panies receiving grants of land from the general government to locate their roads and select their lands within a certain time specified."

Approved March 6, 1869.

NUMBER 6.

JOINT RESOLUTION, ratifying the proposed amendment to the constitution of the United States.

WHEREAS, The congress of the United States has pursuant to article V of the constitution, proposed to the legislatures of the several states the following amendment to the constitution of the United States named Article Fifteen: "1. The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. 2. The con gress shall have power to enforce this artilce by appropriate legislation;" therefore,

Resolved by the senate and assembly of the state of Wisconsin, in legislature assembled, That the said article as such proposed amendment to the constitution of the United States be and the same is hereby ratified. Approved March 9, 1869.

NUMBER 7.

JOINT RESOLUTION, proposing an amendment to the constitution of the state so as to authorize the abolishment of the grand jury system.

Resolved by the assembly, the senate concurring, That section eight of article 1 of the constitution of the state of Wisconsin be amended so as to read as follows: Section 8. No person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law, and no person for the same offense, shall be put twice in jeopardy of punishment, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. All persons shall before conviction be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses when the proof is evident or the presump

tion great; and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. Approved March 9, 1869.

NUMBER 8.

JOINT RESOLUTION, proposing amendment to section 4, article 7 of the constitution.

Resolved by the assembly, the senate concurring, That section 4 of article 7 of the constitution be amended so as to read as follows: The supreme court of this state, with the juris diction and powers prescribed in this constitution, shall con. sist of five judges, to be hereafter elected by the qualified electors of the state, at such time and in such manner as the legislature may provide, and such court when so organized shall not be changed or discontinued by the legislature; and the justices of the supreme court now in office shall serve out the remainder of their respective terms of office as judges of the supreme court, and the judges of said court shall be so classified that but one of them shall go out of office at the same time, and the legislature shall at its first session after the adoption thereof, provide by law for the election of the two additional judges required hereby and their successors, and for the election of the sucessors of the judges now in office, and for classifying the two additional judges, so that one of them shall go out of office in eight years and the other in ten years. The term of office of each judge of the supreme court hereafter elected, except as herein otherwise provided, shall be ten years, and the judge of the supreme court having the shortest time to serve shall be chief justice of the supreme

MEMORIALS.

NUMBER 1.

MEMORIAL, to the congress of the United States on the improvement of the navigation of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers.

To the honorable, the senate and house of representatives of the United States in congress assembled:

The memorial of the legislature of Wisconsin respectfully repre

1

sents:

That the project of connecting the Mississippi river and lake Michigan by navigable channels through the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, appears to your memorialist to be one of great importance to the country, and that in the prayer of the memorial in relation thereto, submitted to congress by the convention which met at Prairie du Chien, in Wisconsin, on the 10th day of November, A. D. 1868, your memorialist most fully concurs. Be it therefore

Resolved, by the senate of the state of Wisconsin, the assembly concurring, That the governor be and he is hereby authorized and requested to affix his official signature thereto and forward a copy of said memorial to the president of the United States, the president of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives and to each of the senators and representatives in the congress of the United States.

Approved January 22, 1869.

18-G. L.

NUMBER 2.

MEMORIAL to congress for the extension of the time for the construction of a railroad from St. Croix river or lake, to Superior and Bayfield, by the Northern Wisconsin railway company, organized by an act of the legisla ture of 1869, and for the continuance of the grant of lands to the state of Wisconsin, in aid thereof.

To the honorable the senate and house of representatives of the United States, in congress assembled:

The memorial of the people of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, respectfully showeth :

That in the year 1856, a grant of public lands was made by congress to the state of Wisconsin, to aid in the construction of a railroad" from the St. Croix river or lake, between townships twenty-five and thirty-one, and from thence to the west end of lake Superior and to Bayfield," in said state.

That said grant embraced the odd numbered sections for six miles in width on each side of the line of said road, and the time for the completion of said road was limited to ten years from the date of said grant.

That in 1864, by an act of congress, the time for the completion of said railroad was extended four years, and also an additional grant of land, consisting of the odd numbered sections in four other miles of territory on each side of the line of said railroad, was made to aid in its construction.

That the state of Wisconsin has heretofore chartered two several railroad companies successively, and conferred upon them the said grant of land, upon condition of the completion of the said railroad, by them respectively, within the time fixed in the act of congress; but, that the said companies have each, in turn, failed to comply in any great degree, with the terms of their said charters and with the acts conferring upon them the said grants of lands, and that such delay and failure of the said companies, have rendered the state of Wisconsin incapable of securing the completion of the said railroad within the time fixed by act of congress.

That a thoroughly responsible and able number of capitalists are now applying to the legislature of the state of Wisconsin, for a railroad charter over the said route, and ask that the said grant of land be conferred upon them, to aid in the construction of such railroad; that they propose to enter into an adequate stipulation to complete at least twenty miles of