ILLUSTRATIONS Wisconsin in 1846 Map prepared for this work by Mary S. Foster PAGE Frontispiece Governor Henry Dodge 58 From an oil portrait by Bowman in the Wisconsin Historical SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS The assemblage and publication of the sources for the constitution of Wisconsin is desirable for several reasons. Admitted to the Union in 1848, and most notable of all the states, perhaps, for its development in recent years of progressive political policies and machinery, Wisconsin still keeps its original constitution. Although seventy years is not commonly regarded as a long period in the lives of nations, from the relative point of view the constitution of Wisconsin is hoary with age. Looking abroad it is olderto mention only a few instances-than the present governments of Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria, Roumania, Servia, Portugal, China, Japan, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and, of course, of most of the countries of Africa and South America. At home, although by no means the oldest of existing state constitutions, that of Wisconsin is the oldest of any state west of the Allegheny Mountains. The constitution of Alabama dates from 1901, and is the fourth organic framework of government to be adopted in the last forty-three years. That of Mississippi was adopted in 1890 and the state has had four in a hundred years. Tennessee's constitution, the third in her history, dates from June, 1870. Kentucky's present constitution, the state's fourth, was adopted in 1891. Arkansas has had three since 1864, her present one having been adopted in 1874. Missouri's constitution dates from 1875 and is the third one adopted by the state in less than a century. Illinois closely resembles Missouri; her present constitution is her third one and was adopted in 1870. Iowa was admitted to the Union in 1846, two years before Wisconsin, and her first constitution lasted but eleven years. California was admitted in 1849; her present (and second) consti |