For the constitutions of the several states, including those in force and the previous ones, see Charters and Constitutions, pub lished under authority of Congress in 1878.
Thorpe's American Charters, Constitutions, etc., gives the constitutions down to 1908 in clusive.
Constitution, Self-Executing Provisions. A constitutional provision may be said to be self-executing if it supplies a sufficient rule by means of which the right given may be enjoyed and protected, or the duty imposed may be enforced, and it is not self-executing when it merely indicates principles, without laying down rules by means of which those principles may be given the force of law. Cooley, Const. Lim. 99 [84], 4th ed. 101.
"The question in every case is whether the language of a constitutional provision is ad dressed to the courts or the legislature. • . . If the nature and extent of the right conferred and of the liability imposed is fixed by the provision itself, so that they can be determined by the examination and con struction of its own terms, and there is no language used indicating that the sub ject is referred to the legislature for action, then the provision should be construed as self-executing, and its language as addressed to the courts." Willis v. Mabon, 48 Minn. 150, 50 N. W. 1110, 16 L. R. A. 281, 31 Am. St. Rep. 626.
"But it must remain entirely clear that where a state constitution declares in clear language that the members of corporations shall be individually liable for their debts to a defined extent, it cannot be held that sup plementary legislation is required to execute this provision, and hence that the legisla ture may leave it forever dormant and in operative merely because the framers of the constitution did not go on and prescribe the remedy which should be pursued for enforc ing it." Thomp. Corp. § 3004.
See Morley v. Thayer, 3 Fed. 739 ; Barnes v. Wheaton, 80 Hun 14, 29 N. Y. Sums. 830; May v. Black, 77 Wis. 104, 45 N. W. 949 ; Groves v. Slaughter, 15 Pet. (U. S.) 449, 10 L. Ed. 800; Pierce v. Corn., 104 Pa. 150; Fredericks v. Canal Co., 148 Pa. 317, 23 Ati. 1067.
But it has been held that a constitutional provision that "dues from corporations shall be secured by individual liability of the stockholders to an additional amount equal to the stock owned by such stockholder, and such other means as shall be provided by law," is not self-executing and is inoperative until supplemented by statute; Marshall v. Sherman, 148 N. Y. 9, 42 N. E. 419, 34 L. R. A. 757, 51 Am. St. Rep. 654.
A provision of a state constitution impos ing upon stockholders personal liability, to an additional amount equal to their stock, for "dues from corporations," is self-execut ing; Whitman v. Bank, 176 U. S. 559, 20 Sup. Ct. 477, 44 L. Ed. 587.