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The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice.

But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President.

OF THE

STATE OF NEW-YORK.

ADOPTED NOVEMBER 10, 1821,

In Convention of Delegates assembled at the Capitol, in the city of Albany, for revising and amending the Constitution of the State of New-York-and afterwards adopted by the people of this State, agreeably to the provisions of the act calling the Convention.

WE, the People of the State of New-York, acknowledg ing with gratitude the grace and beneficence of God, in permitting us to make choice of our form of government, do establish the following Constitution:

ARTICLE FIRST.-Legislature.

SECTION 1. The legislative power of this state shall be vested in a senate and assembly.

SEC. 2. The senate shall consist of thirty-two members. The senators shall be chosen for four years, and shall be freeholders. The assembly shall consist of one hundred and twenty-eight members, who shall be annually elected.

SEC. 3. A majority of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business. Each house shall determine the rules of its own proceedings, and be the judge of the qualifications of its own members. Each house shall choose its own officers; and the senate shall choose a temporary president, when the lieutenant-governor shall not attend as president, or shall act as governor.

SEC. 4. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and publish the same, except such parts as may require secrecy. The doors of each house shall be kept open, except when the public welfare shall require serecy. Neither house shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than two days.

SEC. 5. The state shall be divided into eight districts, to be called senate districts, each of which shall choose four senators.

The first district shall consist of the counties of Suffolk, Queens, Kings, Richmond, and New-York.

The second district shall consist of the counties of Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland, Orange, Ulster and Sullivan.

The third district shall consist of the counties of Greene, Columbia, Albany, Rensselaer, Schoharie, and Schenectady.

The fourth district shall consist of the counties of Saratoga, Montgomery, Hamilton, Washington, Warren, Clinton, Essex, Franklin, and St. Lawrence.

The fifth district shall consist of the counties of Herkimer, Oneida, Madison, Oswego, Lewis, and Jefferson. The sixth district shall consist of the counties of Delaware, Otsego, Chenango, Broome, Cortland, Tompkins, and Tioga.

The seventh district shall consist of the counties of Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Ontario.

The eighth district shall consist of the counties of Steuben, Livingston, Monroe, Genesee, Niagara, Erie, Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Chautauque.

And as soon as the senate shall meet, after the first election to be held in pursuance of this constitution, they shall cause the senators to be divided by lot into four classes, of eight in each, so that every district shall have one senator of each class; the classes to be numbered one, two, three, and four. And the seats of the first class, shall be vacated at the end of the first year; of the ⚫ second class, at the end of the second year; of the third class, at the end of the third year; of the fourth class, at the end of the fourth year, in order that one senator be annually elected in each senate district.

SEC. 6. An enumeration of the inhabitants of the state shall be taken, under the direction of the legislature, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, and at the end of every ten years thereafter; and the said districts shall be so altered by the legislature, at the first session after the return of every enumeration, that each senate district shall contain, as nearly as may

be, an equal number of inhabitants, excluding aliens, paupers, and persons of colour not taxed; and shall remain unaltered until the return of another enumeration; and shall at all times consist of contiguous territory, and no county shall be divided in the formation of a senate district.

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SEC. 7. 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 numbers of their respective inhabitants, excluding aliens, paupers, and persons of colour 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 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. 8. Any bill may originate in either house of the legislature, and all bills passed by one house may be amended by the other.

SEC. 9. The members of the legislature shall receive for their services, a compensation to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the public treasury; but 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. 10. 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. 11. 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 mili

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tary, under the government of the United States, his acceptance thereof shall vacate his seat.

SEC. 12. 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 (Sundays 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. 13. All officers holding their offices during good behaviour, may be removed by joint resolution of the two houses of the legislature, 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. 14. 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. 15. The next election for governor, lieutenantgovernor, 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. 16. 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

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