Section 3. Any person who shall offer or promise a bribe to an officer, if it shall be received, shall be deemed guilty of a felony and liable to punishment, except as herein provided. No person offering a bribe shall, upon any prosecution of the officer for receiving such bribe, be privileged from testifying in relation thereto, and he shall not be liable to civil or criminal prosecution therefor, if he shall testify to the giving or offering of such bribe. Any person who shall offer or promise a bribe, if it be rejected by the officer to whom it was tendered, shall be guilty of an attempt to bribe, which is hereby declared to be a felony. Section 4. Any person charged with receiving a bribe, or with offering or promising a bribe, shall be permitted to testify in his own behalf in any civil or criminal prosecution therefor. Section 5. No public officer, or person elected or appointed to a public office, under the laws of this state, shall directly or indirectly ask, demand, accept, receive or consent to receive for his own use or benefit, or for the use or benefit of another, any free pass, free transportation, franking privilege or discrimination in passenger, telegraph or telephone rates, from any person or corporation, or make use of the same himself or in conjunction with another. A person who violates any provision of this section, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall forfeit his office at the suit of the attorney-general. Any corporation, or officer or agent thereof, who shall offer or promise to a public officer, or person elected or appointed to a public office, any such free pass, free transportation, franking privilege or discrimination, shall also be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to punishment except as herein provided. No person, or officer or agent of a corporation giving any such free pass, free transportation, franking privilege or discrimination hereby prohibited, shall be privileged from testifying in relation thereto, and he shall not be liable to civil or criminal prosecution therefor if he shall testify to the giving of the same. Section 6. Any district attorney who shall fail faithfully to prosecute a person charged with the violation in his county of any provision of this article which may come to his knowledge, shall be removed from office by the governor, after due notice and an opportunity of being heard in his defense. The expenses which shall be incurred by any county, in investigating and prosecuting any charge of bribery or attempting to bribe any person holding office under the laws of this state, within such county, or of receiving bribes by any such person in said county, shall be a charge against the state, and their payment by the state shall be provided for by law. ARTICLE XVII. Section 1. Any amendment or amendments to this constitution may be proposed in the senate and assembly; and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each of the two houses, after consideration in joint session as hereinafter provided and after the same shall have been printed and upon the desks of the members in its final form for at least five calendar legislative days prior to agreement thereon, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on their journals, and the yeas and nays taken thereon, and referred to the legislature to be chosen at the next general election of senators, and shall be published for three months previous to the time of making such choice. On the first Tuesday following the adoption by either house of the legislature of any proposed amendment to this constitution, the two houses shall convene in joint session for the consideration thereof and thereafter the proposal shall be considered and acted upon by the houses separately. If in the legislature so next chosen, as aforesaid, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to each house, and all the requirements for the original passage thereof shall be observed, then it shall be the duty of the legislature to submit such proposed amendment or amendments to the people for approval at the general election in such manner as the legislature shall prescribe; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments by a majority of the electors voting thereon, such amendment or amendments shall become a part of this constitution from and after the first day of January next after such approval. Section 2. The question "Shall there be a convention to revise and amend the constitution?" shall be submitted to the electors of the state at each general election next ensuing the lapse of twenty successive years since the last previous submission thereof, and shall be submitted at such other general elections as the legislature may by law provide. In case a majority of the electors voting thereon shall decide in favor of a convention for such purpose, the electors of every senate district of the state, as then organized, shall elect three delegates at the next ensuing general election at which members of the assembly shall be chosen, and the electors of the state voting at the same election shall elect fifteen delegates-at-large. The delegates so elected shall convene at the capitol on the first Tuesday following the completion of the canvass of the votes cast for delegates-at-large at such election and shall continue their session until the business of such convention shall have been completed. Every delegate shall receive for his services the same compensation and the same reimbursement for railroad fare as shall then be annually payable to the members of the assembly. A majority of the convention shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and no amendment to this constitution shall be submitted for approval to the electors as hereinafter provided, unless by the assent of a majority of all the delegates elected to the convention, the yeas and nays being entered on the journal to be kept. The convention shall have the power to appoint such officers, employees and assistants as it may deem necessary, and fix their compensation and to provide for the printing of its documents, journal and proceedings. The convention shall determine the rules of its own proceedings, choose its own officers, and be the judge of the election, returns and qualification of its members. In case of a vacancy, by death, resignation or other cause, of any district delegate elected to the convention, such vacancy shall be filled by a vote of the remaining delegates representing the district in which such vacancy occurs. If such vacancy occurs in the office of a delegate-at-large, such vacancy shal! be filled by a vote of the remaining delegates-at-large. Any proposed constitution or constitutional amendment which shall have been adopted by such convention, shall be submitted to a vote of the electors of the state in the manner provided by such convention, at a general election which shall be held not less than ninety days after the adjournment of such convention. Upon the approval of such constitution or constitutional amendments, in the manner provided in the last preceding section, such constitution or constitutional amendments, shall go into effect on the first day of January next after such approval. Section 3. The validity of an election upon any amendment or proposed constitution or the question "Shall there be a convention to revise and amend the constitution?" or upon any other nestion submitted to the electors of the state under this constitun, and the determination whether the proposed amendment, constitution or question has received the number of votes requisite for the adoption of such amendment or constitution or the decision of such question, may be contested in the supreme court by any elector in an action in equity brought within three months after such election against the secretary of state, and the judgment rendered shall be reviewable by the court of appeals. Section 4. Any amendment proposed by a constitutional convention relating to the same subject as an amendment proposed by the legislature, coincidently submitted to the people for approval, shall, if approved, be deemed to supersede the amendment so proposed by the legislature; provided, however, that, if at the general election held in the year one thousand nine hundred and fifteen, a majority of the electors voting thereon shall have approved and ratified the amendment to section one of article two of the constitution then in force, heretofore proposed by the legislature, section one of article two of this constitution shall be deemed thereby amended so as to embody therein the new matter contained in such proposed amendment so approved. If, at such general election, a majority of the electors voting thereon shall have approved and ratified chapter five hundred and seventy of the laws of one thousand nine hundred and fifteen heretofore submitted to the people pursuant to section four of article seven of the constitution then in force, the same shall take effect notwithstanding any amendment of such constitution, except that, irrespective of the terms of such chapter, the debt so authorized shall be paid in equal annual instalments in conformity with section four of article nine of this constitution. ARTICLE XVIII. Section 1. This constitution shall be in force from and including the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, except as herein otherwise provided. Done in Convention at the Capitol in the city of Albany, the day of September, in the year one thousand nine hundred and fifteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and fortieth. In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names. Secretary. President and Delegate at Large. |