pass public censures, to order impeachments, and to recommend to the legislature the repealing such laws as appear to them to have been enacted contrary to the principles of the constitution. These powers they shall continue to have, for and during the space of one year from the day of their election and no longer: The said council of censors shall also have power to call a convention, to meet within two years after their sitting, if there appear to them an absolute necessity of amending any article of the constitution which may be defective, explaining such as may be thought not clearly expressed, and of adding such as are necessary for the preservation of the rights and happiness of the people: But the articles to be amended, and the amendments proposed, and such articles as are proposed to be added or abolished, shall be promulgated at least six months before the day appointed for the election of such convention, for the previous consideration of the people, that they may have an opportunity of instructing their delegates on the subject.
Passed in Convention the 28th day of September, 1776, and signed by their order.
We, the people of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, ordain and establish this constitution for its government.
Article I
Section 1. The legislative power of this commonwealth shall be vested in a general assembly, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives.
Sec. 2. The representatives shall be chosen, annually, by the citizens of the city of Philadelphia, and of each county respectively, on the second Tuesday of October.
Sec. 3. No person shall be a representative, who shall not have attained the age of twenty-one years, and have been a citizen and inhabitant of the State three years next preceding his election, and the last year thereof an inhabitant of the city or county in which he shall be chosen; unless he shall have been absent on the public business of the United States, or of this State. No person, residing within any
- ↑ “Minutes of the Grand Committee of the whole convention of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which commenced at Philadelphia, on Tuesday, the twenty-fourth day of November, in the year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-nine, for the purpose of reviewing, and, if they see occasion, altering and amending, the constitution of this State. Philadelphia: Printed by Zachariah Poulson, Jun. in Fourth Street, between Market Street and Arch Street.” 101 pp.—“Minutes of the Second session of the Convention of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which commenced at Philadelphia, on Monday the ninth day of August, in the year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety.” 222 pp.
- ↑ This constitution was framed by a convention which assembled at Philadelphia. November 24, 1789, completed its labors February 26, 1790, and then adjourned that the people might examine their work. The convention reassembled August 9, 1790, and formally proclaimed the new constitution September 2, 1790.
