[1][2][3][4][5][6] Each of the 38 counties of North Carolina were authorized to elect one senator and two representatives to the House of Commons.

The constitution created a bicameral legislature consisting of a Senate made up of one representative from each county and a House of Commons with two members from each county and one member from each of seven designated districts, including Washington District.

The governor had no veto power and little control over patronage, He could not convene, prorogue, or dissolve the legislature.

The constitution allowed that "all freemen of the age of twenty-one years, who have been inhabitants of any one county within this State twelve months immediately preceding the day of any election, and shall have paid public taxes shall be entitled to vote for members of the House of Commons for the county in which he resides".

It also allowed "that all freemen, of the age of twenty-one years, who have been inhabitants of any one county within the State twelve months immediately preceding the day of any election and possessed of a freehold within the same county of fifty acres of land for six months next before, and at the day of election, shall be entitled to vote for a member of the Senate."

[1] The constitution gave the Senate and House of Commons the power to appoint the generals and field-officers of the militia, and all officers of the regular army of this State.