USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I > Part 63
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96
Digitized by Google
412
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
but that all the lands thus acquired for the public domain should at once be opened for the benefit of the actual homesteaders, and not given in extravagant grants to corpora- tions. His opposition to railroad control over Indian lands in Kansas is said to have cost him his reelection in 1870 and his de- feat for the United States senate in the leg- islature of 1871. His convictions as to the rights of homesteaders and his interpreta- tion of treaty laws gave Mr. Clarke a prominent position in the settlement of these questions, and one of the natural re- sults of this prominence was his connection with the lands in Indian Territory which had been ceded, for specified purposes, in the treaties of 1866. Thereafter for over a decade he led the fight in and before Con- gress for the opening to actual settlement of the western half of the Creek Nation, ยท familiarly called "Oklahoma." His story of his associations with the opening of Oklahoma is given elsewhere.
For forty years Mr. Clarke lived in the midst of the changing economic and politi- cal conditions of the west. An active con- tender on one side or the other in all the political movements of that time, his con- temporaries and associates comprise the men who made the history of the last half century. Now living in retirement in Okla- homa City, this veteran campaigner, who was one of Jim Lane's lieutenants in the free-state days of Kansas, whose name and activity in early Kansas politics are still remembered there, who from the beginning of the Oklahoma agitation until the achieve- ment of statehood was "boomer," con- gressional lobbyist, delegate and speaker and worker at all times for the advance- ment of the movement-reviews the events of the past with the kindliness and freedom from animosity that characterize a military leader who has won and lost many battles.
Without doubt Sidney Clarke is one of the most interesting historical characters of Oklahoma, possessed of an unsurpassed fund of knowledge about the development of Oklahoma, a fund that has been liberally drawn upon by the writer in the prepara- tion of this history. He lives quietly in the city which he helped found, and in a metropolis that has grown so fast in recent years, probably only a small proportion of the citizens recognize in him the man who more than any other individual was re- sponsible for the course which Oklahoma history has taken during the last twenty years.
Mr. Clarke is of Scotch descent. His ancestors were among the early settlers of Massachusetts and were among the first to protest against the oppression of the British government. His grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary army and his father served in the War of 1812. His grandmother's brother, Daniel Clarke Sanders, was a distinguished Congrega- tional clergyman, graduating at Harvard College soon after the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and for many years president of the State University at Burlington, Ver- mont. Mr. Clarke was married at Law- rence, Kansas, in 1860, to Miss Henrietta Ross, by whom he had four children, two sons and two daughters. Sidney Clarke, Jr., is a successful merchant at Shawnee, Oklahoma, and George Lincoln Clarke died in 1892. The daughters are both mar- ried-Mrs. Lulu Clarke Knowlton resid- ing at Worcester, Massachusetts, and Mrs. Ella Clarke Goodwin at Weymouth, Nova Scotia. The mother died in 1873. In 1881 Mr. Clarke was married to Miss Dora Goulding, of Topeka, Kansas, by whom he has a son and a daughter. The son, Roscoe Conkling, is a student in the Okla- homa City high school, and the daughter,
Digitized by Google
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
413
Josephine, graduated at the State Uni- versity at Norman in 1907, and is now at the head of the Latin department of the high school at Muskogee. Mrs. Clarke was prominent in the social and intellectual life
of Oklahoma City from the first settlement, and her sudden death from pneumonia in 1904 was a sad blow to the family and friends.
Digitized by
1
CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
PREAMBLE.
Invoking the guidance of Almighty God, in or- der to secure and perpetuate the blessing of lib- erty; to secure just and rightful government; to promote our mutual welfare and happiness, we, the people of the State of Oklahoma, do ordain and establish this Constitution.
ARTICLE I. Federal Relations.
SECTION 1. The State of Oklahoma is an insep- arable part of the Federal Union, and the Con- stitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land.
SEc. 2. Perfect toleration or religious sentiment shall be secured, and no inhabitant of the state shall ever be molested in person or property on ac- count of his or her mode of religious worship; and no religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights. Polygamous or plural marriages are forever prohibited.
SEC. 3. The people inhabiting the state do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title in or to any unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian, tribe or nation; and that until the title to any such public land shall have been ex- tinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the jurisdiction, disposal and control of the United States. Land belonging to citizens of the United States residing without the limits of the state shall never be taxed at a higher rate than the lands belonging to residents thereof. No taxes shall be imposed by the state on lands or property belonging to or which may hereafter be purchased by the United States or reserved for its use.
SEC. 4. The debts and liabilities of the Terri- tory of Oklahoma are hereby assumed, and shall be paid by the state.
SEC. 5. Provisions shall be made for the estab- lishment and maintenance of a system of public schools, which shall be open to all the children of the state and free from sectarian control; and said schools shall always be conducted in English; pro- vided, that nothing herein shall preclude the teach- ing of other languages in said public schools; and provided further, that this shall not be con- strued to prevent the establishment and mainte-
nance of separate schools for white and colored children.
SEC. 6. The state shall never enact any law re- stricting or abridging the right of suffrage on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.
SEC. 7. The manufacture, sale, barter, giving away, or otherwise furnishing, except as herein- after provided, of intoxicating liquors within those parts of the state heretofore known as Indian Ter- ritory and the Osage Indian reservation, and within any other parts of the state which existed as Indian reservations on the first day of Janu- ary, nineteen hundred and six, is prohibited for a period of twenty-one years from the date of the admission of the state into the union, and there- after until the people of the state shall other- wise provide by amendment to this constitution and proper state legislation. Any person, indi- vidual or corporate, who shall manufacture, sell, barter, give away or otherwise furnish any intoxi- cating liquor of any kind, including beer, ale or wine, contrary to the provisions of this section, or who shall, within the above described portion of the state advertise for sale or solicit the purchase of any such liquors, or who shall ship in any liquor from other parts of the state into the portions hereinbefore described, shall be punished, on con- viction thereof, by fine not less than fifty dollars and by imprisonment not less than thirty days for each offense; provided, that the legislature may provide by law for one agency under the super- vision of the state in each incorporated town of not less than two thousand population, in the por- tions of the state hereinbefore described; and if there be no incorporated town of two thousand population in any county in said portion of the state, such county shall be entitled to have one such agency, for the sale of such liquors for medicinal purposes and for sale, for industrial purposes, of alcohol, which shall have been de- natured by some process approved by the United States Commissioner of Internal Revenue; and for the sale of alcohol for scientific purposes to such scientific institutions, universities, and colleges as are authorized to procure the same free of tax under the laws of the United States; and for the sale of such liquors to any apothecary who shall have executed an approved bond, in the sum of not less than one thousand dollars, conditioned that none of such liquors shall be used or disposed of
414
Digitized by Google
415
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
for any purpose other than in the compounding of prescriptions or other medicines, the sale of which would not subject him to the payment of the spe- cial tax required of liquor dealers by the United States, and the payment of such special tax by any person within the parts of the 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 herein- above provided unless such statement shall be ac- companied by a bona fide prescription signed by a regularly 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 prescrip- tions pertaining thereto, shall be open to inspec- tion by any officer or citizen of the 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 per- jury. Any physician who shall prescribe any such liquor, except for treatment of disease which, after his own personal diagnosis, he shall deem to re- quire such treatment, shall, upon conviction there of, be punished 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 imprisonment; 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 imprison- ment for not less than one year and one day. Upon the admission of the state into the union, these provisions shall be immediately enforcible in the courts of the state.
ARTICLE II. Bill of Rights.
SECTION 1. All political power is inherent in the people; and government is instituted for their pro- tection, security, and benefit, and to promote their general welfare; and they have the right to alter or reform the same whenever the public good may require it; Provided, such change be not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States.
SEC. 2. All persons have the inherent right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the en- joyment of the gains of their own industry.
. SEC. 3. The people have the right peaceably to assemble for their own good, and to apply to those invested with the powers of government for re dress or grievances by petition, address, or re- monstrance.
SEC. 4. No power, civil or military, shall ever
interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage by those entitled to such right.
SEC. 5. No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, di- rectly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of re- ugion, or for the use, benefit, or support of any priest, preacher, minister, or other religious teacher or dignitary, or sectarian institution as such.
SEC. 6. The courts of justice of the state shall be open to every person, and speedy and certain remedy afforded for every wrong and for every injury to person, property, or reputation; and right and justice shall be administered without sale, denial, delay, or prejudice.
SEC. 7. No person shall be deprived of life, lib- erty, or property, without due process of law.
SEC. 8. All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses, when the proof of guilt is evident, or the presumption thereof is great.
SEC. 9. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel or unusual pun- ishments inflicted.
SEC. 10. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall never be suspended by the authorities of the state.
SEC. 11. Every person elected or appointed to any office or employment of trust or profit under the laws of the state, or under any ordinance of any municipality thereof, shall give personal atten- tion to the duties of the office to which he is elected or appointed.
SEC. 12. No member of congress from this state, or person holding any office of trust or profit under the laws of any other state, or of the United States, shall hold any office of trust or profit under the laws of this state.
SEC. 13. Imprisonment for debt is prohibited, except for the non-payment of fines and penalties imposed for the violation of law.
SEC. 14. The military shall be held in strict sub- ordination to the civil authorities. No soldier shall be quartered in any house, in time of peace, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, except in a manner to be prescribed by law.
SEC. 15. No bill of attainer, ex post facto law, nor any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall ever be passed. No conviction shall work a corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate: Pro- vided, That this provision shall not prohibit the imposition of pecuniary penalties.
SEC. 16. Treason against the state shall consist only in levying war against it or in adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No per- son shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
Digitized by
416
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
SEC. 17. No person shall be prosecuted criminally in courts of record for felony or misdemeanor otherwise than by presentment or indictment or by information. No person shall be prosecuted for a felony by information without having had a pre- liminary examination before an examining magis- trate, or having waived such preliminary examina- tion. Prosecutions may be instituted in courts not of record, upon a duly verified complaint.
SEC. 18. A grand jury shall be composed of twelve men, any nine of whom concurring may find an indictment or true bill. A grand jury shall be convened upon the order of a judge of a court having the power to try and determine felonies, upon his own motion; or such grand jury shall be ordered by such judge upon the filing of a peti- tion therefor signed by one hundred resident tax- payers of the county; when so assembled such grand jury shall have power to investigate and return indictments for all character and grades of crime, and such other powers as the legislature may prescribe: Provided, That the legislature may make the calling of a grand jury compulsory.
SEC. 19. The right of trial by jury shall be and remain inviolate, and a jury for the trial of civil and criminal cases in courts of record, other than county courts, shall consist of twelve men; but in county courts and courts not of record, a jury shall consist of six men. This section shall not be so construed as to prevent limitations being fixed by law upon the right of appeal from judg- ments of courts not of record in civil cases con- cerning causes of action involving less than twenty dollars. In civil cases, and in criminal cases less than felonies, three-fourths of the whole num- ber of jurors concurring shall have power to ren- der a verdict. In all other cases the entire number of jurors must concur to render a verdict. In case a verdict is rendered by less than the whole number of jurors, the verdict shall be in writing and signed by each juror concurring therein.
SEC. 20. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the county in which the crime shall have been committed: Provided. That the venue may be changed to some other county of the state, on the application of the accused, in such manner as may be prescribed by law. He shall be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him and have a copy thereof, and be confronted with the witnesses against him, and have compulsory process for obtaining wit- nesses in his behalf. He shall have the right to be heard by himself, and counsel; and in capital cases, at least two days before the case is called for trial, he shall be furnished with a list of the witnesses that will be called in chief, to prove the allegations of the indictment or information, to- gether with their postoffice addresses.
SEC. 21. No person shall be compelled to give evidence which will tend to incriminate him, ex- cept as in this constitution specifically provided; nor shall any person, after having been once ao- quitted by a jury, be again put in jeopardy of life or liberty for that of which he has been ac- quitted. Nor shall any person be twice put in jeopardy of life or liberty for the same offense.
Szc. 22. Every person may freely speak, write, or publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. In all crim- inal prosecutions for libel, the truth of the matter alleged to be libelous may be given in evidence to the jury, and if it shall appear to the jury that the matter charged as libelous be true, and was written or published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted.
SEC. 23. No private property shall be taken or damaged for private use, with or without com - pensation, unless by consent of the owner, except for private ways of necessity, or for drains and ditches across lands of others for agricultural, mining, or sanitary purposes, in such manner as may be prescribed by law.
SEC. 24. Private property shall not be taken or damaged for public use without just compen . sation. Such compensation, irrespective of any benefit from any improvements proposed, shall be ascertained by a board of commissioners of not less than three free-holders, in such manner as may be prescribed by law. The commissioners shall not be appointed by any judge or court without reasonable notice having been served upon all parties in interest. The commissioners shall be selected from the regular jury list of names prepared and made as the legislature shall pro- vide. Any party aggrieved shall have the right of appeal, without bond, and trial by jury in = court of record. Until the compensation shall be paid to the owner, or into the court for the owner, the property shall not be disturbed, or the pro- prietary rights of the owner divested. When pos- session is taken of property condemned for any public use, the owner shall be entitled to immedi- ate receipt of the compensation awarded, without prejudice to the right of either party to prose- cute further proceedings for the judicial deter- mination of the sufficiency or insufficiency of such compensation. The fee of land taken by com- mon carriers for right of way, without the con- sent of the owner, shall remain in such owner only to the use for which it is taken. In all cases of condemnation of private property for public or private use, the determination of the character of the use shall be a judicial question.
SEc. 25. The legislature shall pass laws de- fining contempts and regulating the proceedings
Digitized by Google
417
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
and punishment in matters of contempt: Provided, that any person accused of violating or disobey- ing, when not in the presence or hearing of the court or judge sitting as such, any order of in- junction, or restraint, made or entered by any court or judge of the state shall, before penalty or punishment is imposed, be entitled to a trial by jury as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. In no case shall a penalty or punishment be im- posed for contempt, until an opportunity to be heard is given.
SEC. 26. The right of a citizen to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person, or property, or in the aid of the civil power, when thereunto legally summoned, shall never be pro- hibited; but nothing herein contained shall pre- vent the legislature from regulating the carrying of weapons.
SEC. 27. Any person having knowledge or pos- session of facts that tend to establish the guilt of any other person or corporation charged with an offense against the laws of the state, shall not be excused from giving testimony or produc- ing evidence, when legally called upon so to do on the ground that it may tend to incriminate him under the laws of the state; but no persons shall be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty or forfeiture for or on account of any transaction, matter, or thing concerning which he may so tes. tify or produce evidence.
SEC. 28. The records, books, and files of all corporations shall be, at all times, liable and sub- ject to the full visitorial and inquisitorial powers of the state, notwithstanding the immunities and privileges in this Bill of Rights secured to any persons, inhabitants, and citizens thereof.
SEC. 29. No person shall be transported out of the state for any offense committed within the state, nor shall any person be transported out of the state for any purpose, without his consent, except by due process of law; but nothing in this provision shall prevent the operation of extradi- tion laws, or the transporting of persons sentenced for crime, to other states for the purpose of in- carceration.
SEC. 30. The right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches or seizures, shall not be vio- lated; and no warrant shall issue but upon proba- ble cause, supported by oath or affirmation, de- scribing as particularly as may be the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized.
SEC. 31. The right of the state to engage in any occupation or business for public purposes shall not be denied nor prohibited, except that the state shall not engage in agriculture for any other than educational and scientific purposes and for the support of its penal, charitable, and edu- eational institutions.
SEC. 32. Perpetuities and monopolies are con- trary to the genius of a free government, and shall never be allowed; nor shall the law of pri- mogeniture or entailment, ever be in force in the State.
SEC. 33. The enumeration in this constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny, impair, or disparage others retained by the peo- ple.
ARTICLE III. Suffrage.
SECTION 1. The qualified electors of the state shall be male citizens of the United States, male citizens of the state, and male persons of Indian descent native of the United States, who are over the age of twenty-one years, who have resided in the state one year, in the county six months, and in the election precinct thirty days, next preced- ing the election at which any such elector offers to vote: Provided, That no person adjudged guilty of the felony after the adoption of this constitu- tion subject to such exceptions as the legislature may prescribe, unless his citizenship shall have been restored in the manner provided by law; nor any person, while kept in a poor-house or other asylum at the public expense, except Federal and Confederate ex-soldiers; nor any person in a public prison, nor any idiot or lunatic, shall be entitled to vote at any election under the laws of this state.
SEC. 2. For the purpose of voting, no member of the regular army or navy of the United States shall gain a residence in this state by reason of being stationed in this state, nor shall any such person lose a residence in the state while absent from the state in the military or naval service of the United States.
SEC. 3. Until otherwise provided by law, all female citizens of this state, possessing like quali- fications of male electors, shall be qualified to vote at school district elections or meetings.
SEC. 4. The legislature shall enact laws creat- ing an election board (not more than a majority of whose members shall be selected from the same political party), and shall provide the time and manner of holding and conducting all elections; and, at any time the Federal Constitution, may permit the election of United States Senators by direct vote of the people, the legislature shall provide for their election as for the election of Governor and other elective officers.
SEC. 5. The legislature shall enact laws pro- viding for a mandatory primary system, which shall provide for the nomination of all candidates in all elections for State, District, County and municipal officers, for all political parties, includ- ing United States Senators: Provided, However, this provision shall not exclude the right of the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.