MINNESOTA. 



525 



State, giving adult women the right to vote on 

 all questions relating to the manufacture and 

 sale of intoxicating liquors; and that the bal- 

 lot is the right of all citizens qualified by age, 

 irrespective of sex. 



The Democratic Convention was held in St. 

 Paul, October 2d, when the folio wing ticket was 

 nominated: for Governor, William Banning; 

 Lieutenant-Governor, L. L. Ames; Attorney- 

 General, John E. Jones; Secretary of State, 

 P. T. Lindholm ; Treasurer, John T. Meagher ; 

 Railroad Commissioner, H. W. Hill. The 

 resolutions adopted denounced the frauds 

 and crimes by which the people's choice 

 for President and Vice-President was de- 

 feated ; congratulated the country that Presi- 

 dent Hayes found it necessary to adopt the 

 Democratic policy of self-government, and to 

 abandon devices of perpetuating sectional jeal- 

 ousy and hatred ; accused the Republican party 

 of acting in the interest of capital against labor, 

 by making the public debt, which was prom- 

 ised in legal tender, payable in coin ; arraigned 

 it for demonetizing silver, for passing the Re- 

 sumption Act, for raising, expending, and wast- 

 ing enormous revenues, and for adopting a 

 high protective tariff; censured Republicans 

 for keeping in Congress men notoriously in 

 favor of high tariffs ; and declared gold and 

 silver the only constitutional legal tender, that 

 resumption should come as soon as the busi- 

 ness interest of the country would permit, 

 that the demonetization of silver was a step 

 backward, and that the silver dollar of the old 

 commercial value should be restored. 



The election resulted in the success of the 

 Republican ticket. The total vote for Gov- 

 ernor was 97,632, of which Pillsbury (Rep.) 

 received 57,071 ; Banning (Dem.), 39,140; and 

 Willey (Prohib.), 1,431 ; Pillsbury's majority 

 over Banning being 17,931. At the same elec- 

 tion the amendments to the Constitution, which 

 had been proposed by the Legislature of 1877, 

 were ratified by the people, and are now a part 

 of the organic law of the State. 



Section one of article four was amended so 

 as to provide for biennial instead of annual 

 sessions of the Legislature, no session to exceed 

 the terra of 60 days. The vote on this was 

 87,995 for, and 20,833 against. 



Sectiontwenty-fourof article four was amend- 

 ed so as to read as follows : " The Senators shall 

 be chosen by single districts of convenient, con- 

 tiguous territory, at the same time that the mem- 

 bers of the House of Representatives are re- 

 quired to be chosen, and in the same manner, 

 and no Representative district shall be divided 

 in the formation of a Senate district. The 

 Senate districts shall be numbered in a regular 

 series ; the term of office of Senators and Rep- 

 resentatives shall be the same as now pro- 

 scribed by law, until the general election in the 

 year 1878, at which time there shall be an en- 

 tire new election of all the Senators and Rep- 

 resentatives. Representatives chosen at such 

 election, or at any election thereafter, shall 



hold their office for the term of two years, ex- 

 cept it be to fill a vacancy, and the Senators 

 chosen at such election by districts designated 

 as odd numbers shall go out of office at expi- 

 ration of the second year, and the Senators 

 chosen by districts designated by even num- 

 bers shall go out of office at the expiration 

 of the fourth year, and thereafter Senators 

 shall be chosen for four years, except there 

 shall be an entire new election of all the Sena- 

 tors at the election of Representatives next 

 succeeding each new apportionment provided 

 for in this article." This was ratified by a vote 

 of 33,072 to 25,099. 



Section two of article five was amended so 

 as to read as follows : " The returns of every 

 election for the officers named in the foregoing 

 section shall be made to the Secretary of 

 State, who shall call to his assistance two or 

 more of the judges of the Supreme Court, and 

 two disinterested judges of the District Courts 

 of the State, who shall constitute a board of 

 canvassers, who shall open and canvass said re- 

 turns and declare the result within three dayi 

 after such canvass." 



The officers here referred to are Governor, 

 Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Audi- 

 tor, Treasurer, and Attorney-General. Before 

 amendment the Constitution required the re- 

 turns of elections to be made to the Secretary 

 of State, and by him transmitted to the Speaker 

 of the House of Representatives, who should 

 cause the same to be opened and canvassed be- 

 fore both Houses of the Legislature, and the 

 result declared within three days after the 

 organization of each House. This amendment 

 was ratified by a vote of 36,072 for, to 21,814 

 against. 



Section three of article eight of the Consti- 

 tution provides that "the Legislature shall 

 make such provisions, by taxation or otherwise, 

 as, with the income arising from the school 

 fund, will secure a thorough and efficient sys- 

 tem of public schools in each township in the 

 State." By a vote of 86,780 for, and 16,667 

 against, this was amended by adding the fol- 

 lowing: " But in no case shall the moneys de- 

 rived as aforesaid, or any portion thereof, or 

 any public moneys or property, be appropri- 

 ated or used for the support of schools wherein 

 the distinctive doctrines, creeds, or tenets of 

 any particular Christian or other religious 

 sect, are promulgated or taught." 



The following amendment, being an additional 

 section to article seven, was rejected by a vote 

 of 82,963 nays and 26,468 yeas : " Any woman 

 of the age of twenty-one years and upward, be- 

 longing to either of the classes mentioned in sec- 

 tion one of this article, who shall have resided 

 in the United States one year, and in the Suite 

 for four months, next preceding any election 

 at which the question of selling or restraining 

 the sale, or licensing the selling, or of the 

 manufacture of intoxicating liquors, shall be 

 voted npon in the election district in which she 

 then resides, shall be entitled to vote at such 



