the state may contract public debts; but such debts shall never in the aggregate exceed one hundred thousand 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the proceeds of such taxes to the payment of such principal and interest; and such appropriation shall not be repealed, nor the taxes be postponed or diminished, until the principal and interest of such debt shall have been wholly paid.

SEC. 7. The legislature may also borrow money to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, 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.

SEC. 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.

SEC. 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.

SEC. 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.

SEC. 2. The title to all lands, and other property, which have accrued to the territory of Wisconsin, by grant, gift, purchase, forfeiture, escheat, or otherwise, shall vest in the state of Wisconsin.

SEC. 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.

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 state superintendent shall be chosen by the qualified electors of the state, in such manner as the legislature shall provide; his powers, duties, and compensation shall be prescribed by law provided, that his compensation shall not exceed the sum of twelve hundred dollars annually.

SEC. 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 counties 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 congress, entitled 66 an act to appropriate the proceeds of the sales 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 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.

SEC. 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 sectarian instruction shall be allowed therein.

SEC. 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.

SEC. 5. Provision shall be made 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 maintained at least three months.

SEC. 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.

SEC. 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 investment 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.

SEC. 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 legislature 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 can not 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.

SEC. 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.

SEC. 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 municipal corporations.

SEC. 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.

SEC. 5. The legislature may submit to the voters at any general election, the question 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 legislature 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 members elected to each house, then it shall be the duty of the legislature to submit such proposed 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.

SEC. 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 legislature; 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 Monday in January in each year, and the general election shall be holden on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday in November in each year.

SEC. 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. SEC. 3. No member of congress, nor any person holding any of fice 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 hon

or in this state.

SEC. 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 the official acts of the governor, his approbation of the laws excepted, shall be thereby authenticated.

SEC. 5. All persons residing upon Indian lands, within any county of the state, 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.

SEC. 6. The elective officers of the legislature, other than the presiding officer, 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, or have any part stricken therefrom, without submitting the question to a vote of the people of the county, nor unless a majority of all the legal voters of the county voting on the question, shall vote for the same.