Part 192

Article 97. The Government of the Federation will have no other resident employees with jurisdiction or authority in the States than those of the States themselves. The officers of hacienda, those of the forces that garrison national fortresses, arsenals created by law, navy-yards, and habilitated ports, that only have jurisdiction in matters peculiar to their respective offices and within the limits of the forts and quarters that they command, are excepted; but even these must be subject to the general laws of the State in which they reside. All the elements of war now existing belong to the National Government; nevertheless it is not to be understood that the States are prohibited from acquiring those that they may need for domestic defense.

Article 98. The National Government can not station troops nor military officers with command in a State, although they may be from that or another State, without permission of the government of the State in which the force is to be stationed.

Article 99. Neither the National Executive nor those of the States can resort to armed intervention in the domestic contentions of a State; it is only permitted to them to tender their good offices to bring about a pacific solution in the case.

Article 100. In case of a permanent or temporary vacancy in the office of President of the United States of Venezuela, the States will be immediately informed as to who has supplied the vacancy.

Article 101. Exportation in Venezuela is free and no duty can be placed upon it.

Article 102. All usurped authority is without effect and its acts are null. Every order granted for a requisition, direct or indirect, by armed force or by an assemblage of people in subversive attitude is null of right and void of efficacy.

Article 103. The exercise of any function not conferred by the constitution or laws is prohibited to every corporation or authority.

Article 104. Any citizen may accuse the employees of the nation or the States before the chamber of deputies, before their respective superiors in office, or before the authorities designated by law.

Article 105. No payment shall be made from the National Treasury for which Congress has not expressly provided in the annual estimate, and those that may infringe this rule will be civilly responsible to the National Treasury for the sums they have paid out. In every payment from the public Treasury the ordinary expenses will be preferred to the extraordinary charges.

Article 106. The offices of collection and disbursement of the national taxes shall be always separate, and the officers of collection may disburse only the salaries of their respective employees.

Article 107. When, for any reason, the estimate of appropriations for a fiscal period have not been made, that of the immediately preceding period will continue in force.

Article 108. In time of elections, the public national force or that of the States themselves will remain closely quartered during the holding of popular elections.

Article 109. In international treaties of commerce and friendship this clause will be inserted, to wit: "all the disagreements between the contracting parties must be decided without an appeal to war, by the decision of a power or friendly powers."

Article 110. No individual can hold more than one office within the gift of Congress and the National Executive. The acceptance of any other is equivalent to resignation of the first. Officials that are removable will cease to hold office upon accepting the charge of a Senator or Deputy when they are dependents of the National Executive.

Article 111. The law will create and designate other national tribunals that may be necessary.

Article 112. National officers can not accept gifts, commissions, honors, or emoluments from a foreign nation without permission from the National Legislature.

Article 113. Armed force can not deliberate; it is passive and obedient. No armed body can make requisitions nor demand assistance of any kind, but from the civil authorities, and in the mode and form prescribed by law.

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Article 114. The Nation and the States will promote foreign immigration and colonization in accordance with their respective laws.

Article 115. A law will regulate the manner in which national officers, upon taking charge of their posts, shall take the oath to comply with their duties.

Article 116. The National Executive will negotiate with the Governments of America over treaties of alliance or confederation.

Article 117. The law of Nations forms a part of the National Legislation; its dispositions will be specially in force in cases of civil war, which can be terminated by treaties between the belligerents who will have to respect the humanitarian customs of Christians and civilized nations, the guarantee of life being, in every case, inviolable.

Article 118. This constitution can be reformed by the National Legislature if the legislatures of the States desire it, but there shall never be any reform except in the parts upon which the majority of the States coincide; also a reform can be made upon one or more points when two-thirds of the members of the National Legislature, deliberating separately and by the proceedings established to sanction the laws, shall accord it; but, in this second case, the amendment voted shall be submitted to the legislatures of the States, and it will stand sanctioned in the point or points that may have been ratified by them.

Article 119. This constitution will take effect from the day of its official promulgation in each State, and in all public acts and official documents there will be cited the date of the Federation to begin with February 20, 1859, and the date of the law to begin with March 28, 1864.

Article 120. The constitutional period for the offices of the General Administration of the Republic will continue to be computed from February 20, 1882, the date on which the reformed constitution took effect.

Article 121. For every act of civil and political life of the States of the Federation, its basis of population is that which is determined in the last census approved by the National Legislature.

Article 122. The Federal Constitution of April 27, 1881, is repealed. Done in Caracas, in the Palace of the Federal Legislative Corps, and sealed with the seal of Congress on the 9th day of April, 1891. The 28th year of the Law and the 33rd year of the Federation.

(Here follow the signatures of the Presidents, Vice-Presidents, and Second Vice-Presidents of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, together with those of the Senators and Deputies of the various States, followed by those of the President and the ministers of his cabinet.)

See VENEZUELA: A. D. 1869-1892.

CONSTITUTION OF VENEZUELA: End----------

CONSTITUTION OF THE WATAUGA ASSOCIATION (the first Western American Commonwealth).

See TENNESSEE: A. D. 1769-1772.

CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON.

The "Constitutions of Clarendon" were a series of declarations drawn up by a council which King Henry II. of England convened at Clarendon, near Winchester, in 1164, and which were intended to determine the law on various points in dispute between the Crown and the laity, on one side, and the Church on the other. The issues in question were those which brought Henry into collision with Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. The general provisions embodied in the Constitutions of Clarendon "would now be scarcely challenged in the most Catholic country in the world.

1. During the vacancy of any archbishopric, bishopric, abbey, or priory of royal foundation, the estates were to be in the custody of the Crown. Elections to these preferments were to be held in the royal chapel, with the assent of the king and council.

2. In every suit to which a clerk was a party, proceedings were to commence before the king's justices, and these justices were to decide whether the case was to be tried before a spiritual or a civil court. If it was referred to a spiritual court, a civil officer was to attend to watch the trial, and if a clerk was found guilty of felony the Church was to cease to protect him.

3. No tenant-in-chief of the king, or officer of his household, was to be excommunicated, or his lands laid under an interdict, until application had been first made to the king, or, in his absence, to the chief justice.

4. Laymen were not to be indicted in a bishop's court, either for perjury or other similar offence, except in the bishop's presence by a lawful prosecutor and with lawful witnesses. If the accused was of so high rank that no prosecutor would appear, the bishop might require the sheriff to call a jury to inquire into the case.

5. Archbishops, bishops, and other great persons were forbidden to leave the realm without the king's permission.

6. Appeals were to be from the archdeacon to the bishop, from the bishop to the archbishop, from the archbishop to the king, and no further; that, by the king's mandate, the case might be ended in the archbishop's court.

The last article the king afterwards explained away. It was one of the most essential, but he was unable to maintain it; and he was rash, or he was ill-advised, in raising a second question, on which the pope would naturally be sensitive, before he had disposed of the first."

_J. A. Froude, Life and Times of Becket, pages 31-32._

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1162-1170.

CONSTITUTIONS, Roman Imperial.

See CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS.

CONSTITUTIONAL UNION PARTY, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).

CONSUL, Roman.

When the Romans had rid themselves of their kings and established a republic, or, rather, an aristocratic government, "the civil duties of the king were given to two magistrates, chosen for a year, who were at first called 'prætores' or generals, 'judices' or judges, or consules (cf. con 'together' and salio 'to leap') or 'colleagues.' In the matter of their power, no violent departure was made from the imperium of the king. The greatest limitation on the consuls was the short period for which they were at the head of the state; but even here they were thought of, by a fiction, as voluntarily abdicating at the expiration of their term, and as nominating their successors, although they were required to nominate the men who had already been selected in the 'comitia centuriata.' Another limitation was the result of the dual character of the magistracy. The imperium was not divided between the consuls, but each possessed it in full, as the king had before. When, therefore, they did not agree, the veto of the one prevailed over the proposal of the other, and there was no action."

_A. Tighe, Development of the Roman Constitution, chapter 4._

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"As judges, the consuls occupied altogether the place of the kings. They decided the legal disputes of the citizens either personally or by deputy. Their criminal jurisdiction was probably limited to the most important cases. … In the warlike state of the Romans the military character of the consuls was no doubt most prominent and most important. When the consul led the army into the field he possessed the unlimited military power of the kings (the imperium). He was entrusted with the direction of the war, the distribution of the booty, and the first disposal of the conquered land. … The oldest designation for the consuls, therefore, was derived from their military quality, for they were called prætors, that is, commanders. It was, however, precisely in war that the division of power among two colleagues must often have proved prejudicial … and the necessity of unity in the direction of affairs was felt to be indispensable. The dictatorship served this purpose. By decree of the senate one of the consuls could be charged with naming a dictator for six months, and in this officer the full power of the king was revived for a limited period. The dictatorship was a formal suspension of the constitution of the republic. … Military was substituted for common law, and Rome, during the time of the dictatorship, was in a state of siege."

_W. Ihne, History of Rome, book 2, chapter 1, and book 6, chapters 3-5._

In the later years of the Roman empire, "two consuls were created by the sovereigns of Rome and Constantinople for the sole purpose of giving al date to the year and a festival to the people. But the expenses of this festival, in which the wealthy and the vain aspired to surpass their predecessors, insensibly arose to the enormous sum of four score thousand pounds; the wisest senators declined a useless honour which involved the certain ruin of their families, and to this reluctance I should impute the frequent chasms in the last age of the consular Fasti. … The succession of consuls finally ceased in the thirteenth year of Justinian [A. D. 541] whose despotic temper might be gratified by the final extinction of a title which admonished the Romans of their ancient freedom. Yet the annual consulship still lived in the minds of the people; they fondly expected its speedy restoration … and three centuries elapsed after the death of Justinian before that obsolete dignity, which had been suppressed by custom, could be abolished by law. The imperfect mode of distinguishing each year by the name of a magistrate was usefully supplied by the date of a permanent era."

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 40. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25717_

"There were no consuls in 531 and 532. The Emperor held the office alone in 533, and with a colleague in 534. Belisarius was sole consul in 535. The two following years, having no consuls of their own, were styled the First and Second after the Consulship of Belisarius. John of Cappadocia gave his name to the year 538, and the years 539 and 540 had again consuls, though one only for each year. In 541 Albinus Basilius sat in the curule chair, and he was practically the last of the long list of warriors, orators, demagogues, courtiers, which began (in the year 500 B. C.) with the names of Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. All the rest of the years of Justinian, twenty-four in number, were reckoned as Post Consulatum Basilii."

_T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders. book 5, chapter 14._

See, also, ROME B. C. 500.

CONSULAR TRIBUNES, Roman.

The plebeians of Rome having demanded admission for their order to the consulship, a compromise was arranged, B. C. 444, which settled that, thereafter, "the people should be free to elect either consuls—that is, patricians according to the old law—or in their place other officers under the title of 'military tribunes with consular power,' consisting of patricians and plebeians. … It is not reported in what respect the official competency of the consular tribunes was to differ from that of the consuls. Still, so much is plain, that the difference consisted not alone in name. The number of the consular tribunes was in the beginning fixed at three."

_W. Ihne, History of Rome, book 2, chapter 11._

CONSULATE GOVERNMENT OF FRANCE, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).

CONTINENTAL ARMY. "The Continentals" of the American Revolution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (MAY-AUGUST).

CONTINENTAL CURRENCY, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780 (JANUARY-APRIL).

CONTINENTAL SYSTEM OF NAPOLEON, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1801-1802, and 1806-1810.

CONTIONES, OR CONCIONES.

The contiones, or conciones, at Rome, were assemblies of the people, "less formal than the comitia," held for the mere purpose of discussing public questions, and incapable of passing any binding resolution. "They could not be called together by anybody except the magistrates, neither had every man the liberty of speaking in them, of making proposals or of declaring his opinion; … but even in this limited manner public questions could be discussed and the people could be enlightened. … The custom of discussing public questions in the contiones became general after the comitia of the tribes had obtained full legislative competency."

_W. Ihne, History of Rome, book 6, chapter 1._

See, also, COMITIA CURIATA.

CONTRABANDS.

In the early part of the American civil war of 1861-65, the escaped slaves of the Confederates, who came within the Union lines, were called contrabands, General Butler having supplied the term by declaring them to be "contraband of war."

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (MAY).

CONTRERAS, Battle of.

See MEXICO: A. D. 1847 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).

CONVENT.

See MONASTERY.

CONVENTICLE ACT, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1662-1665.

CONVENTION, The French National, of the great Revolution.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (AUGUST), and 1792 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER), to 1705 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

CONVOCATION.

The assemblies of the clergy in the two ecclesiastical provinces of England are called the Convocation of Canterbury and the Convocation of York. The former, which is the superior body, frequently receives the name of Convocation, simply. It is constituted upon the model of Parliament, and is, in fact, the Parliament of the Church of England. It has two Houses: the upper one consisting of the Archbishop and his Bishops; the lower one composed of deans, archdeacons and proctors, representing the inferior clergy. The Convocation of York has but one House. Since 1716 Convocation has possessed slight powers.

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CONWAY CABAL, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777-1778.

COOMASSIE, Burning of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1873-1880.

COPAIC REEDS.

See BŒOTIA.

COPAN, Ruins of.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MAYAS; and MEXICO, ANCIENT.

COPEHAN FAMILY, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: COPEHAN FAMILY.

COPENHAGEN: A. D. 1362. Taken and pillaged by the Hanseatic League.

See SCANDINAVIAN STATES: A. D. 1018-1397.

COPENHAGEN: A. D. 1658-1660. Sieges by Charles X. of Sweden.

See SCANDINAVIAN STATES (SWEDEN): A. D. 1644-1697.

COPENHAGEN: A. D. 1700. Surrender to Charles XII. of Sweden.

See SCANDINAVIAN STATES (SWEDEN): A. D. 1697-1700.

COPENHAGEN: A. D. 1801. Bombardment by the English fleet.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1801-1802.

COPENHAGEN: A. D. 1807. Bombardment of the city by the English. Seizure of the fleet.

See SCANDINAVIAN STATES: A. D. 1807-1810.

COPENHAGEN: End----------

COPPERHEADS.

During the American Civil War, the Democratic Party in the Northern States "comprised two well-recognized classes: The Anti-War (or Peace) Democrats, commonly called 'Copperheads,' who sympathized with the Rebellion, and opposed the War for the Union; and the War (or Union) Democrats, who favored a vigorous prosecution of the War for the preservation of the Union."

_J. A. Logan, The Great Conspiracy, page 574, foot-note._

See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (OCTOBER).

COPREDY BRIDGE, Battle of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1644 (JANUARY-JULY).

COPTS, The.

The descendants of the ancient Egyptian race, who form to this day the larger part of the population of Egypt.

See EGYPT: ORIGIN OF THE ANCIENT PEOPLE.

COPTOS. Destroyed by Diocletian.

See ALEXANDRIA: A. D. 296.

COR, The.

See EPHAH.

CORBIE, Spanish capture of (1636).

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1635-1638.

CORCYRA.

See KORKYRA.

CORDAY, Charlotte, and the assassination of Marat.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JULY).

CORDELIERS.

See MENDICANT ORDERS.

CORDELIERS, Club of the.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1790.

CORDOVA (Spain): A. D. 711. Surrender to the Arab-Moors.

See SPAIN: A. D. 711-713.

CORDOVA: A. D. 756-1031. The Caliphate at.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST AND EMPIRE: A. D. 756-1031.

CORDOVA: A. D. 1235. Capture by the King of Castile.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1212-1238.

CORDOVA: End----------

CORDOVA (Mexico), Treaty of.

See MEXICO: A. D. 1820-1826.

CORDYENE.

See GORDYENE.

COREA.

See COREA in Supplement (volume 5).

COREISH, KOREISH.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST AND EMPIRE: A. D. 609-632.

COREY, Martha and Giles, The execution for witchcraft of.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1692.

CORFINIUM, Cæsar's Capture of.

See ROME: B. C. 50-49.

CORFU, Ancient.

See KORKYRA.

CORFU: A. D. 1216-1880. Since the fall of the Greek Empire.

Corfu was won by the Venetians in the early years of the Latin conquest of the Greek empire (1216), but was presently lost, to come back again into the possession of the republic 170 years later. "No part of Greece has been so often cutoff from the Greek body. Under Pyrrhos and Agathoklês, no less than under Michael Angelos and Roger, it obeyed an Epeirot or Sicilian master. … At last, after yet another turn of Sicilian rule, it passed for 400 years [1386-. 1797] to the great commonwealth [of Venice]. In our own day Corfu was not added to free Greece till long after the deliverance of Attica and Peloponnesos. But, under so many changes of foreign masters, the island has always remained part of Europe and of Christendom. Alone among the Greek lands, Corfu has never passed under barbarian rule. It has seen the Turk only, for one moment, as an invader [see TURKS: A. D. 1714-1718], for another moment as a nominal overlord."

_E. A. Freeman, Historical Geography of Europe, page 408._

See IONIAN ISLANDS: To 1814.

CORFU: End----------

CORINIUM.

A Roman city in Britain, on the site of which is the modern city of Cirencester. Some of the richest mosaic pavements found in England have been uncovered there.

_T. Wright, Celt, Roman and Saxon, chapter 5._

CORINTH.