456
Defending the Constitution
militia, appoint and commission all officers in the same below the rank
of general officers; all general officers shall be appointed and commissioned by Congress.
Previous to the organization of the general assembly, the governor
shall appoint such magistrates and other civil officers, in each county or
township, as he shall find necessary for the preservation of the peace and
good order in the same. After the general assembly shall be organized,
the powers and duties of magistrates and other civil officers shall be regulated and defined by the said assembly; but all magistrates and other
civil officers, not herein otherwise directed, shall, during the continuance
of this temporary government, be appointed by the governor.
For the prevention of crimes and injuries, the laws to be adopted or
made shall have force in all parts of the district, and for the execution of
process, criminal and civil, the governor shall make proper divisions
thereof—and he shall proceed from time to time, as circumstances may
require, to lay out the parts of the district in which the Indian titles shall
have been extinguished, into counties and townships, subject, however,
to such alterations as may thereafter be made by the legislature.
So soon as there shall be five thousand free male inhabitants, of full
age, in the district, upon giving proof thereof to the governor, they shall
receive authority, with time and place, to elect representatives from their
counties or townships, to represent them in the general assembly; Provided, That for every five hundred free male inhabitants, there shall be
one representative, and so on progressively with the number of free male
inhabitants shall the right of representation increase, until the number of
representatives shall amount to twenty-five; after which, the number and
proportion of representatives shall be regulated by the legislature: Provided that no person be eligible or qualified to act as a representative, unless he shall have been a citizen of one of the United States three years,
and be a resident in the district, or unless he shall have resided in the district three years; and, in either case, shall likewise hold in his own right,
in fee simple, two hundred acres of land within the same: Provided also,
That a freehold in fifty acres of land in the district, having been a citizen
of one of the States, and being resident in the district, or the like freehold
and two years residence in the district shall be necessary to qualify a man
as an elector of a representative.