Paulding, Pumpelly, Radcliff, Rhinelander, Rogers, Rose, Ross, N. Sanford, Seaman, I. Smith, R. Smith, Stagg, I. Sutherland, Sylvester, Ten Eyck, Van Buren, Ward, Wendover, Wheaton, Wheeler, N. Williams, Woodward, Yates, Young.-48.

Much colloquial discussion took place as to the hour of adjournment, when, on motion, it was decided to adjourn to 9 o'clock to-morrow morning.

Adjourned.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1821. The convention assembled pursuant to adjournment, and the journals of yesterday were read and approved.

Mr. FAIRLIE, from the committee directed to superintend the engrossing of the amended constitution, made report that the said committee had performed the duties assigned them, and had carefully and diligently compared the said engrossed copy with the original, and found the same to be correct. He thereupon presented the same, which was read by the secretary.

After the constitution was read as engrossed,

MR. FAIRLIE stated that there was no notice taken of the court of probates, which was to be found in the old constitution. It was an important court, which had long subsisted in the state, and he submitted to the Convention, whether some provision ought not to be made on the subject, or whether it was to be considered as virtually abolished, or subject to the control of the legislature, by the silence of the amended constitution in respect to it?

GEN. ROOT and COL. YOUNG could see no necessity of a rider to the engrossed constitution for this purpose. The court of probates would subsist, but would of course be liable to regulation, or even to be abolished by the legislature.

MR. RADCLIFF suggested that the work of the Convention would be left quite imperfect unless some express declaration was made on the subject. He offered an amendment providing expressly for its abolition. Either such an amendment must be incorporated into the new constitution, or a clause should be added to repeal and abrogate the old, which he wished to avoid, as it might be attended with some inconveniencies.

MR. BUEL denied that either the one or the other was necessary. The sclect committee had carefully examined the journals, and could not find that any vote had passed either in committee of the whole, or the house, to abolish this court. They had not enumerated it among the courts recognized in the new constitution, because it was desirable to leave the legislature a discretion to transfer its powers to some other tribunal. The court of chancery had been inentioned as most fit to exercise the appellate jurisdiction of the present court of probates, and perhaps the surrogates in the cities of New-York and Albany might be conveniently vested with its power of granting foreign administra

tion.

MR. WHEATON hoped that no clause would be added to the amended constitution, repealing that of 1777. Such a clause would require more consideration than could be given to it at this late period of the session. It might be safely left to the operation of that rule of universal jurisprudence, by which subsequent laws repeal those previously enacted, so far as they come within the purview of the former. It was a rule applicable to treatics as forming a part of the law of nations, to constitutions of government and to municipal statutes. But if the constitution of 1777 was to be expressly abrogated, the repealing article must be guarded by a saving clause of vested rights and of penalties incurred, which would require considerable care in the drafting, and after all such, a repeal might be attended with consequences which could not be foreseen, and which might even defeat the intentions of the Convention. It was, therefore, better to leave it to construction how far any of its provisions might be still considered as in force, so far as to require legislative provisions. If it should be thought fit to re-organize the court of probates, it could be done; because,

although proceeding according to the course of the civil and canon law, it was not a new court; or it might be abolished, and its powers transferred to some other tribunal.

The engrossed constitution having been read the third time, the President rose and asked-" SHALL THIS CONSTITUTION PASS?"

The ayes and noes having been required upon the final passage thereof, and the name of the first member upon the catalogue having been called by the secretary,

MR. BACON rose and said-That he was sensible that this was not the proper time for exhibiting our respective views of the great question now put to us, in any thing which bore the character of a formal speech, and he was not indiscreet enough to offer himself to the Convention with that view. In the situa tion in which he stood, he asked only to be indulged with stating with great brevity one or two prevailing considerations which had influenced the decision

to which he had come.

That with most of those now around him, he could undoubtedly say, that this was by far the most solemn and important vote, as to its character, which be had ever been called upon to record on the journals of his country, so for himself, he would not conceal that it was one which had subjected him to much more serious embarrassment, as to the result to which, from the highest considerations of public duty, he ought finally to come.

That the constitution which we were now about to submit to the people of the state, was not by any means such an one as, in reference merely to its own merits, met with his approbation, or as the people had a right to expect of this Convention, he did not hesitate to avow as his deliberate opinion. He would not now even glance at those detailed considerations on which this opinion was founded. But situated as we were, there was now left both to us and to the people but a choice of alternatives, and that was between the existing system of government, confessedly and experimentally bad and defective as it was, both in relation to many of its organizations, and its practical operation upon the peace, the welfare, and the best interests of the state.

In some, and those pretty important respects, he did most firmly believe that the system proposed was by no means an improvement, but on the other hand, clearly worse than that which now existed. The occasion would not permit him even to allude to the particular parts which in his judgment justified him in this conclusion. In other important respects, he was as free to acknowledge that the plan now before us contained material improvement upon the old one, as to the organization and distribution of the great powers of government; and in most of its subordinate details, that it was decidedly superior.

If he confined his views, therefore, only to the prominent and permanent provisions of both, he should perhaps be inclined to conclude that the good and bad features of each were not very unequally balanced; and were it not for one provision, which formed a part of the new system, but was altogether wanting in the old one, (and which he could have wished had been separately proposed to the people,) he might, perhaps, have thought it his duty to vote against it altogether; and that was the provision for future amendments, which afforded to the people a means of correcting what we had done amiss, and of curing its present and future defects with reasonable facility, without resorting to the difficult and dangerous experiment of a formal Convention, which no man he believed, would wish again to see take place, so long as the acknowledged evils of our present system were at all tolerable. And with this means of setting right whatever had been hastily or unadvisedly sanctioned here, in the hands of the people, he consented, not without much doubt and hesitation, to submit our whole work to their judgment and consideration, leaving even his own judgment open to conviction and reconsideration on that last appeal, should better and more mature counsels convince him that he ought so to do; to that decision he should endeavour cheerfully to submit, cherishing, he believed, as few personal hopes or expectations, from any state of things which might grow out of it, as any man within the reach of his voice. Such was the best result of a course of reflection as serious and unprejudiced as he had ever, on any occasion whatever, been called upon to make with himself, and which terminated in the affirmative vote which he was now prepared to give.

The further call of the ayes and noes having been completed, the question on the final passage of the revised constitution as engrossed was then decided in the affirmative, as follows:

AYES-Messrs. Bacon, Baker, Barlow, Beckwith, Birdseye, Bowman, Briggs, Brinkerhoff, Brooks, Buel, Burroughs, Carpenter, Carver, Case, Child, D. Clark, Clyde, Collins, Cramer, Dubois, Duer, Dyckman, Eastwood, Edwards, Fairlie, Fenton, Ferris, Frost, Hallock, Hogeboom, Howe, Hunt, Hunter, Hunting, Huntington, Hurd, King, Knowles, Lansing, Lawrence, Lefferts, A. Livingston, P. R. Livingston, M'Call, Millikin, Moore, Munro, Nelson, Park, Paulding, Pike, Pitcher, Porter, Pumpelly, Radcliff, Reeve, Richards, Rockwell, Rogers, Root, Rose, Rosebrugh, Sage, N. Sanford, R. Sandford, Schenck, Seely, Sharpe, Sheldon, L. Smith, R. Smith, Stagg, Starkweather, Steele, Southerland, Swift, Taylor, Ten Eyck, Townley, Townsend, Tuttle, Van Buren, Van Fleet, Verbryck, Ward, E. Webster, Wendover, Wheaton, Wheeler, N. Williams, Woods, Woodward, Wooster, Yates, Young-98.

NOES-Messrs. Jay, Jones, Rhinelander, Sanders, Sylvester, Van Horne, Van Ness, Van Vechten-9.

The said engrossed constitution was thereupon signed, pursuant to the resolve of yesterday to that effect, by the President of the Convention and by ninety-eight of the delegates present, and attested by the secretaries.

The address to the People of the State of New-York, reported yesterday by the committee of which Mr. Root was chairman, was then read and carried, and thereupon

Ordered, That the same be signed by the President of the Convention and attested by the secretaries, and filed in the office of the secretary of state, and that 5000 copies thereof be transmitted to the clerks of the respective counties in this state, and also two copies thereof be transmitted to each of the members of this convention.

MR. FAIRLIE moved a resolution that the secretary of state be directed to examine and compare the printed copies of the constitution as agreed to in this convention, with the engrossment thereof filed in the office of the secretary of state, and that he certify the same under his official signature.

MR. N. SANFORD offered the following resolution :

Resolved, That the thanks of this convention be given to the honourable DANIEL D. TOMPKINS, the president thereof, for his able, faithful, and impartial discharge of the duties of that station during the session of this convention. The question was then put by the Secretary, and carried unanimously. The PRESIDENT then rose and addressed the convention as follows:

“GENTLEMEN, I am penetrated with a due sense, not only of the honour conferred by your selection of me to preside in this highly respectable body-but also of your kindness and regard manifested by the unanimous resolution which you have been pleased to adopt at the close of the solemn duties which the people have committed to us.

"It is my sincere hope that the approbation of this community may crown the result of our consultations, and that it may accomplish the momentous objects for which we have been assembled, and redound to the liberty, tranquillity, and permanent welfare of our constituents, and of posterity.

"Whilst I tender to you an affectionate adieu, indulge me, gentlemen, in a fervent expression of my acknowledgments for your uniform support and approbation, and of my best wishes for your respective happiness and prosperity."

Sundry orders and resolutions were then passed, providing for the payment of services rendered to the convention, and the journals of this day were read and completed-whereupon, on motion of

MR. RUSSELL, it was resolved that this Convention do now adjourn; and the same was thereupon ADJOURNED accordingly, sine die.

83

Address of the Delegates in Convention,

TO THEIR CONSTITUENTS.

IN CONVENTION,

ALBANY, November 10, 1821.

The Delegates of the people, in Convention, having this day terminated their deliberations, present to you the constitution of the state, in an amended form, as the result of the arduous and responsible duties which your confidence has imposed upon them. They have adopted this course, from a sense of the great difficulty, if not impracticability, of submitting to the people, for their ratification, in separate articles, the various amendments which have been adopted by majorities of the Convention. This difficulty is very much increased, by the reflection, that the adoption of some articles, and the rejection of others, might greatly impair the symmetry of the whole. The convenience of having the amendments incorporated with those parts of the constitution which are to remain unaltered, will readily be perceived. We, therefore, submit to the people, the choice between the old, and the amended constitution.

That difference of opinion should exist among individuals, on the various topics which have passed in review before us, will not excite surprise. Various local interests, and diversity of political sentiment, among a free people, will, of necessity, lead to different opinions. Probably, the amended constitution, now submitted, is not, in all its provisions, in exact accordance with the desires of any individual member of the Convention; but in the spirit of mutual concession and compromise, we have come to a result, which we hope the people, actuated by the same spirit, will approve and ratify. We, therefore, submit it to your investigation, reflection, and final decision, with the most respectful deference; and do most devoutly implore the Supreme Ruler of the universe, that he will perpetuate the blessings of rational liberty, and endue us plenteously with that wisdom from above, which is profitable to direct in all things.

By order of the Convention,

I certify the preceding, to be a true copy of the address of the delegates assembled in Convention, and filed in this office, this day.

J. V. N. YATES, Secretary of State

THE

CONSTITUTION

OF THE

STATE OF NEW-YORK,

AS AMENDED.

WE, the people of the state of New-York, acknowledging with gratitude the grace and beneficence of God, in permitting us to make choice of our form of government, do establish this constitution.

.

ARTICLE FIRST.

SEC. I. The legislative power of this state, shall be vested in a senate and an assembly.

SEC. II. The senate shall consist of thirty-two members. The senators shall be chosen for four years, and shall be freeholders. The assembly shall consist of one hundred and twenty-eight members, who shall be annually elected.

SEC. III. A majority of each house, shall constitute a quorum to do business. Each house shall determine the rules of its own proceedings, and be the judge of the qualifications of its own members. Each house shall choose its own officers; and the senate shall choose a temporary president, when the lieutenantgovernor shall not attend as president, or shall act as governor.

SEC. IV. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and publish the same, except such parts as may require secrecy. The doors of each house, shall be kept open, except when the public welfare shall require secrecy. Neither house shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than two days.

SEC. V. The state shall be divided into eight districts, to be called senate districts, each of which shall choose four senators.

The first district, shall consist of the counties of Suffolk, Queens, Kings, Richmond, and New-York.

The second district, shall consist of the counties of Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland, Orange, Ulster, and Sullivan.

The third district, shall consist of the counties of Greene, Columbia, Albany, Rensselaer, Schoharie, and Schenectady.

The fourth district, shall consist of the counties of Saratoga, Montgomery, Hamilton, Washington, Warren, Clinton, Essex, Franklin, and St. Lawrence. The fifth district, shall consist of the counties of Herkimer, Oneida, Madison, Oswego, Lewis, and Jefferson.

The sixth district, shall consist of the counties of Delaware, Otsego, Chenango, Broome, Cortland, Tompkins, and Tioga.

The seventh district, shall consist of the counties of Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Ontario.

The eighth district, shall consist of the counties of Steuben, Livingston, Monroe, Genesee, Niagara, Erie, Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Chautauque.

And as soon as the senate shall meet, after the first election to be held in pursuance of this constitution, they shall cause the senators to be divided by lot, into four classes, of eight in each, so that every district shall have one senator of each class; the classes to be numbered, one, two, three, and four. And the seats of the first class, shall be vacated at the end of the first year; of the second class, at the end of the second year; of the third class, at the end of the third year; of the fourth class, at the end of the fourth year; in order that one senator be annually clected in each senate district.

SEC. VI. An enumeration of the inhabitants of the state, shall be taken, under the direction of the legislature, in the year one thousand eight hundred and