_Constitution._--Indiana is governed under a constitution adopted in 1851, which superseded the original state constitution of 1816. An amendment to the constitution may be proposed by either branch of the General Assembly; if a majority of both houses votes in favour of an amendment and it is favourably voted upon by the General Assembly chosen by the next general election, the amendment is submitted to popular vote and a majority vote is necessary for its ratification. The constitution of 1816 had conferred the suffrage upon all "white male citizens of the United States of the age of twenty-one and upward," had prohibited slavery, and had provided that no alteration of the constitution should ever introduce it. The new constitution contained similar suffrage restrictions, and further by Article XIII., which was voted upon separately, prohibited the entrance of negroes or mulattoes into the state and made the encouragement of their immigration or employment an indictable offence. This prohibition was held by the United States Supreme Court in 1866 to be in conflict with the Federal Constitution and therefore null and void. It was not until 1881 that the restriction of the suffrage to "white" males, which was in conflict with the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) to the Federal Constitution, was removed by constitutional amendment. Since that date those who may vote have been all male citizens twenty-one years old and upward who have lived in Indiana six months immediately preceding the election, and every foreign-born male of the requisite age who has lived in the United States one year and in Indiana six months immediately preceding the election, and who has declared his intention of becoming a citizen of the United States; but the General Assembly has the power to deprive of the suffrage any person convicted of an infamous crime. The Australian ballot was adopted in 1889. The general state election (up to 1881, held in October) takes place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of even-numbered years. The governor and lieutenant-governor (minimum age, 30 years) and the clerk of the Supreme Court are chosen in presidential years for a term of four years,[1] the other state officers--secretary of state, attorney-general, auditor, treasurer and superintendent of public instruction--every two years. The state legislature, known as the General Assembly, which meets biennially in odd-numbered years and in special session summoned by the governor, consists of a Senate of fifty members (minimum age, 25 years) elected for four years, and a House of Representatives of one hundred members (minimum age, 21 years) elected for two years. Two-thirds of each house constitute a quorum to do business. The governor has the veto power, but the provision that a bill may be passed over his veto by a majority of all elected members renders it little more than an expression of opinion.