supreme court, and in courts of oyer and terminer and jail delivery. And such equity powers may be vested in the said circuit judges, or in the county courts, or in such other subordinate courts as the legislature may by law direct, subject to the appellate jurisdiction of the chancellor.

6. Judges of the county courts, and recorders of cities, shall hold their offices for five years, but may be removed by the senate, on the recommendation of the governor, for causes to be stated in such recommendation.

7. Neither the chancellor, nor justices of the supreme court, nor any circuit judge, shall hold any other office or public trust. All votes for any elective office, given by the legislature or the people, for the chancellor, or a justice of the supreme court, or circuit judge, during his continuance in his judicial office, shall be void.

ARTICLE 6.

§1. Members of the legislature, and all officers, executive and judicial, except such inferior officers, as may by law be exempted, shall, before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation:

I do solemnly swear, (or affirm, as the case may be,) that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of — according to the best of my ability.

And no other oath, declaration, or test, shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust.

ARTICLE 7.

§ 1. No member of this state shall be disfranchised, or deprived of any of the rights or privileges secured to, any citizen thereof, unless by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers.

2. The trial by jury, in all cases in which it has been heretofore used, shall remain inviolate for ever; and no new court shall be instituted, but such as shall proceed according to the course of the common law; except such courts of equity as the legislature is herein authorised to establish.

3. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall for ever be allowed in this state, to all mankind; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured, shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this state.

4. And whereas the ministers of the gospel are, by their profession, dedicated to the service of God, and the care of souls, and ought not to be diverted from the great duties of

their functions; therefore, no minister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination whatsoever, shall at any time hereafter, under any pretence or description whatever, be eligible to, or capable of holding any civil or military office or place within

this state.

5. The militia of this state shall, at all times hereafter, be armed and disciplined, and in readiness for service: but all such inhabitants of this state, of any religious denomination whatever, as from scruples of conscience may be averse to bearing arms, shall be excused therefrom, by paying to the state an equivalent in money; and the legislature shall provide by law for the collection of such equivalent, to be estimated according to the expense in time and money, of an ordinary able bodied militia man.

6. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require its suspension.

7. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or other infamous crime, [except in cases of impeachment, and in cases of the militia when in actual service: and the land and naval forces in time of war, or which this state may keep, with the consent of the congress, in time of peace, and in cases of petit larceny, under the regulation of the legislature;] unless on presentment, or indictment of a grand jury; and in every trial on impeachment or indictment, the party accused shall be allowed council as in civil actions. No person shall be subject, for the same offence, to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall he be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law: nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

8. Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments, on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech, or of the press. In all prosecutions, or indictments for libels, the truth may be given in evidence to the jury: and if it shall appear to the jury, that the matter charged as libellous is true, and was published with good motives, and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted; and the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the fact.

9. The assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each branch of the legislature, shall be requisite to every bill appropriating the public moneys or property, for local or private purposes, or creating, continuing, altering, or renewing, any body politic of corporate.

10. The proceeds of all lands belonging to this state, except such parts thereof as may be reserved or appropriated to public use, or ceded to the United States, which shall here

after be sold or disposed of, together with the fund denominated the common school fund shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated and applied to the support of common schools throughout this state. Rates of toll, not less than those agreed to by the canal commissioners, and set forth in their report to the legislature of the twelfth of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one, shall be imposed on, and collected from, all parts of the navigable communication between the great western and northern lakes and the Atlantic ocean, which now are, or hereafter shall be, made and completed; and the said tolls, together with the duties on the manufacture of all salt, as established by the act of the fifteenth of April, one thousand eight hundred and seventeen: and the duties on goods sold at auction, excepting therefrom the sum of thirtythree thousand five hundred dollars, otherwise appropriated by the said act; and the amount of the revenue, established by the act of the legislature of the thirtieth of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, in lieu of the tax upon steamboat passengers; shall be and remain inviolably appropriated and applied to the completion of such navigable communications, and to the payment of the interest, and reimbursement of the capital, of the money already borrowed, or which hereafter shall be borrowed, to make and complete the same. And neither the rates of toll on the said navigable communications, nor the duties on the manufacture of salt aforesaid, nor the duties on goods sold at auction, as established by the act of the fifteenth of April, one thousand eight hundred and seventeen; nor the amount of the revenue, established by the act of March the thirtieth, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, in lieu of the tax upon steam boat passengers; shall be reduced or diverted, at any time, before the full and complete payment of the principal and interest of the money borrowed, or to be borrowed, as aforesaid. And the legislature shall never sell or dispose of the salt springs belonging to this state, nor the lands contiguous thereto, which may be necessary or convenient for their use, nor the said navigable communications or any part or section thereof, but the same shall be and remain the property of this state.

11. No lottery shall hereafter be authorized in this state; and the legislature shall pass laws to prevent the sale of all lottery tickets within this state, except in lotteries already provided for by law.

12. No purchase or contract for the sale of lands in this state, made since the fourteenth day of October, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, or which may hereafter be made, of or with the Indians in this state, shall be valid, unless under the authority, and with the consent of the legis

lature.

13. Such parts of the common law, and of the acts of the legislature of the colony of New York, as together did form the law of the said colony on the nineteenth day of April, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, and the resolutions of the congress of the said colony, and of the convention of the state of New York, in force on the twentieth day of April, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven, which have not since expired, or been repealed, or altered; and such acts of the legislature of this state as are now in force, shall be and continue the law of this state, subject to such alterations, as the legislature shall make concerning the same. But all such parts of the common law, and such of the said acts, or parts thereof, as are repugnant to this constitution, are hereby abrogated.

14. All grants of lands within this state, made by the king of Great Britain, or persons acting under his authority, after 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 action, or other proceedings, in courts of justice.

ARTICLE 8.

§ 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; and 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 9.

§ 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 appointment 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 authorising 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 offices, 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 of the elections hereby directed to commence on the first Monday 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.

In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names. DANIEL D. TOMPKINS, President.