Grand jury.

Private property.

Private roads.

Freedom of speech and

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 State may 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 offence; 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 prescribed by law. Private roads may be opened in a 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 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 benefitted.

Section 8. Every citizen may freely speak, write and pubof the press. lish 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 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.

Two-third

bills.

Right of petition.

Divorces.

Section 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.

Section 10. No law shall be passed abridging the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government, or any department thereof, nor shall any divorce be granted, otherwise than by due judicial proceedings, nor Lotteries. shall any lottery hereafter be authorized or any sale of lottery tickets allowed within this State.

Right of

property in lands.

Section 11. 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 de- Escheats. fect of heirs, shall revert, or escheat to the people.

nures abo

Section 12. All feudal tenures of every description, with Feudal teall their incidents, are declared to be abolished, saving how-lished. ever, all rents and services certain, which at any time heretofore have been lawfully created or reserved.

nure.

Section 13. All lands within this State are declared to be Allodial teallodial, 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.

Certain

leases inva

Section 14. No lease or grant of agricultural land, for a longer period than twelve years, hereafter made, in which lid. shall be reserved any rent or service of any kind, shall be valid.

quarter sales

Section 15. All fines, quarter sales, or other like restraints Fines and upon alienation reserved in any grant of land, hereafter to abolished. be made, shall be void.

lands.

Section 16. No purchase or contract for the sale of lands Sale of 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.

laws and

legislature.

Common

Section 17. Such parts of the common law, and of the Old colony acts of the Legislature of the colony of New-York, as toge- acts of the ther 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, Com and such of the said acts, or parts thereof as are repugnant to this Constitution, are hereby abrogated; and the Legislature, at its first session after the adoption of this Constitution, shall appoint three commissioners, whose duty it shall be to re- Commis. duce into a written and systematic code the whole body of appointed. the law of this State, or so much and such parts thereof as to the said commissioners shall seem practicable and expedient. And the said commissioners shall specify such altera- Their du tions and amendments therein as they shall deem proper, and they shall at all times make reports of their proceedings to the Legislature, when called upon to do so; and the Legis lature shall pass laws regulating the tenure of office, the fill

sioners to be

ties.

Grants of land since 1775.

ing of vacancies therein, and the compensation of said commissioners; and shall also provide for the publication of the said code, prior to its being presented to the Legislature for adoption.

Section 18. 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 Prior grants, 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.

Qualifica-' tion of voters.

ARTICLE II.

Section 1. Every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been a citizen for ten days, and an inhabitant of this State one year next preceding any election, and for the last four months a resident of the county where 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; but such citizen shall have been for thirty days next preceding the election, a resident of the district from which the officer is to be chosen Freehold re-for whom he offers his vote. But no man of color, unless man of co- he shall have been for three years a citizen of this State, and

quired for

lor.

Persons excluded from

frage.

for one year next preceding any election shall have been seized and possessed of a freehold estate of the value of two hundred and fifty dollars, over and above all debts and inumbrances charged thereon, and shall have been actually rated and paid a tax thereon, shall be entitled to vote at such election. And no person of color shall be subject to direct taxation unless he shall be seized and possessed of such real estate as aforesaid.

Section 2. Laws may be passed excluding from the right right of suf- of suffrage all persons who have been or may be convicted of bribery, of larceny, or of any infamous crime; and for depriving every person who shall make, or become directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager depending upon the result of any election, from the right to vote at such election.

ployments

residence of voters.

Section 3. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be Certain emdeemed to have gained or lost a residence, by reason of his not to affect presence or absence, while 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, at public expense; nor while confined in any public prison.

passed.

Section 4. Laws shall be made for ascertaining by proper Laws to be proofs the citizens who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage hereby established.

be by ballot.

Section 5. All elections by the citizens shall be by ballot, Election to except for such town officers as may by law be directed to be otherwise chosen.

ARTICLE III.

power.

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

number of.

Assembly,

Section 2. The Senate shall consist of thirty-two members, Senate, and the Senators shall be chosen for two years. The Assembly shall consist of one hundred and twenty-eight members, number of. who shall be annually elected.

into 32 Sen

Section 3. The State shall be divided into thirty-two dis- State divided tricts, to be called Senate Districts, each of which shall choose ate districts. one Senator. The districts shall be numbered from one to thirty-two inclusive.

District number one (1) shall consist of the counties of No. 1. Suffolk, Richmond and Queens.

District number two (2) shall consist of the county of No. 2. Kings.

and 6.

supervisors

of New

vide the

districts.

Districts number three (3) number four (4) number five No. 3, 4, 5, (5) and number six (6) shall consist of the city and county of New-York; and the board of supervisors of said city and Board of county shall, on or before the first day of May one thousand of the city eight hundred and forty-seven, divide the said city and county York to diinto the number of Senate Districts to which it is entitled, county into as near as may be of an equal number of inhabitants, exclu- 4 senate ding aliens and persons of color not taxed, and consisting of convenient and contiguous territory; and no Assembly District shall be divided in the formation of a Senate District. The board of supervisors, when they shall have completed Certificate, such division, shall cause certificates thereof, stating the fled. number and boundaries of each district, and the population thereof, to be filed in the office of the Secretary of State, and of the clerk of the said city and county.

&c. to be

District number seven (7) shall consist of the counties of No. 7. Westchester, Putnam and Rockland.

No. 8.

No. 9.

No. 10.

No. 11.'

No. 12.

No. 13.

No. 14.

No. 15.

No. 16.

No. 17.

No. 18.

No. 19.

No. 20.

No. 21.

No. 22.

No. 23.

No. 24.

No. 25.

No. 26.

No. 27.

No. 28.

No. 29.

No. 30.

No. 31.

District number eight (8) shall consist of the counties of Dutchess and Columbia.

District number nine (9) shall consist of the counties of Orange and Sullivan.

District number ten (10) shall consist of the counties of Ulster and Greene.

District number eleven (11) shall consist of the counties of Albany and Schenectady.

District number twelve (12) shall consist of the county of Rensselaer.

District number thirteen (13) shall consist of the counties of Washington and Saratoga.

District number fourteen (14) shall consist of the counties of Warren, Essex and Clinton.

District number fifteen (15) shall consist of the counties. of St. Lawrence and Franklin.

District number sixteen (16) shall consist of the counties of Herkimer, Hamilton, Fulton and Montgomery.

District number seventeen (17) shall consist of the counties of Schoharie and Delaware.

District number eighteen (18) shall consist of the counties of Otsego and Chenango.

District number nineteen (19) shall consist of the county of Oneida.

District number twenty (20) shall consist of the counties of Madison and Oswego.

District number twenty-one (21) shall consist of the counties of Jefferson and Lewis.

District number twenty-two (22) shall consist of the county of Onondaga.

District number twenty-three (23) shall consist of the counties of Cortland, Broome and Tioga.

District number twenty-four (24) shall consist of the counties of Cayuga and Wayne.

District number twenty-five (25) shall consist of the counties of Tompkins, Seneca and Yates.

District number twenty six (26) shall consist of the counties of Steuben and Chemung.

District number twenty-seven (27) shall consist of the county of Monroe.

District number twenty-eight (28) shall consist of the counties of Orleans, Genesee and Niagara.

District number twenty-nine (29) shall consist of the counties of Ontario and Livingston.

District number (30) thirty shall consist of the counties of Allegany and Wyoming.

District number thirty-one (31) shall consist of the county of Erie.