St. Clair County Schools

Osceola Sun
10 October 1878

Constitutional Amendment.

Poll-Tax for School Purposes.

Concurrent resolution submitting to the legal voters of the State of Missouri an amendment to the State Constitution, in relation to levying, collecting and distributing a poll-tax for free public school purposes, as a further qualification for the right of suffrage:
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-ninth General Assembly of the State of Missouri: the Senate concurring therein:
First. – At the general election to beholden on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in the year 1878, the following amendment shall be submitted to a vote of the qualified voters of the State of Missouri, to-wit:
That article eight of the constitution of the State of Missouri, be and the same is hereby amended by adding a new subdivision to the second section thereof, which shall read as follows:
Third. – He shall have paid an annual poll-tax of not less than one dollar within one year next preceding the election at which he offers to vote; and all sums of money arising from poll taxes shall be paid annually to the several county treasurers and shall be disbursed for the support of the free public schools in the county in which such poll tax is collected.
Second. – Those of the qualified voters of this State who favor the adoption of this amendment, may at the election aforesaid, deposit a written or printed ballot in this form:
“Poll-Tax For School Purposes: Yes”;
and those of the qualified voters of this State who oppose the adoption of this amendment, may deposit a written or printed ballot in this form:
“Poll-Tax For School Purposes: No”;
and the vote on the adoption of this amendment shall be taken and the returns thereof made and canvassed in all respects as is or may be provided by law for the election and returns of State officers. If a majority of the votes cast at said election shall be in favor of this amendment, the same shall be adopted, and shall become a part of the constitution from the time of the final canvass of the vote, in the presence of the two Houses at the General Assembly.
I, Michael K. McGrath, Secretary of State, hereby give notice that a proposed amendment, adopted by the 29th General Assembly, to the constitution of the State of Missouri, of which the foregoing is a copy, will be submitted to a vote of the people at the next general election, to be held on Tuesday, the fifth day of November, A.D., eighteen hundred and seventy-eight.
Witness my hand and seal of office.
Done at the City of Jefferson, Mo., this first day of October, A.D., 1878.
Mich’l K. McGrath,
Secretary of State