USA > Illinois > Shelby County > Combined history of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, Illinois : with illustrations descriptive of their scenery and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 93
USA > Illinois > Moultrie County > Combined history of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, Illinois : with illustrations descriptive of their scenery and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 93
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2 10. The rolling stock, and all other movable property belonging to any railroad company or corporation in this State, shall be considered personal property, and shall be liable to ex- ccution and sale in the same manner as the personal property of individuals, and the gen- eral assembly shall pass no law exempting any such property from execution and sale.
¿ II. No railroad corporation shall consolidate its stock, property or franchises with any other railroad corporation owning a parallel or competing line; and in no case shall any consolidation take place except upon public notice given, of at least sixty days, to all stock- holders, in such manner as may be provided by law. A majority of the directors of any railroad corporation, now incorporated or hereafter to be incorporated by the laws of the State, shall be citizens and residents of this State.
2 12. Railways heretofore constructed, or that may hereafter be constructed in this State, are hereby declared public highways, and shall be free to all persons for the transportation of their persons and property thereon, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law. And the general assembly shall, from time to time, pass laws establishing reasonable maxi- mum rates of charges for the transportation of passengers aud freight on the different rail- roads in this State.
¿ 13. No railroad corporation shall issue any stock or bonds, except for money, labor or property, actually received, and applied to the purposes for which such corporation was created ; and all stock dividends, and other fictitious increase of the capital stock or indebt- edness of any such corporation, shall be void. The capital stock of no railroad corporation shall be increased for any purpose, except upon giving sixty days' public notice, in such mal :- ner as may be provided by law.
¿ 14. The exercise of the power, and the right of eminent domain shall never be so con- strued or abridged as to prevent the taking, by the general assembly, of the property and franchises of incorporated companies already organized, and subjecting them to the public necessity the same as of individuals. The right of trial by jury shall be held inviolate in all trials of claims for compensation, when, in the exercise of the said right of eminent do- main, any incorporated company shall be interested either for or against the exercise of said right.
¿ 15. The general assembly shall pass laws to correct abuses and prevent unjust discrimin- ation and extortion in the rates of freight and passenger tariffs on different railroads in this State, and enforce such laws, by adequate penalties, to the extent, if necessary for that purpose, of forfeiture of their property and franchises.
ARTICLE XII. MILITIA. : 4. Privilege from Arrest. 5. Records, Banners and Relics.
I. Persons composing the Militia.
2. Organization-Equipment-Disc pline.
₹ 3. Commissions of Officers. -
¿ 5. Exempt on from militia duty.
¿ I. The militia of the State of Illinois shall consist of all able-bodied male persons, resi- dent in the State, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, except such persons as now are, or hereafter may be, exempted by the laws of the United States, or of this State.
& 2. The general assembly, in providing for the organization, equipment and discipline of the militia, shall conform as nearly as practicable to the regulations for the government of the armies of the United States.
¿ 3. All militia officers shall be commissioned by the governor, and may hold their com- Ir issions for such times as the general assembly may provide.
¿ 4. The militia shall, in all cases, except treason, felony or breach of the peace, be privi- leged from arrest during their attendance at musters and elections, and in going to and re- turning from the same.
5. The military records, banners and relics of the State, shall be preserved as an endur- ing memorial of the patriotism and valor of Illinois, and it shall be the duty of the general assembly to provide by law for the safe keeping of the same.
6. No person having conscientious scruples against bearing arms, shall be compelled to do militia duty in time of peace : Provided, such person shall pay an equivalent for such ex- emption.
ARTICLE XIII.
WAREHOUSES.
¿ I. What deemed Public Warehouses.
2 2. Sworn weekly statements required.
3. Examination of pr perry stor d. 24. Carriers to deliver full Weight.
5. Delivery of Grain by Railroads.
6. Powerand Duty of the Legislature.
2 7. G. ain Inspection-Protection of Dealers.
3 I. All elevators or storehouses where grain or other property is stored for a compensation, whether the property stored be kept separate or not, are declared to be public warehouses.
¿ 2. The owner, lessee or manager of each and every public warehouse situated in any town or city of not less than 100,000 inhabitants, shall make weekly statements under oath, before some officer to be designated by law, and keep the same posted in some conspicuous place in the office of such warehouse, and shall also file a copy for public examination in sach place as shall be designated by law, which statement shall correctly set forth the amount and grade of each and every kind of grain in such warehouse, together with such other property as may be stored therein, and what warchouse receipts have been issued, and are, at the time of making such statement, outstanding therefor ; and shall, on the copy posted in the warehouse, note daily such changes as may be made in the quantity and grade of grain in such warehouse; and the different grades of grain shipped in separate lots, shall not be mixed with inferior or superior grades, without the consent of the owner or consignee there- of.
§ 3. The owners of property stored in any warehouse, or liolder of a receipt for the same, shall always be at liberty to examine such property stored, and all the books and records of the warehouse in regard to such property.
2 4. All railroad companies and other common carriers on railroads shall weigh or measure grain at points where it is shipped, and receipt for the full amount, and shall be responsible for the delivery of such amount to the owner or consignee thereof, at the place of destina- tion.
¿ 5. All railroad companies receiving and transporting grain in bulk or otherwise, shall deliver the same to any consignee thereof, or any elevator or public warehouse to which it may be consigned, provided such consignee, or the elevator or public warehouse can he reached by any track owned, leased or used, or which can be used, by such railroad com- panies ; and all railroad companies shall permit connections to be made with their track, so that any such consignee; and any public warehouse, coal bank or coal yard, may be reached by the cars on said railroad.
¿ 6. It shall be the duty of the general assembly to pass all necessary laws to prevent the issue of false and fraudulent warehouse receipts, and to give full effect to this article of the constitution, which shall be liberally construed so as to protect producers and shippers. And the enumeration of the remedies herein named shall not be construed to deny to the general assembly the power to prescribe by law such other and further remedies as may be found expedient, or to deprive any person of existing common law remedies.
¿ 7. The general assembly shall pass laws for the inspection of grain, for the protection of producers, shippers and receivers of grain and produce.
ARTICLE XIV.
AMENDMENTS TO TIIE CONSTITUTION.
¿ 1. By a Constitutional Convention.
| ¿ 2. Proposed by the Legislature.
¿ I. Whenever two-thirds of the members of each house of the general assembly shall, by a vote entered upon ine journals thereof, concur that a convention is necessary to revise, alter or amend the constitution, the question shall be submitted to the electors at the next general election. If a majority voting at the election vote for a convention, the general assembly shall, at the next session, provide for a convention, to consist of double the num- ber of the members of the senate, to be elected in the same manner, at the same places, and in the same districts. The general assembly shall, in the act calling the convention, desig- nate the day, hour and place of its meeting, fix the pay of its members and officers, and provide for the payment of the same, together with expenses necessarily incurred by the con- vention in the performance of its duties. Before proceeding, the members shall take an oath to support the constitution of the United States, and of the State of Illinois, and to faith- fully discharge their duties as members of the convention. The qualification of members shall be the same as that of members of the senate, and vacancies occurring shall be filled in the manner provided for filling vacancies in the general assembly. Said convention shall meet within three months after such election, and prepare such revisions, alterations or amendments of the constitution as shall be deemed necessary, which shall be submitted to the electors for their ratification or rejection, at an election appointed by the convention for that purpose, not less than or more than six months after the adjournment thereof ; and un- less so sul;mitted and approved by a majority of the electors voting at the election, no such revisions, alterations or amendments shall take effect.
2. Amendments to this constitution may be proposed in either house of the general as- scmbly, and if the same shall he voted for by two-thirds of all the members elected to each of the two houses, such proposed amendments, together with the yeas and nays of eich house thereon, shall be entered in full on their respective journals, and said amendments shall be submitted to the electors of this State for adoption or rejection, at the next election of members of the general assembly, in such manner as may be prescribed by law. The proposed amendments shall be published in full at least three months preceeding the election, and if a majority of electors voting at said election shall vote for the proposed amendments, they shall become a part of this constitution. But the general assembly shall have no power to propose amendments to more than one article of this constitution at the same session, nor to the same article oftner than once in four years.
SEPARATE SECTIONS.
Ill'n is Central Railroad. liliMois and M.chigan Canal.
Municipal Subscription to Corporations.
No contract, obligation or liability whatever, of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, to pay any money into the State treasury, nor any lien of the State upon, or right to tax pro- perty of said company, in accordance with the provisions of the charter of said company, ap- proved Feb. IO, in the year of our Lord 1851, shall ever be released, suspended, modified, altered, remitted, or in any manner diminished or impaired by legislative or other authority ; and all moneys derived from said company, after the payment of the State debt, shall be ap- propriated and set apart for the payment of the ordinary expenses of the State government, and for no other purposes whatever.
MUNICIPAL SUBSCRIPTIONS TO RAILROADS OR PRIVATE CORPORATIONS.
No county, city, town, township or other municipality, shall ever become subscriber to the capital stock of any railroad or private corporation, or make donation to, or loan its credit in aid of such corporation : Provided, however, that the adoption of this article shall not be construed as affecting the right of any such municipality to make such subscriptions where the same have been authorized, under existing laws, by a vote of the people of such munici- palities prior to such adoption.
CANAL.
The Illinois and Michigan Canal shall never be sold or leased until the specific proposi- tion for the sale or lease thereof shall have first been submitted to a vote of the people of the State, at a general election, and have been approved by a majority of all the votes polled at such election. The general assembly shall never loan the credit of the State, or make appropriations from the treasury thereof, in aid of railroads or canals : Provided, that any surplus earnings of any canal may be appropriated for its enlargement or extension.
SCHEDULE.
₹ 1. Laws in force remain valid. 2. Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures. & 3. Recognizances, Bonds, Obligations,
4. Present cour ty Courts continued. 5. All existing Courts continued. 6. Persons now in Office con.inued.
That no inconvenience may arise from the alterations and amendments made in the constitution of this State, and to carry the same into complete effect, it is hereby ordained and declared :
2. I. That all laws in force at the adoption of this constitution, not inconsistent therewith, and all rights, actions, prosecutions, claims, and contracts of this State, individuals, or bodies corporate, shall continue to be as valid as if this constitution had not been adopted.
¿ 2. That all fines, taxes, penalties and forfeitures, due and owing to the State of Illinois under the present constitution and laws, shall insure to the use of the people of the State of Illinois, under this constitution.
2 3. Recognizances, bonds, obligations, and all other instruments entered into or executed before the adoption of this constitution, to the people of the State of Illinois, to any State or county officer or public body, shall remain binding and valid; and rights and liabilities upon the same shall continue, and all crimes and misdemeanors shall be tried and punished as though no change had been made in the constitution of this State.
¿ 4. County courts for the transaction of county business in counties not having adopted township organization, shall continue in existence and exercise their present jurisdiction until the board of county commissioners provided in this constitution is organized in pur- suance of an act of the general assembly ; and the county courts in all other counties shall have the same power and jurisdiction they now possess until otherwise provided by general law.
& 5. All existing courts which are not in this constitution specially cnumerated, shall con- tinue in existence and exercise their present jurisdiction until otherwise provided by law.
¿ 6. All persons now filling any office or appointment shall continue in the exercise of the duties thereof according to their respective commissions or appointments, unless by this constitution it is otherwise directed.
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2 18. All laws of the State of Illinois, and all official writings, and the executive, legisla- tive and judicial proceedings, shall be conducted, preserved and published in no other than the English language.
¿ 19. The general assembly shall pass all laws necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this constitution.
2 20. The circuit clerks of the different counties having a population over sixty thousand, shall continue to be recorders (ex-officio) for their respective counties, under this constitu - tion, until the expiration of their respective terms.
¿ 21. The judges of all courts of record in Cook County shall, in lieu of any salary pro. vided for in this constitution, receive the compensation now provided by law until the ad- journment of the first session of general assembly after the adoption of this constitution.
¿ 22. The present judge of the circuit court of Cook county shall continue to hold the circuit court of Lake county until otherwise provided by law.
& 23. When this constitution shall be adopted. and take effect as the supreme law of the State of Illinois, the two-mill tax provided to be annually assessed and collected upon each dollar's worth of taxable property, in addition to all other taxes, as set forth in article fifteen of the now existing constitution, shall cease to be assessed after the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy.
2 24. Nothing contained in this constitution shall be so construed as to deprive the genera assembly of the power to authorize the city of Quincy to create any in lebtedness for rail- road or municipal purposes, for which the people of said city shall have voted, and to which they shall have given, hy such vote, their assent, prior to the thirteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine: Provided, that no such indebtedness, so created, shall in any part thereof be paid by the State, or from any State revenuc, tax or fund, but the same shall be paid, if at all, by the said city of Quincy alone, and by taxes to be levied upon the taxable property thereof : And provided, further, that the general assembly shall have no power in the premises that it could not exercise under the present constitution of this State.
¿ 25. In case this constitution and the articles and sections submitted separately be adopt- ed, the existing constitution shall cease in all its provisions ; and in case this constitution be adopted, and any one or more of its articles or sections submitted separately be defeated , the provisions of the existing constitution (if any) on the same subject shall remain in force.
¿ 26. The provisions of this constitution required to be executed prior to the adoption or rejection thereof shall take effect and be in force immediately.
Done in convention at the capital, in the city of Springfield, on the thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy, and of the inde- pendence of the United States of America the ninety- fourth.
In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names :
CHARLES HITCHCOCK, President.
William J. Allen, John Abbott,
Jas. McCoy,
James C. Allen,
Charles E. McDowell, William C. Goodhue,
Elliott Anthony, Wm. R. Archer, Henry I. Atkins,
Joseph Medill,
John C. Haines,
George E. Wait,
Elijah M. Haines,
George W. Wall,
John W. Hankins,
R. B. Sutherland, D. C. Wagner, George R. Wendling,
O. H. Browning,
Wm. G. Bowman,
J. S. Poage, Edward Y. Ricc,
H. P. Buxton,
James P. Robinson,
Daniel Cameron,
Lewis W. Ross,
William Cary, Lawrence S. Church,
William P. Piercc, N. J. Pillsbury,
Daniel Shepard, First Assistant Secretary.
Iliram H. Cody,
Jno. Scholfield, James M. Sharp, Henry Sherrell,
A. H. Swain, Second Assistant Secretary.
W. F. Coolbaugh, Alfred M. Craig, Robert J. Cross,
Wm. H. Snyder,
Samuel P. Cummings,
O. C. Skinner,
John Dement, G. S. Eldridge, James W. English, David Ellis,
Westel W. Sedgwick, Charles F. Springer, John L. Tincher,
C. Truesdale,
Ferris Forman,
Henry Tubbs,
I, GEORGE H. HARLOW. Secretary of the State of Illinois, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the constitution of the State of Illinois adopted in conven ion the 13th day of May, 1870, ratified by a vo'e of the people the 2th day of July, 1875, and in force on the 8th day of Aug ist, 1875, and now on file in th s office. In testimony whereof I hereto set my hand and affix the Great Seal of State, at the city of Springfield, this 31st day of March, A. D. 1873.
GEO. H. HARLOW, Secretary of State.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nitire and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ; that they are en- d >wed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abol- ish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under ab- solute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of govern- ment. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this let facts be submitted to a candid world :
He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained ; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature ; a right inestima- ble to thein, and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused, for a long time after such dissolution, to chiuse others to be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilatic.1, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the danger of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States ; for that purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for estab- lishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
Hc has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. Ile has combined, with others, to subject u ; to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation.
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment, for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States.
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world :
For imposing taxes on us without our consent :
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury :
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences :
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies :
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundament- ally, the powers of our governments :
For suspending our own legislatures, and dechiring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.
H: has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the work of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and lias endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
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