SEC. 4. [The Supreme Court shall consist of one Chief Justice, and four Associate Justices, each for the term of ten years.] As amended in 1877.

SEC. 5. The State shall be divided into five Judicial Circuits.

SEC. 6.
SEC. 7.

The Legislature may alter the limits or increase the number of the circuits.

There shall be a Judge chosen for each Circuit, who shall reside therein; his term of office shall be six years.

SEC. 8. The Circuit Courts shall have original jurisdiction in all matters civil and criminal, not excepted in this Constitution, and not prohibited hereafter by law, and appellate jurisdiction from all inferior courts. They shall have power to issue writs of habeas corpus, mandamus, injunction, quo warranto, certiorari, and all other writs necessary to carry their orders and judgments into effect.

SEC. 9. Vacancies in the office of Supreme or Circuit Judge shall be filled by the Governor. Election for Judges shall not be at any general election, nor within thirty days before or after said election.

SEC. 10. Judges of the Supreme and Circuit Courts shall receive a salary of not less than one thousand five hundred dollars, and shall hold no other office, except a judicial one, during the term for which they are respectively elected. Each Judge shall be a citizen of the United. States, and have attained the age of twenty-five years. He shall also be a qualified elector within the jurisdiction for which he may be chosen.

SEC. 11. The Supreme Court shall hold at least one term annually. A Circuit Court shall be held at least twice in each year, in each county of this State organized for judicial pur

poses.

SEC. 12. There shall be a Clerk of the Circuit Court chosen in each county, whose term of office shall be two years. The Supreme Court shall appoint its own Clerk.

SEC. 13. Any Judge of the Supreme or Circuit Court may be removed from office by vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to both Senate and Assembly.

SEC. 14. A Judge of Probate shall be elected in each county, who shall hold his office for

two years.

SEC. 15. Justices of the Peace shall be elected in the several towns, villages and cities of the State, in such manner as the Legislature may direct, whose term of office shall be two years. Their civil and criminal jurisdiction shall be prescribed by law.

SEC. 16. Laws shall be passed for the regulation of tribunals of conciliation. These may be established in and for any township.

SEC. 17. The style of all writs and process shall be "The State of Wisconsin.' Criminal prosecutions shall be carried on in the name and by authority of the State; and all indictments shall conclude against the peace and dignity of the same.

SEC. 18. A tax shall be imposed by the Legislature on all civil suits, which shall constitute a fund, to be applied toward the payment of the salary of Judges.

SEC. 19. Testimony in equity causes shall be taken the same as in cases at law. The office of Master in Chancery is prohibited.

SEC. 20. Any suitor may prosecute or defend his case in his own proper person, or by attorney or agent.

SEC. 21. Statute laws and such 'judicial decisions as are deemed expedient, shall be published. No general law shall be in force until published.

SEC. 22. The Legislature at its first session shall provide for the appointment of three Commissioners to revise the rules of practice in the several Courts of Record in the State.

SEC. 23. The Legislature may confer judicial powers on one or more persons in each organized county of the State. Powers granted to such Commissioners shall not exceed that of a Judge of a Circuit Court at chambers.

SECTION 1.

ARTICLE VIII.

FINANCE.

Taxation shall be uniform, and taxes shall be levied upon such property as the Legislature may prescribe. SEC. 2.

[No money shall be paid out of the treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation by law. Claims made against the State must be filed within six years after having accrued.] As amended in 1877.

SEC. 3. The credit of the State shall never be given or loaned in aid of any individual, association or corporation.

SEC. 4. The State shall never contract any public debt, except in the cases and manner provided in this Constitution.

SEC. 5. A tax shall be levied each year sufficient to defray estimated expenses.

SEC. 6. Debts not to exceed one hundred thousand dollars may be contracted by the State, which shall be paid within five years thereafter.

SEC. 7.

The Legislature may borrow money to repel invasion, suppress insurrection or defend the State in time of war.

SEC. 8.

All fiscal laws in the Legislature shall be voted on by yeas and nays. SEC. 9. State scrip shall not be issued except for such debts as are authorized by the sixth and seventh sections of this article.

SEC. 10.

No debt for internal improvements shall be contracted by the State.

ARTICLE IX.

EMINENT DOMAIN AND PROPERTY OF THE STATE.

SECTION 1. The State shall have concurrent jurisdiction on all rivers and lakes bordering on Wisconsin.

SEC. 2. The title to all property which has accrued to the Territory of Wisconsin shall vest in the State of Wisconsin.

SEC. 3. The ultimate property in and to all lands of the State is possessed by the people.

ARTICLE X.

EDUCATION.

SECTION 1. The supervision of public instruction shall be vested in a State Superintendent and such other officers as the Legislature shall direct. The annual compensation of the State Superintendent shall not exceed twelve hundred dollars.

SEC. 2. The school fund to support and maintain common schools, academies and normal schools, and to purchase apparatus and libraries therefor, shall be created out of (1) the proceeds of lands from the United States; (2) out of forfeitures and escheats; (3) out of moneys paid as exemptions from military duty; (4) out of fines collected for breach of penal laws; (5) out of any grant to the State where the purposes of such grant are not specified; (6) out of the proceeds of the sale of five hundred thousand acres of land granted by Congress September 14, 1841; and (7) out of 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.)

SEC. 3. District schools shall be established by law which shall be free to all children between the ages of four and twenty years. No sectarian instruction shall be allowed therein.

SEC. 4. Each town and city shall raise for common schools therein by taxation a sum equal to one-half the amount received from the school fund of the State.

SEC. 5. Provisions shall be made by law for the distribution of the income of the school fund among the several towns and cities for the support of common schools therein; but no appropriation shall be made when there is a failure to raise the proper tax, or when a school shall not have been maintained at least three months of the year.

SEC. 6. Provision shall be made by law for the establishment of a State University. The proceeds of all lands granted for the support of a university by the United States shall constitute the University fund," the interest of which shall be appropriated to the support of the State University. No sectarian instruction shall be allowed in such university.

SEC. 7. The Secretary of State, Treasurer and Attorney General shall constitute a Board of Commissioners to sell school and university lands and for the investments of the proceeds

thereof.

SEC. 8. School and university lands shall be appraised and sold according to law. The Commissioners shall execute deeds to purchasers, and shall invest the proceeds of the sales of such lands in such manner as the Legislature shall provide.

ARTICLE XI.

CORPORATIONS.

SECTION 1. Corporations without banking powers 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. No municipal corporation shall take private property for public use, against the

consent of the owner, except by jury trial.

SEC. 3. Cities and incorporated villages shall be organized, and their powers restricted by law so as to prevent abuses. [No county, city, town, village, school district, or other municipal corporation, shall become indebted to exceed five per centum on the value of the taxable property therein.] As amended in 1874.

SEC. 4. Banks shall not be created except as provided in this article.

SEC. 5. The question of "bank" or "no bank" may be submitted to the voters of the State; and if a majority of all the votes cast shall be in favor of banks, the Legislature shall have power to grant bank charters, or pass a general banking law.

ARTICLE XII.

SECTION 1. Amendments to the Constitution may be proposed in either house of the Legislature, and referred to the next Legislature and published for three months previous. If agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to each house, then the amendment or amendments shall submit them to the vote of the people; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments, they shall become a part of the Constitution.

SEC. 2. If a convention to revise or change the Constitution shall be deemed necessary by the Legislature, they shall recommend to the electors of the State to vote at the next general election for or against the same. If the vote shall be for the calling of such convention, then the Legislature, at its next session, shall provide for the same.

ARTICLE XIII.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

SECTION 1. The political year for Wisconsin shall commence on the first Monday in January in each year. General elections shall be holden on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday in November.

SEC. 2. A duelist shall not be qualified as an elector in this State.

SEC. 3. United States officers (except Postmasters), public defaulters, or persons convicted of infamous crimes, shall not be eligible to office in this State.

SEC. 4. A great seal for the State shall be provided, and all official acts of the Governor (except his approbation of the laws), shall be authenticated thereby.

SEC. 5. Residents on Indian lands may vote, if duly qualified, at the polls nearest their residence.

SEC. 6. 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.

SEC. 7. No county with an area of nine hundred square miles or less, shall be divided, without submitting the question to the vote of the people of the county.

SEC. 8. [The Legislature is prohibited from enacting any special or private laws, for locating or changing any county seat.] See amendment adopted in 1871, as Sec. 31 (Subdivision 5) of

Art. IV.

SEC. 9. Officers not provided for by this Constitution shall be elected as the Legislature shall direct.

SEC. 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 purpose in this Constitution.

ARTICLE XIV.

SCHEDULE.

SECTION 1. All rights under the Territorial government are continued under the State government. Territorial processes are valid after the State is admitted into the Union.

SEC. 2. Existing laws of the Territory of Wisconsin not repugnant to this Constitution shall remain in force until they expire by limitation or are altered or repealed.

SEC. 3. All fines, penalties or forfeitures accruing to the Territory of Wisconsin shall inure to the use of the State.

SEC. 4. Territorial recognizances, bonds and public property shall pass to and be vested in the State. Criminal prosecutions, offenses committed against the laws, and all actions at law and suits in equity in the Territory of Wisconsin shall be contained in and prosecuted by the State.

SEC. 5. Officers holding under authority of the United States or of the Territory of Wisconsin shall continue in office until superseded by State authority.

SEC. 6. The first session of the State Legislature 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.

SEC. 7. Existing county and town officers shall hold their offices until the Legislature of the State shall provide for the holding of elections to fill such offices.

SEC. 8. A copy of this Constitution shall be transmitted to the President of the United States to be laid before Congress at its present session.

SEC. 9. This Constitution shall be submitted to the vote of the people for ratification or rejection on the second Monday in March next. If ratified, an election shall be held for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Treasurer, Attorney General, members of the State Legislature and members of Congress, on the second Monday of May next.

SEC. 10. [Omitted. See Section 1, Chapter 3, Acts of Extra Session of 1878.]

SEC. 11. The several elections provided for in this Article shall be conducted according

to the existing laws of the Territory of Wisconsin.

SEC. 12. [Omitted. See Section 1, Chapter 3, Acts of Extra Session of 1878.]

SEC. 13. The common law in force in the Territory of Wisconsin shall continue in force in the State until altered or suspended by the Legislature.

SEC. 14. The Senators first elected in the even-numbered Senate districts, the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and other State officers first elected under this Constitution, shall enter upon their duties on the first Monday of June next, and hold their offices for one year from the first Monday of January next. The Senators first elected in the odd-numbered districts and the

members of the Assembly first elected shall enter upon their duties on the first Monday of June next, and continue in office until the first Monday in January next.

SEC. 15. The oath of office may be administered by any Judge or Justice of the Peace, until the Legislature shall otherwise direct.

We, the undersigned, members of the Convention to form a Constitution for the State of Wisconsin, to be submitted to the people thereof for their ratification or rejection, do hereby certify that the foregoing is the Constitution adopted by the Convention.

In testimony whereof, we have hereunto set our hands, at Madison, the 1st day of February, A. D. 1848.

THOMAS MCHUGH,

MORGAN L. MARTIN,

President of the Convention and Delegate from Brown County.

Secretary.

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

CONDENSE D.

PREAMBLE.

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

ARTICLE I.

SECTION 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

SEC. 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the States, and electors shall have qualifications for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.

Representatives must be twenty-five years of age, and must have been seven years citizens of the United States, and inhabitants of the State in which they shall be chosen.

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States according to population, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including apprentices and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of Congress, and every ten years thereafter in such manner as Congress shall by law direct. States shall have one Representative only for each thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, New Hampshire shall choose three; Massachusetts, eight; Rhode Island, one; Connecticut, five; New York, six; New Jersey, four; Pennsylvania, eight; Delaware, one; Maryland, six; Virginia, ten; North Carolina, five; South Carolina, five, and Georgia, three.

Vacancies in the representation from any State shall be filled by elections, ordered by the executive authority of the State.