worked so well, in the charter of our present State bank, that it is believed a large majority of the people approve it.

In addition to the above restrictions, applying specially to banks, it is provided, as to corporations generally, that they shall not be created by special act, but may be formed under general laws.

NEGROES AND MULATTOES.

The article in regard to negroes and mulattoes is to be submitted separately to the people. It provides,

First-That no negro or mulatto shall come into, or settle, in this State, after the adoption of the new Constitution.

Second-That all contracts made with negroes or mulattoes who may come into this State, contrary to the foregoing provision, shall be void, and all persons who shall employ any such negro or mulatto, shall be fined in any sum not less than ten, nor more than five hundred dollars.

Third-That all fines collected for any breach of this article shall be applied to the colonization of so many of the negroes and mulattoes, now in this State, as may desire to emigrate.

As to any further provision for colonization, it is left to future legislation. A majority of the Convention were of opinion, that the true interests alike of the white citizens of this State and of its colored inhabitants, demanded the ultimate separation of the races; and that, as the negro cannot obtain among us, equal social and political rights, it is greatly to be desired that he should find a free home in other lands, where public opinion imposes upon color neither social disabilities nor political disfranchisement.

No additional disability, not found in the old constitution, is imposed by the new, on negroes or mulattoes or their descendents, who may be in the State at the time of the adoption of the amended Constitution.

MODE OF AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION.

Amendments to the Constitution may be proposed in the Senate or House of Representatives. If passed by a majority of all the members elected to either branch, they are referred to the next regular session of the legislature, to be held two years thereafter. If passed by them a second time, they are then, at the next general election, to be submitted to the people; and if they pass the final ordeal, they become a part of the Constitution.

In this way there will always occur a general election of mem

bers of the legislature, during the canvass for which, the amendments that may have been proposed at the previous session, can be brought in issue; and nearly three years must intervene, from the time an amendment is first proposed, before it can be finally adopted.

There was provided, in the old Constitution, no mode of submitting to the people separate amendments. The advantage of the provision is, that without the expense of a Convention, the new Constitution, if found faulty or deficient in any of its parts, may be amended and perfected.

With this brief explanatory statement of the more important alterations embodied in the new Constitution, we place our work in the hands of our constituents, who alone can give it vitality.

Those who desire to examine arguments for or against the various changes that have been made, will find them, spread at large, throughout the Debates of the Convention; officially reported, in accordance with the law which provided for the call of a Convention, by a corps of stenographers. Of the two volumes in which these debates are embraced, three copies will be deposited in the Clerk's office of each county throughout the State.

It was our expectation, when we first engaged in the task of revision, to be able to complete it at an earlier day. But the deliberations of a numerous body necessarily proceed slowly; and it would have been a culpable violation of duty, for the sake of ephemeral popularity, hastily, or without the fullest and most deliberate consideration, to pass upon great questions involving the dearest rights and most vital interests, not of the present generation alone but of others that are to succeed.

144. Act Requiring Governor to give Notice of Deposition of Constitution with Secretary of State, and Election for Ratification of Constitution (February 14, 1851).

The following act was approved four days after the adjournment of the Constitutional Convention. By the provisions of this act the Governor was required to notify the electors that the draft of the proposed new Constitution had been deposited in the office of the Secretary of State and to publish the Constitution in full in three successive issues of the Indiana State Sentinel, the Indiana State Journal and the Statesman. The act also contained some supplementary provisions relative to the election to be held in August of 1851. The proposed new Constitution was published in full in the Weekly Indiana State Journal of February 22, March 1 and March 8, 1851. The Governor's official proclamation (See Document No. 145) appears in the same paper of March 1 and March 8, 1851.

[Laws, Thirty-Fifth Sessions, 53.]

AN ACT to amend an act entitled "AN ACT for the call of a convention of the people of the State of Indiana to revise, amend, or alter the Constitution of said state," approved January 18, 1850.

Section 1. Be it Enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of State, so soon as the new or amended Constitution is deposited in his office, to give notice thereof to the Governor, whose duty it shall be thereupon to notify the people by proclamation of the deposit of the same; and at the same time to cause a copy thereof to be published for three weeks successively in the Indiana State Sentinel, the Indiana State Journal, and the Statesman.

Sec. 2. There shall be a vote taken on the first Monday of August next, on the adoption or rejection of said Constitution, and on the adoption or rejection of the separate article thereof, relating to the exclusion of negroes and mulattoes from this State; and for this purpose it shall be the duty of the inspectors and judges of elections in the several townships in this state, on said first Monday of August next, to open a poll in which shall be entered all the votes given for and against the adoption of said Constitution and of said separate article. Said election shall be by ballot, and shall be governed in all respects by the laws now in force in relation to general elections, so far as applicable.

Sec. 3. Those voting against the adoption of said Constitution shall vote written or printed tickets in this form: "against the Constitution', and those voting for its adoption shall vote written or printed tickets in this form: "for the Constitution." In like manner, those voting against the separate article in relation to the exclusion of negroes and mulattoes and their colonization, shall have written or printed on his ticket these words: "no exclusion and colonization of negroes," and every voter who is in favor of adopting said article, shall have written or printed on his ticket these words: "exclusion and colonization of negroes and mulattoes."

Sec. 4. Poll books shall be kept, votes counted, and certified to the clerks of the different counties as in other elections, and the returns of the votes for and against the adoption of said Constitution, and for and against said separate article, shall be made by said clerks to the Secretary of State within ten days after said election, and said returns shall, within twenty days thereafter, be examined and canvassed by the Auditor, Treasurer, and Secretary of

State or any two of them, in the presence of the Governor and such other person as may choose to attend, and proclamation shall be made forthwith by the Governor of the result of the election. If it shall appear that a majority of all the votes polled at such election were given in favor of the adoption of said Constitution, it shall then become the Constitution of the State of Indiana from the first day of November, 1851; but if it shall appear that a majority of all the votes polled for or against the adoption of said Constitution and said separate article, were given against the adoption of said Constitution, then the same shall be and remain inoperative and void. If it shall further appear that a majority of all the votes polled for or against the adoption of said Constitution and said separate article were given in favor of the article in relation to the exclusion of negroes and mulattoes and their colonization, then said article shall be and form a part of said Constitution, otherwise said article shall be void.

Sec. 5. This act to be in force from and after its passage; and all acts and parts of acts contravening the provisions of this act, be, and the same are hereby repealed.

Approved, February 14, 1851.

145. Governor's Proclamation Notifying Electors of Deposition of Constitution in Secretary of State's Office, and Election of August, 1851 (February 25, 1851).

In compliance with the requirements of the act of February 14, 1851, Governor Joseph A. Wright issued the following proclamation on February 25th, notifying the electors that the authorized draft of the proposed new Constitution had been deposited in the office of the Secretary of State, and that an election would be held in August, 1851, at which the electors would be expected to ratify or reject the proposed new Constitution.

[Weekly Indiana State Journal, March 1, 1851.]

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION.

PROCLAMATION.

BY THE GOVERNOR OF INDIANA.

JOSEPH A. WRIGHT, Governor of the State of Indiana, to the several Judges, Inspectors, and Clerks and other officers of the several counties of this State, authorized by law to hold elections for the various offices of the State, and all others whom it may concern, Greeting:

KNOW YE, That the Convention which assembled on the first Monday of October, 1850, at Indianapolis, for the purpose of revising, amending, or altering the Constitution of this State, have, in pursuance of the law of the land, deposited said Constitution so made in the office of the Secretary of State, due notice of which has been given to me, and a copy of said Constitution is herewith published; and that by virtue of an act of the Legislature, approved on the 14th day of February, 1851, it is directed that said instrument shall be submitted to the people of this State for their adoption or rejection, at the next annual August election, and to say whether said instrument shall or shall not be the Constitution of the State, and among other things provided as follows, to-wit:

Section 2. There shall be a vote taken on the first Monday of August next, on the adoption or rejection of said Constitution, and on the adoption or rejection of the separate articles thereof, relating to the exclusion of negroes and mulattoes from this State; and for this purpose it shall be the duty of the inspectors and judges of elections in the several townships in this State, on said first Monday in August next, to open a poll, in which shall be entered all the votes given for and against the adoption of said Constitution, and of said separate article: Said election shall be by ballot, and