court of any county to the supreme court held in the division which includes such county, or, with the consent of all the parties in the cause, to the supreme court in the next adjoining division.

SEC. 33. The foregoing districts may, after the taking of each census by the state, be altered, if necessary, to equalize the said districts in population; but such alteration shall be made by adding to such district such adjacent county or counties as will make said district nearest equal in population; Provided, no such alteration shall affect the office of any judge then in office.

ARTICLE VI.

ON ELECTIONS AND THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE.

SECTION 1. In all elections, every white male citizen above the age of twenty-one years, having resided in the state one year next preceding any election, shall be entitled to vote at such election; and every white male inhabitant of the age aforesaid, who may be a resident of the state at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall have the right of voting as aforesaid; but no such citizen or inhabitant shall be entitled to vote, except in the district or county in which he shall actually reside at the time of such election.

SEC. 2. All votes shall be given by ballot.

SEC. 3. Electors shall, in all cases, except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at elections, and in going to and returning from the same.

SEC. 4. No elector shall be obliged to do militia duty on the days of election, except in time of war or public danger.

SEC. 5. No elector shall be deemed to have lost his residence in this state by reason of his absence on the business of the United States, or of this state.

SEC. 6. No soldier, seaman, or marine, in the army or navy of the United States, shall be deemed a resident of this state, in consequence of being stationed at any military or naval place within the state.

SEC. 7. No person shall be elected or appointed to any office in this state, civil or military, who is not a citizen of the United States, and who shall not have resided in this state one year next before the election or appointment.

SEC. 8. The general assembly shall have full power to pass laws exeluding from the right of suffrage persons convicted of infamous crimes. SEC. 9. The general elections shall be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of November, biennially, until otherwise provided by

law.

ARTICLE VII.

OF COUNTIES.

SECTION 1. No new county shall be formed or established by the general assembly, which will reduce the county or counties, or either of them, from which it shall be taken, to less contents than four hundre

square miles; nor shall any county be formed of less contents; nor shall any line thereof pass within less than ten miles of any county seat of the county or counties proposed to be divided.

SEC. 2. No county 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.

SEC. 3. All territory which has been or may be stricken off, by legis lative enactment, from any organized county or counties, for the purpose of forming a new county, and which shall remain unorganized after the period provided for such organization, shall be and remain a part of the County or counties from which it was originally taken, for all purposes of county and state government, until otherwise provided by law.

SEC. 4. There shall be no territory stricken from any county unless a majority of the voters living in such territory shall petition for such division; and no territory shall be added to any county without the consent of a majority of the voters of the county to which it is proposed to be added.

SEC. 5. 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 shall have voted in favor of its removal to such point.

SEC. 6. The general assembly shall provide, by a general law, for a township organization, under which any county may organize whenever a majority of the voters of such county, at any general clection, shall so determine; and whenever any county shall adopt a township organization, so much of this constitution as provides for the management of the fiscal concerns of the said county by the county court may be dispensed with, and the affairs of said county may be transacted in such manner as the general assembly may provide.

SEC. 7. There shall be elected in each county in this state, by the qualified electors thereof, a sheriff, who shall hold his office for the term of two years, and until his successor shall have been elected and qualified; Provided, no person shall be eligible to the said office more than once in four years.

ARTICLE VIII.

MILITIA.

SECTION 1. The militia of the state of Illinois shall consist of all free male able-bodied persons, (negroes, mulattoes, and Indians excepted,) resident of the state, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, except such persons as now are or hereafter may be exempted by the laws of the United States or of this state, and shall be armed, equipped, and trained as the general assembly may provide by law.

SEC. 2. No person or persons, conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to do militia duty in time of peace, provided such person or persons shall pay an equivalent for such exemption.

SEC. 3. Company, battalion, and regimental officers, staff officers ex

cepted, shall be elected by the persons composing their several companies, battalions, and regiments.

SEC. 4. Brigadier and major generals shall be elected by the officers of their brigades and divisions, respectively.

SEC. 5. All militia officers shall be commissioned by the governor, and may hold their commissions for such time as the legislature may provide.

SEC. 6. The militia shall, in all cases, except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at musters and elections of officers, and in going to and returning from the same.

ARTICLE IX.

OF THE REVENUE.

SECTION 1. The general assembly may, whenever they shall deem it necessary, cause to be collected from all able-bodied, free white male inhabitants of this state, over the age of twenty-one years and under the age of sixty years, who are entitled to the right of suffrage, a capitation tax of not less than fifty cents, nor more than one dollar each.

SEC. 2. The general assembly shall provide for levying a tax by valuation, so that every person and corporation shall pay a tax in proportion to the value of his or her property; such value to be ascertained by some person or persons to be elected or appointed in such manner as the general assembly shall direct, and not otherwise; but the general assembly shall have power to tax pedlers, auctioneers, brokers, hawkers, merchants, commission merchants, showmen, jugglers, inn-keepers, grocery keepers, toll bridges and ferries, and persons using and exercising franchises and privileges, in such manner as they shall from to time direct. SEC. 3. The property of the state and counties, both real and personal, and such other property as the general assembly may deem neces sary for school, religious, and charitable purposes, may be exempted from

taxation.

SEC. 4. Hereafter no purchaser of any land or town lot, at any sale of lands or town lots for taxes due either to this state or any county, or incorporated town or city within the same; or at any sale for taxes or levies authorized by the laws of this state, shall be entitled to a deed for the lands or town lot so purchased until he or she shall have complied with the following conditions, to wit: Such, purchaser shall serve, or cause to be served, a written notice of such purchase on every person in possession of such land or town lot, three months before the expiration of the time of redemption on such sale; in which notice he shall state when he purchased the land or town lot, the description of the land or lot he has purchased, and when the time of redemption will expire. In like manner he shall serve on the person or persons in whose name or names such land or lot is taxed, a similar written notice, if such person or persons shall reside in the county where such land or lot shall be situated; and in the event that the person or persons in whose name or names the land or lot is taxed do not reside in the county, such purchaser shall publish such notice in some newspaper printed in such county; and if no newspaper is printed in

the county, then in the nearest newspaper that is published in this state to the county in which such lot or land is situated; which notice shall be inserted three times, the last time not less than three months before the time of redemption shall expire. Every such purchaser, by himself or agent, shall, before he shall be entitled to a deed, make an affidavit of his having complied with the conditions of this section, stating particularly the facts relied on as such compliance; which affidavit shall be delivered to the person authorized by law to execute such tax deed, and which shall by him be filed with the officer having custody of the records of lands and lots sold for taxes and entries of redemption in the county where such land or lot shall lie, to be, by such officer entered on the records of his office and carefully preserved among the files of his office; and which record or affidavit shall be prima facie evidence that such notice has been given. Any person swearing falsely in such affidavit shall be deemed guilty of perjury, and punished accordingly. In case any person shall be compelled under this section to publish a notice in a newspaper, then, before any per son who may have a right to redeem such land or lot from tax sale, shall be permitted to redeem, he or she shall pay the officer or person who by law is authorized to receive such redemption money, the printer's fee for publishing such notice and the expenses of swearing or affirming to the affidavit, and filing the same.

SEC. 5. The corporate authorities of counties, townships, school districts, cities, towns, and villages may be vested with power to assess and collect taxes for corporate purposes; such taxes to be uniform in respect to persons and property within the jurisdiction of the body imposing the same. And the general assembly shall require that all the property within the limits of municipal corporations belonging to individuals shall be taxed for the payment of debts contracted under authority of law.

SEC. 6. The specification of the objects and subjects of taxation shall not deprive the general assembly of the power to require other objects or subjects to be taxed in such manner as may be consistent with the principles of taxation fixed in this constitution.

ARTICLE X.

CORPORATIONS.

SECTION 1. Corporations, not possessing banking powers or privileges, may be formed under general laws, but shall not be created by special acts, except for municipal purposes, and, in cases where, in the judgment of the general assembly, the objects of the corporation cannot be attained under general laws.

SEC. 2. Dues from corporations not possessing banking powers or privileges, shall be secured by such individual liabilities of the corporators, or other means, as may be prescribed by law.

SEC. 3. No state bank shall hereafter be created, nor shall the state own or be liable for any stock in any corporation or joint stock association for banking purposes, to be hereafter created.

SEC. 4. The stockholders in every corporation, or joint stock association for banking purposes, issuing bank notes, or any kind of paper credits

to circulate as money, shall be individually responsible, to the amount of their respective share or shares of stock in any such corporation or association, for all its debts and liabilities of every kind.

SEC. 5. No act of the general assembly, authorizing corporations or associations with banking powers, shall go into effect, or in any manner be in force, unless the same shall be submitted to the people at the gen eral election next succeeding the passage of the same, and be approved by a majority of all the votes cast at such election for and against such law.

SEC. 6. The general assembly shall encourage internal improvements, by passing liberal general laws of incorporation for that purpose.

ARTICLE XI.

COMMONS.

All lands which have been granted, as a "common," to the inhabitants of any town, hamlet, village or corporation, by any person, body politic or corporate, or by any government having power to make such grant, shall forever remain common to the inhabitants of such town, hamlet, village, or corporation; but the said commons, or any of them, or any part thereof, may be divided, leased, or granted, in such manner as may hereafter be provided by law, on petition of a majority of the qualified voters interested in such commons, or any of them.

ARTICLE XII.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.

SECTION 1. Whenever two-thirds of all the members elected to each branch of the general assembly shall think it necessary to alter or amend this constitution, they shall recommend to the electors at the next election of members of the general assembly, to vote for or against a convention; and if it shall appear that a majority of all the electors of the state voting for representatives have voted for a convention, the general assembly shall, at their next session, call a convention, to consist of as many members as the house of representatives at the time of making said call, to be chosen in the same manner, at the same place, and by the same electors, in the same districts that chose the members of the house of representatives, and which convention shall meet within three months after the said election, for the purpose of revising, altering, or amending this constitution.

SEC. 2. 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 two-thirds of all the members elect in each of the two houses, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be referred to the nex: regular session of the general assembly, and shall be published at least three months previous to the time of holding the next election for members of the house of representatives; and if, at the next regular ses sion of the general assemby after said election, a majority of all the members elect in each branch of the general assembly shall agree to said amend