proval when the result of its labors was submitted to the people for ratification.

It is eminently fitting that the Legislature of nineteen hundred nine should acknowledge the importance and worth of the work of the Convention for which its predecessors had arranged by providing for the publication of this manual.

CONVENTION OF 1835.

An act to enable the people of Michigan to form a constitution and state government.

Whereas, it is ordained and declared, in and by the ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio, passed by Congress on the 13th day of July, 1787, that certain articles therein contained shall be considered as articles of compact between the original states and the people and states in the said territory, and forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent; and

Whereas, it is stipulated in and by the 5th of the said articles of compact, that there shall be formed in the said territory, not less than three nor more than five states; and that "the boundaries of the three states shall be subject so far to be altered, that if Congress shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two states in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan:" and

Whereas, it is stipulated in said article that the said three states shall be bounded on the north either by the territorial line between the United States and Canada, or the said east and west lines; and

Whereas, Congress has not admitted the said three states into the Union, according to the boundaries mentioned in the said article; and

Whereas, it is provided in and by an act of Congress, entitled "An act to divide the Indiana territory into two separate governments," approved January 11th, 1805, as follows, to wit:

"Section 1. That all that part of the Indiana territory which lies north of a line drawn east from the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, until it shall intersect Lake Erie, and east of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States, shall for the purposes of temporary government constitute a separate territory, and be called Michigan."

"Section 2. The inhabitants thereof shall be entitled to, and enjoy, all and singular, the rights, privileges and advantages granted and secured to the people of the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio, by the said ordinance;" and

Whereas, it was the right and privilege of sixty thousand free inhabitants within the limits of Indiana, according to the said ordinance, to form for themselves a permanent constitution and state government; and

Whereas, the same right and privilege are granted by the act aforesaid to the people of Michigan, whenever there shall be sixty thousand free inhabitants within the limits mentioned within the said act; and

Whereas, it is ascertained, under the authority of an act of the Legislative Council, passed on the 6th day of September, 1834, that there now are eighty-seven thousand two hundred seventy-three free inhabitants within the limits prescribed for Michigan by the act aforesaid: Therefore, for the purpose of enabling the free inhabitants of the said territory to secure to themselves the rights and privileges guaranteed to them by the said ordinance and act of Congress,

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, That the said free inhabitants of the territory of Michigan as the said territory was established by the act of Congress, entitled "An act to divide the Indiana territory into two separate governments," approved January 11th, 1805; that is to say, of all that territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, east of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States, and west and south of the said boundary of the United States, be and they are hereby authorized to assemble to choose delegates in the manner and at the time and place hereinafter mentioned, to form for themselves a constitution. and state government, upon the principles and according to the provisions, contained in the ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio," adopted in Congress the 13th day of July, 1787.

Section 2. That the free white male inhabitants of the said territory above the age of twenty-one years, who shall reside therein three months immediately preceding Saturday, the 4th day of April next, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, be and they are hereby au