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ARTICLE XVI.-Amendments.

SEC. 1. Any amendment or amendments to this constitution may be proposed in either branch of the General Assembly, 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, with the yeas and nays thereon, be entered on their journals, and referred to the General Assembly to be chosen at the next general election; and if in the General Assembly 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 General Assembly to submit such amendment or amendments to the electors of the State; and if a majority of said electors shall ratify the same, such amendment or amendments shall become a part of this constitution.

2. If two or more amendments shall be submitted at the same time, they shall be submitted in such manner that the electors shall vote for or against each of such amendments separately; and while an amendment or amendments which shall have been agreed upon by one General Assembly shall be awaiting the action of a succeeding General Assembly, or of the electors, no additional amendment or amendments shall be proposed.

SCHEDULE.

THIS Constitution, if adopted, shall take effect on the first day of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, and shall supersede the constitution adopted in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixteen. That no inconvenience may arise from the change in the government, it is hereby ordained as follows:

1. All laws now in force, and not inconsistent with this constitution, shall remain in force until they shall expire or be repealed.

2. All indictments, prosecutions, suits, pleas, plaints, and other proceedings pending in any of the courts, shall be prosecuted to final judgment and execution; and all appeals, writs of error, certiorara, and injunctions, shall be carried on in the several courts in the same manner as is now provided by law.

3. All fines, penalties and forfeitures due or accruing to the State, or to any county therein, shall inure to the State, or to such county, in the manner prescribed by law. All bonds executed to the State, or to any officer in his official capacity, shall remain in force, and inure to the use of those concerned.

4. All acts of incorporation for municipal purposes shall continue in force under this constitution, until such time as the General Assembly shall, in its discretion, modify or repeal the same.

5. The governor, at the expiration of the present official term, shall continue to act until his successor shall have been sworn into office.

6. There shall be a session of the General Assembly, commencing on the first Monday of December, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.

7. Senators now in office and holding over under the existing constitution, and

such as may be elected at the next general election, and the representatives then elected, shall continue in office until the first general election under this constitution.

8. The first general election under this constitution shall be held in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.

9. The first election for governor, lieutenant governor, judges of the supreme court and circuit courts, clerk of the supreme court, prosecuting attorney, secretary, auditor, and treasurer of state, and state superintendent of public instruction, under this constitution, shall be held at the general election in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two; and such of said officers as may be in office when this constitution shall go into effect, shall continue in their respective offices, until their successors shall have been elected and qualified.

10. Every person elected by popular vote, and now in any office which is continued by this constitution, and every person who shall be so elected to any such office before the taking effect of this constitution (except as in this constitution otherwise provided), shall continue in office until the term for which such person has been, or may be elected, shall expire: Provided that no such person shall continue in office after the taking effect of this constitution for a longer period than the term of such office in this constitution prescribed.

11. On the taking effect of this constitution, all officers thereby continued in office shall, before proceeding in the further discharge of their duties, take an oath or affirmation to support this constitution.

12. All vacancies that may occur in existing offices prior to the first general election under this constitution, shall be filled in the manner now prescribed by law.

13. At the time of submitting this constitution to the electors for their approval or disapproval, the article numbered thirteen, in relation to negroes and mulattoes, shall be submitted as a distinct proposition, in the following form: "Exclusion and colonization of negroes and mulattoes," "Aye" or "No." And if a majority of the votes cast shall be in favor of said article, then the same shall form a part of this constitution, otherwise it shall be void, and form no part thereof.

14. No article or section of this constitution shall be submitted as a distinct proposition to a vote of the electors, otherwise than is herein provided.

15. Whenever a portion of the citizens of the counties of Perry and Spencer shall deem it expedient to form of the contiguous territory of said counties a new county, it shall be the duty of those interested in the organization of such new county to lay off the same by proper metes and bounds, of equal portions as nearly as practicable, not to exceed one-third of the territory of each of said counties. The proposal to create such new county shall be submitted to the voters of said counties at a general election, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law. And if a majority of all the votes given at said election shall be in favor of the organization of said new county, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to organize the same out of the territory thus designated.

16. The General Assembly may alter or amend the charter of Clarksville, and make such regulations as may be necessary for carrying into effect the objects contemplated in granting the same; and the funds belonging to said town shall be applied according to the intention of the grantor.

Done in Convention at Indianapolis, the tenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, and of the Independence of the United States the seventy-fifth.

GEORGE WHITFIELD CARR, President.

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THE first settlement made in this State was by the French, at Kaskaskia, about 1720. By the treaty of peace between England and France in 1763, it came into the possession of the British. In 1789 it constituted a part of the NorthWest Territory. In 1800, what is now Indiana and Illinois, became a separate territory. In 1809 Illinois became a territory under its present name, and in 1818 it was admitted into the union as an independent State. In 1800 Illinois contained not more than 3,000 inhabitants; its increase has been very rapid, having more than trebled its inhabitants every ten years. Area, 50,000 sq. m. Pop. in 1850, 858,298.

CONSTITUTION.

PREAMBLE.

WE, the people of the state of Illinois-grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political, and religious liberty, which he hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations-in order to form a more perfect government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the state of Illinois.

ARTICLE L-Boundaries.

SEC. 1. The boundaries and jurisdiction of the state shall be as follows, to wit: beginning at the mouth of the Wabash river; thence up the same, and with the line of Indiana, to the north-west corner of said state; thence east, with the line of the same state, to the middle of Lake Michigan; thence north, along the middle of said lake, to north latitude forty-two degrees and thirty minutes; thence west to the middle of the Mississippi river, and thence down, along the middle of that river, to its confluence with the Ohio river; and thence up the latter river, along its north-western shore, to the place of beginning: Provided, that this state shall exercise such jurisdiction upon the Ohio river as she is now entitled to, or such as may hereafter be agreed upon by this state and the state of Kentucky.

ARTICLE II-Concerning the Distribution of the Powers of Government. SEC. 1. The powers of the government of the state of Illinois shall be divided into three distinct departments, and each of them be confided to a separate body of magistracy, to wit: those which are legislative, to one; those which are executive, to another; and those which are judicial, to another.

2. No person, or collection of persons, being one of these departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except as hereinafter expressly directed or permitted, and all acts in contravention of this section shall be void.

ARTICLE III-Of the Legislative Department.

SEC. 1. The legislative authority of this state shall be vested in a general assembly, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives, both to be elected by the people.

2. The first election for senators and representatives shall be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, one thousand eight hundred and fortyeight; and thereafter, elections for members of the general assembly shall be held once in two years, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in each and every county, at such places therein as may be provided by

law.

3. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained the age of twenty-five years; who shall not be a citizen of the United States, and three years an inhabitant of this state; who shall not have resided within the limits of the county or district in which he shall be chosen twelve months next preceding his election, if such county or district shall have been so long erected, but, if not, then within the limits of the county or counties, district or districts, out of which the same shall have been taken, unless he shall have been absent on the public business of the United States or of this state; and who, moreover, shall not have paid a state or county tax.

4. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained the age of thirty years; who shall not be a citizen of the United States, five years an inhabitant of this state and one year in the county or district in which he shall be chosen immediately preceding his election, if such county or district shall have been so long erected, but, if not, then within the limits of the county or counties, district or districts, out of which the same shall have been taken, unless he shall have been absent on the public business of the United States or of this state, and shall not, moreover, have paid a state or county tax.

5. The senators at their first session herein provided for shall be divided by lot, as near as can be, into two classes. The seats of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, and those of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year; so that one half thereof, as near as possible, may be biennially chosen for ever thereafter.

6. The senate shall consist of twenty-five members, and the house of representatives shall consist of seventy-five members, until the population of the state

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