About this record
When voters rejected the first draft (1846) of the Wisconsin constitution, a second constitutional convention was called in 1847. This produced a less controversial document that was approved on Feb. 1, 1848, adopted by voters on March 13, 1848, and is still, with amendments, the basic law of the land in Wisconsin.
As soon as it was approved by the delegates, newspaper publishers rushed copies into print so voters could evaluate it. The first printing appears to have been in the Potosi Republican on Feb. 10, 1848; Madison printers H.A. Tenney and Beriah Brown issued it in pamphlet form about the same time. We give here a color facsimile of the Beriah Brown edition which, while laced with many printers' errors and important textual inaccuracies, shows what contemporary residents read when they voted to endorse a Wisconsin constitution in 1848.
Citation
Wisconsin. Constitutional Convention (1848). Constitution of the State of Wisconsin: adopted in convention at Madison, on the first day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight... [Madison]: Beriah Brown, [1848]; online facsimile at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1627