perform the duties of their offices until their successors shall be duly qualified. 24. Every law enacted by the Legislature shall embrace but one object, and that shall be expressed in the title.

25. No law shall be revised or amended by reference to its title; but, in such case, the act revised or section amended, shall be re-enacted and published at length.

26. No person shall hold or exercise, at the same time, more than one civil office of emolument, except that of justice of the peace.

27. Taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout the State. All property in this State shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as directed by law; except such property as two-thirds of both houses of the Legislature may think proper to exempt from taxation. The Legislature shall have power to lay an income tax, and to tax all persons pursuing any occupation, trade, or profession: provided, that the term "occupation," shall not be construed to apply to pursuits either agricultural or mechanical.

28. The Legislature shall have power to provide by law for exempting from taxation two hundred and fifty dollars' worth of the household furniture, or other property belonging to each family in this State.

29. The assessor and collector of taxes shall be appointed in such manner, and under such regulations, as the Legislature may direct.

30. No corporate body shall hereafter be created, renewed, or extended, with banking or discounting privileges.

31. No private corporation shall be created, unless the bill creating it shall be passed by two-thirds of both houses of the Legislature; and two-thirds of the Legislature shall have power to revoke and repeal all private corporations, by making compensation for the franchise. And the State shall not be part owner of the stock or property belonging to any corporation.

32. The Legislature shall prohibit, by law, individuals from issuing bills, checks, promissory notes, or other paper, to circulate as money.

33. The aggregate amount of debts hereafter contracted by the Legislature shall never exceed the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, except in case of war, to repel invasions, or suppress insurrections. And in no case shall any amount be borrowed, except by a vote of two-thirds of both houses of the Legislature.

34. The Legislature shall, at the first session thereof, and may, at any subsequent session, establish new counties for the convenience of the inhabitants of such new county or counties: provided, that no new county shall be established, which shall reduce the county or counties, or either of them, from which it shall be taken, to a less area than nine hundred square miles (except the county of Bowie), unless by consent of two-thirds of the Legislature; nor shall any county be laid off of less contents. Every new county, as to the right of suffrage and representation, shall be considered as part of the county or counties from which it was taken, until entitled, by numbers, to the right of separate representation.

35. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in the house, or within the enclosure, of any individual, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner prescribed by law.

36. The salaries of the Governor and judges of the Supreme and district courts are hereby fixed at the minimum established in the Constitution, and shall not be increased for ten years.

37. Mode of amending the Constitution.-The Legislature, whenever twothirds of each house shall deem it necessary, may propose amendments to this Constitution; which proposed amendments shall be duly published in the public prints of the State, at least three months before the next general election of representatives, for the consideration of the people: and it shall be the duty of the several returning officers, at the next election, which shall be thus holden, to open a poll for, and make a return to, the Secretary of State, of the names of all those voting for representatives, who have voted on such proposed amendments; and if thereupon it shall appear that a majority of all the citizens of this State, voting for representatives, have voted in favor of such proposed

amendments, and two-thirds of each house of the next Legislature shall, after such election, and before another, ratify the same amendments by yeas and nays, they shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as parts of this Constitution: provided, that the said proposed amendments shall, at each of the said sessions, have been read on three several days in each house.

ARTICLE VIII.-Slaves.

SEC. 1. The Legislature shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves, without the consent of their owners, nor without paying their owners, previous to such emancipation, a full equivalent in money for the slaves so emancipated. They shall have no power to prevent emigrants to this State from bringing with them such persons as are deemed slaves by the laws of any of the United States, so long as any person of the same age or description shall be continued in slavery by the laws of this State: provided, that such slave be the bona fide property of such emigrants: provided, also, that laws shall be passed to inhibit the introduction into this State of slaves who have committed high crimes in other States or Territories. They shall have the right to pass laws to permit the owners of slaves to emancipate them, saving the rights of creditors, and preventing them from becoming a public charge. They shall have full power to pass laws which will oblige the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity; to provide for them necessary food and clothing; to abstain from all injuries to them extending to life or limb; and, in case of their neglect or refusal to comply with the directions of such laws, to have such slave or slaves taken from such owner, and sold for the benefit of such owner or owners. They may pass laws to prevent slaves from being brought into this State as merchandize only.

2. In the prosecution of slaves for crimes of a higher grade than petit larceny, the Legislature shall have no power to deprive them of an impartial trial by a petit jury.

3. Any person who shall maliciously dismember, or deprive a slave of life, shall suffer such punishment as would be inflicted in case the like offence had been committed upon a free white person, and on like proof, except in case of insurrection of such slave.

ARTICLE IX.-Impeachment.

SEC. 1. The power of impeachment shall be vested in the House of Representatives.

2. Impeachments of the Governor, Lieutenant-governor, attorney-general, secretary of State, treasurer, comptroller, and of the judges of the district courts, shall be tried by the Senate.

3. Impeachments of judges of the Supreme Court shall be tried by the Senate. When sitting as a court of impeachment, the senators shall be upon oath or affirmation; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the senators present.

4. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall extend only to removal from office, and disqualification from holding any office of honor, trust or profit, under this State; but the parties convicted shall, nevertheless, be subject to indictment, trial, and punishment, according to law.

5. All officers against whom articles of impeachment may be preferred, shall be suspended from the exercise of the duties of their office during the pendency of such impeachment; the appointing power may make a provisional appointment, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the suspension of an officer, until the decision on the impeachment.

6. The Legislature shall provide for the trial, punishment, and removal from office, of all other officers of the State, by indictment, or otherwise.

ARTICLE X.-Education.

SEC. 1. A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of this State to make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of public schools.

2. The Legislature shall, as early as practicable, establish free schools throughout the State, and shall furnish means for their support, by taxation on property; and it shall be the duty of the Legislature to set apart not less than one-tenth of the annual revenue of the State derivable from taxation, as a perpetual fund, which fund shall be appropriated to the support of free public schools; and no law shall ever be made diverting said fund to any other use; and until such time as the Legislature shall provide for the establishment of such schools in the several districts of the State, the fund thus created shall remain as a charge against the State, passed to the credit of the free commonschool fund.

3. All public lands which have been heretofore, or which may hereafter be, granted for public schools, to the various counties, or other political divisions in this State, shall not be alienated in fee, nor disposed of otherwise than by lease, for a term not exceeding twenty years, in such manner as the Legislature may direct.

4. The several counties in this State, which have not received their quantum of lands, for the purposes of education, shall be entitled to the same quantity heretofore appropriated by the Congress of the republic of Texas to other counties.

ARTICLE XI.

1. All certificates for head-right claims to lands issued to fictitious persons, or which were forged, and all locations and surveys thereon, are, and the same were, null and void from the beginning.

2. The district courts shall be opened until the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, for the establishment of certificates for head-rights not recommended by the commissioners appointed under the act to detect fraudulent land certificates, and to provide for issuing patents to legal claimants; and the parties suing shall produce the like proof, and be subjected to the requisitions which were necessary and were prescribed by law, to sustain the original application for the said certificates; and all certificates above referred to, not established or sued upon before the period limited, shall be barred; and the said certificates, and all locations and surveys thereon, shall be forever null and void; and all re-locations made on such survey, shall not be disturbed until the certificates are established as above directed.

ARTICLE XII.-Land Office.

There shall be one general land office in the State, which shall be at the seat of government, where all titles which have heretofore emanated, or may hereafter emanate, from government, shall be registered. And the Legislature may establish, from time to time, such subordinate offices as they may deem requisite.

THE attention of emigrants has been turned, with peculiar interest, towards this new State. It is now settling more rapidly than any other portion of the great West. Iowa formed the territorial government in 1838. In 1844 it adopted a Constitution, and asked to be admitted into the union as an independent State. A law was passed by Congress for that purpose in 1845, which altered the bounds fixed in the Constitution. It was rejected, because it diminished its territory. In 1846 terms were agreed upon, and Iowa became the 29th State in the union. Area, 150,000 sq. m. Pop. in 1850, 192,214.

CONSTITUTION.

ARTICLE I.-Preamble and Boundaries.

WE, the people of the territory of Iowa, grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of these blessings, do ordain and establish a free and independent government, by the name of the State of Iowa, the boundaries whereof shall be as follows:

Beginning in the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river, at a point due east of the middle of the mouth of the main channel of the Des Moines river, thence up the middle of the main channel of the said Des Moines river, to a point on said river where the northern boundary line of the State of Missouri, as established by the Constitution of that State, adopted June 12th,

1820, crosses the said middle of the main channel of the said Des Moines river, thence westwardly, along the said northern boundary line of the State of Mis souri, as established at the time aforesaid, until an extension of said line intersect the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river; thence up the middle of the main channel of the said Missouri river, to a point opposite the middle of the main channel of the Big Sioux river, according to Nicollet's map; thence up the main channel of the said Big Sioux river, according to said map, until it is intersected by the parallel of forty-three degrees and thirty minutes north latitude; thence east, along said parallel of forty-three degrees and thirty minutes, until said parallel intersect the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river; thence down the middle of the main channel of said Mississippi river, to the place of beginning.

ARTICLE II.—Bill of Rights.

SEC. 1. All men are by nature free and independent, and have certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness.

2. All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for the protection, security, and benefit of the people; and they have the right, at all times, to alter or reform the same, whenever the public good may require it.

3. The General Assembly shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, nor shall any person be compelled to attend any place of worship, pay tithes, taxes, or other rates for building or repairing places of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry.

4. No religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust, and no person shall be deprived of any of his rights, privileges or capacities, or disqualified from the performance of any of his public or private duties, or rendered incompetent to give evidence in any court of law or equity, in consequence of his opinions on the subject of religion.

5. Any citizen of this State who may hereafter be engaged, either directly or indirectly, in a duel, either as principal or accessary before the fact, shall forever be disqualified from holding any office under the Constitution and laws of

this State.

6. All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation.

7. Every person may speak, write, and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right. No law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. In all prosecutions or indictments for libel, the truth may be given in evidence to the jury, and if it appear to the jury that the matter charged as libellous was true, and was published with good motives, and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted. 8. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable seizures and searches, shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue, but on probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, particularly describing the place to be searched, and the papers and things to be seized.

9. The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate; but the General Assembiy may authorize trial by jury of a less number than twelve men in inferior

courts.

10. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have a right to a speedy trial by an impartial jury, to be informed of the accusation against him, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have compulsory process for his own witnesses, and to have the assistance of counsel.

11. No person shall be held to answer for a criminal offence, unless on presentment or indictment by a grand jury, except in cases cognizable by justices of the peace, or arising in the army or navy, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger.

12. No person shall, after acquittal, be tried for the same offence. All per