The Legislative Department—­called in some states the Legislature, in others the General Assembly, and in still others the General Court—­ consists in every state of two branches or houses, usually known as the Senate and House of Representatives.  In six states the legislature meets annually, and in all the rest biennially; the members of both branches are everywhere elected by the people, and serve from one to four years.  In most states a session of the legislature is limited to a period of from forty to ninety days.  The legislature enacts the laws (which must not conflict with the Constitution of the United States, the treaties, the acts of Congress, or the constitution of the state); but the powers of the two houses are not equal in all the states.  In some the House of Representatives has the sole right to originate bills for the raising and the expenditure of money, and in some the Senate confirms or rejects appointments to office made by the Governor.

The Governor is the executive; is elected for a term of years varying from one to four; and is in duty bound to see that the laws are enforced.  To him, in nearly all the states, are sent the acts of the legislature to be signed if he approves, or vetoed if he disapproves.  In some states the Governor may veto parts or items of an act and approve the rest.  He is commander in chief of the militia; commissions all officers whom he appoints; and in most of the states may pardon criminals.

The Judicial Branch of government is composed of the state courts, whose judges are appointed, or elected for a long term of years.

These three branches of government—­the executive, the legislative, and the judicial—­are distinct and separate, and none can exercise the powers of the others.  No judge can enact a law; no legislature can try a suit; no executive can perform the duties of a judge or a legislature.

When the thirteen colonies threw off their allegiance to the British Crown, the government set up by each was supreme within the limits of the state.  Each could coin money, impose duties on goods imported from abroad or from other states, fix the legal rate of interest, make laws regulating marriage and divorce and the descent of property, and do anything else that any supreme government could do.

But when the states united in forming a strong general government by adopting the Constitution, they did not give up all their powers of government.  They intrusted part of them to the Federal government, and retained the rest as before.  In other words, the people of each state, instead of continuing to have one government, adopted a double government, state and Federal, according to the plan laid down in the Constitution.  It is the Federal Constitution that makes the division of powers between the nation and the separate states.  The Constitution, for instance, gives the Federal government the powers of coining money and laying import duties, and forbids these powers to the states; but the rate of interest, marriage and divorce, and the descent of property are matters not mentioned in the Constitution, and concerning which the states retain the power to make laws.