lature may provide by law that the judge of one district may discharge the duties of judge of any other district not his own, when convenience or the public interest may require it.

SEC. 6. The judges of the supreme and district courts shall be men learned in the law, and shall receive such compensation at stated times as may be prescribed by the legislature, which compensation shall not be diminished during their continuance in office, but they shall receive no other fee or reward for their services. SEC. 7. There shall be established in each organized county in the State a probate court, which shall be a court of record, and be held at such time and places as may be prescribed by law. It shall be held by one judge, who shall be elected by the voters of the county for the term of two years. He shall be a resident of such county at the time of his election, and reside therein during his continuance in office; and his compensation shall be provided by law. He may appoint his own clerk where none has been elected; but the legislature may authorize the election, by the electors of any county, of one clerk or register of probate for such county, whose powers, duties, term of office, and compensation shall be prescribed by law. A probate court shall have jurisdiction over the estates of deceased persons and persons under guardianship; but no other jurisdiction, except as prescribed by this constitution.

SEC. 8. The legislature shall provide for the election of a sufficient number of justices of the peace in each county, whose term of office shall be two years, and whose duties and compensation shall be prescribed by law. Provided, That no justice of the peace shall have jurisdiction of any civil cause where the amount in controversy shall exceed one hundred dollars, nor in a criminal cause where the punishment shall exceed three months' imprisonment, or a fine over one hundred dollars, nor in any cause involving the title to real estate.

SEC. 9. All judges other than those provided for in this constitution, shall be elected by the electors of the judicial district, county or city, for which they shall be created, not for a longer term than seven years.

SEC. 10. In case the office of any judge become vacant before the expiration of the regular term for which he was elected, the vacancy shall be filled by appointment by the governor, until a successor is elected and qualified. And such successor shall be elected at the first annual election that occurs more than thirty days after the vacancy shall have happened.

SEC. 11. The justices of the supreme court and the district courts shall hold no office under the United States, nor any other office under this State. And all votes for either of them for any elective office under this constitution, except a judicial office given by the legislature or the people, during their continuance in office, shall be void.

SEC. 12. The legislature may at any time change the number of judicial districts or their boundaries. when it shall be deemed expedient; but no such change shall vacate the office of any judge.

SEC. 13. There shall be elected in each county where a district court shall be held, one clerk of said court, whose qualifications, duties and compensation shall be prescribed by law, and whose term of office shall be four years.

SEC. 14. Legal pleadings and proceedings in the eourts of this State shall be under the direction of the legislature. The style of all process shall be, "The State of Minnesota," and all indictments shall conclude, "against the peace and dignity of the state of Minnesota."

SEC. 15. The legislature may provide for the election of one person in each organized county in this State, to be called a court commissioner, with judicial power and jurisdiction not exceeding the power and jurisdiction of a judge of the district court at chambers; or the legislature may, instead of such election, confer such power and jurisdiction upon the judges of probate in the State.

ARTICLE VII.

ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.

SECTION 1. Every male person of the age of twenty-one years or upwards, belonging to either of the following classes, who shall have resided in the United States one year, and in this State for four months next preceding any election, shall be entitled to vote at such election, in the election district of which he shall at the time have been for ten days a resident, for all officers that now are, or hereafter may be elected by the people: First-Citizens of the United States.

Second Persons of foreign birth who shall have declared their intention to become citizens, conformably to the laws of the United States upon the subject of naturalization.

*Amended Nov. 3, 1868.

Third-Persons of mixed white and Indian blood who have adopted the customs and habits of civilization.

Fourth-Persons of Indian blood residing in this State who have adopted the language, customs and habits of civilization, after an examination before any district court of the State, in such manner as may be provided by law, and shall have been pronounced by said court capable of enjoying the rights of citizenship within the State.

SEC. 2. No person not belonging to one of the classes specified in the preceding section; no person who has been convicted of treason or any felony, unless restored to civil rights; and no person under guardianship, or who may be non compos mentis or insane, shall be entitled or permitted to vote at any election in this State.

SEC. 3. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have lost a residence by reason of his absence while employed in the service of the United States; nor while engaged upon the waters of this State or of the United States; nor while a student in any seminary of learning; nor while kept at any almshouse or asylum; nor while confined in any public prison.

SEC. 4. No soldier, seaman or marine in the army or navy of the United States, shall be deemed a resident of this State in consequence of being stationed within the same.

SEC. 5. During the day on which any election shall be held, no person shall be arrested by virtue of any civil process.

SEC. 6. All elections shall be by ballot, except for such town officers as may be directed by law to be otherwise chosen.

SEC. 7. Every person who by the provisions of this article shall be entitled to vote at any election, shall be eligible to any office which now is, or hereafter shall be, elective by the people in the district wherein he shall have resided thirty days previous to such election, except as otherwise provided in this constitution, or the Constitution and laws of the United States.

SEC. 8. The legislature may, notwithstanding anything in this article, provide by law that any woman at the age of twentyone (21) years and upward, may vote at any election held for the purpose of choosing any officers for schools, or upon any measure relating to schools, and may also provide that any such woman shall be eligible to hold any office pertaining solely to the mar agement of schools.

* Adopted Nov. 5, 1875.

SEC. 9. The official year for the state of Minnesota shall commence on the first Monday in January in each year, and all terms of office shall terminate at that time; and the general elec tion shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The first general election for state and county officers, except judicial officers, after the adoption of this amendment, shall be held in the year A. D. one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four (1884), and thereafter the general election shall be held biennially. All state, county or other officers elected at any general election, whose terms of office would otherwise expire on the first Monday of January, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six (1886), shall hold and continue in such offices respectively until the first Monday in January, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven (1887).*

ARTICLE VIII.

SCHOOL FUNDS, EDUCATION AND SCIENCE.

SECTION 1. The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public schools.

SEC. 2. The proceeds of such lands as are or hereafter may be granted by the United States for the use of schools within each township of this State, shall remain a perpetual school fund to the State; and not more than one-third (4) of said lands may be sold in two (2) years, one-third (3) in five (5) years, and onethird (3) in ten (10) years; but the lands of the greatest valuation shall be sold first, provided that no portion of said lands shall be sold otherwise than at public sale. The principal of all funds arising from sales or other disposition of lands or other property, granted or entrusted to this State in each township for educational purposes, shall forever be preserved inviolate and undiminished; and the income arising from the lease or sale of said school land shall be distributed to the different townships throughout the State, in proportion to the number of scholars in each township, between the ages of five and twenty-one years; and shall be faithfully applied to the specific objects of the original grants or appropriations.

[Suitable laws shall be enacted by the legislature for the safe investment of the principal of all funds which have heretofore arisen or which may hereafter arise from the sale or other dis

*Adopted Nov. 6, 1883.

position of such lands, or the income from such lands accruing in any way before the sale or disposition thereof, in interest bearing bonds of the United States, or of the state of Minnesota. issued after the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty (1860), or of such other state as the legislature may, by law, from time to time direct.]*

All swamp lands now held by the State, or that may hereafter accrue to the State, shall be appraised and sold in the same manner and by the same officers, and the minimum price shall be the same less one-third (1), as is provided by law for the appraisement and sale of the school lands under the provisions of title one (1) of chapter thirty-eight (38) of the General Statutes. The principal of all funds derived from sales of swamp lands as aforesaid shall forever be preserved inviolate and undiminished. One-half () of the proceeds of said principal shall be appropriated to the common school fund of the State; the remaining one-half (1) shall be appropriated to the educational and charitable institutions of the State in the relative ratio of cost to support said institutions. †

SEC. 3. The legislature shall make such provisions, by taxation or otherwise, as, with the income arising from the school fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of public schools in each township in the State.

[But in no case shall the moneys derived as aforesaid, or any portion thereof, or any public moneys or property, be appropriated or used for the support of schools wherein the distinctive doctrines, creeds or tenets of any particular christian or other religious sect are promulgated or taught.]‡

SEC. 4. The location of the University of Minnesota, as established by existing laws, is hereby confirmed, and said institution is hereby declared to be the University of the State of Minnesota. All the rights, immunities, franchises and endowments heretofore granted or conferred, are hereby perpetuated unto the said university; and all lands which may be granted hereafter by Congress, or other donations for said university purposes, shall vest in the institution referred to in this section.

SEC. 5. The permanent school funds of the State may be loaned upon interest at the rate of five (5) per cent per annum to

*Paragraph in brackets adopted Nov. 5, 1875.

+Adopted Nov. 8, 1881.

Paragraph in brackets adopted Nov. 6, 1877.

Adopted Nov. 2, 1886.