Dixieland Enabling Act

An ACT to enable the People of the Unincorporated Territory of Dixieland specifically in the former States called Texas, and Oklahoma to form a constitution and State Government and be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States

September 24, 2019

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of We The People in Congress assembled,

SEC. 1. That this Act may be cited as the "Dixieland Enabling Act, 2019".

SEC. 2. That the inhabitants of all that part of the area of the United States now constituting the Unincorporated Territory of Dixieland, as at present described, may become the State of Dixieland, as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 3. That all citizens over the age of eighteen years, who reside in said Territory prior to such election, are hereby authorized to vote for and choose delegates to form a Convention in said Territory. Such delegates shall possess the qualifications of such electors; and the aforesaid Convention shall consist of eight delegates, and the Governor of said Territory shall, on the twelfth or thirteenth day of September, two-thousand and nineteen, issue a proclamation ordering an election of the delegates aforesaid in said Territory, to be held on the Tuesday next after the proclamation is issued. The board of commissioners known as the Dixieland Commission is hereby authorized and required to cause a new and complete registration of voters of said Territory to be made under the provisions of the laws of the United States and said Territory, except that the oath required for registration under said laws shall be so modified as to test the qualifications of the electors as prescribed in this act; such new registration to be made as nearly conformable with the provisions of such laws as may be; and such election for delegates shall be conducted, the returns made, the result ascertained, and the certificate of persons elected to such Convention issued in the same manner as is prescribed by the laws of said Territory regulating elections therein of members of the Legislature. Persons possessing the qualifications entitling them to vote for delegates under this act shall be entitled to vote on the ratification or rejection of the Constitution, under such rules or regulations as said Convention may prescribe, not in conflict with this act.

SEC. 4. That the delegates to the Convention thus elected shall meet at the seat of government of said Territory on the third Wednesday in September, two-thousand and nineteen, and, after organization, shall declare on behalf of the people of said proposed State that they adopt the Constitution of the United States, whereupon the said Convention shall be, and is hereby, authorized to form a Constitution and State government for said proposed State. The Constitution shall be republican in form, and make no distinction in civil or political rights on account of race or color, except as to Indians not taxed, and not to be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. And said Convention shall provide, by ordinance irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of said State

First. That the debts and liabilities of said Territory, under authority of the Legislative Assembly thereof, shall be assumed and paid by said State.

Second. That provision shall be made for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public schools, which shall be open to all the children of said State and free from sectarian control.

SEC. 5. That in case a Constitution and State government shall be formed in compliance with the provisions of this act, the Convention forming the same shall provide by ordinance for submitting said Constitution to the people of said State for its ratification or rejection, at an election to be held on the Tuesday next after the twelfth or thirteenth day of September, two-thousand and nineteen, at which election the qualified voters of said proposed State shall vote directly for or against the proposed Constitution, and for or against any provisions separately submitted.

The return of said election shall be made to the said Dixieland Commission, who shall cause the same to be canvassed, and if a majority of the votes cast on that question shall be for the Constitution, shall certify the result to the President of the United States, together with a statement of the votes cast thereon, and upon separate articles or propositions, and a copy of said Constitution, articles, propositions and ordinances. And if the Constitution and government of said proposed State are republican in form, and if all the provisions of this act have been complied with in the formation thereof, it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to issue his proclamation announcing the result of said election, and thereupon the proposed State of Dixieland shall be deemed admitted by Congress into the Union, under and by virtue of this act, on an equal footing with the original States, from and after the date of said proclamation.

SEC. 6. That until the next general census, or until otherwise provided by law; until said State officers are elected and qualified under the provisions of the Constitution, and the State is admitted into the Union, the Territorial officers shall continue to discharge the duties of the respective offices in said Territory.

SEC. 7. That upon the admission of said State into the Union, in accordance with the provisions of this act, one hundred sections of the unappropriated lands within said State, to be selected and located in legal subdivisions, as provided in section six of this act, shall be, and are hereby, granted to said State for the purpose of erecting public buildings, at the capital of said State, when permanently located, for legislative, executive, and judicial purposes.

SEC. 8. That all land granted in quantity or as indemnity by this act shall be selected under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, from the unappropriated public lands of the United States within the limits of said State of Dixieland.

SEC. 9. That the State of Dixieland shall constitute one judicial district, which shall be called the district of Dixieland, and the district court thereof shall be held at the capital of this State for the time being. There shall be appointed clerks of said court, who shall keep their offices at the capital of said State. There shall be appointed for said district; one district judge, and one United States attorney.

SEC. 10. That the district court for the district of Dixieland and the judges thereof, respectively, shall possess the same powers and jurisdiction and perform the same duties possessed and required to be performed by the other circuit and district courts and judges of the United States, and shall be governed by the same laws and regulations.

SEC. 11. That the district attorney and clerks of the district court of the said district of Dixieland, and all other officers and other persons performing duty in the administration of justice therein, shall severally possess the powers and perform the duties lawfully possessed and required to be performed by similar officers in other districts of the United States, and shall, for the services they may perform, receive the same fees and compensation allowed by law to other similar officers and persons performing similar duties.

SEC. 12. That the Convention herein provided for shall have the power to provide, by ordinance, for the transfer of actions, cases, proceedings, and matters pending in the supreme or district courts of the Unincorporated Territory of Dixieland at the time of the admission of the said State into the Union, to such courts as shall be established under the Constitution to be thus formed, or to the circuit or district court of the United States for the district of Dixieland; and no indictment, action, or proceeding shall abate by reason of any change in the courts, but shall be proceeded with in the State or United States courts according to the laws thereof, respectively. That all cases of appeal or writ of error heretofore prosecuted and now pending in the Supreme Court of the United States upon any record from the supreme court of said Territory, or that may hereafter lawfully be prosecuted upon any record from said court, may be heard and determined by said Supreme Court of the United States; and the mandate of execution or of further proceedings shall be directed by the Supreme Court of the United States to the circuit or district court hereby established within the said State from or to the supreme court of such State, as the nature of the case may require. And the circuit, district, and state courts herein named shall, respectively, be the successors of the supreme court of the Territory as to all such cases arising within the limits embraced within the jurisdiction of such courts, respectively, with full power to proceed with the same, and award mesne or final process therein; and that from all judgments and decrees of the supreme court of the Territory, mentioned in this act, in any case arising within the limits of the proposed State prior to admission, the parties to such judgment shall have the same right to prosecute appeals and writs of error to the Supreme Court of the United States as they shall have had by the law prior to the admission of said State into the Union.

SEC. 13. That the sum of three-hundred million dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated to said Territory for defraying the expenses of said Convention and for the payment of the members thereof, under the same rules and regulations and at the same rates as are now provided by law for the payment of the Territorial Legislature.

SEC. 14. That the Constitutional Convention may, by ordinance, provide for the election of officers for a full State government, at the time for the election for the ratification or rejection of the Constitution; but the said State government shall remain in abeyance until the State shall be admitted into the Union as proposed by this act. In case the Constitution of said State shall be ratified by the people, but not otherwise, the people thereof may organize and elect two Senators of the United States in the manner now prescribed by the laws of the United States; and the Governor and Secretary of State of the proposed State shall certify the election of the Senators in the manner required by law, and when such State is admitted into the Union, as provided in this act, the Senators shall be entitled to be admitted to seats in Congress, and to all rights and privileges of Senators of other states in the Congress of the United States; and the State government formed in pursuance of said Constitution, as provided by the Constitutional Convention, shall proceed to exercise all the functions of State officers; and all laws in force made by said Territory at the time of its admission into the Union shall be in force in said State, except as modified or changed by this act or by the Constitution of the State; and the laws of the United States shall have the same force and effect within the said State as elsewhere within the United States.

SEC. 15. That all acts or parts of acts in conflict with the provisions of this act, whether passed by Congress, are hereby repealed.