been submitted to a vote of the people of the State, and adopted by a majority of the electors of the State voting upon the same.

Sec. 3. Laws shall be passed taxing all moneys, credits, investments in bonds, stocks, joint stock companies, or otherwise, and also all real and personal property, according to its true value in money; but public burying grounds, public school houses, public hospitals, academies, colleges, universities, and all seminaries of learning, all churches, church property used for religious purposes, and houses of worship, institutions of purely public charity, public property used exclusively for any public purpose, and personal property to an amount not exceeding in value two hundred dollars for each individual, shall, by general laws, be exempt from taxation.

Sec. 4. Laws shall be passed for taxing the notes and bills discounted or purchased, moneys loaned, and other property, effects or dues of every description, of all banks and all bankers, so that all property employed in banking shall always be subject to a taxation equal to that imposed on the property of individuals. Sec. 5. For the purpose of defraying extraordinary expendi tures, the State may contract public debts, but such debts shall never, in the aggregate, exceed $250,000; every such debt shall be authorized by law, for some single object, to be distinctly specified therein; and no such law shall take effect until it shall have been passed by the vote of two-thirds of the members of each branch of the Legislature, to be recorded by yeas and nays on the journals of each house respectively; and every such law shall levy a tax annually sufficient to pay the annual interest of such debt, and also a tax sufficient to pay the principal of such debt within ten years from the final passage of such law, and shall specially appropriate the proceeds of such taxes to the payment of such principal and interest; and such appropriation and taxes shall not be repealed, postponed or diminished, until the principal and interest of such debt shall have been wholly paid. The State shall never contract any debts for works of internal improvements, or be a party in carrying on such works, except in cases where grants of land or other property shall have been made to the State, especially dedicated by the grant to specific purposes, and in such cases the State shall devote thereto the avails of such grants, and may pledge or appropriate the revenues derived from such works in aid of their completion.

Sec. 6. All dehts authorized by the preceding section shall be contracted by loan on State bonds of amounts not less than five hundred dollars each on interest, payable within ten years after the final passage of the law authorizing such debt; and such bonds shall not be sold by the State under par. A correct registry of all such bonds shall be kept by the treasurer, in numerical order, so as always to exhibit the number and amount unpaid, and to whom severally made payable.

Sec. 7. The State shall never contract any public debt, unless in time of war, to repel invasion or suppress insurrection, except in the cases and in the manner provided in the fifth and sixth sections of this article.

Sec. 8. The money arising from any loan made, or debt, or liability contracted, shall be applied to the object specified in the act authorizing such debt or liability, or to the repayment of such debt or liability, and to no other purpose whatever.

Sec. 9. No money shall ever be paid out of the treasury of this State except in pursuance of an appropriation by law.

Sec. 10. The credit of the State shall never be given or loaned in aid of any individual, association or corporation. Nor shall there be any further issue of bonds denominated "Minnesota State Railroad Bonds," under what purports to be an amendment to section ten (10) of article nine (9) of the Constitution, adopted April fifteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, which is hereby expunged from the Constitution, saving, excepting and reserving to the State, nevertheless, all rights, remedies, and forfeitures accruing under said amendment.

Sec. 11. There shall be published by the Treasurer, in at least one newspaper printed at the seat of government, during the first week of January in each year, and in the next volume of the acts of Legislature, detailed statements of all moneys drawn from the treasury during the preceding year; for what purpose and to whom paid, and by what law authorized; and also of all moneys received, and by what authority and from whom.

Sec. 12. Suitable laws shall be passed by the Legislature for the safe keeping, transfer and disbursement of the State and school funds; and all officers and other persons charged with the same or any part of the same, or the safe keeping thereof, shall be required to give ample security for all moneys and funds of any kind received by them; to make forthwith and keep an accurate entry of each sum received, and of each payment and trans

fer; and if any of said officers or other persons shall convert to his own use in any manner or form, or shall loan, with or without interest, or shall deposit in his own name, or otherwise than in the name of the State of Minnesota; or shall deposit in banks or with any person or persons, or exchange for (other) funds or property, any portion of the funds of the State or of the school funds aforesaid, except in the manner prescribed by law, every such act shall be and constitute an embezzlement of so much of the aforesaid State and school funds, or either of the same, as shall be thus taken, or loaned, or deposited, or exchanged, and shall be a felony; and any failure to pay over, produce, or account for the State school funds, or any part of the same entrusted to such officer or persons as by law required on demand, shall be held and be taken to be prima facie evidence of such embezzlement.

Sec. 13. The Legislature may, by a two-thirds vote, pass a general banking law, with the following restrictions and requirements, viz.:

First The Legislature shall have no power to pass any law sanctioning in any manner, directly or indirectly, the suspension of specie payments by any person, association or corporation issuing bank notes of any description.

Second-The Legislature shall provide by law for the registry of all bills or notes issued or put in circulation as money and shall require ample security in United States stock or State stocks for the redemption of the same in specie; and in case of a depreciation of said stocks, or any part thereof, to the amount of ten per cent or more on the dollar, the bank or banks owning said stocks, shall be required to make up said deficiency by additional stocks.

Third The stockholders in any corporation and joint associa tion for banking purposes, issuing bank notes, shall be individually liable in an amount equal to double the amount of stock owned by them for all the debts of such corporation or association; and such individual liability shall continue for one year after any transfer or sale of stock by any stockholder or stockholders.

Fourth In case of the insolvency of any bank or banking association, the bill holders thereof shall be entitled to preference in payment over all other creditors of such bank or association.

Fifth-Any general banking law which may be passed in accordance, with this article, shall provide for recording the names of all stockholders in such corporation, the amount of stock held by each, the time of transfer, and to whom transferred.

Sec. 14. (a) For the purpose of erecting and completing buildings for a hospital for the insane, a deaf, dumb and blind asylum, the State prison, the Legislature may by law increase the public debt of the State to an amount not exceeding $250,000, in addition to the public debt already heretofore authorized by the Constitution; and for that purpose may provide by law for issuing and negotiating the bonds of the State, and appropriate the money only for the purpose aforesaid; which bonds shall be payable in not less than ten, nor more than thirty years from the date of the same, at the option of the State.

Sec. 14. (b) The Legislature shall not authorize any county, township, city, or other municipal corporation to issue bonds or to become indebted in any manner, to aid in the construction or equipment of any or all railroads to any amount that shall exceed ten per centum of the value of the taxable property within such county, township, city or other municipal corporation; the amount of such taxable property to be ascertained and determined by the last assessment of said property made, for the purpose of State and county taxation, previous to the incurring of such indebtedness.

Sec. 15. The Legislature shall not authorize any county, township, city, or other municipal corporation to issue bonds, or to become indebted in any manner to aid in the construction or equipment of any or all railroads to any amount that shall exceed five (5) per centum of the value of the taxable property within such county, township, city, or other municipal corporation. The amount of such taxable property to be ascertained and determined by the last assessment of said property made for the purpose of State and county taxation previous to the incurring of such indebtedness.

ARTICLE X.

Of Corporations Having no Banking Privileges.

Section 1. The term "Corporations," as used in this article, shall be construed to include all associations and joint-stock companies having any of the powers and privileges not possessed by individuals or partnerships, except such as embrace banking

privileges, and all corporations shall have the right to sue, and shall be liable to be sued in all courts, in like manner as natural persons.

Sec. 2. No corporation shall be formed under special acts, except for municipal purposes.

Sec. 3. Each stockholder in any corporation (excepting those organized for the purpose of carrying on any kind of manufacturing or mechanical business) shall be liable to the amount of stock held or owned by him.

Sec. 4. Lands may be taken for public way, for the purpose of granting to any corporation the franchise of way for public use. In all cases, however, a fair and equitable compensation shall be paid for such land, and the damages arising from the taking of the same; but all corporations being common carriers, enjoying the right of way in pursuance of the provisions of this section, shall be bound to carry the mineral, agricultural and other productions of manufacturers on equal and reasonable

terms.

ARTICLE XI.

Counties and Townships.

Section 1. The Legislature may, from time to time, establish and organize new counties; but no new county shall contain less than four hundred square miles; nor shall any county be reduced below that amount; and all laws changing county lines in counties already organized, or for removing county seats, shall before taking effect, be submitted to the electors of the county or counties to be affected thereby, at the next general election after the passage thereof, and be adopted by a majority of such electors. Counties now established may be enlarged, but not reduced below four hundred (400) square miles.

Sec. 2. The Legislature may organize any city into a separate county, when it has attained a population of 20,000 inhabitants, without reference to geographical extent, when a majority of the electors of the county in which such city may be situated, voting thereon, shall be in favor of a separate organization.

Sec. 3. Laws may be passed providing for the organization for municipal and other town purposes, of any congressional or frac tional townships in the several counties in the State, provided that when a township is divided by county lines or does not