USA > Nebraska > The history and government of Nebraska > Part 10
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SEC. 18. Justices of the peace and police magistrates shall be elected in and for such districts, and have and exercise such jurisdiction as may be provided by law; Provided, That no justice of the peace shall have jurisdiction JUS- TICES of any civil case where the amount in controversy OF THE shall exceed two hundred dollars, nor in a crimi- PEACE, nal case where the punishment may exceed three months imprisonment, or a fine of over one hun- dred dollars, nor in any matter wherein the title or bounda- ries of land may be in dispute.
SEC. 19. All laws relating to courts shall be general and of uniform operation, and the organization, jurisdiction, powers, proceedings, and practice of all courts of the same class or grade, so far as regulated by law and the force and effect of the proceedings, judgments, and decrees of such courts severally, shall be uniform.
SEC. 20. All officers provided for in this article shall hold their offices until their successors shall be qualified, and they TERMS shall respectively reside in the district, county, or OF OF- precinct for which they shall be elected or ap- FICE. pointed. The terms of office for all such officers, when not otherwise prescribed in this article, shall be
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two years. All officers, when not otherwise provided for in this article, shall perform such duties and receive such compensation as may be provided by law.
SEC. 21. In case the office of any judge of the supreme court, or of any district court shall become vacant before
the expiration of the regular term for which lie
VACAN- CIESIN
was elected, the vacancy shall be filled by appoint-
OF- ment by the governor, until a sucessor shall be FICES elected and qualified, and such successor shall be OF elected for the unexpired term at the first general JUDGES. election that occurs more than thirty days after the vacancy shall have happened. Vacancies in all other elective offices provided for in this article shall be filled by election, but when the unexpired term does not exceed one year, the vacancy may be filled by appointment, in such manner as the legislature may provide.
SEC. 22. The State may sue and be sued, and the legisla- ture shall provide, by law, in what manner and in what courts suits shall be brought.
SEC. 23. The several judges of the courts of record shall have jurisdiction at chambers as may be provided by law.
SEC. 24. All process shall run in the name of " The State of Nebraska," and all prosecutions shall be carried on in the name of " The State of Nebraska."
ARTICLE VII .- RIGHTS OF SUFFRAGE.
SECTION 1. Every male person of the age of twenty-one years or upwards, belonging to either of the following classes, who shall have resided in the State six months, and in the county, precinct, or ward, for the term provided by law, shall be an elector.
First. Citizens of the United States.
Second. Persons of foreign birth who shall have declared their intention to become citizens conformably to the laws of the United States, on the subject of naturalization, at least thirty days prior to an election.
SEc. 2. No person shall be qualified to vote who is non compos mentis, or who has been convicted of treason or felony under the law of the State, or of the United States, unless restored to civil rights.
Sec. 3. Every elector in the actual military service, of the United States, or of this State, and not in the regular army, may exercise the right of suffrage at such place, and under such regulations as may be provided by law.
Sec. 4. No soldier, seaman, or marine, in the army and navy of the United States, shall be deemed a resident of the State in consequence of being stationed therein.
SEc. 5. Electors shall in all cases, except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at elections, and going to and returning from
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the same, and no elector shall be obliged to do military duty on the days of election, except in time of war and public danger.
SEC. 6. All votes shall be by ballot.
ARTICLE VIII .- EDUCATION.
SECTION 1. The governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorney-general, and commissioner of public lands and
buildings shall, under the direction of the legisla-
BOARD ture, constitute a board of commissioners for the
OF SCHOOL sale, leasing, and general management of all lands LANDS. and funds set apart for educational purposes, and
for the investment of school funds in such man- ner as may be prescribed by law
SEC. 2. All lands, money, or other property, granted, or bequeathed, or in any manner conveyed to this State for educational purposes, shall be used and expended in ac- cordance with the terms of such grant, bequest, or convey- ance.
SEC. 3. The following are hereby declared to be perpetual funds for common school purposes, of which the annual in- terest or income only can be appropriated, to-wit :
First. Such per centum as has been, or may hereafter be granted by congress on the sale of lands in this State.
Second. All moneys arising from the sale or leasing of sections number sixteen and thirty-six in each township in this State, and the lands selected, or that may be selected in lieu thereof.
Third. The proceeds of all lands that have been or may hereafter be granted to this State, where, by the terms and conditions of such grant the same are not to be otherwise appropriated.
Fourth. The net proceeds of lands and other property and effects that may come to the State, by escheat or forfei- ture, or from unclaimed dividends, or distributive shares of the estates of deceased persons.
Fifth. All moneys, stocks, bonds, lands and other prop- erty, now belonging to the common school fund.
SEC. 4. All other grants, gifts, and devises that have or may hereafter be made to this State, and not otherwise appropriated by the terms of the grant, gift, or TEMPO- devise, the interest arising from all the funds men- RARY tioned in the preceding section, together with all
SCHOOL FUND. the rents of the unsold school lands, and such other means as the legislature may provide, shall be ex- clusively applied to the support and maintenance of com- mon schools in each district in the State.
SEC. 5. All fines, penalties, and license moneys arising under the general laws of the State, shall belong and be paid over to the counties, respectively, where the same
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may be levied or imposed, and all fines, penalties, and
FINES, license moneys arising under the rules, by-laws, or PENAL- Ordinances of cities, villages, towns, precincts, or TIES, other municipal sub-divisions less than a county, AND LI- shall belong and be paid over to the same respect- CENSE ively. All such fines, penalties and license moneys MONEYS shall be appropriated exclusively to the use and support of common schools in the respective subdivisions where the same may accrue.
SEc. 6. The legislature shall provide for the free instruc- tion in common schools of this State, of all persons between the ages of five and twenty-one years.
SEC. 7. Provisions shall be made by general law for an equitable distribution of the income of the fund set apart for the support of the common schools, among the several school distr ets of the State, and no appropriation shall be made from said fund to any district for the year in which school is not maintained at least three months.
SEC. 8. University, agricultural college, common school, or other lands, which are now held, or may hereafter be ac- quired by the State for educational purposes, shall not be sold for less than seven dollars per acre, nor less than the appraised value.
Sec. 9. All funds belonging to the State for educational purposes. the interest and income whereof only are to be used, shall be deemed trust funds held by the State,
FUNDS
TO RE- MAIN and the State shall supply all losses thereof that may in any manner accrue, so that the same shall INVIO- remain forever inviolate and undiminished ; and LATE. shall not be invested or loaned except on United States or state securities, or registered connty bonds of this State; and such funds, with the interest and income thereof, are hereby solemnly pledged for the purposes for which they are granted and set apart, and shall not be transferred to any other fund for other nses.
SEC. 10. The general government of the university of Ne- braska shall, under the direction of the legislature, be vested in a board of six regents, to be styled the
GOV-
ERN- board of regents of the university of Nebraska,
MENT who shall be elected by the electors of the State at OF UNI- large, and their term of office, except those chosen VER- SITY. at the first election, as hereinafter provided, shall be six years. Their duties and powers shall be pre- scribed by law; and they shall receive no compensation, but may be reimbursed their actual expenses incurred in the dis- charge of their duties.
SEC. 11. No sectarian instruction shall be allowed in any school or institution supported in whole or in part by the public funds set apart for educational purposes; nor shall the State accept any grant, conveyance, or bequest of money,
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lands or other property, to be used for sectarian purposes.
SEC. 12. The legislature may provide by law for the es- tablishment of a school or schools for the safe 'keeping, ed- ucation, employment, and reformation of all children under the age of sixteen years, who, for want of proper parental care, or other cause, are growing up in mendicancy or crime.
ARTICLE IX .- REVENUE AND FINANCE.
SECTION 1. The legislature shall provide such revenue as may be needful, by levying a tax by valuation, so that every person or corporation shall pay a tax in proportion to the value of his, her, or its property and franchises, the value to be ascertained in such manner as the legislature MINOR shall direct, and it shall have power to tax ped- TAXES.
dlers, auctioneers, brokers, hawkers, commission merchants, showmen, jugglers, inn-keepers, liquor dealers, toll bridges, ferries, insurance, telegraph and express inter- ests or business, venders of patents, in such manner as it shall direct by general law, uniform as to the class upon which it operates.
SEC. 2. The property of the State, connties and municipal corporations, both real and personal, shall be exempt from taxation, and such other property as may be used exclu- sively for agricultural andhorticultural societies, for school,
religious, cemetery and charitable purposes, mav
LANDS
EX- be exempted from taxation, but such exemptions EMPTEDShall be only by general law. In the assessment of FROM all real estate encumbered by public easement, any
TAXA-
TION. depreciation occasioned by such easement may be deducted in the valuation of such property. The legislature may provide that the increased value of lands, by reason of live fences, fruit and forest trees grown and cultivated thereon, shall not be taken into account in the assessment thereof.
SEC. 3. The right of redemption from all sales of real es- tate, for the non-payment of taxes or special assessments of any character whatever, shall exist in favor of owners and persons interested in such real estate for a period of notless than two years from such sales thereof; Provided, That oc- cupants shall in all cases be served with personal notice be- fore the time of redemption expires.
SEC. 4. The legislature shall have no power to release or discharge any county, city, township, town, or district whatever, or the inhabitants thereof, or any corporation, or the property therein, from their or its proportionate share of taxes to be levied for state purposes, or due any munici- pal corporation, nor shall commutation for such taxes be authorized in any form whatever.
SEC. 5. County authorities shall never assess taxes the
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aggregate of which shall exceed one and a half dollars per hundred dollars valuation, except for the payment of indebt- edness existing at the adoption of this constitution, unless authorized by a vote of the people of the county.
SEC. 6. The legislature may vest the corporate authori- ties of cities, towns, and villages, with power to make local improvements by special assessments, or by special taxa- tion of property benefited. For all other corporate pur- poses, all municipal corporations may be vested with au- thority to assess and collect taxes, but such taxes shall be uniform in respect to persons and property within the juris- dietion of the body imposing the same.
SEC. 7. Private property shall not beliable to be taken or sold for the payment of the corporate debts of municipal corporations. The legislature shall not impose taxes upon municipal corporations, or the inhabitants or property thereof, for corporate purposes.
SEC. 8. The legislature at its first session shall provide by law for the funding of all outstanding warrants and other indebtedness of the state, at a rate of interest not exceeding eight per cent per annum.
SEC. 9. The legislature shall provide by law that all claims upon the treasury shall be examined and adjusted by the auditor and approved by the secretary of state before any warrant for the amount allowed shall be drawn; Pro- vided, That a party aggrieved by the decision of the auditor and secretary of state may appeal to [the] district court.
ARTICLE [X.]-COUNTIES.
SECTION 1. No new county shall be formed or established by the legislature which will reduce the county or counties, or either of them, to a less area than four hundred square miles, nor shall any county be formed of a less area.
SEC. 2. No county shall be divided, or have any part stricken therefrom without first 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.
SEC. 3. There shall be no territory stricken from any or- ganized county unless a majority of the voters living in such territory shall petition for such division, and no territory shall be added to any organized county without the consent of the majority of the voters of the county to which it is proposed to be added; but the portion so stricken off and added to another county, or formed in whole or in part into a new county, shall be holden for and obliged to pay its pro- portion of the indebtedness of the counties from which it has been taken.
SEC. 4. The legislature shall provide by law for the elec- tion of such county and township officers as may be neces- sary.
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SEC. 5. The legislature shall provide by general law for township organization, under which any county mayorgan- ize whenever a majority of the legal voters of such county, voting at any general election, shall so determine; and in any county that shall have adopted a township organiza- tion, the question of continuing the same may be submit- ted to a vote of the electors of such county at a general election in the manner that shall be provided by law.
ARTICLE [XI. ]-RAILROAD CORPORATIONS.
SECTION 1. Every railroad corporation organized or do- ing business in this State, under the laws or authority thereof, or of any other state, or of the United States, shall have and maintain a public office or place in this State for the transaction of its business, where transfers of stock shall be made, and in which shall be kept, for public inspection, books in which shall be recorded
RAIL- ROAD COR- PORA-
TIONS. the amount of capital stock subscribed, and by
whom, the names of the owners of its stock, and theamounts owned by them respectively, the amount of stock paid in and by whom, the transfers of said stock, theamount of its assets and liabilities, and the names and places of res- idence of its officers. The directors of every railroad corpor- ation, or other parties having control of its road, shall annually make a report, under oath, to the auditor of pub- lic accounts, or some officer to be designated by law, of the amount received from passengers and freight, and such other matters relating to railroads as may be prescribed by law. And the legislature shall pass laws enforcing by suitable penalties the provisions of this section.
SEC. 2. The rolling stock and all other movable property belonging to any railroad company or corporation in this State shall be liable to execution and sale in the same man- ner as the personal property of individuals, and the legisla- ture shall pass no law exempting any such property from execution and sale.
SEC. 3. No railroad corporation or telegraph company shall consolidate its stock. property, franchises, or earn- ings, in whole or in part, with any other railroad corpora- tion or telegraph company owning a parallel or competing line; and in no case shall any consolidation take place ex- cept upon public notice of at least sixty days to all stock- holders in such manner as may be provided by law.
SEC. 4. Railways heretofore constructed or that may here- after be constructed in this State, are hereby declared pub- lic highways, and shall be free to all persons for the trans- portation of their persons and property thereon, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law. And the legisla- ture may from time to time pass lawsestablishing reasonable maximum rates of charges for the transportation of passen-
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gers and freight on the different railroads in this State. The liability of railroad corporations as common carriers shall never be limited.
SEC. 5. No railroad corporation shall issue any stock or bonds except for money, labor, or property actually re- ceived and applied to the purposes for which such corpora- tion was created, and all stock, dividends, and other ficti- tious increase of the capital stock or indebtedness of any such corporation shall be void. The capital stock of railway corporations shall not be increased for any purpose, except after public notice for sixty days, in such manner as may be provided by law.
SEC. 6. The exercise of the power and the right of eminent domain shall never be so construed or abridged as to pre- vent the taking, by the legislature, of the property and fran- chises of incorporated companies already organized or hereafter to be organized, and subjecting them to the pub- lie necessity, the same as individuals.
SEC. 7. The legislature shall pass laws to correct abuses, and prevent unjust discrimination and extortion in all charges of express, telegraph, and railroad companies m this State, and enforce such laws by adequate penalties to the extent, if necessary for that purpose, of forfeiture of their property and franchises.
SEC. 8. No railroad corporation, organized under the laws of any other state, or of the United States, and doing busi- ness in this State, shall be entitled to exercise the right of eminent domain, or have power to acquire the right of way, or real estate for depot or other uses, until it shall have be- come a body corporate pursuant to and in accordance with the laws of this State.
ARTICLE [XII. ]-MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.
SECTION 1. No city, county, town, precinct, municipality, or other subdivision of the State, shall ever become a sub- scriber to the capital stock, or owner of such stock, or any portion of interest therein, of any railroad or private cor- poration, or association.
ARTICLE [XIII. ]-MISCELLANEOUS CORPORATIONS.
SECTION 1. No corporation shall be created by special law, nor its charter extended, changed, or amended, except those for charitable, educational, penal, or reformatory pur- poses, which are to be and remain under the patronage and control of the State, but thelegislature shall provide by gen- eral laws for the organizations of all corporations hereafter to be created. All general laws passed pursuant to this sec- tion may be altered from time to time, or repealed.
SEC. 2. No such general law shall be passed by the legis- lature granting the right to construct and operate a street
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railroad within any city, town, or incorporated village, without first requiring the consent of a majority of the elect- ors thereof.
SEC. 3. All corporations may sue and be sued in like cases as natural persons.
SEC. 4. In all cases of claims against corporations and joint stock associations, theexact amount justly due shall be firstascertained, and after thecorporate property shall have been exhausted, the original subscribers thereof shall be in- dividually liable to the extent of their unpaid subscription, and the liability for the unpaid subscription shall follow the stock.
SEC. 5. The legislature shall provide by law that in all elec- tions for directors or managers of incorporated compan- ies every stockholder shall [have] theright to vote in person or proxy for the number of sharesofstock owned by him, for as many persons as there are directors or managers to be elected, or to cumulate said shares and give one candidate as many votes as the number of directors multiplied by the number of his shares of stock shail equal, or to distribute them upon the same principle among as many candidates as he shall think fit; and such directors or managers shall not be elected in any other manner.
SEC. 6. All existing charters or grants of special or exclu- sive privileges under which organization shall not have taken place, or which shall not be in operation within sixty days from the time this constitution takes effect, shall thereafter have no validity or effect whatever.
SEC. 7. Every stockholder in a banking corporation or in- stitution shall be individually responsible and liable to its creditors, over and above the amount of stock by him beld, to an amount equal to his respective stock or shares so held, for all its liabilities accroing while he remains such stockholder; and all banking corporations shall publish quarterly statements, under oath, of their assets and liabil- ities.
ARTICLE [XIV. ]-STATE, COUNTY, AND MUNICIPAL INDEBTED)- NESS.
SECTION 1. The State may, to meet casual deficits or failures in therevenues, contract debts neverto exceed in the aggregate one hundred thousand dollars; and nogreater indebtedness shall be incurred except for purpose of repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection, or defending the
BONDS OF THE STATE. State in war; and provision shall be made for the payment of theinterest annually, as it shall accrue, by a tax levied for the purpose, or from other sources of reve- nue, which law providing for the payment of such interest by such tax shall be irrepealable until such debt be paid.
SEC. 2. No city, county, town, precinct, municipality
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or other subdivision of the State, shall ever make dona- tions to any railroad or other works of internal improve-
ment, unless a proposition so to do shall have been
MUNIC- first submitted to the qualified electors thereof at IPAL HELP FOR an election by authority of law; Provided, That such donations of a county with the donations of RAIL- ROADS. such subdivisions in the aggregate shall not ex- ceed ten percent of the assessed valuation of such county ; Provided further, That any city or county may, by a two-thirds vote, increase such indebtedness five per cent in addition to such ten per cent, and no bonds or evidences of indebtedness so issued shall be valid unless the same shall have endorsed thereon a certificate signed by the secretary and auditor of state, showing that the same is issued pur- suant to law.
SEC. 3. The credit of the State shall never be given or loaned in aid of any individual, association, or. corporation.
ARTICLE [XV.]-MILITIA.
SECTION 1. The legislature shall determine what persons shall constitute the militia of the State, and may provide for organizing and disciplining the same.
ARTICLE [XVI. ]-MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.
SECTION 1. Executive and judicial officers and members of the legislature, before they enter upon their official duties, shall take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation : "I dosolemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the con- stitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of Nebraska, and will faithfully discharge the duties of according to the best of my ability, and that at the election at which I was chosen to fill said office I have not improperly influenced in any way the vote of any elector, and have not accepted, nor will I accept or receive, directly or indirectly, any money or other valuable thing from any corporation, company, or person, or any promise of office for any official act or influence (for any vote I may give or withhold on any bill, resolution, or appropriation.)" Any such officer, or member of the legislature who shall refuse to take the oath herein pre- scribed, shall forfeit his office, and any person who shall be convicted of having sworn falsely to, or of violating his said oath, shall forfeit his office, and thereafter be dis- qualified from holding any office of profit or trust in this State, unless he shall have been restored to civil rights.
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