SEC. 2. No person under guardianship, non compos mentis, or insane, shall be qualified to vote; nor any person convicted of treason or felony, unless restored to civil rights.
SEC. 3. No soldier, seaman, or marine, in the army or navy of the United States, or their allies, shall be deemed to have acquired a residence in the State in consequence of being stationed within the same; nor shall any soldier, seaman or marine have the right to vote.
SEC. 4. The Legislature shall pass such laws as may be necessary for ascertaining, by proper proofs, the citizens who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage hereby established.
SEC. 5. Every person who shall give or accept a challenge to fight a duel, or who shall knowingly carry to another person such challenge, or shall go out of the State to fight a duel, shall be ineligible to any office of trust or profit.
SEC. 6. Every person who shall have given or offered a bribe to procure his election, shall be disqualified from holding office during the terms for which he may have been elected.
SEC. 7. Electors, during their attendance at elections, and in going to and returning therefrom, shall be privileged from arrest in all cases except treason, felony,or breach of the peace.
Article VI -- Education
SECTION 1. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction shall have the general supervision of common-school funds and educational interests of the State, and perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law. A Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be elected in each county, whose term of office shall be two years, and whose duty and compensation shall be prescribed by law.
SEC. 2. The Legislature shall encourage the promotion of intellectual, moral, scientific and agricultural improvement, by establishing a uniform system of common schools, and schools of higher grade, embracing normal, preparatory, collegiate, and university departments.
SEC. 3. The proceeds of all lands that have been, or may be, granted by the United States to the State, for the support of schools, and five hundred thousand acres of land granted to the new State, under an act of Congress distributing the proceeds of public lands among the several States of the Union, approved September 4, A.D., 1841, and all estates of persons dying without heir or will, and such per cent as may be granted by Congress on the sale of lands in this State, shall be the common property of the State, and shall be a perpetual school fund, which shall not be diminished, but the interest of which , together with all the rents of the lands, and such other means as the Legislature may provide, by tax or otherwise, shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of common schools.
SEC. 4. The income of the State school funds shall be disbursed annually, by order of the State Superintendent, to the several County Treasurers, and thence to the Treasurers of the several school districts, in equitable proportion to the number of children and youth resident therein, between the ages of five and twenty-one years: Provided, That no school district in which a common school has not been maintained at least three months in each year shall be entitled to receive any portion of such funds.
SEC. 5. The school lands shall not be sold unless such sale be authorized by a vote of the people at a general election; but, subject to revaluation every five years, they may be leased for any number of years not exceeding twenty-five, at a rate established by law.
SEC. 6. All money which shall be paid by persons as an equivalent for exemption from military duty; the clear proceeds of estrays, ownership of which shall vest in the taker-up; and the proceeds of fines for any breach of the penal laws, shall be exclusively applied in the several counties in which the money is paid or fines collected, to the support of common schools.
SEC. 7. Provisions shall be made by law for the establishment, at some eligible and central point, of a State University, for the promotion of literature and the arts and sciences, including a normal and agricultural department. All funds arising from the sale or rents of lands granted by the United States to the State for the support of a State University, and all other grants, donations or bequests, either by the State or by individuals, for such purpose, shall remain a perpetual fund, to be called the "University fund;" the interest of which shall be appropriated to the support of the State University.
SEC. 8. No religious sect or sects shall ever control any part of the common-school or University funds of the State.
SEC. 9. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Secretary of State and Attorney General shall constitute a Board of Commissioners for the management and investment of the school funds. Any two of said Commissioners shall be a quorum.
Article VII -- Public Institutions
SECTION 1. Institutions for the benefit of the insane, blind, deaf and dumb, and such other benevolent institutions as the public good may require, shall be fostered and supported by the State, subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by law. Trustees of such benevolent institutions as may be hereafter created shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with advice and consent of the Senate; and upon all nominations made by the Governor, the question shall be taken in yeas and nays, and entered upon the journal.
SEC. 2. A Penitentiary shall be established, the directors of which shall be appointed or elected, as prescribed by law.
SEC. 3. The Governor shall fill any vacancy that may occur in the offices aforesaid, until the next session of the Legislature, and until a successor to his appointee shall be confirmed and qualified.
SEC. 4. The respective counties of the State shall provide, as may be prescribed by law, for those inhabitants who, by reason of age, infirmity or other misfortune, may have claims upon sympathy and aid of society.
Article VIII -- Militia
SECTION 1. The militia shall be composed of all able-bodied white male citizens, between the ages of twenty-one and forty-five years, except such as are exempted by the laws of the United States or of this State; but all citizens, of any religious denomination whatever, who, from scruples of conscience, may be averse to bearing arms, shall be exempted therefrom, upon such conditions as may be prescribed by law.
SEC. 2. The Legislature shall provide for organizing, equipping and disciplining the militia, in such manner as it shall deem expedient, not incompatible with the laws of the United States.
SEC. 3. Officers of the militia shall be elected or appointed, and commissioned in such manner as may be provided by law.
SEC. 4. The Governor shall be Commander-in-Chief, and shall have the power to call out the militia to execute the laws, to suppress insurrection, and to repel invasion.
Article IX -- County and Township Organization
SECTION 1. The Legislature shall provide for organizing new counties, locating county seats and changing county lines; and no county seat shall be changed without the consent of a majority of the electors of the county, nor any county organized, or the lines of any county changed so as to include an area of less than four hundred and thirty-two square miles.