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CONSTITUTION OF STATE OF NEW YORK.
Legislature may provide for detailing judges of the Superior Court and Court of Common Pleas of New York, to hold circuits or special terms of the Supreme Court in that city, as the public interests may require.
SEC. 13. Justices of the Supreme Court shall be chosen by the elec- tors of their respective judicial districts. Judges of all the courts mentioned in the last preceding section shall be chosen by the elec- tors of the cities respectively in which the said courts are instituted. The official terms of the said justices and judges who shall be elected after the adoption of this article shall be fourteen years from and including the first day of January next after their election. But no person shall hold, the office of Justice or Judge of any court longer than until and including the last day of December next after he shall be seventy years of age.
SEC. 14. The judges and justices hereinbefore mentioned shall receive for their services a compensation to be established by law, which shall not be diminished during their official terms. Except the judges of the Court of Appeals and the justices of the Supreme Court, they shall be paid, and the expenses of their courts defrayed, by the cities or counties in which such courts are instituted, as shall be provided by law.
SEC. 15. The existing County Courts are continued, and the judges thereof in office at the adoption of this article shall hold their offices until the expiration of their respective terms. Their successors shall be chosen by the electors of the counties for the term of six years. The county courts shall have the powers and jurisdiction they now possess, until altered by the Legislature. They shall also have origi- nal jurisdiction in all cases where the defendants reside in the county, and in which the damages claimed shall not exceed one thousand dol- lars; and also such appellate jurisdiction as shall be provided by law, subject, however, to such provision as shall be made by law for the removal of causes into the Supreme Court. They shall also have such other original jurisdiction as shall, from time to time, be con- ferred upon them by the Legislature. The County Judge with two Justices of the Peace, to be designated according to law, may hold Courts of Sessions, with such criminal jurisdiction as the Legislature shall prescribe, and he shall perform such other duties as may be re- quired by law. His salary, and the salary of the Surrogate when elected as a separate officer, shall be established by law, payable out of the county treasury, and shall not be diminished during his term of office. 'The Justices of the Peace shall be paid, for services in courts of sessions, a per diem allowance ont of the county treasury. The County Judge shall also be Surrogate of his county; but in counties having a population exceeding forty thousand the Legisla-
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APPENDIX.
ture may provide for the election of a separate officer to be Surrogate, whose term of office shall be the same as that of the County Judge. The County Judge of any county may preside at Courts of Sessions or hold county courts in any other county, except New York and Kings, when requested by the Judge of such other county.
SEC. 16. The Legislature may, on the application of the Board of Supervisors, provide for the election of local officers, not to exceed two in any County, to discharge the duties of County Judge and of Surrogate, in cases of their inability, or of a vacancy, and to exercise such other powers in special cases as may be provided by law.
SEC. 17. The Legislature shall provide for submitting to the elec- tors of the State at the general election in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-three two questions, to be voted upon on separate bal- lots, as follows: First, "Shall the offices of Chief Judge and Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals, and of Justice of the Supreme Court, be hereafter filled by appointment ?" If a majority of the votes upon the question shall be in the affirmative, the said offices shall not thereafter be elective, but, as vacancies occur, they shall be filled by appointment by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; or, if the Senate be not in session, by the Governor ; but in such case he shall nominate to the Senate when next con- vened, and such appointment by the Governor alone shall expire at the end of that session. Second, "Shall the offices of the judges mentioned in Sections Twelve and Fifteen of Article Six of the Con- stitution be hereafter filled by appointment ?" If a majority of votes upon the question shall be in the affirmative, the said offices shall not thereafter be elective, but, as vacancies occur, they shall be filled in the manner in the section above provided.
SEC. 18. The electors of the several towns shall, at their annual town meeting, and in such manner as the Legislature may direct, elect Justices of the Peace, whose term of office shall be four years. In case of an election to fill a vacancy occurring before the expiration of a full term, they shall hold for the residue of the unexpired term. Their number and classification may be regulated by law. Justices of the Peace and judges or justices of inferior courts not of record, and their clerks, may be removed, after due notice and an opportu- nity of being heard by such court as may be prescribed by law, for cause to be assigned in the order of removal. Justices of the Peace and District Court Justices shall be elected in the different cities of this State, in such manner, and with such powers, and for such terms, respectively, as shall be prescribed by law ; all other judicial officers in cities, whose election or appointment is not otherwise provided for in this article, shall be chosen by the electors of cities, or appointed by some local authorities thereof.
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CONSTITUTION OF STATE OF NEW YORK.
SEC. 19. Inferior local courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction may be established by the Legislature; and except as herein otherwise provided, all judicial officers shall be elected or appointed at such times, and in such manner, as the Legislature may direct.
SEC. 20. Clerks of the several counties shall be clerks of the Su- preme Court, with such powers and duties as shall be prescribed by law. The Clerk of the Court of Appeals shall keep his office at the seat of government. His compensation shall be fixed by law, and paid out of the public treasury.
SEC. 21. No judicial officer, except Justices of the Peace, shall re- ceive to his own use any fees or perquisites of office; nor shall any Judge of the Court of Appeals, Justice of the Supreme Court, or Judge of a Court of Record in the cities of New York, Brooklyn, or Butfalo, practise as an attorney or counsellor in any Court of Record in this State, or act as referee.
SEC. 22. The Legislature may authorize the judgments, decrees, and decisions of any Court of Record of original civil jurisdiction, estab- lished in a city, to be removed for review, directly into the Court of Appeals.
SEC. 23. The Legislature shall provide for the speedy publication of all statutes, and also for the appointment, by the justices of the Supreme Court designated to hold general terms, of a reporter of the decisions of that court. All laws and judicial decisions shall be free for publication by any person.
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SEC. 24. The first election of judges of the Court of Appeals, and of the three additional judges of the Court of Common Pleas for the city and county of New York, shall take place on such day, between the first Tuesday of April and the second Tuesday in June. next after the adoption of this article, as may be provided by law. The Court of Appeals, the Commissioners of Appeals, and the additional judges of the said Court of Common Pleas, shall respectively enter upon their duties on the first Monday of July thereafter.
SEC. 25. Surrogates, Justices of the Peace, and local judicial officers provided for in Section Sixteen, in office when this article shall take effect, shall hold their respective offices until the expiration of their terms.
SEC. 26. Courts of Special Sessions shall have such jurisdiction of offences of the grade of misdemeanors as may be prescribed by law.
SEC. 27. For the relief of Surrogates' Courts. the Legislature may confer upon Courts of Record, in any county having a population ex- ceeding four hundred thousand, the powers and jurisdiction of Sur- rogates, with authority to try issues of fact by jury, in probate cases.
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APPENDIX
ARTICLE VII.
SECTION 1. After paying the expenses of collection, superintendenec, and ordinary repairs, there shall be appropriated and set apart in each fiscal year, out of the revenues of the State canals in each year, commencing ou the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, the sum of one million and three hundred thousand dollars, until the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, and from that time the sum of one million and seven hun- dred thousand dollars in each fiscal year, as a sinking fund to pay the interest and redeem the principal of that part of the State debt called the canal debt, as it existed at the time first aforesaid, and including three hundred thousand dollars then to be borrowed, until the same shall be wholly paid; and the principal and income of the said sink- ing fund shall be sacredly applied to that purpose.
SEC. 2. After complying with the provisions of the first seetion of this article, there shall be appropriated and set apart out of the sur- plus revenues of the State canals, in each fiscal year, commeneing on the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, the sum of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, until the time when a sufficient sum shall have been appropriated and set apart, under the said First Section, to pay the interest and extinguish the entire prin- cipal of the canal debt; and after that period, then the sum of one million and five hundred thousand dollars in each fiseal year, as a sinking fund, to pay the interest and redeem the principal of that part of the State debt called the general fund debt, ineluding the debt for loans of the State credit to railroad companies which have failed to pay the interest thereon, and also the contingent debt on State stocks loaned to incorporate companies which have hitherto paid the interest thereon, whenever and as far as any part thereof may become a charge on the treasury or general fund, until the same shall be wholly paid ; and the principal and income of the said last-mentioned sinking fund shall be saeredly applied to the purpose aforesaid; and if the payment of any part of the moneys to the said sinking fund shall at any time be deferred by reason of the priority recognized in the First Seetion of this article, the sum so deferred, with quarterly interest thereon, at the then current rate, shall be paid to the last-mentioned sinking fund, as soon as it ean be done consistently with the just rights of the cred- itors holding said canal debt.
SEC. 3 .* After paying the said expenses of collection, superinten- dence, and repairs of the canals, and the sums appropriated by the
* Substituted for Section Three of Article Seven of the original Constitution, by amendment of 1854.
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CONSTITUTION OF STATE OF NEW YORK.
first and second sections of this article, there shall be appropriated and set apart in each fiscal year, out of the surplus revenues of the canals, as a sinking fund, a sum sufficient to pay the interest as it falls due, and extinguish the principal within eighteen years, of any loan made under this section; and if the said sinking fund shall not be sufficient to redeem any part of the principal at the stipulated times of payment, or to pay any part of the interest of such loans as stipu- lated, the means to satisfy any such deficiency shall be procured on the credit of the said sinking fund. After complying with the fore- going provisions, there shall be paid annually out of said revenues, into the treasury of the State, two hundred thousand dollars, to de- fray the necessary expenses of government. The remainder shall, in each fiscal year, be applied to meet the appropriations for the enlarge- ment and completion of the canals mentioned in this section, until the said canals shall be completed. In each fiscal year thereafter the remainder shall be disposed of in such manner as the Legislature may direct, but shall at no time be anticipated or pledged for more than one year in advance. The Legislature shall annually, during the next four years, appropriate to the enlargement of the Eric, the Oswego, the Cayuga, and Sencca Canals, and to the completion of the Black River and Genesce Valley Canals, and for the enlargement of the locks of the Champlain Canal, whenever, from dilapidation or decay, it shall be necessary to rebuild them, a sum not exceeding two mil- lions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The remainder of the revenues of the canals, for the current fiscal year in which such ap- propriation is made, shall be applied to meet such appropriation : and if the same shall be deemed insufficient, the Legislature shall, at the same session, provide for the deficiency by loan. The Legislature shall also borrow one million and five hundred thousand dollars, to refund to the holders of the canal revenue certificates issued under the provisions of chapter four hundred and eighty-five of the Laws of the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, the amount received into the treasury thereon; but no interest to accrue atter July first, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, shall be paid on such certificates. The provisions of Section Twelve of this article, re- quiring every law for borrowing money to be submitted to the peo- ple, shall not apply to the loans authorized by this section. No part of the revenues of the canals, or of the funds borrowed under this scetion, shall be paid or applied upon in consequence of any alleged contract made under chapter four hundred and cighty-five of the Laws of the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, except to pay for work done or materials furnished prior to the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. The rates of toll on persons and property transported on the canals shall not be
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APPENDIX.
reduced below those for the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, except by the Canal Board with the coneurrenee of the Legislature. All contracts for work or materials on any canal shall be made with the person who shall offer to do or provide the same at the lowest price with adequate security for their performance.
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 sueh claims shall be set apart, and applied as part of the sinking fund provided in the seeond section of this article. But the time limited for the ful- filment 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 artiele, shall prove insufficient to enable the State, on the eredit of sueh fund, to procure the means to satisfy the claims of the ereditors of the State as they become payable, the Legislature shall by equita- ble 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 eanals, or their debt, from any source other than their direct revenues, shall, with quarterly interest, at the rates then current, be repaid into the treasury, for the use of the State, out of the canal revenues, as soon as it ean be done consistently with the just rights of the creditors holding the said eanal 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 belonging 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 Commission- ers of the Land Offiee, for the purpose of investing the moneys arising therefrom in other lands alike convenient; but by such sale and purehase the aggregate quantity of these lands shall not be dimin- ished.
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, exeept in pursuance of an appropriation by law ; nor unless such pay- ment be made within two years next after the passage of such appro- priation act; and every such law, making a new appropriation or continuing or reviving an appropriation, shall distinetly specify the sum appropriated, and the objeet 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.
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CONSTITUTION OF STATE OF NEW YORK.
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 reve- nues, 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 purpose 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 contract- ing 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 sec- tions 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 distinctly specified therein; and such law shall impose and provide for the collection of a direct an- nual 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 submitted 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 lia- bility 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 hereinbefore specified to pay and discharge the interest 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 liability, or for the repayment of such debt or liability, and for no other purpose whatever. No such law shall be submitted to be voted on within three months after its passage, or at any general election when any other law, or any bill, or any amendment to the Constitution, shall be submitted to be voted for or against.
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APPENDIX.
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 sufficient 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 revives a tax or creates a debt or charge, or makes, continues, or revives any appropriation of public or trust money, or property, or releases, discharges, or com- mutes 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.
ARTICLE VIII.
SECTION 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 under general laws. All general laws and special acts passed pursuant to this section 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 " corporation," as used in this article, shall be con- strued to include all associations and joint-stock companies having . any of the powers and 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 nat- ural persons.
SEC. 4. The Legislature shall have no power to pass any act grant- ing 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 sanc- tioning in any manner, directly or indirectly, the suspension of specie payments, by any person, 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 asso- ciation 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
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CONSTITUTION OF STATE OF NEW YORK.
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 hun- dred and fifty.
. SEC. 8. In case of the insolvency of any bank or banking associa- tion, 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, assessment, borrowing money, contracting debts, and loaning their credit, so as to prevent abuses in assessments, and in contracting debt by such municipal corporation.
ARTICLE IX.
SECTION 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 preserved inviolate. The revenues of the said Common School Fund shall be applied to the support of common schools, the revennes 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 appropriated to and made a part of the capital of the said · Common School Fund.
ARTICLE X.
SECTION 1. Sheriffs, 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 vacancies shall happen. Sheriffs 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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