Internal ment Lands. Investment of proceeds in bonds. Principal not to be reduced. Appropriations therefrom to be voted upon before valid. SEC. 32. [b] All lands donated to the State of Minnesota for the purpose of internal improvement, under the eighth section of the act of Congress, approved September fourth, eighteen hundred and forty-one, being "An act to appropriate the proceeds of the sale of the public lands, and to grant pre-emption rights," shall be appraised and sold, in the same manner and by the same officers, and the minimum price shall be the same as is provided by law for the appraisement and sale of the school lands, under the provisions of title one (1), chapter thirty-eight, of the General Statutes, except the modifications hereinafter mentioned. All moneys derived from the sales of said lands shall be invested in the bonds of the United States, or of the State of Minnesota issued since 1860; and the moneys so invested shall constitute the Internal Improvement Land Fund of the State. All moneys received by the county treasurer under the provisions of title one (1), chapter thirty-eight (38), aforesaid, derived from the sale of internal improvement lands, shall be held at all times subject to the order and direction of the state treasurer, for the benefit of the fund to which it belongs; and on the fifteenth day of June in each year, and at such other times as he may be requested so to do by the state treasurer, he shall pay over to the said state treasurer all moneys received on account of such fund. The bonds purchased in accordance with this amendment shall be transferable only upon the order of the governor, and on each bond shall be written "Minnesota Internal Improvement Land Fund of the State, transferable only on the order of the governor." The principal sum from all sales of internal improvement lands shall not be reduced by any charges or costs of officers, by fees, or by any other means whatever; and section fifty (50), of title one (1), of chapter thirty-eight (38), of the General Statutes, shall not be applicable to the provisions of this amendment, and wherever the words "school lands" are used in said title, it shall read as applicable to this amendment, "Internal Improvement Lands." The moneys belonging to the Internal Improvement Land Fund shall not be appropriated for any purpose whatever until the enactment for that purpose shall have been approved by a majority of the electors of the State, voting at the annual general election following the passage of the act. (a) The force of this amendment shall be to authorize the sale of the internal improvement lands, without further legislative enactment.* (a) By chapter 71, G. L. of 1881, extra session, the proceeds of this fund were pledged to the payment of Minnesota State railroad adjustment bonds, and the law was voted upon and approved at the general election of 1884, by 31,011 votes in favor and 13,589 votes against. *This section was adopted Nov. 5, 1872. Against special SEC. 33. In all cases when a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted; and whether a general legislation. law could have been made applicable in any case is hereby declared a judicial question, and as such shall be judicially determined without regard to any legislative assertion on that subject. The legislature shall pass no local or special law regulating the affairs of, or incorporating, erecting or changing the lines of, any county, city, village, township, ward or school district, or creating the offices, or prescribing the powers and duties of the officers of, or fixing or relating to the compensation, salary or fees of the same, or the mode of election or appointment thereto, authorizing the laying out, opening, altering, vacating or maintaining roads, highways, streets or alleys; remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures; regulating the powers, duties and practice of justices of the peace, magistrates and constables; changing the names of persons, places, lakes or rivers; for opening and conducting of elections, or fixing or changing the places of voting; authorizing the adoption or legitimation of children; changing the law of descent or succession; conferring rights upon minors; declaring any named person of age; giving effect to informal or invalid wills or deeds, or affecting the estates of minors or persons under disability; locating or changing county seats; regulating the management of public schools, the building or repairing of school houses, and the raising of money for such purposes; exempting property from taxation, or regulating the rate of interest on money; creating corporations, or amending, renewing, extending or explaining the charters thereof; granting to any corporation, association or individual any special or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever, or authorizing public taxation for a private purpose. Provided, however, That the inhibitions of local or special laws in this section shall not be construed to prevent the passage of general laws on any of the subjects enumerated. The legislature may repeal any existing special or local law, Repeal of but shall not amend, extend or modify any of the same. * existing special laws. amendment of 1881, su SEC. 34. The legislature shall provide general laws for the Refers to transaction of any business that may be prohibited by section one (1) of this amendment, and all such laws shall be uniform in perseded as their operation throughout the State.† (b) above. SEC. 35. Any combinations of persons, either as individuals Against or as members or officers of any corporation, to monopolize the *Adopted Nov. 8, 1892. +Adopted Nov. 8, 1881. (b) This section having been a part of the amendment, regulating special legislation, adopted in 1881, should properly have been included in the substitution of the amendment of 1892; but as it was not referred to by section, in the law submitted to the people, it must perforce remain in the constitution, however inapplicable its reading. com binations or pools to affect markets. City or village may frame its own charter. Charter to be submitted to voters. Legislature to prescribe general limits of charter. Amendment of charter. Upon application of 5 per cent of legal voters. markets for food products in this State, or to interfere with, or restrict the freedom of such markets, is hereby declared to be a criminal conspiracy, and shall be punished in such manner as the legislature may provide.* SEC. 36. Any city or village in this State may frame a charter for its own government as a city consistent with and subject to the laws of this State, as follows: The legislature shall provide, under such restrictions as it deems proper, for a board of fifteen freeholders, who shall be and for the past five years shall have been qualified voters thereof, to be appointed by the district judges of the judicial district in which the city or village is situated, as the legislature may determine, for a term in no event to exceed six years, which board shall, within six months after its appointment, return to the chief magistrate of said city or village a draft of said charter, signed by the members of said board, or a majority thereof. Such charter shall be submitted to the qualified voters of such city or village at the next election thereafter, and if four-sevenths of the qualified voters voting at such election shall ratify the same it shall, at the end of thirty days thereafter, become the charter of such city or village as a city, and supersede any existing charter and amendments thereof; provided, that in cities having patrol limits now established, such charter shall require a three-fourths majority vote of the qualified voters voting at such election to change the patrol limits now established. Before any city shall incorporate under this act the legislature shall prescribe by law the general limits within which such charter shall be framed. Duplicate certificates shall be made setting forth the charter proposed and its ratification, which shall be signed by the chief magistrate of said city or village and authenticated by its corporate seal. One of said certificates shall be deposited in the office of secretary of state, and the other, after being recorded in the office of the register of deeds for the county in which such city or village lies, shall be deposited among the archives of such city or village, and all courts shall take judicial notice thereof. Such charter so deposited may be amended by proposal therefor made by a board of fifteen commissioners aforesaid, published for at least thirty days in three newspapers of general circulation in such city or village, and accepted by three-fifths of the qualified voters of such city or village voting at the next election, and not otherwise; but such charter shall always be in harmony with and subject to the Constitution and laws of the State of Minnesota. The legislature may prescribe the duties of the commission relative to submitting amendments of charter to the vote of the people, and shall provide that upon application of five per cent of the legal voters Adopted Nov. 6, 1888. of any such city or village, by written petition, such commission shall submit to the vote of the people proposed amendments to such charter set forth in said petition. The board of freeholders above provided for shall be permanent, and all the vacancies by death, disability to perform duties, resignation or removal from the corporate limits, or expiration of term of office, shall be filled by appointment in the same manner as the original board was created, and said board shall always contain its full complement of members. Mayer and legislative It shall be a feature of all such charters that there shall be provided, among other things, for a mayor or chief magistrate, body. and a legislative body of either one or two houses; if of two houses, at least one of them shall be elected by general vote of the electors. In submitting any such charter or amendment thereto to the qualified voters of such city or village, any alternate section or article may be presented for the choice of the voters, and may be voted on separately without prejudice to other articles or sections of the charter or any amendments thereto. Articles of amendment may be submitted separately. General laws for cities by divisions of The legislature may provide general laws relating to affairs of cities, the application of which may be limited to cities of over fifty thousand inhabitants, or to cities of fifty and not less than population. twenty thousand inhabitants, or to cities of twenty and not less than ten thousand inhabitants, or to cities of ten thousand inhabitants or less, which shall apply equally to all such cities of either class, and which shall be paramount while in force to the provisions relating to the same matter included in the local charter herein provided for. But no local charter, provision or ordinance passed thereunder shall supersede any general law of the State defining or punishing crimes or misdemeanors.* ARTICLE V. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. SECTION I. The executive department shall consist of a governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state. auditor, treasurer and attorney general, who shall be chosen by the electors of the State. (a) SEC. 2.8 The returns of every election for the officers named in the foregoing section shall be made to the secretary of state, *Section 36 adopted Nov. 8, 1898. (a) An executive officer ofthe state is not subject to the control or interference of the judiciary in the performance of duties belonging to him as an executive officer, and no act done, or threatened to be done by him in his official capacity can be brought under judicial control or interference by mandamus or injunction, even when the act is purely ministerial. 29 Minn. 555. § As amended Nov. 6, 1877. Officers in executive department. Election returns to be sent to secre. tary of state. Official term. of governor and lieuten ant governor -qualifica tions. Powers and duties of governor. Official term of other executive officers. who shall call to his assistance two or more of the judges of the supreme court, and two disinterested judges of the district courts of the State, who shall constitute a board of canvassers, who shall open and canvass said returns and declare the result within three days after such canvass. SEC. 3. The term of office for the governor and lieutenant governor shall be two years, and until their successors are chosen and qualified. Each shall have attained the age of twenty-five (25) years, and shall have been a bona fide resident of the State for one year next preceding his election. Both shall be citizens of the United States. SEC. 4. The governor shall communicate by message to each session of the legislature such information touching the state and condition of the country as he may deem expedient. He shall be commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces, and may call out such forces to execute the laws, suppress insurrection and repel invasion. He may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices; and he shall have power, in conjunction with the board of pardons, of which the governor shall be ex-officio a member, and the other members of which shall consist of the attorney general of the State of Minnesota and the chief justice of the supreme court of the State of Minnesota, and whose powers and duties shall be defined and regulated by law, to grant reprieves and pardons after conviction for offenses against the State, except in cases of impeachment. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint a state librarian and notaries public, and such other officers as may be provided by law. He shall have power to appoint commissioners to take the acknowledgment of deeds or other instruments in writing, to be used in the State. He shall have a negative upon all laws passed by the legislature, under such rules and limitations as are in this Constitution prescribed. He may on extraordinary occasions convene both houses of the legislature. He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, fill any vacancy that may occur in the office of secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, attorney general, and such other state and district offices as may be hereafter created by law, until the next annual election, and until their successors are chosen and qualified. SEC. 5. The official term of the secretary of state, treasurer and attorney general shall be two (2) years. The official term of the state auditor shall be four (4) years, and each shall continue in office until his successor shall have been elected and qualified. The further duties and salaries of said executive officers shall each be prescribed by law.* Adopted Nov. 3, 1896. *Adopted Nov. 6, 1883. |