USA > New York > Geography of the state of New York. Embracing its physical features, climate, geology, mineralogy, botany, zoology, history, pursuits of the people, government, education, internal improvements &c. With statistical tables, and a separate description and map of each county > Part 14
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Sec. 4. The claims of the state against any incorporated company to pay the interest and redeem the principal of the stock of the state, loaned or advanced to such company, shall be fairly enforced, and not released or compromised ; and the moneys arising from such claims shall be set apart and applied as part of the sinking fund provided in the second section of this article. But the time limited for the fulfillment of any condition of any release or compromise heretofore made or provided for, may be extended by law.
Sec. 5. If the sinking funds, or either of them, provided in this article, shall prove insufficient to enable the state, on the credit of such fund, to procure the means to satisfy the claims of the creditors of the state, as they become payable, the Legislature shall, by equitable taxes, so increase the revenues of the said funds as to make them, respectively, sufficient perfectly to preserve the public faith. Every contribution or advance to the canals, or their debt, from any source, other than their direct revenues, shall, with quarterly interest, at the rates then cur- rent, be repaid into the Treasury, for the use of the state, out of the canal reve- nues, as soon as it can be done consistently with the just rights of the creditors holding the said canal debt.
Sec. 6. The Legislature shall not sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of any of the canals of the state ; but they shall remain the property of the state and under its management, forever.
Sec. 7. The Legislature shall never sell or dispose of the salt springs, belong- ing to this state. The lands contiguous thereto and which may be necessary and convenient for the use of the salt springs, may be sold by authority of law, and under the direction of the commissioners of the land office, for the purpose of in- vesting the moneys arising therefrom in other lands alike convenient ; but by such sale and purchase the aggregate quantity of these lands shall not be dimin- ished.
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Sec. 8. No moneys shall ever be paid out of the treasury of this state, or any of its funds, or any of the funds under its management, except in pursuance of an appropriation by law ; nor unless such payment be made within two years next after the passage of such appropriation act ; and every such law, making a new appropriation, or continuing or reviving an appropriation, shall distinctly specify the sum appropriated, and the object to which it is to be applied ; and it shall not be sufficient for such law to refer to any other law to fix such sum.
Sec. 9. The credit of the state shall not, in any manner, be given or loaned to, or in aid of any individual, association or corporation.
Sec. 10. The state may. to meet casual deficits or failures in revenues, or for expenses not provided for, contract debts, but such debts, direct and contingent, singly or in the aggregate, shall not at any time, exceed one million of dollars ; and the moneys arising from the loans creating such debts. shall be applied to the pur- pose for which they were obtained, or to repay the debt so contracted, and to no other purpose whatever.
Sec. 11. In addition to the above limited power to contract debts, the state may contract debts to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or defend the state in war; but the money arising from the contracting of such debts shall be applied to the purpose for which it was raised, or to repay such debts, and to no other purpose whatever.
Sec. 12. Except the debts specified in the tenth and eleventh sections of this article, no debt shall be hereafter contracted by or on behalf of this state, unless such debt shall be authorized by a law, for some single work or object, to be dis- tinctly specified therein ; and such law shall impose and provide for the collection of a direct annual tax to pay, and sufficient to pay the interest on such debt as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal of such debt within eighteen years from the time of the contracting thereof.
No such law shall take effect until it shall, at a general election, have been sub- mitted to the people, and have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it, at such election.
On the final passage of such bill in either house of the Legislature, the question shall be taken by ayes and noes, to be duly entered on the journals thereof, and shall be : " Shall this bill pass, and ought the same to receive the sanction of the people ?'
The Legislature may at any time, after the approval of such law by the people, if no debt shall have been contracted in pursuance thereof, repeal the same; and may at any time, by law, forbid the contracting of any further debt or liability under such law ; but the tax imposed by such act, in proportion to the debt and liability which may have been contracted, in pursuance of such law, shall remain in force and be irrepealable, and be annually collected, until the proceeds thereof shall have made the provision herein before specified to pay and discharge the in- terest and principal of such debt and liability.
The money arising from any loan or stock creating such debt or liability, shall be applied to the work or object specified in the act authorizing such debt or lia- bility, or for the repayment of such debt or liability, and for no other purpose whatever.
No such law shall be submitted to be veted on, within three months after ita passage, or at any general election, when any other law, or any bill, or any amend- ment to the Constitution shall be submitted to be voted for or against.
Sec. 13. Every law which imposes, continues or revives a tax, shall distinctly state the tax and the object to which it is to be applied ; and it shall not be soft- cient to refer to any other law to fix such tax or object.
Sec. 14. On the final passage, in either house of the Legislature, of every act which imposes, continues, or revivesa tax, or creates a debt or charge, or makes, continues or revives any appropriation of public or trust-money or property, or re- leases, discharges, or commutes any claim or demand of the state, the question shall be taken by ayes and noes, which shall be duly entered on the journals, and three-fifths of all the members elected to either house, shall, in all such cases, be necessary to constitute a quorum therein.
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ARTICLE VIII.
Sec. 1. Corporations may be formed under general laws; but shall not be created by special act, except for municipal purposes, and in cases where in the judgment of the Legislature, the objects of the corporation cannot be attained un- der general laws. All general laws and special acts passed pursuant to this sec- tion, may be altered from time to time, or repealed.
Sec. 2. Dues from corporations shall be secured by such individual liability of the corporators, and other means, as may be prescribed by law.
Sec. 3. The term corporations, as used in this article, shall be construed to in- clude all associations and joint-stock companies having any of the powers or privileges of corporations not possessed by individuals or partnerships. And all corporations shall have the right to sue, and shall be subject to be sued, in all courts in like cases as natural persons.
. Sec. 4. The Legislature, shall have no power to pass any act granting any special charter for banking purposes ; but corporations or associations may be 'formed for such purposes under general laws.
Sec. 5. The Legislature shall have no power to pass any law sanctioning in any manner, directly or indirectly, the suspension of specie payments, by any per- son, association or corporation issuing bank notes of any description.
Sec. 6. The Legislature shall provide by law for the registry of all bills or notes, issued or put in circulation as money, and shall require ample security for the redemption of the same in specie.
Sec. 7. The stockholders in every corporation and joint-stock association for banking purposes, issuing bank notes or any kind of paper credits to circulate as money, after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty, shall be individually responsible to the amount of their respective share or shares of stock in any such corporation or association, for all its debts and liabilities of every kind, contracted after the said first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty.
Sec. 8. In case of the insolvency of any bank or banking association, the bill- holders thereof shall be entitled to preference in payment, over all other creditors of such bank or association.
Sec. 9. It shall be the duty of the Legislature to provide for the organization of cities and incorporated villages, and to restrict their power of taxation, assess- ment, borrowing money, contracting debts and loaning their credit, so as to pre- vent abuses in assessments, and in contracting debts by such municipal corpora- tions.
ARTICLE IX.
Sec. 1. The capital of the Common School Fund ; the capital of the Literature Fund, and the capital of the United States Deposit Fund, shall be respectively pre- served inviolate. The revenue of the said Common School Fund shall be applied to the support of common schools ; the revenues of the said Literature Fund shall be applied to the support of academies, and the sum of twenty-five thousand dol- lars of the revenues of the United States Deposit Fund shall each year be appro- priated to and made a part of the capital of the said Common School Fund.
ARTICLE X.
Sec. 1. Sheriff's, clerks of counties, including the register and clerk of the city and county of New York, coroners, and district attorneys, shall be chosen, by the electors of the respective counties, once in every three years, and as often as vacan- cies shall happen. Sheriff's shall hold no other office, and be ineligible for the next three years after the termination of their offices. They may be required by law, to renew their security, from time to time ; and in default of giving such new security, their offices shall be deemed vacant. But the county shall never be made responsible for the acts of the sheriff.
The Governor may remove any officer, in this section mentioned, within the term for which he shall have been elected ; giving to such officer a copy of the charges against him, and an opportunity of being heard in his defence.
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Sec. 2. All county officers whose election or appointment is not provided for, by this Constitution, shall be elected by the electors of the respective counties, or appointed by the boards of supervisora, or other county authorities, as the Legisla- ture shall direct. All city, town and village officers, whose election or apprint- ment is not provided for by this Constitution, shall be elected by the electors, of such cities, towns and villages, or of some division thereof, or appointed by such authorities thereof, as the Legislature shall designate for that purpose. All other officers whose election or appointment is not provided for by this Constitution, and all officers whose offices may hereafter be created by law, shall be elected by the people, or appointed, as the Legislature may direct.
Sec. 3. When the duration of any office, is not provided by this Constitution, it may be declared by law, and if not so declared, such office shall be held, during the pleasure of the authority making the appointment.
Sec. 4. The time of electing all officers named in this article shall be prescribed by law.
Sec. 5. The Legislature shall provide for filling vacancies in office, and in case of elective officers, no person appointed to fill a vacancy shall hold his office by virtue of such appointment longer than the commencement of the political year next succeeding the first annual election after the happening of the vacancy.
Sec. 6. The political year and legislative term, shall begin on the first day of January ; and the Legislature shall every year assemble on the first Tuesday in January, unless a different day shall be appointed by law.
Sec. 7. Provision shall be made by law for the removal, for misconduct er mal- versation in office, of all officers (except judicial) whose powers and duties are not local or legislative, and who shall be elected at general elections, and also for sup- plying vacancies created by such removal.
Sec. 8. The Legislature may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant, where no provision is made for that purpose in this Constitution.
ARTICLE XI.
Sec. 1. The militia of this state, shall at all times hereafter, be armed and dis- ciplined, 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, upon such conditions as shall be pre- scribed by law.
Sec. 2. Militia officers shall be chosen, or appointed, as follows :- captains, subalterns and non-commissioned officers shall chosen by the written votes of the members of their respective companies. Field officers of regiments and separate battalions, by the written votes of the commissioned officers of the respective regi- ments and separate battalions ; brigadier generals and brigade inspectors, by the field officers of their respective brigades; major generals, brigadier generals and commanding officers of regiments or separate battalions, shall appoint the staff officers to their respective divisiona, brigades, regiments or separate battalions.
. Sec. 3. The Governor shall nominate, and with the consent of the Senate, appoint all major generals, and the commissary general. The adjutant general and other chiefs of staff departments, and the aids de camp of the commander-in -chief shall be appointed by the Governor, and their commissions shall expire with the time for which the Governor shall have been elected. The commissary general shall hold his office for two years. He shall give security for the faithful execu- tion of the duties of his office, in such manner and amount as shall be prescribed by law.
Sec. 4. The Legislature shall, by law, direct the time and manner of electing militia officers, and of certifying their elections to the Governor.
Sec. 5. The commissioned officers of the militia shall be commissioned by the Governor ; and no commissioned officer shall be removed from office, unless by the Senate on the recommendation of the Governor, stating the grounds on which such removal is recommended, or by the decision of a court martial, pursuant to law. The present officers of the militia shall hold their commissions subject to removal, as before provided.
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Sec. 6. In case the mode of election and appointment of militia officers hereby directed, shall not be found conducive to the improvement of the militia, the Le- gislature may abolish the same, and provide by law for their appointment and removal, if two-thirds of the members present in each house shall concur therein.
ARTICLE XII.
Sec. 1. Members of the Legislature and all officers, executive and judicial, except such inferior officers as may be by law exempted, shall, before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath of 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 publie trust.
ARTICLE XIII.
Sec. 1. Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in the Senate and 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 there- on, and referred to the Legislature to be chosen at the next general election of Senators, and shall be published for three months previous to the time of making such choice, and if in the Legislature so next chosen, aforesaid, such proposed amendment or amendments, shall be agreed to, by a majority 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.
Sec. 2. At the general election to be held in the year eighteen hundred and sixty- six, and in each twentieth year thereafter, and also at such time as the Legislature may by law provide, the question, "Shall there be a Convention to revise the Con- stitution, and amend the same ?"' shall be decided by the electors qualified to vote for members of the Legislature ; and in case a majority of the electors so qualified, voting at such election, shall decide in favor of a Convention for such purpose, the Legislature at its next session, shall provide by law for the election of delegates to such Convention.
ARTICLE XIV.
Sec. 1. The first election of Senators and Members of Assembly, pursuant to the provisions of this Constitution, shall be held on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday of November, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.
The Senators and Members of Assembly who may be in office on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, shall hold their offices until and including the thirty-first day of December following, and no longer.
Soc. 2. The first election of Governor, and Lieutenant Governor under this- Constitution, shall be held on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday of Novem- ber, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight ; and the Governor and Lieutenant- Governor in office when this Constitution shall take effect, shall hold their respect- ive offices until and including the thirty-first day of December of that year.
Sec. 3. The Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, Attorney General, District Attorney, Surveyor General, Canal Commissioners, and Inspectors of State Prisona, in office when this Constitution shall take effect, shall hold their respective offices until and including the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, and no longer.
Sec. 4. The first election of judges and clerk of the Court of Appeals, justices of the Supreme Court, and county judges, shall take place at such time between
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the first Tuesday of April and the second Tuesday of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, as may be prescribed by law. The said courts shall respectively enter upon their duties, on the first Monday of July, next thereafter ; but the term of office of said judges, clerk and justices, as declared by this Con sti- tution, shall be deemed to commence on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
Sec. 5. On the first Monday of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty- seven, jurisdiction of all suits and proceedings then pending in the present supreme court and court of chancery, and all suits and proceedings originally commenced and then pending in any court of common pleas, (except in the city and county of New York,) shall become vested in the supreme court hereby established. Pro- ceedings pending in courts of common pleas, and in suits originally commenced in Justices courts, shall be transferred to the county courts provided for in this Consti- tution, in such manner and form, and under much regulation as shall be provided by law. The courts of oyer and terminer hereby established, shall, in their re- spective counties, have jurisdiction, on and after the day last mentioned, of all indictments and proceedings then pending in the present courts of oyer and termi- ner, and also of all indictments and proceedings then pending in the present courts of general sessions of the peace, except in the city of New York, and except in cases of which the courts of sessions hereby established, may lawfully take cogni- zance; and of such indictments and proceedings as the courts of sessions hereby established, shall have jurisdiction, on and after the day last mentioned.
Sec. 6. The chancellor and the present supreme court shall, respectively, have power to hear and determine any of such suits and proceedings ready on the first Monday of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, for hearing or decis- ion, and shall, for their services therein, be entitled to their present rates of com- pensation, until the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, or until all such suits and proceedings shall be sooner heard and determined. Mas- ters in chancery may continue to exercise the functions of their office, in the court of chancery, so long as the Chancellor shall continue to exercise the functions of his office, under the provisions of this Constitution.
And the Supreme Court hereby established, shall also have power to hear and determine such of said suits and proceedings as may be prescribed by law.
Sec. 7. In case any vacancy shall occur in the office of chancellor or justice of the present Supreme Court, previously to the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, the Governor may nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint a proper person to fill such vacancy. Any judge of the court of appeals, or justice of the supreme court, elected under this Constitution, may receive and bold such appointment.
Sec. 8. The offices of chancellor, justice of the existing supreme court, circuit judge, vice-chancellor, assistant vice-chancellor, judge of the existing county courts of each county, supreme court commissioner, master in chancery, ezaminer in chancery, and surrogate, (except as herein otherwise provided,) are abolished from and after the first Monday of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, (1847.)
Sec. 9. The Chancellor, the justices of the present supreme court, and the circuit judgea, are hereby declared to be severally eligible to any office at the first election under this Constitution.
Sec. 10. Sheriffs, clerks of counties, (including the register and clerk of the city and county of New York,) and justices of the peace, and coronera, in office, when this Constitution shall take effect, shall hold their respective offices until the expiration of the term for which they were respectively elected.
Sec. 11. Judicial officers in office when this Constitution shall take effect, may continug to receive such fees and perquisites of office as are now authorized by law, until the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, not- withstanding the provisions of the twentieth section of the sixth article of this Constitution.
Sec. 12. All local courts established in any city or village, including the Supe-
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GOVERNMENT OF COUNTIES.
rior Court, Common Pleas, Sessions and Surrogate's Courts of the city and county of New York, shall remain, until otherwise directed by the Legislature, with their present powers and jurisdictions ; and the judges of such courts, and any clerks thereof in office on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty- seven, shall continue in office until the expiration of their terms of office, or until the Legislature shall otherwise direct.
Sec. 13. This Constitution shall be in force from and including the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, except as herein otherwise provided.
Done in convention, at the capitol, in the city of Albany, the ninth day of Octo- ber, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-siz, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the seventy-first.
In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names.
JOHN TRACY, President,
and Delegate from the county of Chenango.
JAMES F. STARBUCK,
H. W. STRONG,
Secretaries:
FR. SEGER. A
GOVERNMENT
OF COUNTIES, TOWNS, CITIES AND VILLAGES.
EACH town elects, annually, a supervisor, a town clerk, three or five assessors, a collector, two overseers of the poor, a town superin- tendent of common schools, not more than five constables, one sealer of weights and measures, as many overseers of highways as there are road districts in the town, and as many pound masters as the electors may deem necessary.
The supervisors of the different towns of the county, thus elected, constitute a board, which meets annually for business, and holds spe- cial meetings when necessary. They are authorised to receive, ex- amine, and adjust all accounts against the county, or the several towns, raise money to defray them, make orders concerning the cor- porate property of the county, elect the county superintendent of common schools, &c.
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