ELECTION PROCLAMATION.

To the Qualified Voters of the Proposed State of Oklahoma:

Whereas, An Act of Congress entitled "An Act to enable the people of Oklahoma and Indian Territory to form a Constitution and State Government and be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States; and to enable the people of New Mexico and Arizona to form a Constitution and State Government and be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States;" approved, the 16th day of June, A. D., 1906; and,

Whereas, By the terms of said Act "All male persons over the age of twenty-one years, who are citizens of the United States, or who are members of any Indian Nation or Tribe in said Indian Territory and Oklahoma and who have resided within the limits of said proposed State for at least six months next preceding the election, were authorized to vote for and choose Delegates to the Constitutional Convention for said proposed State;

Whereas, Said qualified electors, under the terms of said Act, commonly known as the Enabling Act, were permitted to choose Delegates from Districts formed by the ordinance as provided by Section No. 2 of said act in compliance with said Act to form and frame a Constitution and State Government; and,

Whereas, In pursuance of the joint proclamation of the Governor of Oklahoma Territory together with the Judge senior in service of the United States Courts in Indian Territory, Delegates were elected and were convened in Convention in the City of Guthrie, the seat of Government for the Territory of Oklahoma, on the twentieth day of November, A. D., 1906, pursuant to the terms of said Enabling Act; and,

Whereas, Said Delegates composing said Convention were duly sworn by the Chief Justice of the Territory of Oklahoma, and organized by electing Wm. H. Murray, Delegate from District No. 104, as President of said Convention, and John McClain Young as Secretary of said Convention from the City of Lawton, Oklahoma Territory, and, after said organization, said Convention on behalf of the people of said proposed State did adopt by resolution the Constitution of the United States as provided by the terms of said Enabling Act; and also on behalf of the people of said proposed State, did by ordinance irrevocable accept the terms and conditions of said Enabling Act, and did adopt a Constitution and Government for said proposed State of Oklahoma, republican in form, and in compliance with the Enabling Act in the formation thereof; and;

Whereas, In obedience to Section Four of said Enabling Act, the said Convention agreeable to the rules of said Convention, and in com

pliance with said Enabling Act, did provide by ordinance for submitting said Constitution to the qualified voters of said proposed State for ratification or rejection, at an election to be held at a time fixed in said ordinance, to-wit: August 6th, A. D., 1907; and at which election the qualified voters of said proposed State are permitted to vote directly for or against the proposed Constitution and for or against any provision separately submitted, and for officers for State, District, County and Township Government, and for members of the Legislature, and for five Representatives to Congress; said ordinance being entitled "An Ordinance providing for an election, at which the proposed Constitution of the proposed State of Oklahoma shall be submitted to the people thereof for ratification or rejection, and submitting separately to the people of the proposed State of Oklahoma the proposed Prohibition article, making the terms of the Enabling Act uniformly applicable to the entire State, for ratification or rejection, and for the election of certain State, District, County and Township Officers created by said proposed Constitution, and for the election of members of the Legislature and for five Representatives to Congress," adopted by said Convention on the 22nd day of April, A. D., 1907, which said ordinance provides in express terms for the submission of said Constitution in the manner aforesaid, and for proclamation for said election to be issued within twenty days thereafter by the Governor of the Territory of Oklahoma, together with such other machinery necessary for the submission of said Constitution and the election of Officers aforesaid to form a State Government, and did provide that upon the failure or refusal of said Governor to make proclamation within the twenty days from date of said ordinance, to issue said proclamation, that said duties, powers and responsibilities as provided in said ordinance and the laws governing the holding of elections extended over and put in force in the Indian Territory, said duties, obligations and responsibilities shall devolve upon Wm. H. Murray as President of said Constitutional Convention; and,

Whereas, The said Governor of Oklahoma Territory has failed and refused, and still fails and refuses, though demanded so to do, to exercise the powers, functions and duties devolved upon him by said ordinance, and to make proclamation aforesaid; and,

Whereas, A Constitutional Convention is a body with highest legislative functions, together with modified powers of the executive and judiciary, and that such Conventions under the American law possess all legislative functions which are not denied by express terms or by necessary implication by the Act creating said Convention and by the of the Constitution of the United States; and

Whereas, Said Constitution has accepted all terms and conditions of said Enabling Act, and has formed a Government republican in form and

in conformity and agreeable to the terms of the Constitution of the United States; and,

Whereas, No limitation exists upon the power of the Convention to provide for an election officer for the proposed State of Oklahoma, and for a custodian of records pending the holding of said election; and.

Whereas, There has not been created by Congress any such or other officer of the proposed State; and,

Whereas, The said Wm. H. Murray, as President of said Constitutional Convention, was designated, in the absence, refusal or failure of said Governor of Oklahoma Territory to exercise the duties and functions for the proposed State and to make due proclamation; and,

Whereas, When in the course of events of a sovereign people, that their rights shall be denied by those in authority and their rights are denied under the laws of the State enacted by the Federal Congress exercising the attributes of national power, made for the protection of the rights of life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness, are trampled under foot by those in authority sworn and entrusted with official duty correctly to construe the law and administer the same impartially to all men;

Now, therefore, I, Wm. H. Murray, as President of the Constitutional Convention, by authority in me vested, by said Constitutional Convention, composed of the duly accredited representatives of the sovereign citizenship of the proposed State of Oklahoma, duly elected and qualified. agreeable to the terms and conditions of said Enabling Act, and the Constitution of the United States, do hereby make proclamation for an election to be held in all election or voting precincts in all the Counties throughout the proposed State of Oklahoma and to all of the qualified voters thereof, on Tuesday, the 6th day of August, A. D., 1907, between hours named by law, at which election the qualified voters of said proposed State of Oklahoma, in manner pointed out by said election ordinance, and agreeable to the election laws of the Territory of Oklahoma. extended to and put in force in the Indian Territory and made a part of the laws of the proposed State of Oklahoma, are hereby authorized to vote directly for or against the proposed Constitution, and for or against the article entitled "Prohibition" separately submitted, and providing for State-wide Prohibition and making the terms of the Enabling Act uniformly applicable to the entire State relative to the said Prohibition question, and also to vote for and choose certain State, District, County and Township Officers created and authorized and made elective by said proposed Constitution and for the election of members of the Legislature, and for five Representatives to Congress, to form and constitute a full State Government as contemplated and directed by said Enabling Act, and the County Clerk and Board of County Commissioners in each County named in said election ordinance shall provide, agreeable to said

election ordinance, for holding elections in each voting precinct in each of the proposed counties named in said Constitution and make returns agreeable to said ordinance and the election laws of the Territory of Oklahoma, extended over the proposed State as aforesaid, in duplicate form, the original to be forwarded to the Secretary of the Territory of Oklahoma, at the seat of Government thereof; the duplicate copy to be forwarded to John McClain Young, at Lawton, Oklahoma Territory, as Secretary of an Advisory and Additional State Canvassing Board. And the sovereign citizenship of the proposed State of Oklahoma are hereby called upon to exercise said citizenship and sovereignty in their right to frame and form local self-government, as guaranteed to them by the treaty of France ceding this territory to the United States, by the Declaration of Independence, by the Constitution of the United States, and by the act and will of the American people as expressed through their Representatives in the United States Congress couched in terms of the said Enabling Act; and,

Whereas, There being no funds with which to print the ballots, purchase and provide election supplies, clerk hire, or conduct said election, I, Wm. H. Murray, as President of said Convention, do hereby call upon said citizenship to contribute to the said expenses by forwarding to B. R. Brundage, of Tishomingo, Indian Territory, whom the undersigned has appointed Treasurer, and caused to execute a good and solvent bond, conditioned that he will account for all funds coming into his hands from this source, and simultaneously with the transmittal of such funds to such Treasurer, forward to the undersigned a statement of the amount forwarded to the said B. R. Brundage, that I may correctly check and audit said accounts. All Boards of County Commissioners and County Clerks elected by the Convention and named in such election ordinance agreeable to the terms of the election laws of the Territory of Oklahoma extended to and put in force in the proposed State aforesaid, and the County Clerks and Boards of County Commissioners of the organized Counties of the Territory of Oklahoma (and recognized by the Constitution) are authorized and directed as named in said election ordinance to perform the duties as designated in said election ordinance agreeable to the terms of the election laws of the Territory of Oklahoma aforesaid and to make due returns thereof.

Given under my official signature, as President of the Constitutional Convention, on this the 3rd day of June, A. D., 1907.

WM. H. MURRAY,

President of the Constitutional Convention for the Proposed State of

Oklahoma.

No 2154.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE TERRITORY OF OKLAHOMA,

JUNE TERM, 1907. FILED JUNE 25, 1907.

Frank Frantz, W. H. Murray, John M. Young, C. I. Overstreet, C. H. Chowning, C. M. Delzell, M. R. Mansfield, Charles Bowman, J. C. Major, I. J. Corwin, and Charles B. Powell, Plaintiffs in Error,

VS.

G. E. Autry, Defendant in Error.

SYLLABUS.

1. A constitution is the written instrument by which the fundamental powers of the government are established, limited, and defined, and by which those powers are distributed among the several departments for their safe and useful exercise for the benefit of the body politic.

2. The Constitutional Convention is vested with the power, and charged with the duty and responsibility of forming a Constitution and State Government; and in the performance of such duties it exercises legislative powers and functions.

3. The Convention has, and can exercise plenary powers, subject to the limitations and restrictions that the Constitution shall be republican in form, that it shall not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence, that no distinction shall be made on account of race or color, and that the Convention shall by ordinance irrevocable accept all the terms and conditions in the Enabling Act.

4. The power vested in the Convention to form a State Government clearly implies the power to create and define all the Counties within the limits of the proposed State, the only limitation upon the Convention in this respect being that the Osage Indian Reservation shall remain a separate County until the lands therein are allotted in severalty, and until changed by the Legislature of the State.

5. A County is one of the Territorial divisions of the State created for public and political purposes connected with the administration of the State Government.

6. Officers for a full State Government, under the terms of the Enabling Act, includes not only State officers whose powers and duties are co-extensive with the limits of the State, but includes all the officers provided for in the Constitution, from the highest to the lowest, whose duties are in any manner connected with the administration of the State Government.

7. Congress, by the express terms of the Enabling Act, conferred the power and authority upon the Convention to pass appropriate ordi