it would be putting a dangerous power in the hands of a custom officer to permit him to sell or destroy it as a public nuisance, and the owner would have good reason to complain of such an act as depriving him of his property without due process of law. But where the property is of trifling value, and its destruction is necessary to effect the object of a certain statute, we think it is within the power of the legislature to order its summary abatement. For instance, if the legislature should prohibit the killing of fish by explosive shells, and should order the cartridges so used to be destroyed, it would seem like the belittling of the judiciary to require such destruction to be preceded by a solemn condemnation in a court of justice. 161. How a Territory Is Authorized to Form a Constitution Although the inhabitants of a territory may, on their own authority, call a convention, frame a constitution, and ask Congress for admission into the Union, the more regular method is to secure permission from Congress to take the preliminary steps in the establishment of self-government. This extract from the enabling act for the territory of Utah illustrates the process, and also shows how Congress may impose restrictions on new states before their admission. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: That the inhabitants of all that part of the area of the United States now constituting the Territory of Utah, as at present described, may become the State of Utah, as hereinafter provided. of the members of the Sec. 2. That all male citizens over the age of twenty-one years, The election who have resided in said Territory for one year next prior to such election, are hereby authorized to vote for and choose delegates to convention. form a Convention in said Territory. Such delegates shall possess the qualifications of such electors; and the aforesaid Convention shall consist of one hundred and seven delegates, apportioned among the several counties within the limits of the proposed State. ... The con vention to frame a Sec. 3. That the delegates to the Convention thus elected shall meet at the seat of government of said Territory on the first Monconstitution. day in March, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, and, after or Limitations on the constitution. Restrictions as to schools. How the State may be ganization, shall declare on behalf of the people of said proposed State that they adopt the Constitution of the United States, whereupon the said Convention shall be, and is hereby, authorized to form a Constitution and State government for said proposed State. The Constitution shall be republican in form, and make no distinction in civil or political rights on account of race or color, except as to Indians not taxed, and not to be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. And said Convention shall provide, by ordinance irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of said State First. That perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and that no inhabitant of said State shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship: Provided, That polygamous or plural marriages are forever prohibited. ... Fourth. That provision shall be made for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public schools, which shall be open to all the children of said State and free from sectarian control. Sec. 11. The schools, colleges, and university provided for in this act, shall forever remain under the exclusive control of said State, and no part of the proceeds arising from the sale or disposal of any lands herein granted for educational purposes or of the income thereof, shall be used for the support of any sectarian or denominational school, college, or university. Sec. 19. That the Constitutional Convention may, by ordinance, provide for the election of officers for a full State government, including members of the Legislature and Representative in the Fifty-fourth Congress, at the time of the election for the ratification or rejection of the Constitution; but the said State government shall remain in abeyance until the State shall be admitted into the Union as proposed by this act. In case the Consti tution of said State shall be ratified by the people, but not otherwise, the Legislature thereof may assemble, organize and elect two Senators of the United States in the manner now prescribed by the laws of the United States; and the Governor and Secretary of State of the proposed State shall certify the election of the Senators and Representative in the manner required by law, and when such State is admitted into the Union, as provided in this act, the Senators and Representative shall be entitled to be admitted to seats in Congress, and to all rights and privileges of Senators and Representatives of other States in the Congress of the United States; and the State government formed in pursuance of said Constitution as provided by the Constitutional Convention, shall proceed to exercise all the functions of State officers; and all laws in force made by said Territory at the time of its admission into the Union shall be in force in said State, except as modified or changed by this act or by the Constitution of the State; and the laws of the United States shall have the same force and effect within the said State as elsewhere within the United States. . . . 162. Suffrage Qualifications in the State of New York The constitution of the state of New York prescribes the following qualifications for voters and lays down the fundamental conditions under which the rights of the suffrage must be exercised. ARTICLE II tions of voters. Section 1. Every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, Qualificawho shall have been a citizen for ninety days, and an inhabitant of this State one year next preceding an election, and for the last four months a resident of the county, and for the last thirty days a resident of the election district in which he may offer his vote, shall be entitled to vote at such election in the election district of which he shall at the time be a resident, and not elsewhere, for all officers that now are or hereafter may be elective by the people, and upon all questions which may be submitted to a vote of the Persons excluded from the suffrage. Residence not affected by certain occupations. people, provided that in time of war no elector in the actual military service of the State, or of the United States, in the army or navy thereof, shall be deprived of his vote by reason of his absence from such election district; and the Legislature shall have power to provide the manner in which and the time and place at which such absent electors may vote, and for the return and canvass of their votes in the election districts in which they respectively reside. § 2. No person who shall receive, accept, or offer to receive, or pay, offer or promise to pay, contribute, offer or promise to contribute to another, to be paid or used, any money or other valuable thing as a compensation or reward for the giving or withholding a vote at an election, or who shall make any promise to influence the giving or withholding any such vote, or who shall make or become directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager depending upon the result of any election, shall vote at such election; and upon challenge for such cause, the person so challenged, before the officers authorized for that purpose shall receive his vote, shall swear or affirm before such officers that he has not received or offered, does not expect to receive, has not paid, offered or promised to pay, contributed, offered or promised to contribute to another, to be paid or used, any money or other valuable thing as a compensation or reward for the giving or withholding a vote at such election, and has not made any promise to influence the giving or withholding of any such vote, nor made or become directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager depending upon the result of such election. The Legislature shall enact laws excluding from the right of suffrage all persons convicted of bribery or any infamous crime. § 3. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence, by reason of his presence or absence, while employed in the service of the United States; nor while engaged in the navigation of the waters of this State, or of the United States, or of the high seas; nor while a student of any seminary of learning; nor while kept at any almshouse, or other asylum, or institution wholly or partly supported at public expense or by charity; nor while confined in any public prison. and election laws. § 4. Laws shall be made for ascertaining, by proper proofs, the Registration citizens who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage hereby established, and for the registration of voters; which registration shall be completed at least ten days before each election. Such registration shall not be required for town and village elections except by express provision of law. In cities and villages having five thousand inhabitants or more, according to the last preceding state enumeration of inhabitants, voters shall be registered upon personal application only; but voters not residing in such cities or villages shall not be required to apply in person for registration at the first meeting of the officers having charge of the registry of voters. § 5. All elections by the citizens, except for such town officers as may by law be directed to be otherwise chosen, shall be by ballot, or by such other method as may be prescribed by law, provided that secrecy in voting be preserved. boards. § 6. All laws creating, regulating or affecting boards of officers Bi-partisan charged with the duty of registering voters, or of distributing ballots at the polls to voters, or of receiving, recording or counting votes at elections, shall secure equal representation of the two political parties which, at the general election next preceding that for which such boards or officers are to serve, cast the highest and the next highest number of votes. All such boards and officers shall be appointed or elected in such manner, and upon the nomination of such representatives of said parties respectively, as the Legislature may direct. Existing laws on this subject shall continue until the Legislature shall otherwise provide. This section shall not apply to town meetings, or to village elections. 163. The Exclusion of Negroes from the Suffrage This section from the Virginia constitution of 1902 illustrates some of the many ways which have been devised in Southern states to exclude most of the negroes from the suffrage without |