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1952 Wis. L. Rev. 23 (1952)
The Making of the Wisconsin Constitution

handle is hein.journals/wlr1952 and id is 37 raw text is: The Making of the Wisconsin Constitution RAY A. BROWN* Part lIt Although the constitution of 1846 was decisively rejected by the people,1 the desire for prompt admission to statehood was unabated, and it was hoped that a new constitution could be submitted and ratified in such time that the people of the state might vote in the forthcoming presidential election of 1848.2 Thus in response to an undoubted popular demand, Governor Dodge convened a special ses- sion of the territorial legislature on October 18, 1847. This session called for an election on the last Monday in November of delegates to a second constitutional convention to meet in the capitol at Madison on the third Wednesday in December to draft a new consti- tution and submit it to the people for ratification. I THE CONVENTION OF 1847-1848 One of the claimed defects of the earlier convention was its un- wieldy size--one hundred twenty-four members-leading, as a prom- inent member of that convention stated, to confusion, excitement and 0 Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin. Throughout this article your author has referred to the changes made in the constitution, by amendment, since 1848. There has been no attempt to cite the reader to a particular book to which he may refer in order to examine the amend- ments or the resolutions and laws preceding the amendments. Little can be gained by citing the resolutions which initiated the amendments. Rather we refer our readers to 1950 Wisconsin Annotations, pages 1589 and following, for the text of the constitution as it stands today with the annotations which in- dicate the amendments, and pages 1615 and following, for the' table of amend- ments, which indicates the resolutions, laws and popular vote which created them and their citations. t Part I of this study concerning the rejected constitution of 1846 will be found in 1949 Wis. L. REv. 648. 1 As previously pointed out the main outlines of the 1846 constitution were satisfactory. Its rejection was due to the controversial articles therein on banks and paper money, homestead exemptions, and the grant of separate property rights to married women. See 1949 Wis. L. REV. 693; Madison Wisconsin Argus, XXIX Wis. HIST. PUBL. 15; Southport Telegraph, XXIX Wis. HIST. PUBL. 55; Remarks of Byron Kilbourn, XXIX Wis. HIST. PUBL. 179. In the 1848 conven- tion constant reference was made to the 1846 constitution and to the approval or disapproval by the people of specific articles therein. When the two con- stitutions are laid side by side it will be found that many provisions in the two instruments are identical. I See the Message of Governor Dodge to the Territorial Legislature, XXIX Wis. HIST. PUBL. 2. It was even suggested that the Territorial Legislature sub-

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