births, marriages and deaths, and the issuing of marriage licenses, shall have authority, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law, to receive proof of wills and admit them to probate, to appoint and qualify personal representatives, guardians, committees and curators, to administer oaths, take acknowledgments of deeds and other writings, and relinquishments of dower.

7. The Legislature shall, at their first session, by general laws, provide for carrying into effect the foregoing provisions of this article. They shall also provide for commissioning such of the officers therein mentioned as they may deem proper, and may require any class of them to give bond with security for the faithful discharge of the duties of their respective offices, and for accounting for and paying over, as required by law, all money which may come to their hands by virtue thereof. They shall further provide for the compensation of the said officers by fees, or from the county treasury; and for the appointment, when necessary, of deputies and assistants, whose duties and responsibilities shall be prescribed and defined by general laws. When the compensation of an officer is paid from the county treasury, the amounts shall be fixed by the Board of Supervisors, within limits to be ascertained by law.

8. The civil jurisdiction of a justice shall extend to actions of assumpsit, debt, detinue and trover, if the amount claimed, exclusive of interest, does not exceed one hundred dollars, when the defendant resides, or, being a non-resident of the State, is found, or has effects or estate within his township, or when the cause of action arose therein; but any other justice of the same county may issue a summons to the defendant to appear before the Justice of the proper township, which may be served by a Constable of either township. In case of a vacancy in the office of Justice or Constable in any township having but one, or of the disability to act of the incumbent, any other Justice or Constable of the same county may discharge the duties of their respective offices within the said township. The manner of conducting the aforesaid actions, and of issuing summonses and executions, and of executing and making return of the same, shall be prescribed by law; and the Legislature may give to Justices and Constables such additional civil jurisdiction and powers, within their respective townships, as may be deemed expedient.

9. Every Justice and Constable shall be a conservator of the peace throughout his county, and have such jurisdiction and powers in criminal cases therein as may be prescribed by law. Jurisdiction of all misdemeanors and breaches of the peace, punishable by fine not exceding ten dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than thirty days, may be, by law, vested in the justices.

10. Either party to a civil suit brought before a Justice, where the value in controversy, or the damages claimed, exceeds twenty dollars, and the defendant, in such cases of misdemeanor or breach of the peace as may be made by law cognizable by a single Justice, when the penalty is imprisonment or a fine exceeding five dollars, shall be entitled to a trial by six jurors, if demanded, under such regulations as may be prescribed by

law.

11. In all cases an appeal shall lie, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law, from the judgment or proceedings of a Justice or Recorder, to the Circuit Court of the county, excepting judgments of Justices in assumpsit, debt, detinue, and trover, and for fines, where the amount does not exceed ten dollars, exclusive of interest and costs, and where the case does not involve the freedom of a person, the validity of a law, or the right of corporation or county to levy tolls or taxes.

12. No new county shall be formed having an area of less than four hundred square miles; or if another county be thereby reduced below that area; or if any territory be thereby taken from a county containing less than four hundred square miles. And no new county shall be formed containing a white population of less than four thousand; or if the white population of another county be thereby reduced below that number; or if any county containing less than four thousand white inhabitants be thereby reduced in area. But the Legislature may, at any time, annex any county containing less than four thousand white inhabitants to an adjoining county or counties as a part thereof.

13. The Board of Supervisors may alter the bounds of a township of their county, or erect new townships therein, with the consent of a majority of the voters of each township interested, assembled in stated township meeting or in a meeting duly called for the purpose, subject to the provisions of the first section of this article.

14. Nothing contained in this article shall impair or affect the charter of any municipal corporation, or restrict the power of the Legislature to create or regulate such corporations.

ARTICLE VIII.

TAXATION AND FINANCE.

1. Taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout the State, and all property, both real and personal, shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as directed by law. No one species of property from which a tax may be collected, shall be taxed higher than any other species of property of equal value; but property used for educational, literary, scientific, religious or charitable purposes, and public property, may, by law, be exempted from taxation.

2. A capitation tax of one dollar, shall be levied upon each white male inhabitant who has attained the age of twenty-one years.

3. The Legislature shall provide for an annual tax, sufficient to defray the estimated espenses of the State for each year; and, whenever the ordinary expenses of any year shall exceed the income, shall levy a tax for the ensuing year, sufficient, with other sources of income, to pay the deficiency, as well as the estimated expenses of such year. 4. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in pursuance of appropriations made by law, and an accurate and detailed statement of the receipts and expenditures of the public money shall be published annually.

5. No debt shall be contracted by this State, except to meet casual deficits in the revenue, to redeem a previous liability of the State, to suppress insurrection, repel invasion, or defend the State in time of war.

6. The credit of the State shall not be granted to, or in aid of, any county, city, town, township, corporation or person, nor shall the State ever assume or become responsible for the debts or liabilities of any county, city, town, township, corporation or person, unless incurred in time of war or insurrection for the benefit of the State.

7. The Legislature may at any time direct a sale of the stocks owned by the State in banks and other corporations, but the proceeds of such sale shall be applied to the liquidation of the public debt; and hereafter the State shall not become a stockholder in any bank. If the State become a stockholder in any association or corporation for purposes of internal improvement, such stock shall be paid for at the time of subscribing, or a tax shall be levied for the ensuing year, sufficient to pay the subscription in full.

8. An equitable proportion of the public debt of the Commonwealth of Virginia prior to the first day of January in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, shall be assumed by this State; and the Legislature shall ascertain the same as soon as may be practicable, and provide for the liquidation thereof, by a sinking fund sufficient to pay the accruing interest and redeem the principal within thirty-four years.

ARTICLE IX.

FORFEITED AND UNAPPROPRIATED LANDS.

1. All private rights and interests in lands in this State, derived from or under the laws of the State of Virginia prior to the time this Constitution goes into operation, shall remain valid and secure, and shall be determined by the laws heretofore in force in the State of Virginia.

2. No entry by warrant on land in this State shall be hereafter made; and in all cases where an entry has been heretofore made and has been or shall be so perfected as to entitle the locator to a grant, the Legislature shall make provision by law for issuing

the same.

3. The Legislature shall provide for the sale of all lands in this State heretofore for- · feited to the State of Virginia for the non-payment of the taxes charged thereon for the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, or any year previous thereto, or for the failure of the former owners to have the same entered on the land books of the proper county and charged with the taxes due thereon for the said or any year previous thereto, under the laws of the State of Virginia, and also of all waste and unappropriated lands, by proceedings in the Circuit Courts of the county where such lands are situated.

4. All lands within this State, returned delinquent for non-payment of taxes to the State of Virginia since the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, where the taxes, exclusive of damages, do not exceed twenty dollars; and all lands forfeited for the failure of the owners to have the same entered on the land books of the proper county, and charged with the taxes chargeable thereon since the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, where the tract does not contain more than one thousand acres, are hereby released and exonerated from forfeiture and from the delinquent taxes and damages charged thereon.

5. All lands in this State heretofore vested in the State of Virginia by forfeiture, or by purchase at the Sheriffs' sales for delinquent taxes, and not released or exonerated by the laws thereof, or by the operation of the preceding section, may be redeemed by the former owners by payment to this State of the amount of taxes and damages due thereon at the time of such redemption, within five years from the day this Constitution. goes into operation; and all such lands not so released, exonerated or redeemed shall be treated as forfeited, and proceeded against and sold as provided in the third section of this article.

6. The former owner of any tract of land in this State sold under the provisions of this article shall be entitled to receive the excess of the sum for which such tract may be sold over the taxes and damages charged and chargeable thereon, and the costs, if his claim be filed in the Circuit Court which decreed the sale, within two years thereafter.

ARTICLE X.
EDUCATION.

1. All money accruing to this State, being the proceeds of forfeited, delinquent, waste and unappropriated lands; and of lands heretofore sold for taxes and purchased by the State of Virginia, if hereafter redeemed, or sold to others than this State; all grants, devises or bequests that may be made to this State for the purposes of education, or where the purposes of such grants, devises or bequests are not specified; this State's just share of the literary fund of Virginia, whether paid over or otherwise liquidated, and any sums of money, stocks or property which this State shall have the right to claim from the State of Virginia for educational purposes; the proceeds of the estates of all persons who may die without leaving a will or heir, and of all escheated lands; the proceeds of any taxes that may be levied on the revenues of any corporation hereafter created; all moneys that may be paid as an equivalent for exemption from military duty, and such sums as may from time to time be appropriated by the Legislature for the purpose, shall be set apart as a separate fund, to be called the school fund, and invested under such regulations as may be prescribed by law, in the interest-bearing securities of the United States, or of this State, and the interest thereof shall be annually applied to the support of free schools throughout the State, and to no other purpose whatever. But any portion of said interest remaining unexpended at the close of the fiscal year shall be added to, and remain a part of, the capital of the school fund. 2. The Legislature shall provide, as soon as practicable, for the establishment of a thorough and efficient system of free schools. They shall provide for the support of such schools by appropriating thereto the interest of the invested school fund; the net proceeds of all forfeitures, confiscations and fines accruing to this State under the laws thereof; and by general taxation on persons and property, or otherwise. They shall also provide for raising, in each township, by the authority of the people thereof, such a proportion of the amount required for the support of free schools therein as shall be prescribed by general laws.

3. Provision may be made by law for the election and prescribing the powers, duties, and compensation of a General Superintendent of Free Schools for the State, whose term of office shall be the same as that of the Governor, and for a County Superintendent for each county, and for the election, in the several townships, by the voters thereof, of such officers, not specified in this Constitution, as may be necessary to carry out the objects of this article, and for the organization, whenever it may be deemed expedient, of a State Board of Instruction.

4. The Legislature shall foster and encourage moral, intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement; they shall, whenever it may be practicable, make suitable provision for the blind, mute and insane, and for the organization of such institutions of learning as the best interests of general education in the State may demand.

ARTICLE XI.

MISCELLANEOUS.

1. No lottery shall be authorized by law; and the buying, selling or transferring of tickets or chances in any lottery shall be prohibited.

2. No charter of incorporation shall be granted to any church or religious denomination. Provision may be made by general laws for securing the title to church property, so that it shall be held and used for the purpose intended.

3. The Circuit Courts shall have power, under such general regulations as may be prescribed by law, to grant divorces, change the names of persons, and direct the sales

of estates belonging to infants and other persons under legal disabilities, but relief shall not be granted by special legislation in such cases.

4. Laws may be passed regulating or prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquor within the limits of this State.

5. The Legislature shall pass general laws whereby any number of persons associated for mining, manufacturing, insuring, or other purpose useful to the public, excepting banks of circulation and the construction of works of internal improvement, may become a corporation, on complying with the terms and conditions thereby prescribed; and no special act incorporating, or granting peculiar privileges to any joint stock company or association, not having in view the issuing of bills to circulate as money or the construction of some work of internal improvement, shall be passed. No company or association, authorized by this section, shall issue bills to circulate as money. No charter of incorporation shall be granted under such general laws, unless the right be reserved to alter or amend such charter, at the pleasure of the Legislature, to be declared by general laws. No act to incorporate any bank of circulation or internal improvment company, or to confer additional privileges on the same, shall be passed, unless public notice of the intended application for such act be given under such regulations as shall be prescribed by law.

6. For the election of Respresentatives to Congress, the State shall be divided into districts, corresponding in number with the Representatives to which it may be entitled; which district shall be formed of contiguous counties and be compact. Each district shall contain, as nearly as may be, an equal federal number, to be determined according to the rule prescribed in the second section of the first article of the Constitution of the United States.

7. [The children of slaves born within the limits of this State after the fourth day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be free; and all slaves within the said State who shall, at the time aforesaid, be under the age of ten years, shall be free when they arrive at the age of twenty-one years; and all slaves over ten and under twentyone years, shall be free when they arrive at the age of twenty-five years; and no slave shall be permitted to come into the State for permanent residence therein.]*

8. Such parts of the common law and of the laws of the State of Virginia as are in force within the boundaries of the State of West Virginia when this Constitution goes into operation, and are not repugnant thereto, shall be and continue the law of this State until altered or repealed by the Legislature. All offenses against the laws of Virginia heretofore committed within the boundaries of this State shall be cognizable in the courts of this State in the same manner they would be if hereafter committed within this State. All civil and criminal suits and proceedings pending in the County or Circuit Courts of the State of Virginia, held within the said boundaries, shall be docketed and thereafter proceeded in before the Circuit Court of the proper county; and all such suits and proceedings pending in the Supreme and District Courts of Appeals of the State of Virginia, if the defendant in the court below resides within the said boundaries, or the subject of the suit is land or other property situated or being therein, and the plaintiff is entitled to prosecute in this State, shall be docketed, and thereafter proceeded in before the Supreme Court of Appeals thereof.

9. The records, books, papers, seals and other property and appurtenances of the former Circuit and County Courts, within the State of West Virginia, shall be transferred to, and remain in, the care and custody of the Circuit Courts of the respective counties, to which all process outstanding at the time this Constitution goes into operation shall be returned, and by which new process in suits then pending, or previously determined, in the said former courts, may be issued in proper cases. Copies and transcripts of the records and proceedings of the said former courts shall be made and certified by the courts having the care and custody of such records and proceedings, or the proper officers thereof, and shall have the same force and effect as if they had been heretofore properly made and certified by the said former courts.

ARTICLE XII.

AMENDMENTS.

1. No Convention shall be called, having authority to alter the Constitution of the State, unless it be in pursuance of a law passed by the affirmative vote of a majority of

* The original form of section 7, was as follows: "No slave shall be brought, or free person of color be permitted to come, into this State for permanent residence." Congress made the adoption of the clause in brackets a condition precedent to admission into the Union.

the members elected to each branch of the Legislature, and providing that polls shall be held throughout the State, on some day therein specified, which shall not be less than three months after the passage of such law, for the purpose of taking the sense of the voters on the question of calling a Convention. And such Convention shall not be held unless a majority of the votes cast at such polls be in favor of calling the same; nor shall members be elected to such Convention, until at least one month after the result of the polls shall be duly ascertained, declared and published. And all acts and ordinances of said Convention shall be submitted to the voters of the State for ratification, or rejection, and shall have no validity whatever until they are ratified, and in no event shall they, by any shift or device, be made to have any retrospective operation or effect.

2. Any amendment to the Constitution of the State may be proposed in either branch of the Legislature; and if the same, being read on three several days in each branch, be agreed to on its third reading, by a majority of the members elected thereto, the proposed amendment, with the yeas and nays thereon, shall be entered on the journals, and referred to the Legislature at the first session to be held after the next general election; and shall be published, at least three months before such election, in some newspaper in every county in which a newspaper is printed. And if the proposed amendment be agreed to during such session, by a majority of the members elected to each branch, it shall be the duty of the Legislature to provide by law for submitting the same to the voters of the State, for ratification or rejection. And if a majority of the qualified voters, voting upon the question at the polls held pursuant to such law, ratify the proposed amendment, it shall be in force from the time of such ratification as part of the Constitution of the State. If two or more amendments be submitted at the same time, the vote on the ratification or rejection, shall be taken on each separately. * JOHN HALL, President of the Convention.

ELLERY R. HALL, Secretary.

CONSTITUTION OF WISCONSIN. 1848.t

PREAMBLE.

WE, the people of Wisconsin, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings, form a more perfect government, insure domestic tranquillity, and promote the general welfare, do establish this Constitution.

ARTICLE I.

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.

SECTION 1. All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights: among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

§ 2. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in this State, otherwise than for the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. § 3. Every person may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right, and no laws shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. In all criminal prosecutions or indict

* A schedule of fourteen sections, chiefly relating to the election for adopting the Constitution, was appended to the Constitution as originally published. This schedule was repealed (by not to affect anything done under its provisions) by an Ordinance for organizing the State of West Virginia, passed February 19, 1863. This Ordinance chiefly related to the manner of holding the election on the amendments proposed by Congress. Soldiers in the field were allowed to send their ballots by mail to the Superintendents of elections in the counties where they belonged. The first meeting of the Legislature was fixed on the sixty-first day after the Proclamation of the President and all existing officers of West Virginia were directed to continue to discharge their respective duties until successors had been duly elected or appointed and duly qualified.

† Organized as a Territory April 20, 1836, and authorized to form a State government on the 6th of August, 1846. A Convention assembled at Madison under this authority on the 5th of October, 1846, and on the 16th of December reported a Constitution, which was rejected by the people. In April following, a special session of the Territorial Legislature was called to provide for holding another Convention, which was accordingly held at Madison, and remained in session from the 15th of September, 1847, to the 1st of February, 1848. The Constitution then prepared, was duly approved, and is now in force.