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STATE CONVENTION ORDINANCES,

ADOPTED AT THE LATE SESSION.

APPROPRIATION OF MONEY.

AN ORDINANCE TO DEFRAY THE EXPENSES OF THE CONVENTION.

Be it ordained by the People of the State of Missouri in Convention assembled, as follows, to-wit:

That the sum of fourteen thousand dollars be and is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the pay and mileage of members and officers of this Convention, and to defray the contingent expenses thereof.

Adopted June 23, 1863.

ELECTION OF JUDGES.

AN ORDINANCE TO CHANGE THE TIME OF HOLDING ELECTIONS FOR SUPREME AND CIRCUIT COURT JUDGES.

Be it ordained by the People of Missouri in Convention assembled, as follows: Section 1. That so much of the sixth and

seventh articles of the amendments to the

Constitution of this State, ratified at the session of the Legislature of 1850 and 1851, as provides that the elections of Supreme and Circuit Court Judges shall be held on the first Monday in August, A. D. eighteen hundred and fifty-one, and on the first Monday in August every six years thereafter, is hereby abolished.

Sec. 2. The first general election for Supreme and Circuit Court Judges hereafter to be held under said amendments to the Constitution shall be on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, A. D. eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and on the first Tuesday next after the first Monday in November every six years thereafter, any

law, constitution or ordinance of this Convention to the contrary notwithstanding.

Sec. 3. Whatever election of judges or clerks of courts and other officers may now be fixed by law, or by order of any court, for the first Monday of August, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of November, eighteen hundred and sixtythree.

Adopted June 26, 1863.

APPOINTING JUDGE TO FILL VACANCY.

AN ORDINANCE TO PROVIDE FOR SUPPLYING THE VACANCY EXISTING IN THE OFFICE OF JUDGE OF THE FOURTEENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT.

Be it ordained by the People of the State of Missouri in Convention assembled, as follows:

Section 1. The Governor shall appoint a judge for the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit, to supply the vacancy now existing, which judge shall hold his office until Tuesday after the first Monday of November, A. D. eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and until his successor is duly elected and qualified. Adopted June 27, 1863.

PAYMENT OF ENROLLED MILITIA. AN ORDINANCE CONCERNING THE PAYMENT OF

THE ENROLLED MILITIA.

Be it ordained by the People of the State of Missouri in Convention assembled, as follows:

Section 1. Every paymaster, when paying the militia who have been in active service under orders regularly issued, shall write

his name and his style of office upon each and every warrant or Union military bond which he shall pay out, and no defence warrant or military bond shall be redeemed or be received by the State without such endorsement.

Sec. 2. This ordinance shall take effect from its passage [adoption].

AN

Adopted July 1, 1863.

EMANCIPATION OF SLAVES.

PROVIDE

ORDINANCE TO FOR CERTAIN AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION, AND FOR EMANCIPATION OF SLAVES.

Be it ordained by the People of the State of Missouri in Convention assembled: Section 1. The first and second clauses of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the Constitution are hereby abrogated.

Sec. 2. That slavery and involuntary servitude, except for the punishment of crime, shall cease to exist in Missouri on the fourth day of July, eighteen hundred and seventy; and all slaves within the State at that day are hereby declared to be free: Provided, however, that all persons emancipated by this ordinance shall remain under the control and be subject to the authority of their late owners, representatives and assigns, as servants, during the following periods, towit: those over forty years of age, for and during their lives; those under twelve years of age, until they arrive at the age of twenty-three years; and those of all other ages, until the fourth day of July, eighteen hun- | dred and seventy-six. The persons, or their legal representatives, who, up to the moment of emancipation, were the owners of the slaves thereby freed, shall, during the period for which the services of such freed men are reserved to them, have the same authority and control over the said freed men, for the purpose of securing the possession and services of the same, that are now held absolutely by the master in respect of his slave: Provided, however, that after the said fourth day of July, eighteen hundred and seventy, no person so held to service shall be sold to a nonresident of, or removed from, the State of Missouri, by the

authority of his late owner, or his legal representatives.

Sec. 3. That all slaves hereafter brought into this State, and not now belonging to citizens of this State, shall thereupon be free.

Sec. 4. All slaves removed by consent of their owners to any seceded State after the passage by such State of an act or ordinance of secession, and hereafter brought into this State by their owners, shall thereupon be free.

Sec. 5. The General Assembly shall have no power to pass laws to emancipate slaves without the consent of their owners.

Sec. 6. After the passage of this ordinance, no slaves in this State shall be subject to State, county or municipal taxes. Adopted July 1st, 1863.

OFFICE SECRETARY OF STATE,
CITY OF JEFFERSON, MO.

I, Mordecai Oliver, Secretary of State of the State of Missouri, hereby certify that the above and foregoing are full, true and correct copies of ordinances adopted by the Missouri State Convention at its last session, entitled and adopted as follows: "An ordinance to defray the expenses of the Convention," adopted June 23, 1863; “An ordinance to change the time of holding elections for Supreme and Circuit Court Judges, adopted June 26, 1863; "An ordinance to provide for supplying the vacancy existing in the office of Judge of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit," adopted June 27, 1863; "An ordinance concerning the payment of the Enrolled Militia," adopted July 1, 1863; and "An ordinance to provide for certain amendments to the Constitution, and for emancipation of slaves," adopted July 1, 1863, as fully as the same appears from the originals of said ordinances, duly signed by the President and countersigned by the Secretary of said Convention, and now on file in this office.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of office. Done at office in the City of Jefferson, this 16th day of July, 1863.

L. 8.

M. OLIVER, Secretary of State.

PETITIONS, REPORTS OF COMMITTEES, PROPOSED ORDI

NANCES, COMMUNICATIONS, ETC.

PETITION OF TRUSTEES AND FACULTY OF WESTMINSTER COLLEGE. The undersigned, desirous to secure the best interests of Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri, respectfully represent to the State Convention to meet in Jefferson City June 15, 1863, the following facts, for the purpose hereafter specified. The College has been in successful operation during the collegiate year, which closes June 25th, 1863. Four professors have been constantly employed giving instruction to an aggregate of eighty-nine (89) students, embracing all the college classes. Six young men are now ready to graduate.

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REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE To whom was referred the Petition of the Trustees and Faculty of Westminster College.

MR. PRESIDENT: The undersigned, a ma

Our Trustees are elected by the Synod of the Old School Presbyterian Church, and there can be no regular meeting of that body before October, 1863. The Trustees (twenty-four in number) are scattered widely over the State, and many of them did not hear of the act of our last Legisla-jority of the Special Committee to whom ture requiring them to qualify anew as Trustees, until after the time had expired. The fact of such a requisition was not known to most of us in Fulton till March 31st, 1863.

The interests of the College will be very much embarrassed by a failure to have a regular annual meeting of the Board June 23d, 1863. In that case, our seniors cannot graduate, nor can any arrangements be

made for the next session. There is a probability of our failing to secure a meeting of the Board, unless the time for taking

the oath is extended.

These and other reasons urge us to

respectfully petition your honorable body

to extend the time within which the Trustees of Westminster College may qualify, to the

and Faculty of Westminster College, in was referred the petition of the Trustees Fulton, Mo., beg leave respectfully to re

port

That upon a careful consideration of the prayer of the petitioners they are unable to find sufficient reasons why the Convention should now depart from the uniform rule of action heretofore adhered to by it, under which this body has declined to act upon questions or propositions affecting local or personal interests only. They can find nothing in the facts set forth by the petitioners, however meritorious in themselves their wishes may be, or however free

from blame might appear to be the persons

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EGATE FROM CASS COUNTY.

President and Gentlemen
of the Convention :

who failed to take the oath required by the RESIGNATION OF R. A. BROWN, DELact of the General Assembly referred to, which entitles them to any different action on the part of this body to that heretofore Mr. taken by it in such cases. They therefore recommend that the petitioners have leave to withdraw their petition. June 18, 1863.

HENRY HITCHCOCK,
E. VANBUSKIRK.

COMMUNICATION FROM PROV. MAR-
SHAL GENERAL DEPT OF MO.

JEFFERSON CITY, June 15, 1863.

Hon. ROBERT WILSON,

President of the Convention. DEAR SIR: Mr. Vincent Marmaduke, a member elect to this Convention, from the Saline District, having been under military arrest for disloyalty, and now on parole in the city of St. Louis, has applied for an extension of his parole to the City of Jefferson, for the purpose of enabling him to attend the present session of the Conven

tion.

The Commanding General of this Military Department has instructed me to submit the matter to the Convention, and if it should appear that there is no objection on the part of this body to his taking his seat, his parole will be extended accordingly.

Respectfully, your ob't servant,

JAS. O. BROADHEAD,
Prov. Mar. Gen. Dep't of Mo.

It was my intention to have obeyed the call of the Governor, and to have met with you in Convention and participated with you in your deliberations-not to talk, not to speak, but to represent, in part by my votes, the Fourteenth Senatorial District, a constituency as loyal to the Union and as unwavering in their patriotism as any that is represented upon this floor. Many of them have a large interest in the peculiar institution that has been the source of all our troubles; many of them, upon the other side, have never been identified with it. I feel that I owe it to myself, to them, and to the Convention, to give my reasons for | my non-attendance.

Unconditional Union meetings have been held in my county, instructing me to support none other but measures for immediate emancipation, or resign my seat in the Convention. Similar meetings have been held in Jackson county, in which resolutions were adopted declaring that they would not be represented by either of their delegates, requesting each and all of them peremptorily to resign.

I tender to you my resignation, and ask of you the adoption of an ordinance accepting it, and trust some gentleman will introduce a resolution to that effect.

Mr. President and gentlemen of the Convention, I have no political record for the past, and desire none for the future greater

RESIGNATION OF J. E. D. COUZINS, than to be instrumental in saving our

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country from impending ruin. Our country wants peace, and had I attended the Convention I should have lent my support to any and all measures having for their object a restoration of fraternal feeling. That is what should actuate and inflame every bosom; and I feel well assured that all such measures will meet your hearty approval.

You have men in your Convention of national renown as statesmen, and jurists of giant intellect, cultivated by education; and upon your action on the present occa

sion, to a great extent, depends the weal or woe of your State. You will make a political record. The eyes of the people are riveted upon you; they will look for some conciliatory measures for the restoration of peace to our distressed country. Then we may look forward with renewed hope to the brilliant prospects in the future. I trust that there shall be not only harmony in your deliberations, but that spirit which will give assurance to the land that you have in your Convention those who are wise and true men.

Very respectfully,

R. A. BROWN.

Andrew Haggard, Craten Owens, Joshua Gentry, J. B. Hopkins, B. H. Offutt, John B. Henderson, Horace May, John R. Bourn, George Heard, Thompson Allison, George McClure, Larkin Williams, J. B. McClure, John O. Yantis, B. Y. Chipman, Benjamin Smith, Jos. G. Gregg,

PETITION FROM LOYAL CITIZENS OF Jos. R. Spurgen,

PETTIS COUNTY.

To the President and Members

of the Missouri State Convention : We, the undersigned loyal citizens of Pettis county, Missouri, would respectfully represent to your honorable body, that we have full and implicit confidence in the honesty, patriotism and loyalty of His Excellency Hamilton R. Gamble, Governor of Missouri, and believe it to be the duty of every loyal man to uphold with every means in his power the Provisional Government of the State.

We would therefore ask your Honorable body to continue him in the office of Governor of this State until such time as there can be an untrammelled expression of the loyal voters of this State, which we believe to be impossible at the present time.

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David Cox,

Wm. Langden,
H. J. McCormack,

Henry McCormack,
Levi Parish,
John Henderson,
Clark Henderson,
C. W. Walker,
John D. Degarnett,
Absalom McVey,

Wesley McClure,
Absalom Williams,
Dr. Wm. McClure,
A. D. Seceloff,
Samuel Shank,
James H. Mills,
Justinian Mills,
Samuel Fisher,
Wm. Spurgen,
Wm. Cox,

Draten Winstein.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON OR

GANIZING A NEW COUNTY.

MR. PRESIDENT: The committee to whom was referred the ordinance to organize a new county from the counties of Macon and Linn, have had the same under consideration, and have instructed me to report the same back to the Convention and recommend its passage.

It is proper here to state that the only counties interested in the passage of this ordinance are those of Macon and Linn. The territory comes from them, and the people of those counties desire this action. They petitioned the Legislature at the last session to organize a county for them, which only failed to pass because of constitutional limitations upon the power of the General Assembly.

After the power of the General Assembly had proved insufficient to organize a county for these people, they have held a public. meeting numerously attended, and asked this Convention to organize a county for them, by special amendment to the Constitution.

All of which is respectfully submitted.
J. SMITH, Chairman.

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