the fourteenth day of October, one thousand seven hundred and seventy five, shall be null and void: but nothing contained in this constitution, shall affect any grants of land within this state, made by the authority of the said king or his predecessors, or shall annul any charters to bodies politic and corporate, by him or them made, before that day; or shall affect any such grants or charters since made by this state, or by persons acting under its authority; or shall impair the obligation of any debts contracted by the state, or individuals, or bodies corporate, or any other rights of property, or any suits, actions, rights of actions, or other proceedings in courts of justice. ARTICLE VIII. Sec. 1. Any amendment, or amendments, to this constitution, may be proposed in the senate or assembly, and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each of the two houses, such proposed amendment, or amendments, shall be entered on their journals, with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and referred to the legislature then next to be chosen; and shall be published, for three months previous to the time of making such choice; an, if in the legislature next chosen as aforesaid, such proposed amendment, or amendments, shall be agreed to by two thirds of all the members elected to each house, then it shall be the duty of the legislature to submit such proposed amendment, or amendments, to the people, in such manner, and at such time, as the legislature shall prescribe; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment, or amendments, by a majority of the electors qualified to vote for members of the legislature, voting thereon, such amendment or amendments, shall become part of the constitution. ARTICLE IX. Sec. 1. This constitution shall be in force from the last day of December, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty two. But all those parts of the same, which relate to the right of suffrage; the division of the state into senate districts; the number of members of the assembly to be elected in pursuance of this constitution; the apportionment of members of assembly; the elections hereby directed to commence on the first Monday of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty two; the continuance of the members of the present legislature in office, until the first day of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty three; and the prohibition against authorizing lotteries; the prohibition against appropriating the public moneys or property for local or private purposes, or creating, continuing, altering, or renewing, any body politic, or corporate, without the assent of two thirds of the members elected to each branch of the legislature, shall be in force, and take effect from the last day of February next. The members of the present legislature, shall, on the first Monday of March next, take and subscribe an oath, or affirmation, to support the constitution, so far as the same shall then be in force. Sheriffs, clerks of counties, and coroners, shall be elected at the election hereby directed to commence on the first Monday of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty two; but they shall not enter on the duties of their offices before the first day of January then next following. The commissions of all persons holding civil offices on the last day of December, one thousand eight hundred and twenty two, shall expire on that day; but the officers then in commission, may respectively continue to hold their said cffices until new appointments or elections shall take place under this constitution. 2. The existing laws, relative to the manner of notifying, holding, and conducting elections, making returns, and canvassing votes, shall be in force, and observed, in respect to the elections hereby directed to commence on the first Mon day of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty two, so far as the same are applicable. And the present legislature shall pass such other and further laws, as may be requisite for the execution of the provisions of this constitution, in respect to elections. Done in Convention, at the Capitol, in the city of Albany, the tenth day of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty one, and of the independence of the United States of America, the forty sixth. DANIEL D. TOMPKINS, AMENDMENTS. [Adopted in 1826.] FIRST: That the people in this state, in their several towns, shall, at their annual election, and in such manner as the legislature shall direct, elect by ballot their justices of the peace ; and the justices so elected in any town shall immediately thereafter meet together, and in presence of the supervisor and town clerk of the said town, be divided by lot into four classes, of one in each class, and be numbered one, two, three, and four; and the office of nuraber one shall expire at the end of the first year, of number two at the end of the second year, of number three at the end of the third year, and of number four at the end of the fourth year, in order that one justice may thereafter be annually elected; and that so much of the seventh section of the fourth article of the constitution of this state as is inconsistent with this amendment, be abrogated. SECOND: That so much of the first section of the second. article of the constitution as prescribes the qualification of voters, other than persons of colour, be and the same is hereby abolished, and that the following be substituted in the place thereof: Every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been an inhabitant of this state one year next preceding any election, and for the last six months a resident of the county where he may offer his vote, shall be entitled to vote in the town or ward where he actually reresides, and not elsewhere, for all officers that now are, or hereafter may be elective by the people. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PART I. PIECES IN PROSE. CHAPTER I. [The names of American authors are in small capitals.] Select Sentences, CHAPTER II. NARRATIVE PIECES. Page 17 Catharina, Empress of Russia, Execution of Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, Death of Socrates, Account of William Penn's treaty with the Indians, CHAPTER III. DIDACTIC PIECES. The miseries of Men mostly of their own procuring, The advantages of a taste for Natural History, CHAPTER IV. 1 DESCRIPTIVE PIECES. |