another enumeration, and shall at all times consist of contiguous territory; and no county shall be divided in the formation of a senate district.

SEC. VII. The members of the assembly shall be chosen by counties, and shall be apportioned among the several counties of the state, as nearly as may be, according to the number of their respective inhabitants, excluding aliens, paupers, and persons of color not taxed. An apportionment of members of assembly shall be made by the legislature, at its first session, after the return of every enumeration; and when made, shall remain unaltered until another enumeration shall have been taken. But an apportionment of the members of the assembly shall be made by the present legislature, according to the last enumeration, taken under the authority of the United States, as nearly as may be. Every county heretofore established, and separately organized, shall always be entitled to one member of the assembly; and no new county shall hereafter be erected, unless its population shall entitle it to a member.

SEC. VIII. Any bill may originate in either house of the legis lature; and all bills passed by one house may be amended by the other.

SEC. IX. The members of the legislature shall receive for their services a compensation, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the public treasury; bnt no increase of the compensation shall take effect, during the year in which it shall have been made. And no law shall be passed, increasing the compensation of the members of the legislature beyond the sum of three dollars a day.

SEC. X. No member of the legislature shall receive any civil appointment from the governor and senate, or from the legislature, during the term for which he shall have been elected.

SEC. XI. No person, being a member of Congress, or holding any judicial or military office under the United States, shall hold a seat in the legislature. And if any person shall, while a member of the legislature, be elected to Congress, or appointed to any office, civil or military, under the government of the United States, his acceptance thereof shall vacate his seat.

SEC. XII. Every bill which shall have passed the senate and assembly, shall before it become a law, be presented to the governor: if he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall have originated, who

shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration, two thirds of the members present shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered; and if approved by two thirds of the members present, it shall become a law. But in all such cases, the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays; and the names of the persons voting for, and against the bill, shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the governor, within ten days (Sunday excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the legislature shall, by their adjournment, prevent its return; in which case it shall not be a law.

SEC. XIII. All officers holding their offices during good behaviour, may be removed by joint resolution of the two houses of the legis lature, if two thirds of all the members elected to the assembly, and a majority of all the members elected to the senate, concur therein.

SEC. XIV. The political year shall begin on the first day of January; and the legislature shall every year assemble on the first Tuesday of January, unless a different day shall be appointed by law.

SEC. XV. The next election for governor, lieutenant governor, senators, and members of assembly, shall commence on the first Monday of November, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-two; and all subsequent elections shall be held at such time in the month of October or November, as the legislature shall by law provide.

SEC. XVI. The governor, lieutenant governor, senators, and members of assembly, first elected under this constitution, shall enter on the duties of their respective offices, on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three; and the governor, lieutenant governor, senators, and members of assembly, now in office, shall continue to hold the same, until the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, and no longer.

ARTICLE SECOND.

SEC. I. Every male citizen, of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been an inhabitant of this state one year preceding any election, and for the last six months a resident of the town or county where he may offer his vote; and shall have, within the year next preceding the election, paid a tax to the state or county, assessed up

on his real or personal property; or being armed or equipped according to law, shall have performed, within that year, military duty in the militia of this state; or who shall be exempted from performing military duty, in consequence of being a fireman, in any city, town, or village, in this state: And also every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been for the three years next preceeding such election, an inhabitant of this state; and for the last year a resident in the town or county where he may offer his vote; and shall have been within the last year, assessed to labor upon the highways, and shall have performed the labor, or paid an equivalent therefor, according to law, shall be entitled to vote in the town or ward where he actually resides, and not elsewhere, for all officers that now are, or hereafter may be, elective by the people: But no man of color, unless he shall have been for three years a citizen of this state, and for one year next preceding any election, shall be seized and possessed of a freehold estate of the value of two hundred and fifty dollars, over and above all debts and incumbrances 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 colour shall be subject to direct taxation, unless he shall be seized and possessed of such real estate as aforesaid.

SEC. II. Laws may be passed, excluding from the right of suffrage persons who may have been, or may be, convicted of infamous

crimes.

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

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

ARTICLE THIRD.

SEC. I. The executive power shall be vested in a governor. He shall hold his office for two years; and a lieutenant governor shall be chosen at the same time, and for the same term.

SEC. II. No person, except a native citizen of the Unied States, shall be eligible to the office of governor; nor shall any person be eligible to that office, who shall not be a freeholder, and shall not have attained the age of thirty years, and have been five years a

resident within this state; unless he shall have been absent during that time on public business of the United States or of this State. SEC. III. The governor and lieutenant governor shall be elected at the times and places of choosing members of the legislature.The persons respectively having the highest number of votes for governor and lieutenant governor, shall be elected; but in case two or more shall have an equal and the highest number of votes for governor or for lieutenant governor, the two houses of the legislature shall, by joint ballot, choose one of the said persons having an equal and the highest number of votes for governor or lieutenant gover

nor.

SEC. IV. The governor shall be general and commander-in-chief of all the militia, and admiral of the navy of the state. He shall have power to convene the legislature (or the senate only) on extraordinary occasions. He shall communicate by message to the legislature, at every session, the condition of the state; and recommend such matters to them as he shall judge expedient. He shall transact all necessary business with the officers of government, civil and military. He shall expedite all such measures as be resolved upon by the legislature, and shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed. He shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished, during the term for which he shall have been elected.

SEC. V. The governor shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons, after conviction, for all offences, except treason and cases of impeachment. Upon convictions for treason, he shall have power to suspend the execution of the sentence, until the case shall be reported to the legislature at its next meeting; when the legislature shall either pardon, or direct the execution of the criminal, or grant a farther reprieve.

SEC. VI. In case of the impeachment of the governor, or his removal from office, death, resignation, or absence from the state, the powers and duties of the office shall devolve upon the lieutenant governor, for the residue of the term, or until the governor absent or impeached, shall return or be acquitted. But when the governor shall, with the consent of the legislature, be out of the state in time of war, at the head of a military force thereof, he shall still continue commander-in-chief of all the military force of the state.

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SEC. VII. The lieutenant governor shall be president of the senate, but shall have only a casting vote therein. If during a vacancy of the office of governor, the lieutenant governor shall be impeached, displaced, resign, die, or be absent from the state, the president of the senate shall act as governor, until the vacancy shall be filled, or the disability shall cease.

ARTICLE FOURTH.

SEC. I. Militia officers shall be chosen, or appointed, as follows: Captains, subalterns, and non-commissioned officers, shall be 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 their respective regiments and separate Battalions. Brigadier generals, by the field officers of their respective brigades. Major generals, brigadier generals, and commanding officers of regiments of separate battalions, shall appoint the staff officers of their respective divisions, brigades, regiments, or separate battalions.

SEC. II. The governor shall nominate, and, with the consent of the senate, appoint all major generals, brigade inspectors, and chiefs of the staff departments, except the adjutant general, and commissary general. The adjutant general shall be appointed by the go

vernor.

SEC. III.The legislature shall by law direct the time and manner of electing militia officers, and of certifying their elections to the governor.

SEC. IV. 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.

SEC. V. 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 legislature 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.

SEC. VI. The secretary of state, comptroller, treasurer, attorney general, surveyor general, and commissary general, shall be appointed as follows The Senate and assembly shall each openly nomin