ted, until the extinguishment of the State debt, ether than the amounts due to educational funds, when such specific taxes shall be added to, and constitute a part of the primary school interest fund. The Legislature shall provide for an annual tax, sufficient, with other resources, to pay the estimated expenses of the State Government, the interest of the State debt, and such deficiency as may occur in the resources.

§ 2. The Legislature shall provide by law, a sinking fund of at least twenty thousand dollars a year, to commence in eighteen hundred and fifty-two, with compound interest at the rate of six per cent per annum, and an annual increase of at least five per cent., to be applied solely to the payment and extinguishment of the principal of the State debt, other than the amounts due to educational funds, and shall be continued until the extinguishment thereof. The unfunded debt shall not be funded or redeemed at a value exceeding that established by law in one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.

§ 3. The State may contract debts to meet deficits in revenue. Such debts shall not in the aggregate at any one time exceed fifty thousand dollars. The moneys so raised shall be applied to the purposes for which they were obtained, or to the payment of the debts so contracted.

§ 4. The State may contract debts to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or defend the State in time of war. The money arising from the contracting of such debts shall be applied to the purposes for which it was raised, or to repay such debts.

§ 5. No money shall be paid out of the treasury except in pursuance of appropriations made by law.

§ 6. The credit of the State shall not be granted to, or in aid of any person, association or corporation.

§ 7. No scrip, certificate or other evidence of State indebtedness shall be issued, except for the redemption of stock previously issued, or for such debts as are expressly authorized in this constitution. § 8. The state shall not subscribe to, or be interested in, the stock of any company, association or corporation.

§ 9. The State shall not be a party to, or interested in, any work of internal improvement, nor engaged in carrying on any such work, except in the expenditure of grants to the State of land or other property.

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§ 10. The State may continue to collect all specific taxes accruing to the treasury under existing laws. The Legislature may provide for the collection of specific taxes, from banking, rail road, plank road, and other corporations hereafter created.

§ 11. The Legislature shall provide an uniform rule of taxation, except on property paying specific taxes and taxes shall be levied on such property as shall be prescribed by law.

§ 12. All assessments hereafter authorized shall be on property at its cash value.

§ 13. The Legislature shall provide for an equalization by a State Board, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, and every fifth year thereafter, of assessments on all taxable property, except that paying specific taxes.

§ 14. Every law which imposes, continues or revives a tax, shall distinctly state the tax, and the object to which it is to be applied; and it shall not be sufficient to refer to any other law to fix such tax or object.

ARTICLE XV.

CORPORATIONS.

§ 1. Corporations may be formed under general laws; but shall not be created by special act, except for municipal purposes. All laws passed pursuant to this section may be altered, amended or repealed.

§ 2. No banking law or law for banking purposes, or amendments thereof, shall have effect until the same shall, after its passage, be submitted to a vote of the electors of the State, at a general election, and be approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon at such election.

§3. The officers and stockholders of every corporation or association for banking purposes, issuing bank notes or paper credits to circulate as money, shall be individually liable for all debts contracted during the time of their being officers or stockholders of such corporation or association.

§ 4. The Legislature shall provide by law for the registry of all bills or notes issued or put in circulation as money, and shall require security to the full amount of notes and bills so registered in State or United States stocks, bearing interest, which shall be deposited with the State Treasurer, for the redemption of such bills or notes in specie.

§ 5. 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.

§ 6. The Legislature shall pass no law authorizing or sanctioning the suspension of specie payments by any person, association or corporation.

§ 7. The stockholders of all corporations and joint stock associations shall be individually liable for all labor performed for such corporation or association.

§ 8. The Legislature shall pass no law altering or amending any act of incorporation heretofore granted, without the assent of twothirds of the members elected to each house; nor shall any such act be renewed or extended. This restriction shall not apply to municipal corporations.

§ 9. The property of no person shall be taken by any corporation for public use without compensation being first made or secured, in such manner as may be prescribed by law.

§ 10. No corporation, except for municipal purposes, or for the construction of rail roads, plank roads and canals, shall be created for a longer time than thirty years.

$11. The term "corporations," as used in the preceding sections. of this article, shall be construed to include all associations and joint stock companies having any of the powers or privileges of corporations, not possessed by individuals or partnerships. All corporations shall have the right to sue, and be subject to be sued, in all courts, in like cases as natural persons.

§ 12. No corporation shall hold any real estate hereafter acquired, for a longer period than ten years, except such real estate as shall be actually occupied by such corporation in the exercise of its franchises.

§ 13. The Legislature shall provide for the incorporation and organization of cities and villages, and shall restrict their powers of taxation, borrowing money, contracting debts and loaning their credit.

§ 14. Judicial officers of cities and villages shall be elected, and all other officers shall be elected or appointed at such time and in such manner as the Legislature may direct.

§ 15. Private property shall not be taken for public improvements in cities and villages without the consent of the owner, unless the

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compensation therefor shall first be determined by a jury of freeholders, and actually paid or secured in the manner provided by law.

§ 16. Previous notice of any application for an alteration of the charter of any corporation shall be given in such manner as may be prescribed by law.

ARTICLE XVI.

EXEMPTIONS.

§ 1. The personal property of every resident of this State, to consist of such property only as shall be designated by law, shall be exempted to the amount of not less than five hundred dollars from sale on execution or other final process of any court issued for the collection of any debt contracted after the adoption of this constitution.

§2. Every homested of not exceeding forty acres of land, and the dwelling-house thereon, and the appurtenances to be selected by the owner thereof, and not included in any town plat, city or village; or instead thereof, at the option of the owner, any lot in any city, village, or recorded town plat, or such parts of lots as shall be equal thereto, and the dwelling-house thereon and its appurtenances, owned and occupied by any resident of the State, not exceeding in value fifteen hundred dollars, shall be exempt from forced sale on execution or any other final process from a court, for any debt contracted after the adoption of this constitution. Such exemption shall not extend to any mortgage thereon lawfully obtained; but such mortgage or ether alienation of such land, by the owner thereof, if a married man, shall not be valid without the signature of the wife to the same.

§ 3. The homested of a family, after the death of the owner thereof, shall be exempt from the payment of his debts, contracted after the adoption of this constitution, in all cases, during the minority of his children.

§ 4. If the owner of a homested die, leaving a widow, but no children, the same shall be exempt, and the rents and profits thereof shall accrue to her benefit during the time of her widowhood, unless she be the owner of a homested in her own right.

§ 5. The real and personal estate of every female, acquired before marriage, and all property to which she may afterwards become

entitled, by gift, grant, inheritance or devise, shall be and remain the estate and property of such female, and shall not be liable for the debts, obligations or engagements of her husband; and may be devised or bequeathed by her as if she were unmarried.

ARTICLE XVII.

MILITIA.

§ 1. The militia shall be composed of all able bodied white male citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, except such as are exempted by the laws of the United States or of this State; but all such citizens of any religious denomination whatever, who, from scruples of conscience, may be averse to bearing arms, shall be excused therefrom, upon such conditions as shall be prescribed by law.

§ 2. The Legislature shall provide by law for organizing, equipping and disciplining the militia, in such manner as they shall deer expedient, not incompatible with the laws of the United States.

3. Officers of the militia shall be elected or appointed and be commissioned in such manner as may be provided by law.

ARTICLE XVIII.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

§ 1. Members of the Legislature, and all officers, executive and judicial, except such officers as may by law be exempted, shall, before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm,) that I. will support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of this State, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of according to the best of my ability." And no other oath, declaration or test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust.

§ 2. When private property is taken for the use or benefit of the public, the necessity for using such property, and the just compensation to be made therefor, except when to be made by the State, shall be ascertained by a jury of twelve freeholders, residing in the vicinity of such property, or by not less than three commissioners, appointed by a court of record, as shall be prescribed by law.

§ 3. No mechanical trade shall hereafter be taught to convicts in the state prison of this State, except the mannfacture of those arti·

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