Voters must have resided in the State six months and in the election district thirty days and have been citizens of the United States for three months. Women may vote for school and library officers, or upon any measure pertaining to schools and libraries, and are eligible to school and library offices. Registration is required by law.
Legislature. Senatorial and Representative districts are composed of contiguous territory, and no Representative district can he divided in the formation of a Senate district. Senators serve four and Representatives two years. State elections occur on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The Legislature meets biennially on the Tuesday after the first Monday in January, and is limited to a session of 90 days. Except on request of the Governor no new bill can be introduced during the last twenty days of the session. Revenue bills originate in the Lower House. No law can be passed unless voted for by a majority of all the members elected to each House. The power of impeachment rests with the House, the trial of impeachment with the Senate.
Executive. A Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, and Attorney-General are elected for two years, and an Auditor for four years. The Governor may convene extra sessions of the Legislature; he may veto any bill or any item of an appropriation bill, but a two-thirds vote of both Houses overrides the veto.
Judiciary. The Supreme Court judges cannot exceed five in number, and are elected by the electors of the State at large. The State is divided into districts, in each of which one or more judges are elected for a term of six years. There is a probate court in each county, elected for two years. Justices of the peace are elected for a term of two years.
Local Government. New counties may be organized or old ones altered (subject to their own consent), but not reduced below 400 square miles in area. Cities of 20,000 inhabitants may be organized into separate counties. Any city or village may frame a charter subject to the general limits prescribed by State laws, which must receive a four-sevenths vote of the electors voting. State laws provide for the election of county and township officers.
Other Constitutional or Statutory Provisions. Married women retain the same legal existence and personality as before marriage, may sue or be sued, and, with the exception of voting, receive equal protection of all their rights. The legal rate of interest is 7 per cent.; 10 is allowed by contract: the penalty for usury is forfeiture of debt if the interest is over 12 per cent. A local-option liquor law is in force, and high license obtains in places that do not prohibit. Combinations to monopolize the markets for food products, or restrict the freedom of such markets, are criminal conspiracies.
The State has nine votes in the United States Electoral College. Saint Paul is the capital.
History. The first European to visit the region now included within the State was Duluth, who, in 1678, built a fort at the mouth of the Pigeon River, on the north shore of Lake Superior. In 1680 the Falls of Saint Anthony were discovered by Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan priest. Before 1700 there were trading posts on Lake Pepin and on the Minnesota River. A part of Minnesota was included in the extensive territory ceded by France to Great Britain in 1763. In 1766 it was explored by Capt. Jonathan Carver, of Connecticut. In 1783 it became a possession of the United States. The part of the State lying east of the Mississippi belonged in turn to the Territories of Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The region west formed part of the Territories of Louisiana, Missouri, and Iowa. In 1805 a tract of land at the mouth of the Saint Croix and another at the mouth of the Minnesota were purchased of the Indians, but the number of settlers was small. The exploring expedition of Lieutenant Pike in 1805 was followed by many others within the succeeding forty years; and with an increased knowledge of the country came the first important beginning of immigration. Fort Saint Anthony (Snelling) was built in 1819-21; in 1822 a clearing was made at the Falls of Saint Anthony, and a mill was built, and in 1823 the first steamboat ascended to the falls. The next settlements made were by a colony of Swiss, near Fort Snelling in 1827, and at Stillwater in 1843. Two years before this latter date Father Galtier had erected a log chapel a little southeast of the Falls of Saint Anthony and dedicated it to Saint Paul. This was the nucleus of the present city of that name. The Indian titles to the lands east of the Mississippi were not extinguished until the year 1838, and it was not until March 3, 1849, that the Territory of Minnesota was organized, with the Missouri River as its western boundary. In 1851 the Indian titles to the lands (except reservations) between the Mississippi and the Red River of the North were extinguished, and immigration increased rapidly. On May 11, 1858, Minnesota was admitted as a State. The excellent educational institutions for which Minnesota is noted took their rise early in the history of the Territory. Hamline University, at Hamline, was founded in 1854, and Saint John's University at Collegeville, was established three years later. In 1862 the Sioux Indians, under Little Crow, angered at the continuous inroads made upon their lands, attacked and destroyed many of the frontier settlements. Over 500 white settlers and soldiers were killed and 25,000 people were driven from their homes. The Indians were decisively defeated at Wood Lake on September 22, 1862, and after engaging in sporadic raids in 1863 were removed west of the Missouri. In spite of the horrors of Indian war, immigration continued undiminished; it was stimulated by the activity of immigration agents in the Eastern States and Europe, and was encouraged by the enactment of liberal homestead laws. From the sale of its extensive public lands, the State obtained a very large school fund, which it employed in building up an admirable school system. Legislation after the Civil War was concerned largely with the regulation of railway corporations, and the most debated question of policy for a long time was that of the redemption of $2,275,000 in bonds, which the State had issued in 1858 to aid in the construction of railways, and had repudiated in 1860. For more than twenty years a large party in the State urged the redemption of the bonds as a measure necessitated by public honor, and in 1881 the Legislature accepted the offer of the bondholders to surrender their bonds at half the face value.
