AFRICANWARSAND WHITEINVADERS
adopted a constitution
that was an amalgam of the old Cape colonial
system of local administration, the legislative system that had existed"in the
Natal Republic, and several ingredients taken over from the United States
Constitution,
of which an immigrant from the Netherlands had a copy.
Their Orange Free State was a unitary republic. The legislature was a
unicameral Volksraad whose members were elected by male citizens-
white men (not necessarily Afrikaners) who had lived in the republic for six
months-provided
they had registered for military service. Executive
power was in the hands of a president, directly elected for fiveyears, and an
executive council composed of officials and Volksraad nominees. Local
administration
was in the hands of landdrosts appointed by the govern-
ment and locally elected veldkornets and commandants. American influ-
ence was evident in provisions guaranteeing equality before the law, per-
sonal freedom, and freedom of the press; prohibiting the Volksraad from
legislating against peaceful assembly and petition; and making the entire
constitution extremely rigid by requiring the support of three-quarters of
the members of the Volksraad in three successive annual sessions for con-
stitutional amendments."?