institution exist in the State with the privilege of making, issuing, or putting into circulation any bill, check, certificate, promissory note, or other paper, or the paper of any bank, company, or person, to circulate as money.

Sec. 2. Corporations may be formed under general laws, but shall not be created by special laws, except for municipal purposes. All laws passed pursuant to this section may be altered, amended, or repealed, but not so as to impair or destroy any vested corporate rights.

Sec. 3. The stockholders of all corporations and joint stock companies shall be liable for the indebtedness of said corporation to the amount of their stock subscribed and unpaid, and no

more.

Sec. 4. No person's property shall be taken by any corporation, under authority of law, without compensation being first made or secured, in such manner as may be prescribed by law.

Sec. 5. Acts of legislative assembly, incorporating towns and cities, shall restrict their powers of taxation, borrowing money, contracting debts, and loaning their credit.

Sec. 6. The State shall not subscribe to, or be interested in, the stock of any company, association or corporation.

Sec. 7. The legislative assembly shall not loan the credit of the State, nor in any manner create any debts or liabilities, which shall singly or in the aggregate with previous debts or liabilities exceed the sum of fifty thousand dollars, except in case of war, or to repel invasion, or suppress insurrection; and every contract of indebtedness entered into or assumed by or on behalf of the State, when all its liabilities and debts amount to said sum, shall be void and of no effect.

Sec. 8. The State shall never assume the debt of any county, town, or other corporation whatever, unless such debts shall have been created to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or defend the State in war.

Sec. 9. No county, city, town, or other municipal corporation, by a vote of its citizens, or otherwise, shall become a stockholder in any joint-stock company, corporation or association whatever, or raise money for, or loan its credit to, or in aid of, any such company, corporation or association.

Sec. 10. No county shall create any debts or liabilities which shall singly, or in the aggregate, exceed the sum of five thousand dollars. except to suppress insurrection, or repel invasion; but

the debts of any county, at the time this Constitution takes, effect, shall be disregarded in estimating the sum to which such county is limited.

ARTICLE XII.

State Printer.

Section 1. There shall be elected by the qualified electors of the State, at the times and places of choosing members of the legislative assembly, a State Printer, who shall hold office for the term of four years. He shall perform all the public printing for

the State, which may be provided by law. The rates to be paid to him for such printing shall be fixed by law, and shall neither be increased nor diminished during the term for which he shall have been elected. He shall give security for the performance of his duties as the legislative assembly may provide.

ARTICLE XIII.
Salaries.

Section 1. The Governor shall receive an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars. The Secretary of State shall receive an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars. The Treasurer of State

shall receive an annual salary of eight hundred dollars. The judges of the Suprme Court shall each receive an annual salary of two thousand dollars. They shall receive no fees or perquis ites whatever for the performance of any duties connected with their respective offices; and the compensation of officers, if not fixed by this Constitution, shall be provided by law.

ARTICLE XIV.

Seat of Government.

Section 1. The legislative assembly shall not have power to establish a permanent seat of government for this State. But at the first regular session after the adoption of this Constitution, the legislative assembly shall provide by law for the submission to the electors of this State at the next general election thereafter, of the matter of the selection of a place for a permanent seat of government; and no place shall ever be the seat of government under such law, which shall not receive a majority of all votes cast on the matter of such election.

Sec. 2. No tax shall be levied, or money of the State expended, or debt contracted for the erection of a State house prior to the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five.

Sec. 3. The seat of government, when established as provided in section one, shall not be removed for the term of twenty years from the time of such establishment; nor in any other manner than as provided in the first section of this article; provided, that all the public institutions of the State, hereinafter provided for by the legislative assembly, shall be located at the seat of government.

ARTICLE XV.
Miscellaneous.

Section 1. All officers, except members of the legislative assembly, shall hold their offices until their successors are elected and qualified.

Sec. 2. When the duration of any office is not provided for by this Constitution, it may be declared by law; and if not so declared, such office shall be held during the pleasure of the authority making the appointment. But the legislative assembly shall not create any office, the tenure of which shall be longer than four years.

Sec. 3. Every person elected or appointed to any office under the Constitution shall, before entering on the duties thereof, take an oath or affirmation to support the Constitution of the United States, and of his State, and also an oath of office.

Sec. 4. Lotteries, and the sale of lottery tickets, for any pur pose whatever, are prohibited, and the legislative assembly shall prevent the same by penal laws.

Sec. 5. The property and pecuniary rights of every married woman, at the time of marriage, or afterward acquired by gift, devise, or inheritance, shall not be subject to the debts or contracts of the husband; and laws shall be passed providing for the registration of the wife's separate property.

Sec. 6. No county shall be reduced to an area of less than four hundred square miles; nor shall any new county be established in this State containing a less area, nor unless such new county shall contain a population of at least twelve hundred inhabitants.

Sec. 7. No State officers or members of the legislative assembly shall directly or indirectly receive a fee, or be engaged as counsel, agent, or attorney in the prosecution of any claim against this State.

Sec. 8. No Chinaman, not a resident of the State at the adoption of this Constitution, shall ever hold any real estate or mining claim, or work any mining claim therein.

The legislative assembly shall provide by law in the most effect ual manner for carrying out the above provisions.

ARTICLE XVI.

Boundaries.

Section 1. In order that the boundaries of the State may be known and established, it is hereby ordained and declared that the State of Oregon shall be bounded as follows, to wit:

Beginning one marine league at sea, due west from the point where the forty-second parallel of north latitude intersects the same; thence northerly at the same distance from the line of the coast lying west and opposite the State, including all islands within the jurisdiction of the United States, to a point due west and opposite the middle of the north ship channel of the Columbia river; thence easterly to and up the middle channel of said river, and when it is divided by islands, up the middle of the widest channel thereof (and in like manner up the middle of the main channel of Snake river) to the mouth of the Owyhee river; thence due south to the parallel of latitude forty-two degrees north; thence west along said parallel to the place of beginning, including jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases upon the Columbia river and Snake river, concurrently with States and Territories of which those rivers form a boundary in common with this State. But the Congress of the United States, in providing for the admission of this State into the Union, may make the said northern boundary conform to the act creating the Territory of Washington.

ARTICLE XVII.

Amendments.

Section 1. Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in either branch of the legislative assembly, and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to each of the two houses, such proposed amendment or amendments shall, with the yeas and nays thereon, be entered on their journals, and referred to the legislative assembly to be chosen at the next general election; and if, in the legislative assembly so next chosen, such proposed amendment or

amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to each house, then it shall be the duty of the legislative assembly to submit such amendment or amendments to the elec tors of the State, and cause the same to be published without delay at least four consecutive weeks in several newspapers published in this State; and if a majority of said electors shall ratify the same, such amendment or amendments shall become a part of this Constitution.

Sec. 2. If two or more amendments shall be submitted in such manner, that the electors shall vote for or against each of such amendments separately; and while an amendment or amendments shall have been agreed upon by one legislative assembly, shall be awaiting the action of a legislative assembly, or of the electors, no additional amendment or amendments shall be proposed.

ARTICLE XVIII.

Schedule.

Section 1. For the purpose of taking the vote of the electors of the State for the acceptance or rejection of this Constitution, an election shall be held on the second Monday of November, in the year 1857, to be conducted according to existing laws regu lating the election of delegate in Congress, so far as applicable, except as herein otherwise provided.

Sec. 2. Each elector who offers to vote upon this Constitution, shall be asked by the judges of election this question: Do you vote for the Constitution

And also this question:

- yes, or no?

Do you vote for slavery in Oregon - yes, or no?

And also this question:

Do you vote for free negroes in Oregon - yes, or no?

And in the poll books shall be columns headed respectively, Constitution, yes;" "Constitution, no;" "free negroes, yes;" "free negroes, no;" "slavery, yes;" "slavery, no."

And the names of the electors shall be entered in the poll books, together with their answers to the said questions, under their appropriate heads. The abstracts of the votes transmitted to the Secretary of the Territory, shall be publicly opened and canvassed by the Governor and Secretary, or by either of them, in absence of the other; and the Governor, or in his absence,