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abuses in assessments and taxation, and in contracting debts by such municipal corporations.

4. The legislature shall not have power to create, authorize, or incorporate, by any general or special law, any bank or banking power or privilege, or any institution or corporation, having any banking power or privilege whatever, except as provided in this article.

5. The legislature may submit to the voters at any general election, the question of "bank or no bank," and if at any such election a number of votes equal to a majority of aH the votes cast at such election on that subject shall be in favor of banks, then the legislature shall have power to grant bank charters, or to pass a general banking law, with such restrictions and under such regulations as they may deem expedient and proper for the security of the bill-holders: Provided, That no such grant or law shall have any force or effect until the same shall have been submitted to a vote of the electors of the state at some general election, and been approved by a majority of the votes cast on that subject at such election.

ARTICLE 12.

Amendments.

§ 1. Any amendment or amendments to this constitution may be proposed in either house of the legislature, and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each of the two houses, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on their journals with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and referred to the legislature to be chosen at the next general election, and shall be published for three months previous to the time of holding such election. And if in the legislature so next chosen, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to each house, then it shall be the duty of the legislature to submit such proposed amendment or amendments to the people, in such manner and at such time as the legislature shall prescribe, and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments by a majority of the electors voting thereon, such amendment or amendments shall become part of the constitution: Provided, That if more than one amendment be submitted, they shall be submitted in such manner that the people may vote for or against such amendments separately.

2. If at any time a majority of the senate and assembly shall deem it necessary to call a convention to revise or change this constitution, they shall recommend to the electors to vote for or against a convention at the next election for members of the legislature; and if it shall appear that a majority of the electors voting thereon have voted for a convention, the legislature shall at its next session provide for calling such convention.

ARTICLE 13.

Miscellaneous Provisions.

§1. The political year for the state of Wisconsin shall commence on the first Monday in January in each year, and the general election

shall be holden on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday in November in each year.

2. Any inhabitant of this state who may hereafter be engaged, either directly or indirectly, in a duel, either as principal or accessary, shall forever be disqualified as an elector, and from holding any office under the constitution and laws of this state, and may be punished in such other manner as shall be prescribed by law.

3. No member of congress, nor any person holding any office of profit or trust under the United States (postmasters excepted), or under any foreign power; no person convicted of any infamous crime in any court within the United States, and no person being a defaulter to the United States, or to this state, or to any county or town therein, or to any state or territory within the United States, shall be eligible to any office of trust,-profit, or honor in this state.

4. It shall be the duty of the legislature to provide a great seal for the state, which shall be kept by the secretary of state; and all official acts of the governor, his approbation of the laws excepted, shall be thereby authenticated.

5. All persons residing upon Indian lands within any county of the state, and qualified to exercise the right of suffrage under this constitution, shall be entitled to vote at the polls which may be held nearest their residence, for state, United States, or county officers: Provided, that no person shall vote for county officers out of the county in which he resides.

6. The elective officers of the legislature, other than the presiding officers, shall be a chicf-clerk, and a sergeant-at-arms, to be elected by each house.

7. No county with an area of nine hundred square miles or less, shall be divided, or have any part stricken therefrom, without submitting the question to a vote of the people of the county, nor unless a majority of all the legal voters of the county voting on the question, shall vote for the same.

8. No county seat shall be removed until the point to which it is proposed to be removed, shall be fixed by law, and a majority of the voters of the county, voting on the question, shall have voted in favor of its removal to such point.

9. All county officers whose election or appointment is not provided for by this constitution, shall be elected by the electors of the respective counties, or appointed by the boards of supervisors or other county authorities, as the legislature shall direct. All city, town, and village officers, whose election or appointment is not provided for by this constitution, shall be elected by the electors of such cities, towns, and villages, or of some division thereof, or appointed by such authorities thereof, as the legislature shall designate for that purpose. All other officers whose election or appointment is not provided for by this constitution, and all officers whose offices may hereafter be created by law, shall be elected by the people, or appointed as the legislature may direct.

10. The legislature may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant, and also the manner of filling the vacancy where no provision is made for that purpose, in this constitution.

ARTICLE 14.

Schedule.

1. That no inconvenience may arise by reason of a change from a territorial to a permanent state government, it is declared that all rights, actions, prosecutions, judgments, claims, and contracts, as well of individuals as of bodies corporate, shall continue as if no such change had taken place, and all process which may be issued under the authority of the territory of Wisconsin, previous to its admission into the Union of the United States, shall be as valid as if issued in the name of the state.

2. All laws now in force in the territory of Wisconsin, which are not repugnant to this constitution, shall remain in force until they expire by their own limitation, or be altered or repealed by the legis lature.

3. All fines, penalties, or forfeitures accruing to the territory of Wisconsin, shall enure to the use of the State.

4. All recognizances heretofore taken, or which may be taken before the change from a territorial to a permanent State government, shall remain valid, and shall pass to, and may be prosecuted in the name of the State, and all bonds executed to the governor of the territory, or to any other officer or court, in his or their official capacity, shall pass to the governor or the State authority, and their successors in office, for the uses therein respectively expressed, and may be sued for and recovered accordingly; and all the estate or property, real, personal, or mixed, and all judgments, bonds, specialitics, choses in action, and claims or debts of whatsoever description, of the territory of Wisconsin, shall enure to and vest in the state of Wisconsin, and may be sued for and recovered in the same manner, and to the same extent, by the state of Wisconsin, as the same could have been by the territory of Wiscon. sin. All criminal prosecutions and penal actions, which may have arisen, or which may arise before the change from a territorial to a state government, and which shall then be pending, shall be prosecuted to judgment and execution in the name of the state. All offences committed against the laws of the territory of Wisconsin, before the change from a territorial to a state government, and which shall not be prosecuted before such change, may be prosecuted in the name and by the authority of the state of Wisconsin, with like effect as though such change had not taken place; and all penalties incurred shall remain the same as if this constitution had not been adopted. All actions at law, and suits in equity, which may be pending in any of the courts of the territory of Wisconsin, at the time of the change from a territorial to a state government, may be continued and transferred to any court of the state which shall have jurisdiction of the subject matter thereof.

5. All officers, civil and military, now holding their offices under the authority of the United States, or of the territory of Wisconsin, shall continue to hold and exercise their respective offices until they shall be superseded by the authority of the state.

6. The first session of the legislature of the state of Wisconsin shall commence on the first Monday in June next, and shall be held at

the village of Madison, which shall be and remain the seat of government until otherwise provided by law.

7. All county, precinct, and township officers, shall continue to hold their respective offices, unless removed by the competent authority, until the legislature shall in conformity with the provisions of this constitution provide for the holding of elections to fill such offices respectively.

8. The president of this convention shall immediately after its adjournment cause a fair copy of this constitution, together with a copy of the act of the legislature of this territory, entitled "An act in relation to the formation of a state government in Wisconsin, and to change the time of holding the annual session of the legislature,” approved October 27th, 1847, providing for the calling of this convention, and also a copy of so much of the last census of this territory as exhibits the number of its inhabitants, to be forwarded to the President of the United States, to be laid before the congress of the United States at its present session.

9. This constitution shall be submitted at an election to be held on the second Monday in March next, for ratification or rejection, to all white male persons of the age of twenty-one years, or upwards, who shall then be residents of this territory and citizens of the United States, or shall have declared their intention to become such in conformity with the laws of congress on the subject of naturalization; and all persons having such qualifications shall be entitled to vote for or against the adoption of this constitution, and for all officers first elected under it. And if the constitution be ratified by the said elec tors, it shall become the constitution of the state of Wisconsin. On such of the ballots as are for the constitution, shall be written or printed the word "yes ;" and on such as are against the constitution the word "no." The election shall be conducted in the manner now prescribed by law, and the returns made by the clerks of the boards of supervisors or county commissioners (as the case may be) to the governor of the territory, at any time before the tenth day of April next. And in the event of the ratification of this constitution, by a majority of all the votes given, it shall be the duty of the governor of this territory to make proclamation of the same, and to transmit a digest of the returns to the senate and assembly of the state, on the first day of their session. An election shall be held for governor and lieutenant-governor, treasurer, attorney-general, members of the state legislature, and members of congress, on the second Monday of May next, and no other or further notice of such election shall be required. 10. Two members of congress shall also be elected on the second Monday of May next; and until otherwise provided by law, the counties of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Jefferson, Racine, Walworth, Rock, and Green, shall constitute the first congressional district, and elect one member; and the counties of Washington, Sheboygan, Manitouwoc, Calumet, Brown, Winnebago, Fond du Lac, Marquette, Sauk, Portage, Columbia, Dodge, Dane, Iowa, La Fayette, Grant, Richland, Crawford, Chippewa, St. Croix, and La Pointe, shall constitute the second congressional district, and shall elect one member.

11. The several elections provided for in this article shall be con ducted according to the existing laws of the territory: Provided, That

no elector shall be entitled to vote, except in the town, ward, or precinct where he resides. The returns of election for senators and mem bers of assembly shall be transmitted to the clerk of the board of supervisors, or county commissioners, as the case may be, and the votes shall be canvassed, and certificates of election issued, as now provided by law. In the first senatorial district, the returns of the election for senator shall be made to the proper officer in the county of Brown. In the second senatorial district, to the proper officer in the county of Columbia. In the third senatorial district, to the proper officer in the county of Crawford. In the fourth senatorial district, to the proper officer in the county of Fond du Lac. And in the fifth senatorial distriet, to the proper officer in the county of Iowa. The returns of election for state officers and members of congress shall be certified and transmitted to the speaker of the assembly at the seat of government, in the same manner as the votes for delegate to congress are required to be certified and returned by the laws of the territory of Wisconsin, to the secretary of said territory, and in such time that they may be received on the first Monday in June next; and as soon as the legisla ture shall be organized, the speaker of the assembly and the president of the senate shall, in the presence of both houses, examine the returns, and declare who are duly elected to fill the several offices here. inbefore mentioned, and give to each of the persons elected a certificate of his election.

12. Until there shall be a new apportionment, the senators and members of the assembly shall be apportioned among the several districts, as hereinafter mentioned, and each district shall be entitled to elect one senator or member of the assembly, as the case may be.

The counties of Brown, Calumet, Manitouwoc, and Sheboygan, shall constitute the first senate district.

The counties of Columbia, Marquette, Portage, and Sauk, shall constitute the second senate district.

The counties of Crawford, Chippewa, St. Croix, and La Pointe, shall constitute the third senate district.

The counties of Fond du Lac, and Winnebago, shall constitute the fourth senate district.

The counties of Iowa, and Richland, shall constitute the fifth senate district.

The county of Grant shall constitute the sixth senate district.

The county of La Fayette shall constitute the seventh senate district.

The county of Green shall constitute the eighth senate district. The county of Dane shall constitute the ninth senate district. The county of Dodge shall constitute the tenth senate district. The county of Washington shall constitute the eleventh senate district.

The county of Jefferson shall constitute the twelfth senate district. The county of Waukesha shall constitute the thirteenth senate district.

The county of Walworth shall constitute the fourteenth senate district.

The county of Rock shall constitute the fifteenth senate district. The towns of Southport, Pike, Pleasant Prairie, Paris, Bristol,

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