THE CONSTITUTION

OF THE

State of New York.

ADOPTED IN CONVENTION,

first determined by a jury of freeholders, and such amount, together with the expenses of the proceeding, shall be paid by the person to be benefited. General laws may be passed permitting the owners or occupants of agricultural lands to construct and maintain for the drainage thereof necessary drains, ditches and dykes upon the lands of others, under proper restrictions and with just compensation, but no special laws sha'l be enacted for such purposes.

Section 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 criminal 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.

Section 9. No law shall be passed abridging the right of the people peacably to assemble and to petition the government, or any department thereof; nor shall any divorce be granted otherwise than by due judicial proceedings; nor shall any

Thousand Eight Hundred

and Ninety-Four.

The parts herein italicized and in bold-faced type indicate new matter.

We, the people of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings, do establish this Constitution.

ARTICLE I.

Section 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.

Section 2. The trial by jury in all cases in which it has been heretofore used shall remain inviolate forever; but a jury trial may be waived b the parties in all civil cases in the manner to be prescribed by law.

Section 3. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed in this State to all mankind; and no person shall be rendered incompetent to be a witness on account of his opinions on matters of religious belief; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to exeuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this State.

Section 4. 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.

Section 5. Excessive bail shall not be required nor excessive fines imposed, nor shall cruel and unusual punishments be inflicted, nor shall witnesses be unreasonably detained.

Section 6. No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime (except in cases of impeachment, and in cases of militia when in actual service, and the land and naval forces in time of war, or which this >tate my keep with the consent of 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 any trial in any court whatever the party accused shall be allowed to appear and defend in person and with counsel as in civil actions. No person shall be subject to be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense; 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.

Section 7. When private property shall be taken for any public use, the compensation to be made therefor, when such compensation is not made by the State. shall be ascertained by a jury, or by not less than three commissioners appointed by a court of record, as shall be pre-cribed by law Private roads may be opened in the manner to be prescribed by law; but in every case the necessity of the road and the amount of all damage to be sustained by the opening thereof shall be

ing, or any other kind of gambling hereafter be authorized or allowed within this State; and the Legislature shall pass appropriate laws to prevent offenses against any of the provisions of this section."

Section 10. The people of this State, in their right of sovereignty, are deemed to possess the original and ultimate property in and to all lands within the jurisdiction of the State; and all lands the title to which shall fail, from a defect of heirs, shall revert, or escheat to the people.

Section 11. All feudal tenures of every description, with all their incidents, are declared to be abolished, saving however, all rents and services certain which at any time heretofore have been lawfully created or reserved.

Section 12. All lands within this State are declared to be allodial, so that, subject only to the liability to escheat, the entire and absolute property is vested in the owners, according to the nature of their respective estates.

Section 13. No lease or grant of agricultural land, for a longer period than twelve years, hereafter made, in which shall be reserved any rent or service of any kind, shall be valid.

Section 14. All fines, quarter sales, or other like restraints upon alienation, reserved in any grant of land hereafter to be made, shall be void.

Section 15. 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, shall be valid, unless made under the authority, and with the consent of the Legislature.

Section 16. Such parts of the common law, and 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 Le islature 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 cor cerning the same. But all suc parts of the common law, and such of the said acts, or parts thereof, as are repugnant to this Constitution, are hereby abrogated.

Section 17. 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 action, or other proceedings in courts of justice.

Section 18. The right of action now existing to recover damages for injuries resulting in death, shall never be abrogated and the amount recoverable shall not be subject to any statutory limitation.

ARTICLE II.

Section 1. Every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years who shall have been a citizen for ninety days, and an Inhabitant of this State one year next preceding an election, and for the last four months a resident of the county and for the last thirty days a resident of the election district in which he may offer his vote, shall be entitled to vote at such election

in the election district of which he shall at the time be a resident, and not elsewhere, for all officers that now are or hereafter may be elective by the people; and upon all questions which may be submitted to the vote of the people, provided that in time of war no elector in the actual military service of the State, or of the United States, in the army or navy thereof, shall be deprived of his vote by reason of his absence from such election district; and the Legislature shall have power to provide the manner in which and the time and place at which such absent electors may vote, and for the return and canvass of their votes in the election districts in which they respectively reside.

Section 2. No person who shall receive, accept, or offer to receive, or pay, offer or promise to pay, contribute, offer or promise to contribute to another, to be paid or used, any money or other valuable thing as a compensation or reward for the giving or withholding a vote at an election, or who shall make any promise to influence the giving or withholding any such vote, or who shall make or become directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager depending upon the result of any election, shall vote at such election; and upon challenge for such cause, the person so challenged, before the officers authorized for that purpose shall receive his vote, shall swear or affirm before such officers that he has not received or offered, does not expect to receive, has not paid, offered or promised to pav, contributed, offered or promised to contribute to another, to be paid or used, any money or other valuable thing as a compensation or reward for the giving or withholding a vote at such election, and has not made any promise to influence the giving or withholding of any such vote, nor made or become directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager depending upon the result of such election. The Legislature shall enact laws excluding from the right of suffrage all persons convicted of bribery or of any infamous crime.

Section 3. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence, by reason of his presence or absence, white employed in the service of the United States; nor while engaged in the navigation of the waters of this State, or of the United States, or of the high seas; nor while a student of any seminary of learning; nor while kept at any alms-house, or other asylum, or institution wholly or partly supported at public expense, or by charity; nor while confined in any public prison.

Section 4. Laws shall be made for ascertaining, by proper proofs, the citizens who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage hereby established, and for the registration of voters; which registration shall be completed at least ten days before each election. Such registration shall not be required for town and village elections except by express provision of law. In cities and villages having five thousand inhabitants or more, according to the last preceding State enumeration of inhabitants, voters shall be registered upon personal application only; but voters not residing in such cities or villages shall not be required to apply in person for registration at the first meeting of the officers having charge of the registry of voters.

Section 5. All elections by the citizens, except for such town officers as may by law be directed to be otherwise chosen, shall be by ballot, or by such other method as may be prescribed by law, provided that secrecy in voting be preserved.

Section 6. All laws creating, regulating or affecting boards of officers charged with the duty of registering voters, or of distributing ballots at the polls to voters, or of receiving, recording or counting votes at elections, shall secure equal representation of the two political parties which, at the general election next preceding that for which such boards or officers are to serve, cast the highest and the next highest number of votes. All such boards and officers shall be ap pointed or elected in such manner, and upon the nomination of such representatives of said parties respectively, as the Legislature may direct. Existing laws on this subject shall continue until the Legislature shall otherwise provide. This section shall not apply to town meetings, or to village elections.

ARTICLE III.

Section 1. The legislative power of this State shall be vested in the Senate and Assembly.

Section 2. The Senate shall consist of fifty members, except as hereinafter provided. The senators elected in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five shall hold their offices for three years, and their successors shall be chosen for two years. The Assembly shall consist of one hundred and fifty members who shall be chosen for one year.

Section 3. The State shall be divided into fifty districts to be called Senate districts, each of which shall choose one senator. The districts shall be numbered from one to fifty, inclusive. District number one (1) shall consist of the counties of Suffolk and Richmond.

District number three (3) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the first, second, third, fourth fifth and sixth wards of the city of Brooklyn.

District number four (4) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the seventh, thirteenth, nineteenth and twenty-first wards of the city of Brooklyn.

District number five (5) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the eighth, tenth, twelfth and thirtieth wards of the city of Brooklyn, and the ward of the city of Brooklyn which was formerly the town of Gravesend. District number six (6) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the ninth, eleventh, twentieth and twenty-second wards of the city of Brooklyn.

District number seven (7) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth wards of the city of Brooklyn.

District number eight (8) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth and twenty-ninth wards of the city of Brooklyn, and the town of Flatlands.

District number nine (9) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the eighteenth, twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth wards of the city of Brooklyn.

District number ten (10) shall consist of that part of the county of New York within and bounded by a line beginning at Canal street and the Hudson river, and running thence along Canal street, Hudson street, Dominick street, Varick street, Broome street, Sullivan street, Spring street, Broadway, Canal street, the Bowery, Division street, Grand street and Jackson street, to the East river and thence around the southern end of Manhattan Island, to the place of beginning, and also Governor's, Bedlow's and Ellis Islands.

District number eleven (11) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of district number ten, and within and bounded by a line beginning at the junction of Broadway and Canal street, and running thence along Broadway, Fourth street, the Bowery and Third avenue, St. Mark's place, Avenue A, Seventh street, Avenue B, Clinton street, Rivington street, Norfolk street, Division street, Bowery and Canal street, to the place of beginning.

District number twelve (12) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of districts numbers ten and eleven and within and bounded by a line beginning at Jackson street and the East river, and running thence through Jackson street, Grand street, Division street, Norfolk street, Rivington street. Clinton street. Avenue B. Seventh street, Avenue A, St. Mark's place, Third avenue, East Fourteenth street to the East river, and along the East river, to the place of beginning.

District number thirteen (13) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of district number ten, river at the foot of Canal street, and running thence along and within and bounded by a line beginning at the Hudson Canal street, Hudson street, Dominick street, Varick street, Broome street, Sullivan street, Spring street, Broadway, Fourth street, the Bowery and Third avenue, Fourteenth street, Sixth avenue, West Fifteenth street, Seventh avenue, West Nineteenth street, Eighth avenue, West Twentieth street, and the Hudson river, to the place of beginning.

District number fourteen (14) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of districts numbers twelve and thirteen, and within and bounded by a line beginning at East Fourteenth street and the East river, and running thence along East Fourteenth street, Irving Place, street, Lexington avenue, East Fifth-third street, Third East Nineteenth street, Third avenue, East Twenty-third avenue, East Fifty-second street, and the East river, to the place of beginning.

District number fifteen (15) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of district number thirteen, and within and bounded by a line beginning at the junction of West Fourteenth street and Sixth avenue, and running thence along Sixth avenue, West Fifteenth street, Seventh avenue, West Fortieth street, Eighth avenue, and the transverse road across Central park at Ninety-seventh street, Fifth avenue, East Ninety-sixth street, Lexington avenue, East Twentythird street, Third avenue, East Nineteenth street, Irving place and Fourteenth street, to the place of beginning.

District number sixteen (16) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of district number thirteen, and within and bounded by a line beginning at Seventh avenue and West Nineteenth street, and running thence along West Nineteenth street, Eighth avenue, West Twentieth street, the Hudson river, West Forty-sixth street, Tenth avenue, West Forty-third street, Eighth avenue, West Fortieth street and Seventh avenue, to the place of beginning.

District number seventeen (17) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of district number sixteen,

Eighth avenue and West Forty-third street, and running