Any county attached to any county for judicial purposes, if not otherwise represented, shall be considered as forming part of such county, so far as regards elections for the purpose of representation in the legislature.

JOHN BIDDLE, President.

CONSTITUTION: MINNESOTA-1857

accepted, ratified and confirmed, and shall remain irrevocable without the consent of the United States; and it is hereby ordained that this State shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil within the same, by the United States, or with any regulations Congress may find necessary for securing the title to said soil to bona fide purchasers thereof; and no tax shall be imposed on lands belonging to the United States and in no case shall non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than residents.

ARTICLE III

DISTRIBUTION OF THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT

SECTION 1. The powers of government shall be divided into three distinct de partments-legislative, executive, and judicial; and no person or persons belonging to or constituting one of these departments shall exercise any of the powers properly by belonging to either of the others, except in the instances expressly provided in this constitution."

ARTICLE IV

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT

b

SECTION 1. The legislature shall consist of the Senate and House of Representatives, which shall meet biennially at the seat of government of the State, at such time as shall be prescribed by law, but no session shall exceed the term of ninety (90) legislative days; and no new bill shall be introduced in either branch, except on the written request of the governor, during the last twenty (20) days of such sessions, except the attention of the legislature shall be called to some important matter of general interest by a special message from the governor.c

SEC. 2. The number of members who compose the Senate and House of Representatives shall be prescribed by law, but the representatives in the Senate shall never exceed one member for every 5,000 inhabitants, and in the House of Representatives one member for every 2,000 inhabitants. The representation in both houses shall be apportioned equally throughout the different sections of the State, in proportion to the population thereof, exclusive of Indians not taxable under the provisions of law.

SEC. 3. Each house shall be the judge of the election returns and eligibility of its own members; a majority of each shall constitute ***

lature shall prescribe by law the manner in which evidence in cases of contested seats in either house shall be taken.

SEC. 18. Each house may punish by imprisonment, during its session, any person, not a member, who shall be guilty of any disorderly or contemptuous behavior in their presence, but no such imprisonment shall at any time exceed twenty-four hours.

SEC. 19. Each house shall be open to the public during the sessions thereof, except in such cases as in their opinion may require secrecy.

Courts cannot control or interfere with an executive officer of the state in his official acts, even though they are such that the duty to perform them might have been entrusted to some other officer. 28 Minn. 50.

Feb. 5, 1889, the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives unanimously reported, "that it was clearly the purpose of the legislature which proposed this amendment of the Constitution to the people; and plainly the intention of the people themselves, when voting for its adoption, to limit the sessions of the legislature to ninety days, excluding only Sundays and legal holidays." Also that twenty days' limitation of introduction of bills before adjournment only applied to the period of ninety days, and proportionately for a shorter session.

Amendment adopted Nov. 6, 1888.

The election of a state senator or representative to congress does not necessarily create a vacancy. Senate Journal, 1889, page 962. See opinion of Att'y Gen. Clapp.

SEC. 20. Every bill shall be read on three different days in each separate ħ vis. unless, in case of urgency, two-thirds of the house where such bill is dependir z shall deem it expedient to dispense with this rule; and no bill shall be passed by either house until it shall have been previously read twice at length.

SEC. 21. Every bill having passed both houses shall be carefully enrolled, and shall be signed by the presiding officer of each house. Any presiding offer refusing to sign a bill which shall have previously passed both houses sha' thereafter be incapable of holding a seat in either branch of the legislature, or hold any other office of honor or profit in the State, and in case of such refusa. each house shall, by rule, provide the manner in which such bill shall be proper s certified for presentation to the governor.

SEC. 22. No bill shall be passed by either house of the legislature upon the day prescribed for the adjournment of the two houses. But this section sha not be so construed as to preclude the enrollment of a bill, or the signature at. passage from one house to the other, or the reports thereon from committeem, or its transmission to the executive for his signature.

SEC. 23. The legislature shall provide by law for an enumeration of the inhabitants of this State in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-fi and every tenth year thereafter. At their first session after each enumeratiet so made, and also at their first session after each enumeration made by the 21.thority of the United States, the legislature shall have the power to prescribe the bounds of congressional, senatorial and representative districts, and to apportion anew the senators and representatives among the several districts according to the provisions of section second of this article.

SEC. 24. The senators shall also be chosen by single districts of convenient enz tiguous territory, at the same time that members of the house of representatives are required to be chosen, and in the same manner; and no representative district shall be divided in the formation of a senate district. The senate districts sha' be numbered in a regular series. The terms of office of senators and represe: "1tives shall be the same as now prescribed by law until the general election of t*: year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight (1878), at which time there shall be an entire new election of all the senators and representatives. Rang sentatives chosen at such election, or at any election thereafter, shall hold the office for the term of two years, except it be to fill a vacancy; and the seunters chosen at such election by districts designated as odd numbers shall go out of office at the expiration of the second year, and senators chosen by districts desiz nated by even numbers shall go out of office ***

in office, for the uses therein respectively expressed, and may be sued for and recovered accordingly; and all the estate of property, real, personal or mixed. and all judgments, bonds, specialties, choses in action, and claims and debts of whatsoever description, of the Territory of Minnesota, shall inure to and vest in the State of Minnesota, and may be sued for and recovered in the same manzer and to the same extent by the State of Minnesota as the same could have been by the Territory of Minnesota. 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 Minnesota, before the change from a territorial to a state government, and which shall not be prosecuted before such change, may be prosecuted in the name and by the authority of the State of Minnesota with LA effect as though such change had not taken place, and all penalties incurred sha 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 Minnesota, at the time of a change from a territorial to a state governmet? may be continued and transferred to any court of the State which shall have jurisdiction of the subject matter thereof.

SEC. 5. All territorial officers, civil or military, now holding their offices under the authority of the United States, or of the Territory of Minnesota shall es u tinue to hold and exercise their respective offices until they shall be superseded by the authority of the State.

SEC. 6. The first session of the legislature of the State of Minnesota shall e-mmence on the first Wednesday of December next, and shall be held at the capital. inity of St. Paul.

SEC. 7. The laws regulating the election and qualification of all district, county and precinct officers shall continue and be in force until the legislature shall otherwise provide by law.

SEC. 8. The president of this convention shall, immediately after the adjournment thereof, cause this Constitution to be deposited in the office of the governor of the Territory; and if, after the submission of the same to a vote of the people, as hereinafter provided, it shall appear that it has been adopted by a vote of the people of the State, then the governor shall forward a certified copy of the same, together with an abstract of the votes polled for and against the said Constitution, to the president of the United States, to be by him laid before the Congress of the United States.

SEC. 9. For the purposes of the first election, the State shall constitute one district, and shall elect three members to the House of Representatives of the United States.

SEC. 10. For the purposes of the first election for members of the State Senate and House of Representatives, the State shall be divided into senatorial and representative districts, as follows, viz: First district, Washington county: Second district, Ramsey county; Third district, Dakota county; Fourth district, so much of Hennepin county as lies west of the Mississippi; Fifth district, Rice County: Sixth district, Goodhue county; Seventh district. Scott county; Eighth district. Olmsted county; Ninth district, Fillmore county: Tenth district, Houston county; Eleventh district, Winona county; Twelfth district, Wabasha County: Thirteenth district, Mower and Dodge counties; Fourteenth district, Freeborn and Fairbault counties; Fifteenth district, Steele and Waseca counties; Sixteenth district, Blue Earth and Le Sueur counties; Seventeenth district. Nicollet and Brown counties: Eighteenth district, Sibley, Renville and McLeod counties; Nineteenth district, Carver and Wright counties; Twentieth district, Benton, Stearns and Meeker counties; Twenty-first district, Morrison, Crow Wing and Mille Lacs counties; Twenty-second district, Cass, Pembina, and Todd counties; Twenty-third district, so much of Hennepin county as lies east of the Mississippi; Twenty-fourth district, Sherburne, Anoka and Manomin counties; Twenty-fifth district, Chisago, Pine and Isanti counties; Twenty-sixth district, Buchanan, Carlton, St. Louis, Lake and Itasca counties.

SEC. 11. The counties of Brown, Stearns, Todd, Cass, Pembina and Renville, as applied in the preceding section, shall not be deemed to include any territory west of the State line, but shall be deemed to include all counties and parts of counties east of said line as were created out of the territory of either, at the last session of the legislature.

SEC. 12. The senators and representatives at the first election shall be apportioned among the several senatorial and representative districts as follows, to wit:

resident of the county, city, or town for which he shall be chosen, and shall have attained to the age of twenty-two years; and also, unless he shall hold, in his own right, within this State, one hundred and fifty acres of land, or an interest in real estate of the value of five hundred dollars, at the time of his election, and for six months previous thereto.

SEC. 8. Elections for representatives for the several counties shall be held at the places of holding their respective courts, or in the several election districts into which the legislature may divide any county: Provided, That when it shall appear to the legislature that any city or town hath a number of free white inhabitants equal to the ratio then fixed, such city or town shall have a separate representation, according to the number of free white inhabitants therein, which shall be retained so long as such city or town shall contain a number of free white inhabitants equal to the existing ratio; and thereafter, and during the existence of the right of separate representation in such city or town, elections for the county in which such city or town entitled to a separate representation is situated shall not be held in such city or town: And provided, That if the residuam or fraction of any city or town entitled to separate representation shall, when added to the residuum in the county in which it may lie, be equal to the ratio fixed by law for one representative, then the aforesaid county, city, or town hav ing the largest residuum shall be entitled to such representation: And provided also, That when there are two or more counties adjoining, which have residuums over and above the ratio then fixed by law, if said residuums, when added together, will amount to such ratio, in that case one representative shall be added to that county having the largest residuum.

SEC. 9. The general assembly shall, at their first meeting, and in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty, and in not less than every three nor more than every five years thereafter, cause an enumeration to be made of all the free white inhabitants of the State; and the whole number of representatives shali. at the several periods of making such enumeration, be fixed by the general as sembly, and apportioned among the several counties, cities, or towns entitled to separate representation according to the number of free white inhabitants in each; and shall not be less than twenty-four, nor greater than thirty-six, until the number of free white inhabitants shall be eighty thousand; and after that event. at such ratio that the whole number of representatives shall never be less than thirty-six nor more than one hundred : Provided, however, That each county shall always be entitled to at least one representative.

SEC. 10. The whole number of senators shall, at the several periods of making the enumeration before mentioned, be fixed by the general assembly, and apportioned among the several districts to be established by law, according to the number of free white taxable inhabitants in each, and shall never be less than one-fourth nor more than one-third of the whole number of representatives.

SEC. 11. The senators shall be chosen by the qualified electors for three years · and, on their being convened in conquence of the first election, they shall he divided by lot, from their respective districts, into three classes, as nearly equal as can be. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the first year; and of the second class, at the expiration of the second year; and of the third class, at the expiration of the third year; so that one-third thereof may be annually chosen thereafter.

SEC. 12. Such mode of classifying new additional senators shall be observed as will, as nearly as possible, preserve an equality of numbers in each class. SEC. 13. When a senatorial district shall be composed of two or more counties, it shall not be entirely separated by any county belonging to another district; and no county shall be divided in forming a district.

SEC. 14. No person shall be a senator unless he be a citizen of the United States. and shall have been an inhabitant of this State four years next preceding him election, and the last year thereof a resident of the district for which he shall be chosen, and shall have attained to the age of twenty-six years; and also, unless he shall hold, in his own right, within this State, three hundred acres of land or an interest in real estate of the value of one thousand dollars, at the time of his election, and for six months previous thereto.

SFC. 15. The house of representatives, when assembled, shall choose a speaker and its other officers: and the senate shall choose its officers, except the president : and each house shall judge of the qualifications and elections of its own members: but a contested election shall be determined in such manner as shall be directed by law. A majority of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalities as each house may provide.

SEC. 16. Each house may determine the rules of its own proceedings, punish members for disorderly behavior, and, with the consent of two-thirds, expel a member, but not a second time for the same cause, and shall have all other powers necessary for a branch of the legislature of a free and independent State.

SEC. 17. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and publish the ne, excepting such parts as in its judgment may require secrecy; and the is and nays of the members of either house, on any question, shall, at the sire of any three members present, be entered on the journals.

SEC. 18. When vacancies happen in either house, the governor, or the person rcising the powers of the governor, shall issue writs of election to fill such cancies.

SEC. 19. Senators and representatives shall in all cases, except of treason, felony, breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during the session of the general sembly, and in going to and returning from the same; allowing one day for every enty miles, such member may reside from the place at which the general embly is convened.

SEC. 20. Each house may punish by imprisonment, during the session, any per1. not a member, for disrespectful or disorderly behavior in its presence, or for structing any of its proceedings: Provided, Such imprisonment shall not at y one time exceed forty-eight hours.

SEC. 21. The doors of each house shall be open, except on such occasions as, the opinion of the house, may require secrecy. ***

expire by their own limitation, or shall be altered or repealed by the legisure thereof.

SEC. 6. Every free white male person, above the age of twenty-one years, who all be a citizen of the United States and resident in this State at the time of adoption of this constitution, shall be deemed a qualified elector, at the first ction to be held in this State, anything in the constitution to the contrary notthstanding.

SEC. 7. The president of this convention shall issue writs of election, directed the sheriffs of the several counties, requiring them to cause an election to be d for a governor, lieutenant-governor, Representative to the Congress of the ited States, members of the general asembly, and sheriffs of the respective inties, at the respective places of elections in said counties, except in the county Warren, in which county the election shall be held at the court-house instead the place provided by law, on the first Monday and the day following in ptember next, which election shall be conducted in the manner prescribed by è existing election laws of the Mississippi Territory, and the said governor, utenant-governor, and members of the general assembly, then duly elected, all continue to discharge the duties of their respective offices for the time scribed by this constitution, and until their sucessors be duly qualified. SEC. 8. Until the first enumeration shall be made, as directed by this constition, the county of Warren shall be entitled to one representative, the county Claiborne to two representatives, the county of Jefferson to two represenatives, e county of Adams to four representatives, the county of Franklin to one resentative, the county of Wilkinson to three representatives, the county Amite to three representatives, the county of Pike to two representatives, the unty of Lawrence to one representative, the county of Marion to one repretative, the county of Hancock to one representative, the county of Greene one representative, the county of Wayne to one representative, the county Jackson to one representative. The counties of Warren and Claiborne shall entitled to one senator, the county of Adams to one senator, the county of fferson to one senator, the county of Wilkinson to one senator, the county Amite to one senator, the counties of Franklin and Pike to one senator, the inties of Lawrence, Marion, and Hancock to one senator, the counties of eene, Wayne, and Jackson to one senator.

SEC. 9. The governor may appoint and commission an additional judge, or e of the former judges of the superior court, whose commission shall expire soon as appointments can be made under the constitution. It shall be the ty of the judge so appointed, or one of the former territorial judges, to hold perior courts in the counties of Jackson, Greene, Wayne, and Hancock at the e heretofore prescribed by law: Provided, That if either of the former terriial judges, in addition to his duty in the western counties, perform such duty, d no additional judge be appointed, he shall receive an extra compensation, oportioned to the amount of his salary and term of service rendered. If an ditional judge be appointed, he shall receive the same compensation for his vices as the other judges of the superior court.

SEC. 10. The sheriff of Warren County shall, within ten days after * * *

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