats may be attributed to the duplicate influences of Jacksonian agrarianism and frontier radicalism-both prevalent when Texas foremost became a province and both widely supported by the majority of immigrants to Texas before the Civil War. Those influences produced subdivisions forbiding Bankss and necessitating a stricter separation of church and province than that required in older provinces. Reconstruction, under the extremely centralised and comparatively bossy disposal of Governor Edmund J. Davis and his fellow Radical Republicans, prompted commissariats to deconcentrate the province authorities. Upon recovering control of both the legislative and executive subdivisions of the authorities, the Democrats determined in 1874 to replace the unpopular Fundamental law of 1869. They wanted all functionaries elected for shorter footings and lower wages, abolishment of elector enrollment, local control of schools, badly limited powers for both the legislative assembly and the governor, low revenue enhancement and province outgos, rigorous control over corporations, and land subsidies for railwaies.

Early on in 1874 a joint legislative commission reported an full new fundamental law as an amendment to the Constitution of 1869. Because the papers had non been prepared by a convention and because of the possibility that its acceptance might antagonise the federal authorities, the legislative assembly rejected the proposal. On the advice of Governor Richard Coke, the following legislative assembly submitted the inquiry of a constitutional convention to the electors, who, on August 2, 1875, approved the convention and elected three delegates from each of the 30 senatorial territories. In the convention, which convened on September 6, 75 members were Democrats and fifteen, including six inkinesss, were Republicans. Not one had been a member of the Convention of 1868-69, 41 were husbandmans, and no fewer than 40 were members of the Patrons of Husbandry ( the Grange ) , the activist husbandmans & # 8217 ; organisation established in response to the Panic of 1873. In the convention the Grange members acted as a axis in support of conservative constitutional steps. To guarantee that the authorities would be antiphonal to public will, the convention exactly defined the rights, powers, and privileges of the assorted governmental sections and bureaus, including many inside informations by and large left to the legislative assembly.

The Constitution of 1876 began with a drawn-out measure of rights. It declared that Texas was a free and independent province, capable merely to the Constitution of the United States, that all free work forces have equal rights, and that the writ of habeas principals could non be suspended or unduly delayed. The article besides forbade spiritual trials for office, unreasonable hunts, and imprisonment for debt, and it guaranteed autonomy of address and imperativeness, the right of the accused to obtain bond and to be tried by a jury, and the right of citizens to maintain and bear weaponries. The legislative article defined the powers and restrictions of the legislative assembly in great item. The legislative assembly was to be composed of two houses, a Senate to dwell of 31 members and a House of Representatives ne’er to transcend 150 members. Senators and representatives were to function footings of four and two old ages, severally. Legislators were to have milage allowance and non more than five dollars a twenty-four hours for the first 60 yearss of each session and two dollars a twenty-four hours thenceforth. The legislative assembly, which was to run into biyearly, could incur no liability greater than $ 200,000 and could set up no office for longer than two old ages. It was required to impose revenue enhancements on all belongings in proportion to its value and to keep its Sessionss in Austin. The executive article provided for seven officers governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of province, accountant of public histories, financial officer, commissioner of the land office, and lawyer general. All except the secretary of province were to be elected by the electors for a term of two old ages but with no restrictions on eligibility for new footings. All wages were reduced, that of the governor from $ 5,000 to $ 4,000. The governor was empowered to convene the legislative assembly in particular Sessionss, to name out the reserves to put to death the Torahs, to stamp down rebellions, to protect the frontier against hostile Indians, and to blackball Torahs and points in appropriations measures ; his veto, nevertheless, could be overridden by a two-thirds ballot of both houses. The governor was besides empowered to do certain assignments, fill vacancies, and do the Torahs to be dependably executed but was given no control over local or other elective province functionaries. The judicial article provided for a supreme tribunal, a tribunal of entreaties, territory tribunals, county tribunals, commissioners & # 8217 ; tribunals, and justnesss of the peace. All Judgess were to be elected by popular ballot, with footings of six old ages for the supreme and condemnable entreaties tribunals, four old ages for the territory tribunals, and two old ages for all other tribunals. The figure of territory tribunals was placed at 26, but the legislative assembly was authorized to set up others as needed. The Texas Supreme Court, composed of three Judgess, was vested with appellant legal power in civil instances merely, and the tribunal of entreaties, composed of three Judgess, was vested with appellant legal power over all condemnable instances and certain categories of civil instances. The territory tribunals received original legal power ( in condemnable instances ) over felonies and over misdemeanours affecting official misconduct and ( in civil instances ) over a long list of categories of suits. The territory tribunals were given appellant legal power over the county tribunals in probate affairs. The article besides mandated a tribunal in each organized county with original legal power over misdemeanours non granted to the tribunals of justnesss of the peace and certain civil instances and appellant legal power in instances arising in the justness of the peace tribunals. The tribunals of the justnesss of the peace, non fewer than fou

R or more than eight in each county, were granted legal power in civil and condemnable affairs affecting non more than $ 200 in contention or in punishments. The commissioners’ tribunal was to dwell of the county justice and four elected commissioners, one from each commissioner’s precinct.

The article on instruction drastically changed the system established by the Republicans in 1869. In the first subdivision the framers ordered the legislative assembly to set up and do proviso for the support and care of an efficient system of public free schools but so added commissariats that made that directing impossible. To back up the system the article authorized the legislative assembly to impose a canvass revenue enhancement of one dollar on all male dwellers between the ages of 21 and 60 and to allow non more than one-quarter of the general gross. In add-on, it set aside as a ageless fund all returns from lands antecedently granted to the schools, including all the alternate subdivisions of land already reserved for the province or afterwards reserved out of grants to railwaies or other corporations ( as specified in the Fundamental law of 1866 ) , and the returns from the sale of one-half of all other public lands ( as prescribed by an act of the legislative assembly in 1873 ) . The papers abolished the office of province overseer, founded a board of instruction composed of the governor, accountant, and secretary of province, eliminated mandatory attending, provided for unintegrated schools, and made no proviso for local school revenue enhancements. The Fundamental law of 1876 provided for the constitution of the University of Texas and made Texas A & A ; M, which had been founded by the legislative assembly in 1871, a subdivision of it. The fundamental law farther required the legislative assembly to set up an establishment of higher instruction for the direction of the black young person of the province. To back up the university and its subdivisions the fundamental law set aside one million estates of the public sphere, with all gross revenues and returns therefrom to be placed in a Permanent University Fund. It besides provided that returns from the lands antecedently granted for the constitution and care of the university ( including the fifty-league grant by the legislative assembly in 1858 but non the tenth part of the alternate subdivisions of land granted to railwaies ) and all hereafter grants would for good belong to the university.

The fundamental law besides provided for precinct vote and mandated a canvass revenue enhancement, but non as a requirement for vote. It provided for homestead grants of 160 estates to caputs of households and 80 estates to individual work forces eighteen or more old ages of age, and for protection against the forced sale of a homestead for debt. It declared railwaies to be common bearers, forbade their consolidation and farther assistance in grant of money or bonds, and authorized the legislative assembly to ordain regulative Torahs, including maximal cargo and rider rates. To advance the building of new path, the papers authorized the legislative assembly to allow the railwaies 16 subdivisions of public land for each stat mi of route constructed. It prohibited the province from renting Bankss but mandated the legislative assembly to ordain general Torahs for the constitution of private corporations other than Bankss, which would supply to the full for the equal protection of the populace and single shareholders.

Overall, the Constitution of 1876 complied with public sentiment. It provided for two-year Sessionss of the legislative assembly, low wages for public functionaries, precinct vote, abolishment of the route revenue enhancement, and a return to the road-working system ; for a homestead freedom clause, warrants of a low revenue enhancement rate, a less expensive, locally controlled, segregated school system, and a less expensive tribunal system ; for county and justness of the peace tribunals ; and for popular election of officers. It besides prohibited the enrollment of electors and grants of money or bonds to railwaies. The papers was equal for a rural people engaged chiefly in subsistence agriculture, but non for an urban-industrial-commercial society. Very few alterations were made during the first half-century of the fundamental law & # 8217 ; s being, but since so it has been changed at a steadily increasing rate. Changes are made through amendments submitted to the electors by consent of two-thirds of the members of each house of the legislative assembly and approved by a bulk of those voting. Of 99 amendments submitted by September 1928, merely 43 were adopted, but by 1980 the electors had approved 235 proposals. No proviso was made in the fundamental law for naming another constitutional convention. On several occasions at that place has been considerable agitation for a new papers, but the electors defeated a proposal for a constitutional convention in 1919, and in 1975 they rejected an extended alteration prepared by the legislative assembly. The fundamental law & # 8217 ; s more than 63,000 words make it one of the most long-winded of province fundamental laws. Its wealth of item causes it to resemble a codification of Torahs instead than a fundamental law. Its many demands and restrictions on both province and local authoritiess make it one of the most restrictive among province fundamental laws. Some of its transitions are so ill drafted as to necessitate elucidation for apprehension, and others have been declared by the Texas Supreme Court to be beyond construing. Finally, since many of its commissariats associating to the same topic are scattered widely throughout the text, a elaborate index is necessary.

Most of the legion amendments have dealt with the legislative assembly, the bench, public instruction, and province fundss. Those associating to the legislative assembly have by and large removed bing restrictions on legislative action. Changes in the article on the bench have been so sweeping that the article has been about wholly rewritten. Changes in commissariats associating to public instruction have besides removed original restrictions and permitted enlargement of the public school system. Commissariats associating to the province & # 8217 ; s fiscal system have been altered to allow acceptance of new outgo plans and development of new beginnings of gross. Other constitutional alterations have relieved some of the load of item imposed on the governor & # 8217 ; s office in 1876, revamped the basic right to vote demands, altered the method of renting municipal corporations, lengthened the term of office for many province and local functionaries, and established an ever-growing figure of specifically allocated financess in the province exchequer.

In malice of its awkwardness, of its demand for frequent amendment, and its occasional obscureness, nevertheless, Texans have continued to keep on to the Constitution of 1876.