No. 70. IN SENATE, March 25, 1873. AMENDMENTS PROPOSED TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK BY THE CONSTITUTIONAL COMMISSION. STATE OF NEW YORK: Hon. JOHN C. ROBINSON, CONSTITUTIONAL COMMISSION, ALBANY, March 21, 1873. President of the Senate: } SIR. I have the honor to transmit herewith a certified copy of the amendments to the Constitution of this State, proposed by the Commission appointed pursuant to chapter 884, Laws of 1872, to propose amendments to the Constitution. Also, a copy of a resolution adopted by said Commission, recommending a form of ballot for submission of the amendments to the people. The committees which framed the amendments submitted reports, setting forth the considerations which induced the adoption thereof by the Commission, copies of which are herewith annexed. I have the honor to be, Your obedient servant, ROBT. H. PRUYN, The following are the amendments proposed to the several Articles of the Constitution. No amendments are suggested to Article One of existing Constitution. Sections one and two of Article Two are amended so as to read as follows: 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 an election, and for the last four months a resident of the county, and for the last thirty days a resident of the election district in which 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, and upon all questions which may be submitted to the vote of the people of the State; provided that, in time of war, no elector in the actual military service of the State, or of the United States, in the army or navy thereof, shall be deprived of his vote by reason of his absence from such election district; and the Legislature shall have power to provide the manner in which and the time and place at which such absent electors may vote, and for the return and canvass of their votes in the election districts in which they respectively reside. 2. No person who shall receive, expect or offer to receive, or pay, offer or promise to pay, contribute, offer or promise to contribute to another, to be paid or used, any money or other valuable thing, as a compensation or reward for the giving or withholding a vote at an election, or who shall make any promise to influence the giving or withholding of any such vote, or who shall make or become directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager depending upon the result of any election, shall vote at such election; and upon challenge for such cause, the person so challenged, before the inspectors or other officers authorized for that purpose receive his vote, shall swear or affirm before such inspectors or other officers that he has not received or offered, does not expect to receive, has not paid, offered or promised to pay, contributed, offered or promised to contribute to another, to be paid or used, any money or other valuable thing as a compensation or reward for the giving or withholding a vote at such election, and has not made any promise to influence the giving or withholding of any such vote, nor made or become directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager depending upon the result of such election. The Legislature, at the session thereof next after the adoption of this section, shall, and from time to time thereafter may, enact laws excluding from the right of suffrage, all persons convicted of bribery or of any infamous crime. Sections 3, 4 and 5 of existing Constitution not amended. ARTICLE III. SECTION 1. The legislative power of this State shall be vested in a Senate and an Assembly. § 2. The Senate shall consist of thirty-two members. The senators shall be chosen for four years. §3. The State is divided into eight districts, to be known as Senate districts, each of which shall choose four senators. The first district consists of the counties of Richmond, Kings, Queens and Suffolk. The second district consists of that part of the city and county of New York situate south of a line drawn through the middle of Twenty-sixth street from the Hudson river to the East river. The third district consists of that part of the city and county of New York situate north of a line drawn through the middle of Twenty-sixth street from the Hudson river to the East river, and of the counties of Westchester, Putnam and Rockland. The fourth district consists of the counties of Dutchess, Columbia, Orange, Sullivan, Ulster, Greene, Schoharie, Albany and Schenectady. The fifth district consists of the counties of Rensselaer, Washington, Saratoga, Warren, Essex, Clinton, Franklin, St. Lawrence, Herkimer, Montgomery, Hamilton, Fulton and Lewis. The sixth district consists of the counties of Delaware, Otsego, Broome, Chenango, Madison, Cortland, Tioga, Tompkins, Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Allegany, Yates and Seneca. The seventh district consists of the counties of Jefferson, Oswego, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Wayne, Ontario and Livingston. The eighth district consists of the counties of Monroe, Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming, Nigara, Erie, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua. So soon as the Senate first elected under the provisions of this article shall meet, it shall cause the senators from each district to be divided, by lot, into four classes of one in each class, the classes to be numbered first, second, third and fourth. The seats of senators 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; and after the first election there shall annually be elected one senator in each Senate district. The senators who shall have been elected at the time this section takes effect shall hold their office to and including the thirty-first day of December thereafter. 4. An enumeration of the inhabitants of the State shall be made, under the direction of the Legislature, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, and in every tenth year thereafter. 5. The Assembly shall consist of one hundred and twenty-eight members, elected for one year. The members of Assembly shall be apportioned among the several counties of the State, by the Legislature, as nearly as may be, according to the number of their respective inhabitants, excluding aliens, and shall be chosen by single districts. The Assembly districts shall remain as at present organized, until after the enumeration of the inhabitants of the State, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-five. The Legislature, at its first session after the return of every enumeration, shall apportion the members of Assembly among the several counties of the State, in manner aforsaid, and the board of supervisors in such counties as may be entitled, under such apportionment, to more than one member, except the city and county of New York, and in said city and county the board of aldermen of said city, shall assemble at such time as the Legislature making such apportionment shall prescribe, and divide their respective counties into Assembly districts, each of which dis |