Section 4. Rights of action and prosecutions saved

Rights of action and prosecutions saved

All recognizances heretofore taken, or which may be taken before the change from a territorial to a permanent State government, shall remain valid, and shall pass to, and may be prosecuted in the name of the State, and all bonds executed to the governor of the Territory, or to any other officer or court, in his or their official capacity; shall pass to the governor or the State authority, and their successors in office, for the uses therein respectively expressed, and may be sued for and recovered accordingly; and all the estate or property, real, personal, or mixed, and all judgments, bonds, specialties, choses in action, and claims or debts of whatsoever description, of the Territory of Wisconsin, shall inure to and vest in the State of Wisconsin, and may be sued for and recovered in the same manner, and to the same extent, by the State of Wisconsin, as the same could have been by the Territory of Wisconsin. All criminal prosecutions and penal actions which may have arisen, or which may arise before the change from a territorial to a State government, and which shall then be pending, shall be prosecuted to judgment and execution in the name of the State. All offences committed against the laws of the Territory of Wisconsin, before the change from a territorial to a State government, and which shall not be prosecuted before such change, may be prosecuted in the name and by the authority of the State of Wisconsin, with like effect as though such change had not taken place; and all penalties incurred shall remain the same as if this constitution had not been adopted. All actions at law, and suits in equity, which may be pending in any of the courts of the Territory of Wisconsin, at the time of the change from a territorial to a State government, may be continued and transferred to any court of the State which shall have jurisdiction of the subject-matter thereof.