USA > Illinois > De Witt County > History of De Witt county, Illinois. With illustrations descriptive of the scenery, and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers > Part 71
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¿ 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 be reached hy 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.
2 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 THE CONSTITUTION.
¿ 1. By a Constitutional Convention.
| 2 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 the 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 paymentof 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 submitted and approved by a majority of tbe 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- sembly, 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 each 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 'be same article oftner than once in four years.
SEPARATE SECTIONS.
Ill'nis Central Railroad. Illinois 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. 10, 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 submittedto 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.
& I. Laws in force remain valid. 2. Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures. 2 3. Recognizances, Bonds, Obligations,
4. Present courty Courts continued.
5. All existing Court- continued. 6. Persons now in Office continued.
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 :
¿ 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 he as valid as if this constitution had not been adopted.
¿ 2. That all fines, taxes, penalties and forfeitnres, 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.
¿ 3. Recognizances, honds, 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 geoeral law.
¿ 5. All existing courts which are not in this constitution specially enumerated, 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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¿ 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.
¿ 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.
¿ 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 indebtedness for rail- road or municipal purposes, for which the people of said city shall have voted, and to which they shall have given, by 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 revenue, 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.
Thomas J. Turner,
Robert A. King,'
William J. Allen, John Abbott,
Jas. McCoy,
John P. Gamble,
Win. L. Vandeventer,
James C. Allen,
William C. Goodhne,
John C. Haines,
George E. Wait,
Wm. R. Archer,
Joseph Medill,
Elijah M. Haines,
Clifton H. Moore,
John W. Hankins,
R. B. Sutherland, D. C. Wagner,
James G. Bayne, R. M. Benjamin,
Joseph Parker, Samuel C. Parks,
Joseph Hart,
H. P. H. Brownwell,
Abel Harwood,
O. H. Browning,
J. S. Poage,
Silas L. Bryon,
James P. Robinson,
Lewis W. Ross,
William P. l'ierce,
Lawrence S. Church,
N. J. Pillsbury,
Daniel Shepard, First Assistant Secretary.
Hiram H. Cody,
James M. Sharp,
Alfred M. Craig,
Henry Sherrell,
Robert J. Cross,
Wm. H. Snyder,
Samuel P. Cummings,
O. C. Skinner,
John Dement,
Westel W. Sedgwick,
G. S. Eldridge,
Charles F. Springer,
James W. English,
John L. Tincher,
David Ellis,
C. Truesdale,
Ferris Forman,
Henry Tubbs,
GEO. H. HARLOW, Secretary of State.
AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.
Amending section 31, article 4. Proposed by the General Assembly, 1877, ratified by a vote of the people November 5, 1878, proclaimed adopted by the Governor November 29, 1878
SECTION 31. ARTICLE 4.
The General Assembly inay pass laws permitting the owner, of lands to construct drains, ditches and levees for agricultural, sanitary and mining purposes across the lands of others, and provide for the organi- zation of drainage districts, and vest the corporate authorities thereof with power to construct and maintain levees, drains an i ditches, and to keep in repair all d ains, ditches and lever, heretofore constructed under the laws of ibis State, by special assessments upon the property benefited thereby.
Amending section 8, article to. Proposed by the General Assembly, 1879, ralified by a vote of the people November 2, 1880, proclaimed adopted by the Governor November 22, 1880:
SECTION 8, ARTICLE IO.
In ea h county there shall be elected the following county officers, at the general elect on to he held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. A. D. 1882: A county udg., county clerk, sheriff, and treasu- rer, and at the el ction to be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. A D. 1584, ac roner and clerk of the circuit cour , who may be ex-officio recorder of deeds, except in counties baving 60,oco and more inhabitants, in which counties a recordero deeds shall be elected at the general election in 1884 . Each of sa d officers shall enter upon the duties of his office, respectively, on the first Monday of December afier his election, and they shall hold their respective offi es for the term of four years, and until their successors are elected and qualified: Provided, that no person having once been elected to the office of sheriff, or trea- surer, shall be eligible to re-election to said uthce for four years after the expiration of the term for which be shall have been elected.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
When, in the course of buman events, it becomes necessary for oue 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 niture 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- dowed 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 eads, 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, a l 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, pursning invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under ah- 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 Brit tin is a history of repeated injuries an 1 usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over the,e States. To prove this let facts be submitte.I to a candid world1 :
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 an I pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained ; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to then.
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 inestim.1- ble to thein, and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative borlie, 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 cause others to be elected ; whereby the legislative power-, incapable of annihilatic., 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 convulsion, 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 he tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He 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.
He his combined, with others, to subject us 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 115, 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 ar'sitr ury government, and enlarging its boun Iaries, so a, to ren ler it at once au 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 declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cise, whatsoever.
Ile has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.
He 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 circumstance, of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nition.
He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their cou itry, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves hy their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has 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.
In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren We have warned them from time to time, of attempts made by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdic- tion over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevit- ably interrupt our connections an I correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GEN- ERAL CONGRESS assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemn'y publish and declaire, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are ahsolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is, and o.ight to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace. contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And, for the support of this declaration, and a firm reliance on the protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
JOHN HANCOCK.
Henry I. Atkins,
Jonathan Merriam,
R. P. Hanna,
George R. Wendling,
Peleg S. Perley,
Milton IIay,
L. D. Whiting,
Wm. G. Bowman,
Samuel Snowden Hayes,
John H. Wilson,
Jesse S. Hildrup,
Orlando 11. Wright.
H. P. Buxton, Daniel Cameron, William Cary,
Jno. Scholfield,
A. H. Swain, Second Assistant Secretary.
W. F. Coolbaugh,
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ss. Office of Secretary.
STATE OF ILLINOIS.
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 Ul.noi, adopted in conven ion the 13th day of May. 1875, ratified by a vo e of the peo de the 2th day of July, 187 , and in force of th Bilty of August, 1375, and now on file in th s office. In testimony whereof I hereto set my hand aal affix the Great Seal of State, at the city of Springfield, this 31st day of March, A. D. 1873.
Tesse C. Fox,
Miles A. Fuller,
Wm. H. Underwood,
Charles E. McDowell,
Addison Goodell,
Henry W. Wells,
Elliott Anthony,
George W. Wall,
Chas. Wheaton,
Edward V. Rice,
ATTEST :- John Q. Harmon, Secretary.
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
WE, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, estat lish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the gener: 1 welfare, and secure the llessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish tnis CONSTITUTION for the United States of America.
ARTICLE I.
SECTION 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall le vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
SECTION 2. The House of Representatives shall Le composed of members chosen every second year by the people of tbe several States, and the electors in cach State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.
No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attaincd to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.
Representatives and direct taxes shall l.e apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be deter- mined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those Lound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative ; and until such enumeration shall be suade, the State of New Hamphsire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Provide nce Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia, ten, North Carolina five, and Georgia three.
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