2.  If the petition is granted, an “enabling act” is passed.  This usually defines the territory to be comprised in the new state, provides for the calling of a constitutional convention, requires that the state government to be framed shall be republican in form, states the number of representatives in congress which the state shall have until the next census, and offers a number of propositions for acceptance or rejection by the convention.  Among these are proposals giving land for the support of common schools and of a university, and for the erection of public buildings; and offering a portion of the net proceeds of the sale of public lands within the state for internal improvements.  These offers are conditioned upon non-interference on the part of the state with the holding and selling by the United States of the lands within the state owned by the general government, and their exemption from taxation.  The enabling act for Minnesota is given in the appendix, pp. 355-8.  It is in a large measure typical.  Students in most of the states can find the enabling act for their state in the legislative manual thereof.

Michigan, Kansas and Oregon formed their constitutions without an enabling act.

3.  The constitutional convention provided for in the enabling act, having ascertained that it is the wish of the people to form a state, frames a constitution and submits it to the people of the proposed state for adoption.

4.  If it is adopted, [Footnote:  Wisconsin rejected the constitution of 1846, and New York that of 1867.] copies of the constitution are sent to the president and to each house of congress.

5.  If the constitution framed is in accordance with our institutions, it is accepted and the state is admitted. [Footnote:  The acts of congress of 1866 and 1867, admitting Colorado, were both vetoed by president Andrew Johnson.]

Kentucky, West Virginia, Maine, California and Texas became states in the Union without having been territories.  The first two were detached from Virginia, and the third from Massachusetts, and admitted at once as states.  California and Texas had been independent states before admission.

As typical of the mode of restoring the southern states to their old place in the Union, the act restoring Tennessee is given on page 358.

CHAPTER X.

STATE CONSTITUTIONS.

Their purpose.—­A constitution in the American sense of the term is a written instrument defining the powers of government and distributing those powers among the branches or departments thereof.  It is the fundamental law, the voice of the people granting or withholding power.  A primary purpose of the instrument is to give form and authority to the government; another is to protect individuals and minorities from the tyranny of the majority.  Each of the states has a constitution.

Their origin.—­In most of the countries of Europe, including England, what is called the constitution is not written.  It consists largely of the maxims of experience, the principles sanctioned by custom.  When a new political custom becomes prevalent it gradually becomes recognized as part of the constitution.