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party accused shall be allowed counsel as in civil actions. No person shall be subject for the same offense, 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 libelous, 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 or 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 hereaf ter 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 thirty three 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 steam boat passengers; shall be, and remain inviolably ap

propriated 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 eighteen 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 made under the authority and with the consent of the legislature.

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 land 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 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; 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 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 eigh

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 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 to 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.

DANIEL D. TOMPKINS,
President.

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 number 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.

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