The ballots are usually worded as simply as possible, the electors being supposed to have read the amendments, the law requiring them to be advertised in every part of the State, in the newspapers. Thus in Pennsylvania at the special election in 1889, when an amendment was submitted proposing the prohibition of the liquor traffic, the amendment was described simply as the "Prohibitory Amendment." The ballots were as follows:

PROHIBITORY AMENDMENT TO
THE CONSTITUTION.

For the Prohibitory Amendment.

PROHIBITORY AMENDMENT TO
THE CONSTITUTION.

Against the Prohibitory Amendment.

When but a single amendment is submitted at a time, the ballots usually read "For the Amendment” and “Against the Amendment." In some States when more than one amendment is submitted at the same election, as for instance, in New York at the election in 1892, the amendments are numbered. For example, in New York, for the third amendment in the group, the following description was printed on each ballot: "Amendment No. 3, proposing an amendment to Article VII of the Constitution, relating to Onondaga Salt Springs." In Georgia, at the election in 1892, when several amendments were submitted, a sample ballot was worded as follows:

RATIFICATION.

(Amendment proposed to Constitution, providing for annual sessions of the General Assembly.)

AGAINST RATIFICATION.

(Amendment proposed to Constitution, providing for annual sessions of the General Assembly.)

In California, in 1892, when the people voted on several amendments, the ballots were by the Australian system, the propositions being stated as follows:

Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 10. (Increasing legislative session to one hundred days.)..........

Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 7.

Debts of counties, cities, towns, townships, Boards of Education, and School Districts, to a year's revenue, except by a two-thirds vote.)................

In Maryland, in November, 1891, when six amendments were submitted to the people, the ballots used were as follows:

CHAPTER III.

THE SUBMISSION OF STATE AND LOCAL LAWS.

It is not necessary, however, to search under the disguises of constitutions and constitutional amendments to find instances of law-making by vote of the people in the United States. It has been usual for many years past for the Legislatures to submit statute laws on certain classes of subjects, their going into effect depending upon popular approval. One of the first subjects of this kind to be put to the vote of the people of the entire State was the location of State capitals. This was a question which, at an early date, was looked upon as in some particulars extraordinary, and entitled to treatment unlike that accorded to other regular subjects of legislation. In some of the early cases, capitals were located by commissions, and other agencies outside of the Legislature. The people becoming a more direct force in political affairs, the conventions came to regard this a suitable matter for popular investiture. The people being qualified to decide upon the character and form of their State government, might naturally have the further grant of power to say at what place this government shall be administered, a site to be chosen which shall be most convenient to the largest number of the State's citizens.

This is a Referendum which was first recognized in a constitution in Texas, in 1845. In order permanently to settle the matter, it was provided that an election be held on the first Monday of March, 1850, at which the question of the location of the seat of government should be put to popular vote. The people at the election could vote for any place they chose, and in case none of the places voted for should

receive a majority of the number of votes cast, then another election should be held in the same manner, on the first Monday in October, 1850, to make choice "between the two places having the greatest number of votes at the first election.' "'*

This Referendum was also used shortly afterward in California. The Legislature of that State at its first session in 1850, authorized a vote taken as to whether the seat of government should be removed to Vallejo. It was later used in Kansas, in Colorado, and most of the new States; in more recent times, in South Dakota, Montana and Washington, the rivalry of the various town and cities which sought the honor, often attaining very comical proportions. The location of State capitals has come to be a matter to be left altogether to the people, and it is exceedingly doubtful, if a removal would anywhere be made without first securing for the proposal a ratification by popular vote. A section of Article III of the Constitution of Pennsylvania provides: "No law changing the location of the capital of the State shall be valid until the same shall have been submitted to the qualified electors of the Commonwealth, at a general election, and ratified and approved by them." Provisions of this kind are to be found in the Constitutions of the following States: California, Colorado, Georgia, Mississippi, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wyoming.

The Referendum to determine the location of the State capitol buildings is being extended to embrace other State buildings. The Constitution of Texas, framed in 1876, Art. VII, Sec. 10, says: "The Legislature shall, as soon as practicable, establish, organize and provide for the maintenance, support and direction of a university of the first class, to be located by a vote of the people of this State, and styled 'The University of Texas." Accordingly, the people voted on the question in 1881, and located the University at the * Constitution of 1845, Art. III, Sec. 35.

city of Austin, and the Medical Department of the University, which the law stated could be located at a separate place if the people chose, at the city of Galveston.

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Art. VII, Sec. 14, of the same constitution says:* The Legislature shall also, when deemed practicable, establish and provide for the maintenance of a college, or branch university, for the instruction of the colored youths of the State, to be located by a vote of the people."

A section of the Constitution of Wyoming adopted in 1889, says: "The Legislature shall have no power to change, or to locate the seat of government, the State university, insane asylum, or State penitentiary, but may, after the expiration of ten years after the adoption of this constitution, provide by law, for submitting the question of the permanent locations thereof, respectively, to the qualified electors of the State, at some general election, and a majority of all votes. upon said question cast at said election, shall be necessary to determine the location thereof." Until the ten years have elapsed, the locations are fixed by the constitution. It is further provided that "the Legislature shall not locate any other public institutions except under general laws, and by vote of the people."

Another Referendum relates to changes in the State's territorial area and jurisdiction, the division of a State to form a new State, etc. Instances of this kind are not very numerous. Of this class was an election held in town and plantation meetings, in the "District of Maine" in 1816, to decide whether there should be a separation from the State of Massachusetts. The Legislature of Massachusetts, by act of June 19, 1819, authorized an election on the separation question on July 19 of that year, and on that day another vote was taken. If the proposition that the "District of Maine " should become a “separate and independent State," received a majority of 1,500 votes, a convention was to be chosen to frame a constitution. The necessary majority was secured, and thus Maine was admitted to the Union.