USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I > Part 54
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hereby extended to and put in force in said In- dian Territory until the legislature of said pro- posed State shall otherwise provide, and until all persons offending against said laws in the election aforesaid shall have been dealt with in the man- ner therein provided. And the United States courts of said Indian Territory shall have the same power to enforce the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma, hereby extended to and put in force in said Territory, as have the courts of the Territory of Oklahoma: Provided, however, That said board to apportion districts in Indian Territory shall, for the purpose of said election, appoint an elec- tion commissioner for each district who shall dis- tribute all ballots and election supplies to the sev- eral precincts in his district, receive the election returns from the judges in precincts, and deliver the same to the canvassing board herein named, establish and define the necessary election pre- cincts, and appoint three judges of election for .each precinct, not more than two of whom shall be of the same political party, which judges may appoint the necessary clerk or clerks; that said judges of election, so appointed, shall supervise the election in their respective precincts, and ean- vass and make due return of the vote cast, to the election commissioner for said district who shall deliver said returns, poll books, and ballots to said board, which shall constitute the ultimate and final canvassing board of said election, and they shall issue certificates of election to all persons elected to such convention from the various districts of the Indian Territory, and their certificates of elec- tion shall be prima facie evidence as to the elec- tion of delegates: Provided further, That in said Indian Territory and Osage Indian Reservation, nominations for delegate to said constitutional con- vention may be made by convention, by the Re- publican, Democratic, and People's Party, or by petition in the manner provided by the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma; and certificates and peti- tions of nomination in said Indian Territory shall be filed with the districting and canvassing board who shall perform the duties of election commis- sioner under said law, and shall prepare, print, and distribute all ballots, poll books, and election sup- plies necessary for the holding of said election under said laws. The capital of said State shall temporarily be at the city of Guthrie, in the pres- ent Territory of Oklahoma and shall not be changed therefrom previous to anno Domini nine- teen hundred and thirteen, but said capital shall, after said year, be located by the electors of said State at an election to be provided for by the legislature: Provided, however, That the legisla- ture of said State, except as shall be necessary for the convenient transaction of the public busi- ness of said State at said capital, shall not appro-
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priate any public moneys of the State for the election of buildings for capitol purposes during such period.
SEC. 3. That the delegates to the convention thus elected shall meet at the seat of government of said Oklahoma Territory on the second Tues- day after their election, excluding the day of elec- tion in case such day shall be Tuesday, but they shall not receive compensation for more than sixty days of service, and, after organization, shall de- clare, on behalf of the people of said proposed State, that they adopt the Constitution of the United States; whereupon the said convention shall, and is hereby authorized to, form a consti- tution and State government for said proposed State. The constitution shall be republican in form, and make no distinction in civil or political rights on account of race or color, and shall not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. And said convention shall provide in said constitution-
First. That perfect toleration of religious sen- timent shall be secured, and that no inhabitant of said State shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of re- ligious worship, and that polygamous or plural marriages are forever prohibited.
Second. That the manufacture, sale, barter, giving away, or otherwise furnishing, except as hereinafter provided, of intoxicating liquors within those parts of said State now known as the In- dian Territory and the Osage Indian Reservation and within any other parts of said State which existed as Indian reservations on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and six, is prohibited for a period of twenty-one years from the date of the admission of said State into the Union, and thereafter until the people of said State shall otherwise provide by amendment of said constitu- tion and proper State legislation. Any person, individual or corporate, who shall manufacture, sell, barter, give away, or otherwise furnish any intoxicating liquor of any kind, including beer, ale, and wine, contrary to the provisions of this section, or who shall, within the above-described portions of said State, advertise for sale or solicit the purchase of any such liquors, or who shall ship or in any way convey such liquors from other parts of said State into the portions hereinbefore described, shall be punished, on conviction thereof, by fine not less than fifty dollars and by imprison- ment not less than thirty days for each offense: Provided, That the legislature may provide by law for one agency under the supervision of said State in each incorporated town of not less than two thousand population in the portions of said State hereinbefore described; and if there be no incorpo- rated town of two thousand population in any
county in said portions of said State, such county shall be entitled to have one such agency, for the sale of such liquors for medicinal purposes; and for the sale, for industrial purposes, of alcohol which shall have been denaturized by some process approved by the United States Commissioner of Internal Revenue; and for the sale of alcohol for scientific purposes to such scientific institution, universities, and colleges as are authorized to pro- cure the same free of tax under the laws of the United States; and for the sale of such liquors to any apothecary who snall have executed an ap- proved bond, in a sum not less than one thousand dollars, conditioned that none of such liquors shall be used or disposed of for any purpose other than in the compounding of prescriptions or other medi- cines, the sale of which would not subject him to the payment of the special tax required of liquor dealers by the United States, and the payment of such special tax by any person within the parts of said State hereinabove defined shall constitute prima facie evidence of his intention to violate the provisions of this section. No sale shall be made except upon the sworn statement of the applicant in writing setting forth the purpose for which the liquor is to be used, and no sale shall be made for medicinal purposes except sales to apothecaries as hereinabove provided unless such statement shall be accompanied by a bona fide prescription signed by a regular practicing physician, which prescrip- tion shall not be filled more than once. Each sale shall be duly registered, and the register thereof, together with the affidavits and the prescriptions pertaining thereto, shall be open to inspection by any officer or citizen of said State at all times during business hours. Any person who shall knowingly make a false affidavit for the purpose aforesaid shall be deemed guilty of perjury. Any physician who shall prescribe any such liquor, ex- cept for treatment of disease which after his own personal diagnosis he shall deem to require such treatment, shall, upon conviction thereof, be pun- ished for each offense by fine of not less than two hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not less than thirty days, or by both such fine and impris- onment; and any person connected with any such agency who shall be convicted of making any sale or other disposition of liquor contrary to these provisions shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one year and one day. Upon the admission of said State into the Union these provisions shall be immediately enforceable in the courts of said State.
Third. That the people inhabiting said proposed State do agree and declare that they forever dis- claim all right and title in or to any unappropriat- ed public lands lying within the boundaries there- of, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian, tribe, or nation; and that
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until the title to any such public land shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the jurisdiction, dis- posal, and control of the United States. That land belonging to citizens of the United States residing without the limits of said State shall never be taxed at a higher rate than the land be- longing to residents thereof; that no taxes shall be imposed by the State on lands or property be- longing to or which may hereafter be purchased by the United States or reserved for its use.
Fourth. That the debts and liabilities of said Territory of Oklahoma shall be assumed and paid by said State.
Fifth. That provisions shall be made for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public schools, which shall be open to all the chil- dren of said State and free from sectarian con- trol; and said schools shall always be conducted in English: Provided, That nothing herein shall preclude the teaching of other languages in said public schools: And provided further, That this shall not be construed to prevent the establishment and maintenance of separate schools for white and colored children.
Sixth. That said State shall never enact any law restricting or abridging the right of suffrage on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
SEC. 4. That in case a constitution and State government shall be formed in compliance with the provisions of this Act the convention forming the same shall provide by ordinance for submitting said constitution to the people of said proposed State for its ratification or rejection at an election to be held at a time fixed in said ordinance, at which election the qualified voters for said pro- posed State shall vote directly for or against the proposed constitution, and for or against any pro- visions separately submitted. The returns of said election shall be made to the secretary of the Ter- ritory of Oklahoma, who, with the chief justice thereof and the senior judge of the United States court of appeals for the Indian Territory, shall canvass the same; and if a majority of the legal votes cast on that question shall be for the con- stitution the governor of Oklahoma Territory and the judge senior in service of the United States court of appeals for the Indian Territory shall certify the result to the President of the United States, together with the statement of the votes cast' thereon, and upon separate articles or propo- sitions and a copy of said constitution, articles, propositions, and ordinances. And if the consti- tution and government of said proposed State are republican in form, and if the provisions in this. Act have been complied with in the formation thereof, it shall be the duty of the President of the United States, within twenty days from the
receipt of the certificate of the result of said elec- tion and the statement of votes cast thereon and a copy of said constitution, articles, propositions, and ordinances, to issue his proclamation announcing the result of said election; and thereupon the pro- posed State of Oklahoma shall be deemed admitted by Congress into the Union, under and by virtue of this Act, on an equal footing with the original States. The original of said constitution, articles, propositions, and ordinances, and the election re- turns, and a copy of the statement of the votes cast at said election, shall be forwarded and turned over by the secretary of the Territory of Okla- homa to the State authorities of said State.
SEC. 5. That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the de fraying of the expenses of the elections provided for in this Act, and said convention, and for the payment of the members thereof, under the same rules and regulations and at the same rates as are now provided by law for the payment of the Ter- ritorial legislature of the Territory of Oklahoma, and the disbursements of the money appropriated by this section shall be made by the secretary of the Territory of Oklahoma.
SEC. 6. That until the next general census, or until otherwise provided by law, the said State of Oklahoma shall be entitled to five Representatives in the House of Representatives of the United States, to be elected from the following-described districts, the boundaries of which shall remain the same until the next general census:
That district numbered one shall comprise the counties of Grant, Kay, Garfield, Noble, Pawnee, Kingfisher, Logan, Payne, Lincoln, and the ter- ritory comprising the Osage and Kansas Indian reservations.
That district numbered two shall comprise the counties of Oklahoma, Canadian, Blaine, Caddo, Custer, Dewey, Day, Woods, Woodward, and Bea- ver.
That district numbered three shall (with the ex- ception of that part of recording district, numbered twelve, which is in the Cherokee and Creek na- tions) comprise all the territory now constituting the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole nations, and the Indian reservations lying northeast of the Chero- kee Nation, within said State.
That district numbered four shall comprise all that territory now constituting the Choctaw Na- tion, that part of recording district numbered twelve which is in the Cherokee and Creek nations, that part of recording district numbered twenty- five which is in the Chickasaw Nation, and the territory comprising recording districts numbered sixteen, twenty-one, twenty-two, and twenty-six, in the Indian Territory.
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That district numbered five shall comprise the counties of Greer, Roger Mills, Kiowa, Washita, Comanche, Cleveland, and Pottawatomie, and the territory comprising recording destricts numbered seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty, in the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory.
And the said Representatives, together with the governor and other officers provided for in said constitution, shall be elected on the same day of the election for the ratification or rejection of the constitution; and until said officers are elected and qualified under the provisions of such constitu- tion and the said State is admitted into the Union, the Territorial officers of Oklahoma Territory shall continue to discharge the duties of their respec- tive offices in said Territory.
SEC. 7. That upon the admission of the State into the Union sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six, in every township in Oklahoma Terri- tory, and all indemnity lands heretofore selected in lieu thereof, are hereby granted to the State for the use and benefit of the common schools: Pro- vided, That sections sixteen and thirty-six em- braced in permanent reservations for national pur- poses shall not at any time be subject to the grant nor the indemnity provisions of this Act, nor shall any lands embraced in Indian, military, or other reservations of any character, nor shall land owned by Indian tribes or individual members of any tribe be subjected to the grants or to the indem- nity provisions of this Act until the reservation shall have been extinguished and such lands be restored to and become a part of the public do- main: Provided, That there is sufficient untaken public land within said State to cover this grant: And provided, That in case any of the lands here- in granted to the State of Oklahoma have hereto- fore been confirmed to the Territory of Okla- homa for the purposes specified in this Act, the amount so confirmed shall be deducted from the quantity specified in this Act.
There is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of five million dollars for the use and benefit of the common schools of said State in lieu of sec- tions sixteen and thirty-six, and other lands of the Indian Territory. Said appropriation shall be paid by the Treasurer of the United States at such time and to such person or persons as may be authorized by said State to receive the same under laws to be enacted by said State, and until said State shall enact such laws said appropriation shall not be paid, but said State shall be allowed in- terest thereon at the rate of three per centum per annum, which shall be paid to said State for the use and benefit of its public schools. Said appro- priation of five million dollars shall be held and invested by said State, in trust, for the use and benefit of said schools, and the interest thereon
shall be used exclusively in the support and main- tenance of said schools: Provided, That nothing in this Act contained shall repeal or affect any Act of Congress relating to the Sulphur Springs Reser- vation as now defined or as may be hereafter de- fined or extended, or the power of the United States over it or any other lands embraced in the State hereafter set aside by Congress as a national park, game preserve, or for the preservation of objects of archaeological or ethnological interest; and nothing contained in this Act shall interfere with the rights and ownership of the United States in any land hereafter set aside by Congress as a national park, game preserve, or other reservation, or in the said Sulphur Springs Reservation, as it now is or may be hereafter defined or extended by law; but exclusive legislation, in all cases what- soever, shall be exercised by the United States, which shall have exclusive control and jurisdiction over the same; but nothing in this proviso con- tained shall be construed to prevent the service within said Sulphur Springs Reservation or na- tional parks, game preserves, and other reserva- tions hereafter established by law, of civil and criminal processes lawfully issued by the authority of said State, and said State shall not be entitled to select indemnity school lands for the thirteenth, sixteenth, thirty-third, and thirty-sixth sections that may be embraced within the metes and bounds of the national park, game preserve, and other reservation or the said Sulphur Springs Reservation, as now defined or may be hereafter defined.
SEC. 8. That section thirteen in the Cherokee Outlet, the Tonkawa Indian Reservation, and the Pawnee Indian Reservation, reserved by the Presi- dent of the United States by proclamation issued August nineteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety- three, opening to settlement the said lands, and by any Act or Acts of Congress since said date, and section thirteen in all other lands which have been or may be opened to settlement in the Ter- ritory of Oklahoma, and all lands heretofore se- lected in lieu thereof, is hereby reserved and grant- ed to said State for the use and benefit of the University of Oklahoma and the University Pre- paratory School, one-third; of the normal schools now established or hereafter to be established, one- third; and of the Agricultural and Mechanical College and the Colored Agricultural Normal Uni- versity, one-third. The said lands or the proceeds thereof as above apportioned shall be divided be- tween the institutions as the legislature of said State may prescribe : Provided, That the said lands so reserved or the proceeds of the sale thereof shall be safely kept or invested and held by said State, and the income thereof, interest, rentals, or otherwise, only shall be used exclusively for the benefit of said educational institutions. Such
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educational institutions shall remain under the ex- clusive control of said State, and no part of the proceeds arising from the sale or disposal of any lands herein granted for educational purposes, or the income or rentals thereof, shall be used for the support of any religious or sectarian school, college, or university.
That section thirty-three, and all lands hereto- fore selected in lieu thereof, heretofore reserved under said proclamation, and Acts for charitable and penal institutions and public buildings, shall be apportioned and disposed of as the legislature of said State may prescribe.
Where any part of the lands granted by this Act to the State of Oklahoma are valuable for minerals, which terms shall also include gas and oil, such lands shall not be sold by the said State prior to January first, nineteen hundred and fifteen; but the same may be leased for periods not ex- ceeding five years by the State officers duly au- thorized for that purpose, such leasing to be made by public competition after not less than thirty days' advertisement in the manner to be prescribed by law, and all such leasing shall be done under sealed bids and awarded to the highest responsible bidder. The leasing shall require and the adver- tisement shall specify in each case a fixed royalty to be paid by the successful bidder, in addition to any bonus offered for the lease, and all proceeds from leases shall be covered into the fund to which they shall properly belong, and no transfer or as signment of any lease shall be valid or confer any right in the assignee without the consent of the proper State authorities in writing: Provided, how- ever, That agricultural lessees in possession of such lands shall be reimbursed by the mining lessees for all damage done to said agricultural lessees' interest therein by reason of such mining operations. The legislature of the State may pre- scribe additional legislation governing such leases not in conflict herewith.
SEC. 9. That said sections sixteen and thirty- six, and lands taken in lieu thereof, herein granted for the support of the common schools, if sold, may be appraised and sold at public sale in one hundred and sixty acre tracts or less, under such rules and regulations as the legislature of the said State may prescribe, preference right to purchase at the highest bid being given to the lessee at the time of such sale, the proceeds to constitute a per- manent school fund, the interest of which only shall be expended in the support of such schools. But said lands may, under such regulations as the legislature may prescribe, be leased for periods not to exceed ten years; and such lands shall not be subject to homestead entry or any other entry under the land laws of the United States, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, but shall be reserved for school purposes only.
SEC. 10. That said sections thirteen and thirty- three, aforesaid, if sold, may be appraised and sold at public sale, in one hundred and sixty acre tracts or less, under such rules and regulations as the legislature of said State may prescribe, preference right to purchase at the highest bid being given to the lessee at the time of such sale, but such lands may be leased for periods of not more than five years, under such rules and regulations as the legislature shall prescribe, and until such time as the legislature shall prescribe such rules these and all other lands granted to the State shall be leased under existing rules and regulations, and shall not be subject to homestead entry or any other entry under the land laws of the United States, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, but shall be reserved for designated purposes only, and until such time as the legislature shall prescribe as aforesaid such lands shall be leased under existing rules: Provided, That before any of the said lands shall be sold, as provided in sections nine and ten of this Act, the said lands and the improvements thereon shall be appraised by three disinterested appraisers, who shall be nonresidents of the county wherein the land is situated, to be designated as the legislature of said State shall prescribe, and the said appraisers shall make a true appraise- ment of said lands at the actual cash value thereof, exclusive of improvements, and shall separately appraise all permanent improvements thereon at their fair and reasonable value, and in case the lease-holder does not become the purchaser, the purchaser at said sale shall, under such rules and regulations as the legislature may prescribe, pay to or for the leaseholder the appraised value of said improvements, and to the State the amount bid for the said lands, exclusive of the appraised value of improvements; and at said sale no bid for any tract at less than the appraisement thereof shall be accepted.
SEC. 11. That an amount equal to five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public lands lying within said State shall be paid to the said State, to be used as a permanent fund, the interest only of which shall be expended for the support of the common schools within said State.
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