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. SEC. 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. 2. Any inhabitant of this state who may hereafter be engaged, either directly or indirectly, in a duel, either as principal or accessary, 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 any other manner as shall be prescribed by law. 3. No member of congress, nor any person holding any office 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 honor in this state. 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 official acts of the governor, his approbation of the laws excepted, shall be thereby authenticated. 5. All persons residing upon Indian lands within any county of the state, and 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. 6. The elective officers of the legislature, other than the presiding officers, shall be a chief-clerk, and a sergeant-at-arms, to be elected by each house. 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. 8. No county seat shall be removed until the point to which it is proposed to be removed, shall be fixed by law, and a majority of the voters of the county, voting on the question, shall have voted in favor of its removal to such point. 9. All county officers whose election or appointment is not provided for by this constitution, shall be elected by the electors of the respective counties, or appointed by the boards of supervisors or other county authorities, as the legis lature shall direct. All city, town, and village officers, whose election or appointment is not provided for by this constitution, shall be elected by the electors of such cities, towns, and villages, or of some division thereof, or appointed by such authorities thereof, as the legislature shall designate for that purpose. All other officers whose election or appointment is not provided for by this constitution, and all officers whose offices may hereafter be created by law, shall be elected by the people, or appointed as the legislature may direct. 10. The legislature may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant, and also the manner of filling the vacancy where no provision is made for that purpose, in this constitution. ARTICLE XIV.-Schedule. SEC. 1. That no inconvenience may arise by reason of a change from a territorial to a permanent state government, it is declared that all rights, actions, prosecutions, judgments, claims, and contracts, as well of individuals as of bodies cor porate, shall continue as if no such change had taken place, and all process which may be issued under the authority of the territory of Wisconsin, previous to its admission into the Union of the United States, shall be as valid as if issued in the name of the state. 2. All laws now in force in the territory of Wisconsin, which are not repugnant to this constitution, shall remain in force until they expire by their own limitation, or be altered or repealed by the legislature. 3. All fines, penalties, or forfeitures accruing to the territory of Wisconsin, shall enure to the use of the state. 4. All recognizances heretofore taken, or which may be taken before the change from a territorial to a permanent state government, shall remain valid, and shall pass to, and may be prosecuted in the name of the state; and all bonds executed to the governor of the territory, or to any other officer or court, in his or their official capacity, shall pass to the governor of the state authority, and their successors in office, for the uses therein respectively expressed, and may be sued for and recovered accordingly; and all the estate or property, real, personal, or mixed, and all judgments, bonds, specialities, choses in action, and claims or debts of whatsoever description, of the territory of Wisconsin, shall enure to and vest in the state of Wisconsin, and may be sued for and recovered in the same manner, and to the same extent, by the state of Wisconsin, as the same could have been by the territory of Wisconsin. 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 offences committed against the laws of the territory of Wisconsin, 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 Wisconsin, with like effect as though such change had not taken place; and all penalties incurred shall 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 Wisconsin, at the time of the change from a territorial to a state government, may be continued and transferred to any court of the state which shall have jurisdiction of the subject matter thereof. 5. All officers, civil and military, now holding their offices under the authority of the United States, or of the territory of Wisconsin, shall continue to hold and exercise their respective offices until they shall be superseded by the authority of the state. 6. The first session of the legislature of the state of Wisconsin shall commence on the first Monday in June next, and shall be held at the village of Madison, which shall be and remain the seat of government until otherwise provided by law. 7. All county, precinct, and township officers, shall continue to hold their respective offices, unless removed by the competent authority, until the legislature shall in conformity with the provisions of this constitution provide for the holding of elections to fill such offices respectively. 8. The president of this convention shall, immediately after its adjournment, cause a fair copy of this constitution, together with a copy of the act of the legis lature of this territory, entitled "An act in relation to the formation of a state government in Wisconsin, and to change the time of holding the annual session of the legislature," approved October 27th, 1847, providing for the calling of this convention, and also a copy of so much of the last census of this territory as exhibits the number of its inhabitants, to be forwarded to the President of the United States, to be laid before the congress of the United States at its present session. 9. This constitution shall be submitted at an election to be held on the second Monday in March next, for ratification or rejection, to all white male persons of the age of twenty-one years or upwards, who shall then be residents of this territory and citizens of the United States, or shall have declared their intention to become such, in conformity with the laws of congress on the subject of naturalization; and all persons having such qualifications shall be entitled to vote for or against the adoption of this constitution, and for all officers first elected under it. And if the constitution be ratified by the said electors, it shall become the constitution of the state of Wisconsin. On such of the ballots as are for the constitution, shall be written or printed the word "yes" and on such as are against the constitution the word "no." The election shall be conducted in the manner now prescribed by law, and the returns made by the clerks of the boards of supervisors or county commissioners (as the case may be) to the governor of the territory, at any time before the tenth day of April next. And in the event of the ratification of this constitution, by a majority of all the votes given, it shall be the duty of the governor of this territory to make proclamation of the same, and to transmit a digest of the returns to the senate and assembly of the state, on the first day of their session. An election shall be held for governor and lieutenant-governor, treasurer, attorney-general, members of the state legislature, and members of congress, on the second Monday of May next, and no other or further notice of such election shall be required. 10. Two members of congress shall also be elected on the second Monday of May next; and until otherwise provided by law, the counties of Milwaukie, Waukesha, Jefferson, Racine, Walworth, Rock, and Green, shall constitute the first congressional district, and elect one member; and the counties of Washington, Sheboygan, Manitouwoc, Calumet, Brown, Winnebago, Fond du Lac, Marquette, Sauk, Portage, Columbia, Dodge, Dane, Iowa, La Fayette, Grant, Richland, Crawford, Chippewa, St. Croix, and La Pointe, shall constitute the second congressional district, and shall elect one member. 11. The several elections provided for in this article shall be conducted according to the existing laws of the territory: Provided, That no elector shall be entitled to vote except in the town, ward, or precinct where he resides. The returns of election for senators and members of assembly shall be transmitted to the clerk of the board of supervisors, or county commissioners, as the case may be, and the votes shall be canvassed, and certificates of election issued, as now provided by law. In the first senatorial district, the returns of the election for senator shall be made to the proper officer in the county of Brown. In the second senatorial district, to the proper officer in the county of Columbia. In the third senatorial district, to the proper officer in the county of Crawford. In the fourth senatorial district, to the proper officer in the county of Fond du Lac. And in the fifth senatorial district to the proper officer in the county of Iowa. The returns of election for state officers and members of congress shall be certified and transmitted to the speaker of the assembly at the seat of government, in the same manner as the votes for delegate to congress are required to be certified and returned by the laws of the territory of Wisconsin, to the secretary of said territory, and in such time that they may be received on the first Monday in June next; and as soon as the legislature shall be organized, the speaker of the assembly and the president of the senate shall, in the presence of both houses, examine the returns, and declare who are duly elected to fill the several offices hereinbefore mentioned, and give to each of the persons elected a certificate of his election. 12. Until there shall be a new apportionment, the senators and members of the assembly shall be apportioned among the several districts, as hereinafter mentioned, and each district shall be entitled to elect one senator or member of the assembly, as the case may be. The counties of Brown, Calumet, Manitouwoc, and Sheboygan, shall constitute the first senate district. The counties of Columbia, Marquette, Portage, and Sauk, shall constitute the second senate district. The counties of Crawford, Chippewa, St. Croix, and La Ponte, shall constitute the third senate district. The counties of Fond du Lac, and Winnebago, shall constitute the fourth senate district. The counties of Iowa and Richland, shall constitute the fifth senate district. The county of La Fayette shall constitute the seventh senate district. The towns of Southport, Pike, Pleasant Prairie, Paris, Bristol, Brighton, Salem, and Wheatland, in the county of Racine, shall constitute the sixteenth senate district. The towns of Racine, Caledonia, Mount Pleasant, Raymond, Norway, Rochester, Yorkville, and Burlington, in the county of Racine, shall constitute the seventeenth senate district. The third, fourth, and fifth wards of the city of Milwaukee, and the towns of Lake, Oak Creek, Franklin, and Greenfield, in the county of Milwaukee, shall constitute the eighteenth senate district. The first and second wards of the city of Milwaukee, and the towns of Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, and Granville, in the county of Milwaukee, shall constitute the nineteenth senate district. The county of Brown shall constitute an assembly district. The county of Manitouwoc shall constitute an assembly district. The counties of Crawford and Chippewa, shall constitute an assembly district. The counties of St. Croix and La Pointe, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Windsor, Sun Prairie, and Cottage Grove, in the county of Dane, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Madison, Cross Plains, Clarkson, Springfield, Verona, Montrose, Oregon, and Greenfield, in the county of Dane, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Rome, Dunkirk, Christiana, Albion, and Rutland, in the county of Dane, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Burnett, Chester, Le Roy, and Williamstown, in the county of Dodge, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Fairfield, Hubbard, and Rubicon, in the county of Dodge, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Hustisford, Ashippun, Lebanon, and Emmet, in the county of Dodge, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Elba, Lowell, Portland, and Clyman, in the county of Dodge, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Calamus, Beaver Dam, Fox Lake, and Trenton, in the county of Dodge, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Calumet, Forest, Auburn, Byron, Taychedah, and Fond du Lac, in the county of Fond du Lac, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Alto, Metoman, Ceresco, Rosendale, Waupun, Oakfield, and Seven Mile Creek, in the county of Fond du Lac, shall constitute an assembly district. The precincts of Hazel Green, Fairplay, Smeltzer's Grove, and Jamestown, in the county of Grant, shall constitute an assembly district. The precincts of Plattville, Head of Platte, Centerville, Muscoday, and Fennimore, in the county of Grant, shall constitute an assembly district. The precincts of Pleasant Valley, Potosi, Waterloo, Hurricane, and New Lisbon, in the county of Grant, shall constitute an assembly district. The precincts of Beetown, Patch Grove, Cassville, Millville, and Lancaster, in the county of Grant, shall constitute an assembly district. The county of Green shall constitute an assembly district. The precincts of Dallas, Peddler's Creek, Mineral Point, and Yellow Stone, in the county of Iowa, shall constitute an assembly district. The precincts of Franklin, Dodgeville, Porter's Grove, Arena, and Percussion, in the county of Iowa, and the county of Richland, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Watertown, Aztalan, and Waterloo, in the county of Jefferson, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Ixonia, Concord, Sullivan, Hebron, Cold Spring, and Palmyra, in the county of Jefferson, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Lake Mills, Oakland, Koskonong, Farmington, and Jefferson, in the county of Jefferson, shall constitute an assembly district. The precincts of Benton, Elk Grove, Belmont, Willow Springs, Prairie, and that part of Shullsburgh precinct north of town one, in the county of La Fayette, shall constitute an assembly district. The precincts of Wiota, Wayne, Gratiot, White Oak Springs, Fever River, and that part of Shullsburgh precinct south of town two, in the county of La Fayette, shall constitute an assembly district. The county of Marquette shall constitute an assembly district. The first ward of the city of Milwaukee, shall constitute an assembly district. The second ward of the city of Milwaukee, shall constitute an assembly district. The third ward of the city of Milwaukee, shall constitute an assembly district. The fourth and fifth wards of the city of Milwaukee, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Franklin, and Oak Creek, in the county of Milwaukee, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Greenfield, and Lake, in the county of Milwaukee, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Granville, Wauwatosa, and Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee, shall constitute an assembly district. The county of Portage shall constitute an assembly district. The town of Racine, in the county of Racine, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Norway, Raymond, Caledonia, and Mount Pleasant, in the county of Racine, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Rochester, Burlington, and Yorkville, in the county of Racine, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Southport, Pike, and Pleasant Prairie, in the county of Racine, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Paris, Bristol, Brighton, Salem, and Wheatland, in the county of Racine, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Janesville, and Bradford, in the county of Rock, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Beloit, Turtle, and Clinton, in the county of Rock, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Magnolia, Union, Porter, and Fulton, in the county of Rock, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Milton, Lima, and Johnstown, in the county of Rock, shall constitute an assembly district. The towns of Newark, Rock, Avon, Spring Valley, and Centre, in the county of Rock, shall constitute an assembly district: Provided, That if the legislature shall divide the town of Centre, they may attach such part of it to the district lying next north, as they may deem expedient. The county of Sauk shall constitute an assembly district. Precincts numbered one, three, and seven, in the county of Sheboygan, shall constitute an assembly district. |