CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS.

ARTICLE I.-BILL OF RIGHTS.

Section 1. All persons are by nature free and independent, and have certain inherent and inalienable rights; among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, and the protection of property, governments are instituted among people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Sec. 2. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in this state, otherwise than for punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. Sec. 3. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

ARTICLE VII.-RIGHTS OF SUFFRAGE.

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 state six months, and in the county, precinct, or ward for the term provided by law, shall be an elector.

Second. Persons of foreign birth who shall have declared their intention to become citizens conformably to the laws of the United States on the subject of naturalization at least thirty days prior to an election.

Sec. 2. No person shall be qualified to vote who is non compos mentis, or who has been convicted of treason or felony under the law of the state, or of the United States, unless restored to civil rights.

ARTICLE VIII.-EDUCATION.

Sec. 5. All fines, penalties, and license moneys arising under the general laws of the state shall belong and be paid over to the counties, respectively, where the same may be

levied or imposed, and all fines, penalties, and license money arising under the rules, by-laws, or ordinances of cities, villages, towns, precincts, or other municipal subdivision less than a county shall belong and be paid over to the same respectively. All such fines, penalties, and license moneys shall be appropriated exclusively to the use and support of of common schools in the respective subdivisions where the same may accrue.

Sec. 6. The legislature shall provide for the free instruction in the common schools of this state of all persons between the ages of five and twenty-one years.

Sec. 7. Provision shall be made by general law for an equitable distribution of the income of the fund set apart for the support of the common schools, among the several school districts of the state, and no appropriation shall be made from said fund to any district for the year in which school is not maintained at least three months.

Sec. II. No sectarian instruction shall be allowed in any school or institution supported in whole or in part by the public funds set apart for educational purposes; nor shall the state accept any grant, conveyance, or bequest of money, lands, or other property to be used for sectarian purposes.

Sec. 12. The legislature may provide by law for the establishment of a school or schools for the safe keeping, education, employment, and reformation of all children under the age of sixteen years who, for want of proper parental care, or other cause, are growing up in mendicancy or crime.

ARTICLE XVI.

SCHOOL AND MUNICIPAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE CONSTITU

TIONAL.

Sec. 13. The general election of this state shall be held on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday of November of each year, except the first general election, which shall be on the second Tuesday in October, 1875. All state, district, county, precinct, and township officers, by the constitution or laws made elective by the people, except school district officers, and municipal officers in cities, villages, and towns, shall be elected at a general election to be held as

aforesaid. Judges of the supreme, district, and county courts, all elective county and precinct officers, and all other elective officers, the time for the election of whom is not herein otherwise provided for, and which are not included in the above exception, shall be elected at the first general election, and thereafter at the general election next preceding the time of the termination of their respective terms of office; Provided, that the office of no county commissioner shall be vacated hereby.

FEMME SOLE.

MAJORITY.

Women attain their majority at eighteen years of age, "but in case a female marries between the age of sixteen and eighteen her minority ends." Ch. 34, Sec. 1.

A woman at eighteen can marry without the consent of her parents or guardian. She can dispose of her real or personal estate by deed or will. She can enter into any contract in regard to her property or business, can sue and be sued the same as if she was twenty-one years of age.

An unmarried woman may be made executrix or administratrix.

MARRIAGE.

*Ch. 52, Sec. 1. Marriage is a civil contract; consent of capable parties essential.

*Sec. 2. A man must be eighteen years of age and a woman sixteen, (Sec. 5), in which case the consent of either parent (verbal or written), or of the guardian, must be shown to secure a legal marriage.

*Sec. 3. Marriages are void: where one party is white and the other of one fourth or more negro blood; when either party has a husband or wife living; when either party is insane or an idiot at the time of marriage; when the parties

stand in the relation to each other of parents and children in any degree, brother and sister of half or whole blood, uncle and niece, aunt and nephew, and this extends to legitimate and illegitimate relatives.

Sec. 4. Previous to the solemnization of any marriage in this state, a license for that purpose must be obtained from the probate judge of the county wherein the marriage is to take place.

Sec. 5. When either party is a minor, no license shall be granted without the verbal consent, if present, or written consent, if absent, of the father, if living, if not, then of the mother of such minor, or of the guardian or person under whose care and government such minor may be, which written consent shall be proved by the testimony of at least one competent witness.

*Sec. 9. There is no particular form of ceremony required; marriage may be solemnized by a magistrate, or minister of the gospel (authorized by the usages of the church to which he belongs to solemnize marriages) in the presence of two other witnesses.

*Sec. II. Requires that every person having authority to join others in marriage shall, within three months after the solemnization of the same, deliver to the probate judge of the county a certificate containing the particulars of such marriage.

Sec. 16. The original certificate and record of marriage made by the minister, officer, or person, as prescribed in this chapter, and the record thereof made as prescribed, or a copy of such record duly certified by such officer, shall be received in all courts and places as presumptive evidence of the fact of such marriage.

PROPERTY RIGHTS OF MARRIED WOMEN.

*Ch. 53, Sec. 1. The property, real and personal, which any woman may own at the time of her marriage, and the proceeds thereof, and any real, personal, or mixed property which comes to her by descent, devise, or the gift of any person except her husband, or which she shall acquire by purchase or otherwise, shall remain her sole and separate property, and shall not be subject to the disposal of her hus

band or liable for his debts. 66

'Provided, that all property of a married woman not exempt by law from sale on execution or attachment shall be liable for the payment of all debts contracted for necessaries furnished the family of said married woman after execution against the husband for such indebtedness has been returned unsatisfied for want of goods, chattels, lands, and tenements whereon to levy and make the same.

[NOTE. The wife may become a creditor of her husband, she may sue her husband on his note. He may transfer exempt property to her, but in a contest between her and creditors of husband the presumption is against her.]

CONTRACTS.

*Sec. 2. A married woman may bargain, sell and convey her real and personal property and enter into any contract with reference to it in the same manner and with the same effect as a married man may in relation to his real and personal property.

Sec. 3. A woman may, while married, sue and be sued in the same manner as if she were unmarried.

Sec. 4. Any married woman may carry on trade or business, and perform any labor or services on her sole and separate account; and the earnings of any married woman from her trade, business, labor or services shall be her sole and separate property, and may be used and invested by her in her own name.

*Sec. 5. Any woman married out of the state, if her husband becomes a resident of the state, shall enjoy all the rights of property acquired by the laws of any other state, territory or country, or which she may have acquired by any marriage contract or settlement made out of this state. Sec. 7. The property of the husband shall not be liable for any debts contracted by the wife before marriage.

Ch. 73, Sec. 42. Any real estate belonging to a married woman may be managed, controlled, leased, devised, or conveyed by her by deed, or by will, in the same manner and with like effect as if she were single.

Sec. 43.

To convey her right of dower she must execute a deed with or without her husband.