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2. The Supreme Court shall consist of a Chief-Justice and two associates, two of whom shall be a quorum to hold Court.

3. The judges of the Supreme Court shall be elected by joint vote of both branches of the General Assembly, and shall hold their courts at such time and place as the General Assembly may direct, and hold their offices for six years, and until their successors are elected and qualified; and shall be ineligible to any other office during the term for which they may be elected. The Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction only in all cases in chancery, and shall constitute a Court for the correction of errors at law, under such restrictions as the General Assembly may by law prescribe. The Supreme Court shall have power to issue all writs and processes necessary to do justice to parties, and exercise a supervisory control over all inferior judicial tribunals, and the judges of the Supreme Court shall be conservators of the peace throughout the State.

4. The district court shall consist of a judge, who shall be elected by the qualified voters of the district in which he resides, at the township election, and hold his office for the term of five years, and until his successor is duly elected and qualified, and shall be ineligible to any other office during the term for which he may be elected. The district court shall be a court of law and equity, and have jurisdiction in all civil and criminal matters arising in their respective districts, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law. The judges of the district courts shall be conservators of the peace in their respective districts. The first session of the General Assembly shall divide the State into four districts, which may be increased as the exigencies require.

5. The qualified voters of each county shall, at the general election, elect one prosecuting attorney and one clerk of the district court, who shall be residents therein, and who shall hold their several offices for the term of two years, and until their successors are elected and qualified.

6. The style of all processes shall be, "the State of Iowa," and all prosecutions shall be conducted in the name and by the authority, of the same.

ARTICLE VII.-Militia.

SEC. 1. The militia of this State shall be composed of all able-bodied white male citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, except such as are or may hereafter be exempt by the laws of the United States or of this State, and shall be armed, equipped, and trained, as the General Assembly may provide by law.

2. No person or persons conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to do militia duty in time of peace: Provided, that such person or persons shall pay an equivalent for such exemption, in the same manner as other citizens.

3. All commissioned officers of the militia (staff-officers excepted) shall be elected by the persons liable to perform military duty, and shall be commissioned by the Governor.

ARTICLE VIII.-State Debts.

The General Assembly shall not in any manner create any debt or debts, liability or liabilities, which shall singly or in the aggregate, with any previous debts or liabilities, exceed the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, except in case of war, to repel invasion, or suppress insurrection, unless the same shall be authorized by some law for some single object, or work to be distinctly specified therein, which law shall provide ways and means, exclusive of loans, for the payment of the interest of such debt or liability as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal of such debt or liability within twenty years from the time of the contracting thereof, and shall be irrepealable until the principal and interest thereon shall be paid and discharged; but no such law shall take effect until at a general election it shall have been submitted to the people, and have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at such election, and all money raised by authority of such law, shall be applied only to the specific object therein stated, or to the payment of the debt thereby

created, and such law shall be published in at least one newspaper in each judicial district, if one is published therein, throughout the State, for three months preceding the election at which it is submitted to the people.

ARTICLE IX.-Incorporations.

SEC. 1. No corporate body shall hereafter be created, renewed, or extended, with the privilege of making, issuing, or putting in circulation, any bill, check, ticket, certificate, promissory note, or other paper, or the paper of any bank, to circulate as money. The General Assembly of this State shall prohibit by law, any person or persons, association, company or corporation, from exercising the privileges of banking, or creating paper to circulate as money.

2. Corporations shall not be created in this State by special laws, except for political or municipal purposes, but the General Assembly shall provide, by general laws, for the organization of all other corporations, except corporations with banking privileges, the creation of which is prohibited. The stockholders shall be subject to such liabilities and restrictions as shall be provided by law. The State shall not, directly or indirectly, become a stockholder in any corporation.

ARTICLE X.-Education and School Lands.

SEC. 1. The General Assembly shall provide for the election, by the people, of a superintendent of public instruction, who shall hold his office for three years, and whose duties shall be prescribed by law, and who shall receive such compensation as the General Assembly may direct.

2. The General Assembly shall encourage, by all suitable means, the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral and agricultural improvement. The proceeds of all lands that have been or hereafter may be granted by the United States to this State, for the support of schools, which shall hereafter be sold or disposed of, and the five hundred thousand acres of land granted to the new States, under an act of Congress, distributing the proceeds of the public lands among the several States of the Union, approved A. D. 1841, and all estates of deceased persons, who may have died without leaving a will, or heir; and also such per cent. as may be granted by Congress on the sale of lands in this State, shall be and remain a perpetual tund, the interest of which, together with ali the rents of the unsold lands, and such other means as the General Assembly may provide, shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of common schools throughout the State.

3. The General Assembly shall provide for a system of common schools, by which a school shall be kept up and supported in each school district, at least three months in every year; and any school district neglecting to keep up and support such a school may be deprived of its proportion of the interest of the public fund during such neglect.

4. The money which shall be paid by persons as an equivalent for exemption from military duty, and the clear proceeds of all fines collected in the several counties for any breach of the penal laws, shall be exclusively applied, in the several counties in which such money is paid or fine collected, among the several school districts of said counties, in the proportion to the number of inhabitants in such districts, to the support of common schools, or the establishment of libraries, as the General Assembly shall, from time to time, provide by law.

5. The General Assembly shall take measures for the protection, improvement, or other disposition of such lands as have been or may hereafter be reserved or granted by the United States, or any person or persons, to this State, for the use of a university; and the funds accruing from the rents or sale of such lands, or from any other source, for the purpose aforesaid, shall be and remain a permanent fund, the interest of which shall be applied to the support of said university, with such branches as the public convenience may hereafter demand, for the promotion of literature, the arts and sciences, as may be authorized by the terms of such grant. And it shall be the duty of the General

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Assembly, as soon as may be, to provide effectual means for the improvement and permanent security of the funds of said university.

ARTICLE XI.—Amendments of the Constitution.

If, at any time, the General Assembly shall think it necessary to revise or amend this Constitution, they shall provide by law for a vote of the people for or against a convention, at the next ensuing election for members of the General Assembly; in case a majority of the people vote in favor of a convention, said General Assembly shall provide for an election of delegates to a convention, to be held within six months after the vote of the people in favor thereof.

ARTICLE XII.-Miscellaneous.

SEC. 1. The jurisdiction of justices of the peace shall extend to all civil cases (except cases in chancery and cases where the question of title to any real estate may arise), where the amount in controversy does not exceed one hundred dollars, and by the consent of parties may be extended to any amount not exceeding five hundred dollars.

2. No new county shall be laid off hereafter, nor old county reduced, to less contents than four hundred and thirty-two square miles.

3. The General Assembly shall not locate any of the public lands, which have been or may be granted by Congress to this State, and the location of which may be given to the General Assembly, upon lands actually settled, without the consent of the occupant. The extent of the claim of such occupant so exempted shall not exceed three hundred and twenty acres.

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THE first settlement, in this state, was made at Green Bay, by the French, in the year 1670. In 1819, it was effectually explored by General Cass, then governor of the territory of Michigan. In 1838, the population was less than 10,000. In 1850, it was 304,226. About two-thirds of the inhabitants are from New England and New York, and the rest from different states of the Union, and different countries of Europe. They are well educated, industrious, order-loving, law-abiding, people, among whom idleness and want are unknown.

The territory was under the government of France till 1763; of Great Britain, till 1794; of Ohio, till 1800; of Indiana, till 1809; of Illinois, till 1818; of Michigan, till 1836; was under a territorial government till 1848, when, as a state, Wisconsin took her place in the confederacy of the states.

The state owes not a dollar; and by her constitution, she is inhibited from ever owing at any time more than $100,000. At an expense of about $100,000 she is uniting Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, giving her an uninterrupted internal navigation of about three hundred miles through the heart of the state. Then with a short canal, uniting the St. Croix River with Lake Superior, and with a canal around the Falls of St. Mary, (which must soon be made,) she will have navigable water on three sides, and through the middle of her territory. Then she can choose her market at New Orleans, Quebec or New York; and will very soon be ready to welcome, with one hand, the hardy immigrant, on the majestic steamers, from the east, and with the other, the China trader on the cars thundering from the Pacific to the Mississippi on the west.

In fertility of soil, exhaustless water-power, and salubrity of climate, this state is not surpassed; and for commercial, educational, religious, and social advantages, present, and prospective but sure, no state in the Union, no place in the world, to the settler, offers greater inducements than the new state of Wisconsin It comprises about 57,000 square miles, or about 36,000,000 of acres. One thirty-sixth part of this, with an addition of 500,000 acres, is inviolably devoted to the cause of common schools. Besides this, the amount of 46,080 acres, to be selected by the state, is given for a permanent University fund.

CONSTITUTION.

PREAMBLE.

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

ARTICLE I-Declaration of Rights.

SEC. 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 indictments for libel, the truth may be given in evidence; and if it shall appear to the jury that the matter charged as libellous be true, and was published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted; and the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the fact.

4. The right of the people peaceably to assemble to consult for the common good, and to petition the government, or any department thereof, shall never be abridged.

5. The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate; and shall extend to all cases at law, without regard to the amount in controversy; but a jury trial may be waived by the parties in all cases, in the manner prescribed by law.

6. Excessive bail shall not be required; nor shall excessive fines be imposed; nor shall cruel and unusual punishments be inflicted.

7. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to be heard by himself and counsel; to demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him; to meet the witnesses face to face; to have compulsory process to compel the attendance of witnesses in his behalf: and in prosecutions by indictment or information, to a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the county or district wherein the offence shall have been committed, which county or district shall have been previously ascertained by law.

8. No person shall be held to answer for a criminal offence, unless on the presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases of impeachment, or in cases cognizable by justices of the peace, or arising in the army or navy, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger; and no person for the same offence 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 offences, when the proof is evident or the presumption great; and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require.

9. Every person is entitled to a certain remedy in the laws, for all injuries or wrongs which he may receive in his person, property, or character; he ought to obtain justice freely, and without being obliged to purchase it; completely and without denial, promptly and without delay, conformably to the laws.

10. Treason against the state shall consist only in levying war against the same, or in adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person

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