USA > Wisconsin > The Wisconsin blue book 1893 > Part 5
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SECTION 16. The Legislature shall pass laws for the regulation of tribunals of concilia- tion, defining their powers and duties. Such tribunals may be established in and for any township, and shall have power to render judgment, to be obligatory on the parties, when
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they shall voluntarily submit their matter in difference to arbitration, and agree to abide the judgment, or assent thereto in writing.
SECTION 17. The style of all writs and process shall be, " The State of Wisconsin." All criminal prosecutions shall be carried on in the name and by the authority of the same; and all indictments shall conclude against the peace and dignity of the State.
SECTION 18. The Legislature shall impose a tax on all civil suits commenced or prose- cuted in the municipal, inferior, or circuit courts, which shall constitute a fund to be applied toward the payment of the salary of the judges.
SECTION 19. The testimony in causes in equity shall be taken in like manner as in cases at law; and the office of master in chancery is hereby prohibited.
SECTION 20. Any suitor in any court in this State shall have the right to prosecute or defend his suit either in his own proper person or by an attorney or agent of his choice.
SECTION 21. The Legislature shall provide by law for the speedy publication of all statute laws, and of such judicial decisions made .within the State, as may be deemed expedient. And no general law shall be in force until published.
SECTION 22. The Legislature, at its first session after the adoption of this Constitution, shall provide for the appointment of three commissioners, whose duty it shall be to inquire into, revise, and simplify the rules of practice, pleadings, forms, and proceedings, and arrange a system adapted to the courts of record of this State, and report the same to the Legislature, subject to their modification and adoption; and such commission shall term- inate upon the rendering of the report, unless otherwise provided by law.
SECTION 23. The Legislature may provide for the appointment of one or more persons in each organized county, and may vest in such persons such judicial powers as shall be pre- scribed by law. Provided, That said power shall not exceed that of a judge of the Circuit Court at chambers.
ARTICLE VIII.
FINANCE.
SECTION 1. The rule of taxation shall be uniform, and taxes shall be levied upon such property as the Legislature shall prescribe.
SECTION 2. No money shall be paid out of the treasury except in pursuance of an appro- priation by law.
SECTION 3. . The credit of the State shall never be given or loaned in aid of any individual, association, or corporation.
SECTION 4. The State shall never contract any public debt, except in the cases and man- ner herein provided.
SECTION 5. The Legislature shall provide for an annual tax sufficient to defray the esti- mated expenses of the State for each year; and whenever the expenses of any year shall exceed the income, the Legislature shall provide for levying a tax for the ensuing year, sufficient, with other sources of income, to pay the deficiency, as well as the estimated expenses of such ensuing year.
SECTION 6. For the purpose of defraying extraordinary expenditures, the State may con- tract public debts; but such debts shall never, in the aggregate, exceed one hundred thou- sand dollars. Every such debt shall be authorized by law, for some purpose or purposes to be distinctly specified therein; and the vote of a majority of all the members elected to each house, to be taken by yeas and nays, shall be necessary to the passage of such law; and every such law shall provide for levying an annual tax sufficient to pay the annual interest of such debt, and the principal within five years from the passage of such law, and shall specially appropriate the proceeds of such taxes to the payment of such principal and inter- est; and such appropriation shall not be repealed, nor the taxes be postponed or diminished, until the principal and interest of such debt shall have been wholly paid.
SECTION 7. The Legislature may also borrow money to repel invasion, suppress insur- rection, or defend the State in time of war; but the money thus raised shall be applied exclusively to the object for which the loan was authorized, or to the repayment of the debt thereby created.
SECTION 8. . On the passage in either house of the Legislature, of any law which imposes, continues or renews a tax, or creates a debt or charge, or makes, continues or renews an appropriation of public or trust money, or releases, discharges or commutes a claim or demand of the State, the question shall be taken by yeas and nays, which shall be duly entered on the journal; and three-fifths of all the members elected to such house, shall in all such cases be required to constitute a quorum therein.
SECTION 9. No scrip, certificate or other evidence of State debt whatsoever, shall be issued, except for such debts as are authorized by the sixth and seventh sections of this article.
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SECTION 10. The State shall never contract any debt for works of internal improvement, or be a party in carrying on such works; but whenever grants of land or other property shall have been made to the State, especially dedicated by the grant to particular works of internal improvement, the State may carry on such particular works, and shall devote thereto the avails of such grants, and may pledge or appropriate the revenues derived from such works in aid of their completion.
ARTICLE IX.
EMINENT DOMAIN AND PROPERTY OF THE STATE.
SECTION 1. The State shall have concurrent jurisdiction on all rivers and lakes bordering on this State, so far as such rivers or lakes shall form a common boundary to the State, and any other State or Territory now or hereafter to be formed and bounded by the same. And the river Mississippi and the navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the State as to the citizens of the United States, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor.
SECTION 2. The title of all lands and other property, which have accrued to the Terri- tory of Wisconsin, by grant, gift, purchase, forfeiture, escheat or otherwise, shall vest in the State of Wisconsin.
SECTION 3. - The people of the State, in their right of sovereignty, are declared to possess the ultimate property in and to all lands within the jurisdiction of the State; and all lands, the title to which shall fail from a defect of heirs, shall revert or escheat to the people.
ARTICLE X. ยท EDUCATION.
SECTION 1. The supervision of public instruction shall be vested in a State Superintend- ent, and such other officers as the Legislature shall direct. The State Superintendent shall be chosen by the qualified electors of the State, in such manner as the Legislature shall pro- vide; his powers, duties and compensation shall be prescribed by law. Provided, That his compensation shall not exceed the sum of twelve hundred dollars annually.
SECTION 2. The proceeds of all lands that have been or hereafter may be granted by the United States to this State, for educational purposes (except the lands heretofore granted for the purposes of a University), and all moneys, and the clear proceeds of all property, that may accrue to the State by forfeiture or escheat, and all moneys which may be paid as an equivalent for exemption from military duty, and the clear proceeds of all fines collected in the several countics for any breach of the penal laws, and all moneys arising from any grant to the State where the purposes of such grant are not specified, and the five hundred thousand acres of land to which the State is entitled by the provisions of an act of Con- gress, entitled "an act to appropriate the proceeds of the sale of public lands, and to grant pre-emption rights," approved the fourth day of September, one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, and also the five per centum of the net proceeds of the public lands to which the State shall become entitled on her admission into the Union (if Congress shall consent to such appropriation of the two grants last mentioned), shall be set apart as a separate fund, to be called the school fund, the interest of which, and all other revenues derived from the school lands; shall be exclusively applied to the following objects, to wit:
1. To the support and maintenance of common schools in each school district, and the purchase of suitable libraries and apparatus therefor.
2. The residue shall be appropriated to the support and maintenance of academies and normal schools, and suitable libraries and apparatus therefor.
SECTION 3. The Legislature shall provide by law for the establishment of district schools, which shall be as nearly uniform as practicable, and such schools shall be free and without charge for tuition to all children between the ages of four and twenty years, and no seeta- rian instruction shall be allowed therein.
SECTION 4. Each town and city shall be required to raise, by tax, annually, for the support of common schools therein, a sum not less than one-half the amount received by such town or city respectively for school purposes, from the income of the school fund.
SECTION 5. Provision shall be inade by law for the distribution of the income of the school fund among the several towns and cities of the State, for the support of common schools therein, in some just proportion to the number of children and youth resident therein, between the ages of four and twenty years, and no appropriation shall be made from the school fund to any city or town for the year in which said city or town shall fail to raise such tax, nor to any school district for the year in which a school shall not be mail- tained at least three months.
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CONSTITUTION OF WISCONSIN.
SECTION 6. Provision shall be made by law for the establishment of a State University, at or near the seat of State Government, and for connecting with the same from time to time, such colleges in different parts of the State, as the interests of education may require. The proceeds of all lands that have been or may hereafter be granted by the United States to the State for the support of a University, shall be and remain a perpetual fund to be called the " University Fund," the interest of which shall be appropriated to the support of the State University, and no sectarian instruction shall be allowed in such University.
SECTION 7. The Secretary of State, Treasurer and Attorney General shall constitute a Board of Commissioners for the sale of the School and University Lands and for the invest- ment of the funds arising therefrom. Any two of said Commissioners shall be a quorum for the transaction of all business pertaining to the duties of their office.
SECTION 8. Provision shall be made by law for the sale of all School and University Lands, after they shall have been appraised, and when any portion of such lands shall be sold, and the purchase money shall not be paid at the time of the sale, the Commissioners shall take security by mortgage upon the land sold for the sum remaining unpaid, with seven per cent. interest thereon, payable annually at the office of the Treasurer. The Commissioners shall be authorized to execute a good and sufficient conveyance to all purchasers of such lands, and to discharge any mortgages taken as security, when the sum due thereon shall have been paid. The Commissioners shall have power to withhold from sale any portion of such lands when they shall deem it expedient, and shall invest all moneys arising from the sale of such lands, as well as all other University and School funds, in such manner as the Legis- lature shall provide, and shall give such security for the faithful performance of their duties as may be required by law.
ARTICLE XI. CORPORATIONS.
SECTION 1. Corporations without banking powers or privileges may be formed under general laws, but shall not be created by special act, except for municipal purposes, and in cases where, in the judgment of the Legislature, the objects of the corporation cannot be attained under general laws. All general laws or special acts enacted under the provisions of this section may be altered or repealed by the Legislature at any time after their passage.
SECTION 2. No municipal corporation shall take private property for public use against the consent of the owner, without the necessity thereof being first established by the verdict of a jury.
SECTION 3. It shall be the duty of the Legislature, and they are hereby empowered, to provide for the organization of cities and incorporated villages, and to restrict their power of taxation, assessment, borrowing money, contracting debts, and loaning their credit, so as to prevent abuses in assessments and taxation, and in contracting debts by such munici- pal corporations.
SECTION 4. The Legislature shall not have power to create, authorize, or incorporate, by any general or special law, any bank or banking power or privilege, or any institution or corporation, having any banking power or privilege whatever, except as provided in this article.
SECTION 5. The Legislature may submit to the voters at any general election, the ques- tion of " bank or no bank," and if at any such election a number of votes equal to a majority of all the votes cast at such election on that subject shall be in favor of banks, then the Legislature shall have power to grant bank charters, or to pass a general banking law, with such restrictions, and under such regulations as they may deem expedient and proper for the security of the bill holders. Provided, That no such grant or law shall have any force or effect until the same shall have been submitted to a vote of the electors of the state at some general election, and been approved by a majority of the votes cast on that subject at such election.
ARTICLE XII. AMENDMENTS.
SECTION 1. Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in either House of the Legislature, and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each of the two Houses, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on their journals with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and referred to the Legis- lature to be chosen at the next general election, and shall be published for three months previous to the time of holding such election. And if in the Legislature so next chosen, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of all the mem- bers elected to each House, then it shall be the duty of the Legislature to submit such pro-
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WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK.
posed amendment or amendments to the people, in such manner and at such time as the Legislature shall prescribe, and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments by a majority of the electors voting thereon, such amendment or amendments shall become part of the Constitution. Provided, that if more than one amendment be submitted, they shall be submitted in such manner that the people may vote for or against such amendments separately.
SECTION 2. If at any time a majority of the Senate and Assembly shall deem it necessary to call a convention to revise or change this Constitution, they shall recommend to the electors to vote for or against a convention at the next election for members of the Legis- lature; and if it shall appear that a majority of the electors voting thereon have voted for a convention, the Legislature shall at its next session provide for calling such convention.
ARTICLE XIII.
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.
SECTION 1. The political year for the State of Wisconsin shall commence on the first Mon- day in January in each year, and the general election shall be holden on the Tuesday suc- ceeding the first Monday in November in each year.
SECTION 2. Any inhabitant of this State who may hereafter be engaged, either directly or indirectly, in a duel, either as principal or accessory, shall forever be disqualified as an elector, and from holding any office under the Constitution and laws of this State, and may be punished in such other manner as shall be prescribed by law.
SECTION 3. No Member of Congress, nor any person holding any office of profit or trust under the United States (postmasters excepted), or under any foreign power; no person convicted of any infamous crime in any court within the United States, and no person being a defaulter to the United States, or to this State, or to any county or town therein, or to any State or Territory within the United States, shall be eligible to any office of trust, profit or honor in this State.
SECTION 4. It shall be the duty of the Legislature to provide a great seal for the State, which shall be kept by the Secretary of State; and all official acts of the Governor, his approbation of the laws excepted, shall be thereby authenticated.
SECTION 5. All persons residing upon Indian lands within any county of the State, and qualified to exercise the right of suffrage under this Constitution, shall be entitled to vote at the polls which may be held nearest their residence for State, United States or County officers. Provided, that no person shall vote for county officers out of the county in which he resides.
SECTION 6. The elective officers of the Legislature, other than the presiding officers, shall be a Chief Clerk and a Sergeant-at-Arms, to be elected by each house.
SECTION 7. No county with an area of nine hundred square miles or less, shall be divided or have any part stricken therefromn, without submitting the question to a vote of the peo- ple of the county, nor unless a majority of all the legal voters of the county voting on the question shall vote for the same.
SECTION 8. No county seat shall be removed until the point to which it is proposed to be removed, shall be fixed by law, and a majority of the voters of the county voting on the question, shall have voted in favor of its removal to such point.
SECTION 9. All county officers whose election or appointment is not provided for by this Constitution, shall be elected by the electors of the respective counties, or appointed by the boards of supervisors, or other county authorities as the Legislature shall direct. All city, town and village officers, whose election or appointment is not provided for by this Con- stitution, shall be elected by the electors of such cities, towns and villages, or of some division thereof, or appointed by such authorities thereof as the Legislature shall designate for that purpose. All other officers whose election or appointment is not provided for by this Constitution, and all officers whose offices may hereafter be created by law, shall be elected by the people, or appointed as the Legislature may direct.
SECTION 10. The Legislature may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant, and also the manner of filling the vacancy where no provision is made for that pur- pose in this Constitution.
ARTICLE XIV. SCHEDULE.
SECTION 1. That no inconvenience may arise by reason of a change from a territorial to a permanent state government, it is declared that all rights, actions, prosecutions, judg- ments, claims and contracts, as well of individuals as of bodies corporate, shall continue as if no such change had taken place, and all process which may be issued under the authority
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CONSTITUTION OF WISCONSIN.
of the Territory of Wisconsin previous to its admission into the Union of the United States. shall be as valid as if issued in the name of the State.
SECTION 2. All laws now in force in the Territory of Wisconsin, which are not repugnant to this Constitution, shall remain in force until they expire by their own limitation, or be altered or repealed by the Legislature.
SECTION 3. All fines, penalties or forfeitures accruing to the Territory of Wisconsin, shall inure to the use of the State.
SECTION 4. All recognizances heretofore taken, or which may be taken before the change from a territorial to a permanent state government, shall remain valid, and shall pass to, and may be prosecuted in the name of the State, and all bonds executed to the Governor of the Territory, or to any other officer or court, in his or their official capacity, shall pass to the Governor or State authority, and their successors in office, for the uses therein respect- ively expressed, and may be sued for and recovered accordingly; and all the estate or property, real, personal or mixed, and all judgments, bonds, specialties, choses in action, and claims or debts of whatever description, of the Territory of Wisconsin, shall inure to and vest in the State of Wisconsin. and may be sued for and recovered in the same manner and to the same extent, by the State of Wisconsin. as the same could have been by the Territory of Wisconsin. All criminal prosecutions and penal actions which may have arisen, or which may arise before the change from a Territorial to a State government, and which shall then be pending, shall be prosecuted to judgment and execution in the name of the State. All offenses committed against the laws of the Territory of Wisconsin, before the change from a Territorial to a State government, and which shall not be prosecuted be- fore such change, may be prosecuted in the name and by the authority of the State of Wisconsin, with like effect as though such change had not taken place; and all penalties in- curred shall remain the same as if this Constitution had not been adopted. All actions at law, and suits in equity, which may be pending in any of the courts of the Territory of Wisconsin, at the time of the change from a Territorial to a State government, may be continued and transferred to any court of the State which shall have jurisdiction of the subject-matter thereof.
SECTION 5. All officers, civil and military, now holding their offices under the authority of the United States, or of the Territory of Wisconsin, shall continue to hold and exercise their respective offices until they shall be superseded by the authority of the State.
SECTION 6. The first session of the Legislature of the State of Wisconsin shall commence on the first Monday in June next, and shall be held at the village of Madison, which shall be and remain the seat of government until otherwise provided by law.
SECTION 7. All county, precinct, and township officers shall continue to hold their respective offices, unless removed by the competent authority, until the Legislature shall, in conformity with the provisions of this constitution, provide for the holding of elections to fill such offices respectively.
SECTION 8. The President of this Convention shall, immediately after its adjournment, cause a fair copy of this Constitution, together with a copy of the act of the Legislature of this Territory, entitled " an act in relation to the formation of a State government in Wis- consin, and to change the time of holding the annual session of the Legislature," approved October 27, 1847, providing for the calling of this Convention, and also a copy of so much of the last census of the Territory as exhibits the number of its inhabitants, to be forwarded to the President of the United States, to be laid before the Congress of the United States at its present session.
SECTION 9. This Constitution shall be submitted at an election to be held on the second Monday in March next, for ratification or rejection, to all white male persons of the age of twenty-one years or upwards, who shall then be residents of this Territory and citizens of the United States, or shall have declared their intention to become such in conformity with the laws of Congress on the subject of naturalization; and all persons having such qualifi- cations shall be entitled to vote for or against the adoption of this Constitution, and for all officers first elected under it. And if the Constitution be ratified by said electors, it shall become the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin. Ou such of the ballots as are for the Constitution, shall be written or printed the word., " yes;" and on such as are against the Constitution, the word, " no." The election shall be conducted in the manner now pre- scribed by law, and the returns made by the clerks of the boards of supervisors or county commissioners (as the case may be) to the Governor of the Territory, at any time before the tenth of April next. And in the event of the ratification of this Constitution, by a majority of all the votes given, it shall be the duty of the Governor of this Territory to make proc- lamation of the same, and to transmit a digest of the returns to the Senate and Assembly of the State, on the first day of their session. An election shall be held for Governor and
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WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK.
Lieutenant Governor, Treasurer, Attorney General, Members of the State Legislature, and Members of Congress, on the second Monday of May next, and no other or further notice of such election shall be required.
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