n. The
qualifications required for the suffrage are in no way different from
those common throughout the Union, except that by a constitutional
amendment of 1894 it is necessary for a voter to be able to read the
state constitution and write his name. As compared with the earlier
constitution it showed many radical advances toward popular control, the
power of the legislature being everywhere curtailed. The power of
legislation was taken from it by specific inhibition in thirty-one
subjects before within its power; its control of the public domain, its
powers in taxation, and its use of the state credit were carefully
safe-guarded. "Lobbying" was made a felony; provisions were inserted
against lotteries and stock-exchange gambling, to tax and control common
carriers and great corporations, and to regulate telegraph, telephone,
storage and wharfage charges. The powers of the executive department
were also somewhat curtailed. For the judiciary, provisions were made
for expediting trials and decisions. Notable was the innovation that
agreement by three-fourths of a jury should be sufficient in civil cases
and that a jury might be waived in minor criminal cases, a provision
which of course was based on experience under the Mexican law. All these
changes in the organic law reflect bitter experience after 1850; and,
read with the history of those years as a commentary, few American
constitutions are more instructive. The constitution of 1879 corresponds
very closely to the ordinary state constitution of to-day. The
incorporation of banks issuing circulating notes is forbidden. Marriage
is not only declared a civil contract, but the laws expressly recognize
that the mere consent of the parties is adequate to constitute a binding
marriage. The union of whites with persons of African descent is
forbidden. Felons twice convicted may not be pardoned except on the
recommendation of a majority of the judges of the supreme court. Judges
and state executive officers are elected for terms longer than is usual
in the different states (supreme judges 12 years, executive officers 4
years). These few provisions are mentioned, not as of particular
importance in themselves, but as exceptions of some moment to the usual
type of state Constitutions (see UNITED STATES). The Australian ballot
was introduced in 1891. In local government there are no deviations from
the usual types that demand notice. In the matter of liquor-laws there
is local opt