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[This constitution was proposed by a convention which met from May
8, 1894 until September 29, 1894, and it was adopted by the people at a general election held on
November 6, 1894. For a discussion of the Constitution of 1894, see Lincoln III.
It is this constitution, as amended, which is in force to-day. The amendments to the Constitution of 1894,
proposed, rejected, and adopted by the people up to January 1, 1938, are set forth in Part IV of this work.
The above text is an exact copy of the original Constitution of 1894 in the possession of the Secretary of
State. The article and section headings appearing in brackets are not in the original, however.]
THE FOURTH CONSTITUTION OF NEW YORK, 1894.
WE, THE PEOPLE of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to
secure its blessings, do establish this Constitution.
ARTICLE I.
[Bill of Rights.]
Section 1. [Persons not to be disfranchised.]-No member of this State shall be disfranchised, or deprived
of any of the rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof, unless by the law of the land, or the
judgment of his peers.
§ 2. [Trial by jury.]-The trial by jury in all cases in which it has been heretofore used shall remain
inviolate forever; but a jury trial may be waived by the parties in all civil cases in the manner to be
prescribed by law.
§ 3. [Freedom of worship; religious liberty.]-The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and
worship, with-out discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed in this State to all mankind; and
no person shall be rendered incompetent to be a witness on account of his opinions on matters of
religious belief; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts
of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this State.
§ 4. [Habeas corpus.]-The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in
cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require its suspension.
§ 5. [Excessive bail and fines.]-Excessive bail shall not be required nor excessive fines imposed, nor
shall cruel and unusual punishments be inflicted, nor shall witnesses be unreason-ably detained.
§ 6. [Bill of rights.]-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 offense; 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.
§ 7. [Compensation for taking private property; private roads; drainage of agricultural lands.]-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 the 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
benefited. General laws may be passed permitting the owners or occupants of agricultural lands to
construct and maintain for the drainage thereof, necessary drains, ditches and dikes upon the lands of
others, under proper restrictions and with just compensation, but no special laws shall be enacted for
such purposes.
§ 8. [Freedom of speech and press; criminal prosecutions for libel.]-Every citizen may freely speak,
write and publish 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 libelous 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.
§ 9. [Right to assemble and petition; divorces; lotteries, pool-selling and gambling, laws to prevent.]-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 shall any lottery or the sale of lottery tickets, pool-selling, book making, or any other
kind of gambling hereafter be authorized or allowed within this State; and the Legislature shall pass
appropriate laws to prevent offenses against any of the provisions of this section.
§ 10. [Escheats.]-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 defect of heirs, shall revert, or escheat to the people.
§ 11. [Feudal tenures abolished.]-All feudal tenures of every description, with all their incidents, are
declared to be abolished, saving however, all rents and services certain which at any time heretofore
have been lawfully created or reserved.
§ 12. [Allodial tenures.]-All lands within this State are declared to be allodial, 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.
§ 13. [Leases of agricultural lands.]-No lease or grant of agricultural land, for a longer period than
twelve years, here-after made, in which shall be reserved any rent or service of any kind, shall be valid.
§ 14. [Fines and quarter-sales abolished.]-All fines, quarter sales,. or other like restraints upon
alienation, reserved in any grant of land hereafter to be made, shall be void.
§ 15. [Purchase of lands of Indians.]-No purchase or contract for the sale of lands 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.
§ 16. [Common law and acts of the colonial and State legislatures.]-Such parts of the common law, and
of the acts of the Legislature of the colony of New York, as together 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, and such of the said acts, or parts thereof, as are repugnant
to this Constitution, are hereby abrogated.
§ 17. [Grants of land made by the king of Great Britain since 1775; prior grants.]-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
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.
§ 18. [Damages for injuries causing death.]-The right of action now existing to recover damages for
injuries resulting in death, shall never be. abrogated; and the amount recoverable shall not be subject to
any statutory limitation.
ARTICLE II.
[Suffrage.].
Section 1. [Qualification of voters.]-Every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have
been a citizen for ninety 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 he 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;
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 sad the time end place at
which such absent electors may vote, and for the return end canvass of their votes in the election districts
in which they respectively reside.
§ 2. . (Persons excluded from the right of suffrage.]-No person who shall receive, accept, or offer to
receive, or pay, offer or promise to pay, contribute, offer or promise to contribute to an other, 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 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 officers authorized for that purpose shall receive his vote, shall swear or affirm
before such 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 shall enact laws excluding from the right of suffrage all persons convicted of
bribery or of any infamous crime.
§ 3. [Certain occupations and conditions not to affect residence.]-For the purpose of voting, no person
shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence, by reason of his 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, or institution wholly or partly supported at public
expense, or by charity; nor while confined in any public prison.
§ 4. [Registration and election laws to be passed.]-Laws shall be made for ascertaining, by proper
proofs, the citizens who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage hereby established, and for the
registration of voters; which registration shall be completed at least ten days before each election. Such
registration shall not be required for town and village elections except by express provision of law. In
cities and villages having five thousand inhabitants or more, according to the last preceding state
enumeration of inhabitants, voters shall be registered upon personal application only; but voters not
residing in such cities or villages shall not be required to apply in person for registration at the first
meeting of the officers having charge of the registry of voters.
§ 5. [Manner of voting.]-All elections by the citizens, except for such town officers as may by law be
directed to be otherwise chosen, shall be by ballot, or by such other method as may be prescribed by
law, provided that secrecy in voting be preserved.
§ 6. [Registration and election boards to be bi-partisan, except at town and village elections.]-All laws
creating, regulating or affecting boards or officers charged with the duty of registering voters, or of
distributing ballots at the polls to voters, or of receiving, recording or counting votes at elections, shall
secure equal representation of the two political parties which, at the general election next preceding that
for which such boards or officers are to serve, cast the highest and the next highest number of votes. All
such boards and officers shall be appointed or elected in such manner, and upon the nomination of such
representatives of said parties respectively, as the Legislature may direct. Existing laws on this subject
shall continue until the Legislature shall otherwise provide. This section shall not apply to town
meetings, or to village elections.
ARTICLE III.
[The Legislature.]
Section 1. [Legislative powers.]-The legislative power of this State shall be vested in the Senate and
Assembly.
§ 2. [Number and terms of senators and assemblymen.]-The Senate shall consist of fifty members,
except as hereinafter provided. The senators elected in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninetyfive
shall hold their offices for three years, and their successors shall be chosen for two years. The
Assembly shall consist of one hundred and fifty members who shall be chosen for one year.
§ 3. [Senate districts.]-The State shall be divided into fifty districts to be called senate districts, each of
which shall choose one senator. The districts shall be numbered from one to fifty, inclusive.
District number one (1) shall consist of the counties of Suffolk and Richmond.
District number two (2) shall consist of the county of Queens.
District number three (3) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the first, second,
third, fourth, fifth and sixth wards of the city of Brooklyn.
District number four (4) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the seventh,
thirteenth, nineteenth and twenty-first wards of the city of Brooklyn.
District number five (5) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the eighth, tenth,
twelfth and thirtieth wards of the city of Brooklyn, and the ward of the city of Brooklyn which was
formerly the town of Gravesend.
District number six (6) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the ninth, eleventh,
twentieth and twenty-second wards of the city of Brooklyn.
District number seven (7) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the fourteenth,
fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth wards of the city of Brooklyn.
District number eight (8) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the twenty-third,
twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth and twenty-ninth wards of the city of Brooklyn, and the town of Flatlands.
District number nine (9 ) shall consist of that part of the county of Kings comprising the eighteenth,
twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth wards of the city of Brooklyn.
District number ten (10) shall consist of that part of the county of New York within and bounded by a
line beginning at Canal street and the Hudson river, and running thence along Canal street, Hudson
street, Dominick street, Varick street, Broome street, Sullivan street, Spring street, Broadway, Canal
street, the Bowery, Division street, Grand street and Jackson street, to the East river and thence around
the southern end of Manhattan Island, to the place of beginning, and also Governor's, Bedloe's and Ellis
islands.
District number eleven (11) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of district
number ten, and within and bounded by a line beginning at the junction of Broadway and Canal street,
and running thence along Broadway, Fourth street, the Bowery and Third avenue, St. Mark's place,
Avenue A, Seventh street, Avenue B, Clinton street, Rivington street, Norfolk street, Division street,
Bowery and Canal street, to the place of beginning.
District number twelve (12) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of districts
numbers ten and eleven, and within and bounded by a line beginning at Jackson street and the East river,
and running thence through Jackson street, Grand street, Division street, Norfolk street, Rivington street,
Clinton street, Avenue B, Seventh street, Avenue A, St. Mark's place, Third avenue, East Fourteenth
street to the East river, and along the East river, to the place of beginning.
District number thirteen (13) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of district
number ten, and within and bounded by a line beginning at the Hudson river at the foot of Canal street,
and running thence along Canal street, Hudson street, Dominick street, Varick street, Broome street,
Sullivan street, Spring street, Broadway, Fourth street, the Bowery and Third avenue, Fourteenth street,
Sixth avenue, West Fifteenth street, Seventh avenue, West Nineteenth street, Eighth avenue, West
Twentieth street, and the Hudson river, to the place of beginning.
District number fourteen (14) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of districts
numbers twelve and thirteen, and within and bounded by a line beginning at East Fourteenth street and
the East river, and running thence along East Fourteenth street, Irving place, East Nineteenth street,
Third avenue, East Twenty-third street, Lexington avenue, East Fifty-third street, Third avenue, East
Fifty-second street, and the East river, to the place of beginning.
District number fifteen (15) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of district
number thirteen, and within and bounded by a line beginning at the junction of West Fourteenth street
and Sixth avenue, and running thence along Sixth avenue, West Fifteenth street, Seventh avenue, West
Fortieth street, Eighth avenue, and the transverse road across Central park at Ninety-seventh street, Fifth
avenue, East Ninety-sixth street, Lexington avenue, East Twenty-third street, Third avenue, East
Nineteenth street, Irving place and Fourteenth street, to the place of beginning.
District number sixteen (16) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of district
number thirteen, and within and bounded by a line beginning at Seventh avenue and West Nineteenth
street, and running thence along West Nineteenth street, Eighth avenue, West Twentieth street, the
Hudson river, West Forty-sixth street, Tenth avenue, West Forty-third street, Eighth avenue, West
Fortieth street and Seventh avenue, to the place of beginning.
District number seventeen (17) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of
district number sixteen, and within and bounded by a line beginning at the junction of Eighth avenue and
West Forty-third street, and running thence along West Forty-third street, Tenth avenue, West Fortysixth
street, the Hudson river, West Eighty-ninth street, Tenth or Amsterdam avenue, West Eighty-sixth
street, Ninth or Columbus avenue, West Eighty-first street and Eighth avenue, to the place of beginning.
District number eighteen (18) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of district
number fourteen, and within and bounded by a line beginning at the junction of East Fifty-second street
and the East river, and running thence along East Fifty-second street, Third avenue, East Fifty third
street, Lexington avenue, East Eighty fourth street, Second avenue, East Eighty third street and the East
river, to the place of beginning; and also Blackwell's island.
District number nineteen (19) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of district
number seventeen, and within and bounded by a line beginning at West Eighty-ninth street and the
Hudson river, and running thence along the Hudson river and Spuyten Duyvil creek around the northern
end of Manhattan island; thence southerly along the Harlem river to the north end of Fifth avenue;
thence along Fifth avenue, East One Hundred and Twenty-ninth street, Fourth or Park avenue, East One
Hundred and Tenth street, Fifth avenue, the transverse road across Central park at Ninety-seventh street,
Eighth avenue, West Eighty-first street, Ninth or Columbus avenue, West Eighty sixth street, Tenth or
Amsterdam avenue and West Eighty-ninth street, to the place of beginning.
District number twenty (20) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of districts
numbers eighteen and fifteen, and within and bounded by a line beginning at East Eighty-third street and
the East river, running thence through East Eighty-third street, Second avenue, East Eighty-fourth street,
Lexington avenue, East Ninety-sixth street, Fifth avenue, East One Hundred and Tenth street, Fourth or
Park avenue, East One Hundred and Nineteenth street to the Harlem river, and along the Harlem and
East rivers, to the place of beginning; and also Randall's island and Ward's island.
All the above districts in the county of New York bounded upon or along the boundary waters of the
county, shall be deemed to extend to the county line.
District number twenty one (21) shall consist of that part of the county of New York lying north of
districts numbers nineteen and twenty, within and bounded by a line beginning at East One Hundred and
Nineteenth street and the Harlem river, and running thence along East One Hundred and nineteenth
street, Fourth or Park avenue, One Hundred and Twenty-ninth street, Fifth avenue and the Harlem river,
to the place of beginning; and all that part of the county of New York not hereinbefore described.
District number twenty-two (22) shall consist of the county of Westchester.
District number twenty-three (23) shall consist of the counties of Orange and Rockland.
District number twenty-four (24) shall consist of the counties of Dutchess, Columbia and Putnam.
District number twenty-five (25) shall consist of the counties of Ulster and Greene.
District number twenty-six (26) shall consist of the counties of Delaware, Chenango and Sullivan.
District number twenty-seven (27) shall consist of the counties of Montgomery, Fulton, Hamilton and
Schoharie.
District number twenty eight (28) shall consist of the counties of Saratoga, Schenectady and
Washington.
District number twenty-nine (29) shall consist of the county of Albany.
District number thirty (30) shall consist of the county of Rensselaer.
District number thirty-one (31) shall consist of the counties of Clinton, Essex and Warren.
District number thirty-two (32) shall consist of the counties of St. Lawrence and Franklin.
District number thirty-three (33 ) shall consist of the counties of Otsego and Herkimer.
District number thirty-four (34) shall consist of the county of Oneida.
District number thirty-five (35 ) shall consist of the counties of Jefferson and Lewis.
District number thirty-six (36) shall consist of the county of Onondaga.
District number thirty-seven (37) shall consist of the counties of Oswego and Madison.
District number thirty-eight (38 ) shall consist of the counties of Broome, Cortland and Tioga.
District number thirty-nine (39 ) shall consist of the counties of Cayuga and Seneca.
District number forty (40) shall consist of the counties of Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler.
District number forty-one (41) shall consist of the counties of Steuben and Yates.
District number forty-two (42) shall consist of the counties of Ontario and Wayne.
District number forty three (43) shall consist of that part of the county of Monroe comprising the towns
of Brighton, Henrietta, Irondequoit, Mendon, Penfield, Perinton, Pittsford, Rush and Webster, and the
fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth wards
of the city of Rochester, as at present constituted.
District number forty-four (44) shall consist of that part of the county of Monroe comprising the towns
of Chili, Clarkson, Gates, Greece, Hamlin, Ogden, Parma, Riga, Sweden and Wheatland, and the first,
second, third, fifth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, fifteenth, nineteenth and twentieth wards of the city of
Rochester, as at present constituted.
District number forty-five (45) shall consist of the counties of Niagara, Genesee and Orleans.
District number forty-six (46) shall consist of the counties of Allegany, Livingston and Wyoming.
District number forty-seven (47) shall consist of that part of the county of Erie comprising the first,
second, third, sixth, fifteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, twenty-first, twenty-second, twenty-third and
twenty-fourth wards of the city of Buffalo, as at present constituted.
District number forty-eight (48) shall consist of that part of the county of Erie comprising the fourth,
fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and sixteenth wards of the city
of Buffalo, as at present constituted.
District number forty-nine (49) shall consist of that part of the county of Erie comprising the
seventeenth, eighteenth and twenty-fifth wards of the city of Buffalo, as at present constituted; and all
the remainder of the said county of Erie not hereinbefore described.
District number fifty (50) shall consist of the counties of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus.
§ 4. [Enumerations and reapportionments.]-An enumeration of the inhabitants of the State shall be taken
under the direction of the Secretary of State, during the months of May and June, in the year one
thousand nine hundred and five, and in the same months every tenth year thereafter; and the said
districts shall be so altered by the Legislature at the first regular 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, and be in as compact form as practicable, 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 except to make two or more senate districts wholly in such
county. No town, and no block in a city inclosed by streets or public ways, shall be divided in the
formation of senate districts; nor shall any district contain a greater excess in population over an
adjoining district in the same county, than the population of a town or block therein, adjoining such
district. Counties, towns or blocks which, from their location, may be included in either of two districts,
shall be so placed as to make said districts most nearly equal in number of inhabitants, excluding aliens.
No county shall have four or more senators unless it shall have a full ratio for each senator. No county
shall have more than one-third of all the senators; and no two counties or the territory thereof as now
organized, which are adjoining counties, or which are separated only by public waters, shall have more
than one-half of all the senators.
The ratio for apportioning senators shall always be obtained by dividing the number of inhabitants,
excluding aliens, by fifty, and the Senate shall always be composed of fifty members, except that if any
county having three or more senators at the time of any apportionment shall be entitled on such ratio to
an additional senator or senators, such additional senator or senators shall be given to such county in
addition to the fifty senators, and the whole number of senators shall be increased to that extent.
§ 5. [Apportionment of assemblymen; creation of assembly districts.]-The members of the Assembly
shall be chosen by single districts, and shall be apportioned by the Legislature at the first regular session
after the return of every enumeration among the several counties of the State, as nearly as may be
according to the number of their respective inhabitants, excluding aliens. Every county heretofore
established and separately organized, except the county of Hamilton, shall always be entitled to one
member of assembly, and no county shall hereafter be erected unless its population shall entitle it to a
member. The county of Hamilton shall elect with the county of Fulton, until the population of the county
of Hamilton shall, according to the ratio, entitle it to a member. But the Legislature may abolish the said
county of Hamilton and annex the territory thereof to some other county or counties. The quotient
obtained by dividing the whole number of inhabitants of the State, excluding aliens, by the number of
members of assembly, shall be the ratio for apportionment, which shall be made as follows: One
member of assembly shall be apportioned to every county, including Fulton and Hamilton as one county,
containing less than the ratio and one-half over. Two members shall be apportioned to every other
county. The remaining members of assembly shall be apportioned to the counties having more than two
ratios according to the number of inhabitants, excluding aliens. Members apportioned on remainders
shall be apportioned to the counties having the highest remainders in the order thereof respectively. No
county shall have more members of assembly than a county having a greater number of inhabitants,
excluding aliens.
Until after the next enumeration, members of the Assembly shall be apportioned to the several counties
as follows: Albany county, four members; Allegany county, one member; Broome county, two
members; Cattaraugus county, two members; Cayuga county, two members; Chautauqua county, two
members; Chemung county, one member; Chenango county, one member; Clinton county, one member;
Columbia county, one member; Cortland county, one member; Delaware county, one member; Dutchess
county, two members; Erie county, eight members; Essex county, one member; Franklin county, one
member; Fulton and Hamilton counties, one member; Genesee county, one member; Greene county, one
member; Herkimer county, one member; Jefferson county, two members; Kings county, twenty-one
members; Lewis county, one member; Livingston county, one member; Madison county, one member;
Monroe county, four members; Montgomery county, one member; New York county, thirty five
members; Niagara county, two members; Oneida county, three members; Onondaga county, four
members; Ontario county, one member; Orange county, two members; Orleans county, one member;
Oswego county, two members; Otsego county, one member; Putnam county, one member; Queens
county, three members; Rensselaer county, three members; Richmond county, one member; Rockland
county, one member; St. Lawrence county, two members; Saratoga county, one member; Schenectady
county, one member; Schoharie county, one member; Schuyler county, one member; Seneca county, one
member; Steuben county, two members; Suffolk county, two members; Sullivan county, one member;
Tioga county, one member; Tompkins county, one member; Ulster county, two members; Warren
county, one member; Washington county, one member; Wayne county, one member; Westchester
county, three members; Wyoming county, one member, and Yates county, one member.
In any county entitled to more than one member, the board of supervisors, and in any city embracing an
entire county and having no board of supervisors, the common council, or if there be none, the body
exercising the powers of a common council, shall assemble on the second Tuesday of June, one
thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, and at such times as the Legislature making an apportionment
shall prescribe, and divide such counties into assembly districts as nearly equal in number of inhabitants,
excluding aliens, as may be, of convenient and contiguous territory in as compact form as practicable,
each of which shall be wholly within a senate district formed under the same apportionment, equal to the
number of members of assembly to which such county shall be entitled, and shall cause to be filed in the
office of the Secretary of State and of the clerk of such county, a description of such districts, specifying
the number of each district and of the inhabitants thereof, excluding aliens, according to the last
preceding enumeration; and such apportionment and districts shall remain unaltered until another
enumeration shall be made, as herein provided; but said division of the city of Brooklyn and the county
of Kings to be made on the second Tuesday of June, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, shall
be made by the common council of the said city and the board of supervisors of said county, assembled
in joint session. In counties having more than one senate district, the same number of assembly districts
shall be put in each senate district, unless the assembly districts cannot be evenly divided among the
senate districts of any county, in which case one more assembly district shall be put in the senate district
in such county having the largest, or one less assembly district shall be put in the senate district in such
county having the smallest number of inhabitants, excluding aliens, as the ease may require. No town,
and no block in a city inclosed by streets or public ways shall be divided in the formation of assembly
districts, nor shall any district contain a greater excess in population over an adjoining district in the
same senate district, than the population of a town or block therein adjoining such assembly district.
Towns or blocks which, from their location, may be included in either of two districts, shall be so placed
as to make said districts most nearly equal in number of inhabitants, excluding aliens; but in the division
of cities under the first apportionment, regard shall be had to the number of inhabitants, excluding aliens,
of the election districts according to the state enumeration of one thousand eight hundred and ninetytwo,
so far as may be, instead of blocks. Nothing in this section shall prevent the division, at any time, of
counties and towns, and the erection of new towns by the Legislature. An apportionment by the
Legislature, or other body, shall he subject to review by the Supreme Court, at the suit of any citizen,
under such reasonable regulations as the Legislature may prescribe; and any court before which a cause
may be pending involving an apportionment, shall give precedence thereto over all other causes and
proceedings, and if said court be not in session it shall convene promptly for the disposition of the same.
§ 6. [Compensation of members.]-Each member of the Legislature shall receive for his services an
annual salary of one thousand five hundred dollars. The members of either house shall also receive the
sum of one dollar for every ten miles they shall travel in going to and returning from their place of
meeting, once in each session, on the most usual route. Senators, when the Senate alone is convened in
extraordinary session, or when serving as members of the Court for the Trial of Impeachments, and such
members of the Assembly, not exceeding nine in number, as shall be appointed managers of an
impeachment, shall receive an additional allowance of ten dollars a day.
§ 7. [Civil appointments of members void.]-No member of the Legislature shall receive any civil
appointment within this State, or the Senate of the United States, from the Governor, the Governor and
Senate, or from the Legislature, or from any city government, during the time for which he shall have
been elected; and all such appointments and all votes given for any such member for any such office or
appointment shall be void.
§ 8. [Persons disqualified from being members.]-No person shall be eligible to the Legislature, who at
the time of his election, is, or within one hundred days previous thereto has been, a member of Congress,
a civil or military officer under the United States, or an officer under any city government. And if any
person shall, after his election as a member of the Legislature, be elected to Congress, or appointed to
any office, civil or military, under the government of the United States, or under any city government,
his acceptance thereof shall vacate his seat.
§ 9. [Time of elections.]-The elections of senators and members of assembly, pursuant to the provisions
of this Constitution, shall be held on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday of November, unless
otherwise directed by the Legislature.
§ 10. [Powers of each house.]-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 elections, returns and
qualifications of its own members; shall choose its own officers; and the Senate shall choose a
temporary president to preside in ease of the absence or impeachment of the Lieutenant-Governor, or
when he shall refuse to act as president, or shall act as Governor.
§ 11. [Journals; open sessions; adjournments.]-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 secrecy. Neither house shall, without the consent of the
other, adjourn for more than two days.
§ 12. [Members not to be questioned for speeches.]-For any speech or debate in either house of the
Legislature, the members shall not be questioned in any other place.
§ 13. [Bills may originate in either house.]-Any bill may originate in either house of the Legislature, and
all hills passed by one house may be amended by the other.
§ 14. [Enacting clause of hills.]-The enacting clause of all bills shall be "The People of the State of New
York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows," and no law shall be enacted except by
bill.
§ 15. [Manner of passing bills.]-No bill shall be passed or become a law unless it shall have been printed
and upon the desks of the members, in its final form, at least three calendar legislative days prior to its
final passage, unless the Governor, or the acting Governor, shall have certified to the necessity of its
immediate passage, under his hand and the seal of the State; nor shall any bill be passed or become a
law, except by the assent of a majority of the members elected to each branch of the Legislature; and
upon the last reading of a bill, no amendment thereof shall be allowed, and the question upon its final
passage shall be taken immediately thereafter, and the yeas and nays entered on the journal.
§ 16. [Private and local bills not to embrace more than one subject.]-No private or local bill, which may
be passed by the Legislature, shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the
title.
§ 17. [Existing law made applicable to be inserted.]-No act shall be passed which shall provide that any
existing law, or any part thereof, shall be made or deemed a part of said act, or which shall enact that
any existing law, or part thereof, shall be applicable, except by inserting it in such act.
§ 18. [Cases in which private and local bills shall not be passed; restrictions as to laws authorizing street
railroads.]-The Legislature shall not pass a private or local bill in any of the following eases:
Changing the names of persons.
Laying out, opening, altering, working or discontinuing roads, highways or alleys, or for draining
swamps or other low lands.
Locating or changing county seats.
Providing for changes in venue in civil or criminal cases.
Incorporating villages.
Providing for election of members of boards of supervisors.
Selecting, drawing, summoning or impaneling grand or petit jurors.
Regulating the rate of interest on money.
The opening and conducting of elections or designating places' of voting.
Creating, increasing or decreasing fees, percentage or allowances of public officers, during the term for
which said officers are elected or appointed.
Granting to any corporation, association or individual the right to lay down railroad tracks.
Granting to any private corporation, association or individual any exclusive privilege, immunity or
franchise whatever.
Providing for building bridges, and chartering companies for such purposes, except on the Hudson river
below Waterford, and on the East river, or over the waters forming a part of the boundaries of the State.
The Legislature shall pass general laws providing for the cases enumerated in this section, and for all
other cases which in its judgment may be provided for by general laws. But no law shall authorize the
construction or operation of a street railroad except upon the condition that the consent of the owners of
one-half in value of the property bounded on, and the, consent also of the local authorities having the
control of, that portion of a street or highway upon which it is proposed to construct or operate such
railroad be first obtained, or in case the consent of such property owners cannot be obtained, the
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, in the department in which it is proposed to be constructed,
may, upon application, appoint three commissioners who shall determine, after a hearing of all parties
interested, whether such railroad ought to be constructed or operated, and their determination, confirmed
by the court, may be taken in lieu of the consent of the property owners.
§ 19. [Private claims not to be audited by legislature.]-The Legislature shall neither audit nor allow any
private claim or account against the State, but may appropriate money to pay such claims as shall have
been audited and allowed according to law.
§ 20. [Two-thirds bills.]-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.
§ 21. [Appropriation bills.]-No moneys shall ever be paid out of the treasury of this State, or any of its
funds, or any of the funds under its management, except in pursuance of an appropriation by law; nor
unless such payment be made within two years next after the passage of such appropriation act; and
every such law making a new appropriation, or continuing or reviving an appropriation, shall distinctly
specify the sum appropriated, and the object to which it is to be applied; and it shall not be sufficient for
such law to refer to any other law to fix such sum.
§ 22. [Restrictions as to provisions in the appropriation or supply bills.]-No provision or enactment shall
be embraced in the annual appropriation or supply bill, unless it relates specifically to some particular
appropriation in the bill; and any such provision or enactment shall be limited in its operation to such
appropriation.
§ 23. [Certain sections not to apply to commission bills.]- Sections seventeen and eighteen of this article
shall not apply to any bill, or the amendments to any bill, which shall be reported to the Legislature by
Commissioners who have been appointed pursuant to law to revise the statutes.
§ 24. [Tax bills to state tax distinctly.]-Every law which imposes, continues or revives a tax shall
distinctly state the tax and the object to which it is to be applied, and it shall not be sufficient to refer to
any other law to fix such tax or object.
§ 25. [When yeas and nays necessary; three-fifths to constitute quorum.]-On the final passage, in either
house of the Legislature, of any act which imposes, continues or revives a tax, or creates a debt or
charge, or makes, continues or revives any appropriation of public or trust money or property, or
releases, discharges or commutes any claim or demand of the State, the question shall be taken by, yeas
and nays, which shall be duly entered upon the journals, and three-fifths of all the members elected to
either house shall, in all such cases, be necessary to constitute a quorum therein.
§ 26. [Boards of supervisors.]-There shall be in the several counties, except in cities whose boundaries
are the same as those of the county, a board of supervisors, to be composed of such members, and
elected in such manner, and for such period, as is or may be provided by law. In any such city the duties
and powers of a board of supervisors may be devolved upon the corn-mon council or board of aldermen
thereof.
§ 27. [Local legislative powers.]-The Legislature shall, by general laws, confer upon the boards of
supervisors of the several counties of the State such further powers of local legislation and
administration as the Legislature may from time to time deem expedient.
§ 28. [Extra compensation prohibited.]-The Legislature shall not, nor shall the common council of any
city, nor any board of supervisors, grant any extra compensation to any public officer, servant, agent or
contractor.
§ 29. [Prison labor; contract system abolished.]-The Legislature shall, by law, provide for the occupation
and employment of prisoners sentenced to the several state prisons, penitentiaries, jails and
reformatories in the State; and on and after the first day of January, in the year one thousand eight
hundred and ninety-seven, no person in any such prison, penitentiary, jail or reformatory, shall be
required or allowed to work, while under sentence thereto, at any trade, industry or occupation,
wherein or whereby his work, or the product or profit of his work, shall be farmed out, contracted, given
or sold to any person, firm, association or corporation. This section shall not be construed to prevent the
Legislature from providing that convicts may work for, and that the products of their labor may be
disposed of to, the State or any political division thereof, or for or to any public institution owned or
managed and controlled by the State, or any political division thereof.
ARTICLE IV.
[The Executive.]
Section 1. [Executive power.]-The executive power shall be vested in a Governor, who shall hold his
office for two years; a Lieutenant-Governor shall be chosen at the same time, and for the same term. The
Governor and Lieutenant-Governor elected next preceding the time when this section shall take effect,
shall hold office until and including the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and
ninety-six, and their successors shall be chosen at the general election in that year.
§ 2. [Qualifications of governor and lieutenant-governor.]-No person shall be eligible to the office of
Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, except a citizen of the United States, of the age of not less than thirty
years, and who shall have been five years next preceding his election a resident of this State.
§ 3. [Election of governor and lieutenant-governor.]-The Governor and Lieutenant-Governor shall be
elected at the times and places of choosing members of the Assembly. 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 at its next annual session shall forthwith, by joint ballot, choose one of the
said persons so having an equal and the highest number of votes for Governor or Lieutenant-Governor.
§ 4. [Duties and powers of governor; compensation.]-The Governor shall be Commander-in-Chief of the
military and naval forces of the State. He shall have power to convene the Legislature, or the Senate
only, on extraordinary occasions. At extraordinary sessions no subject shall be acted upon, except such
as the Governor may recommend for consideration. He shall communicate by message to the Legislature
at every session the condition of the State, and recommend such matters to it 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 may be resolved upon by the Legislature, and shall take care that the laws
are faithfully executed. He shall receive for his services an annual salary of ten thousand dollars, and
there shall be pro-vided for his use a suitable and furnished executive residence.
§ 5. [Reprieves, commutations, and pardons to be granted by governor.]-The Governor shall have the
power to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons after conviction, for all offenses except treason and
cases of impeachment, upon such conditions and with such restrictions and limitations, as he may think
proper, subject to such regulations as may be provided by law relative to the manner of applying for
pardons. Upon conviction 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 commute the sentence, direct the execution of the sentence, or grant a further reprieve. He
shall annually communicate to the Legislature each case of reprieve, commutation or pardon granted,
stating the name of the convict, the crime of which he was convicted, the sentence and its date, and the
date of the commutation, pardon or reprieve.
§ 6. [When lieutenant-governor to act as governor.]-In case of the impeachment of the Governor, or his
removal from office, death, inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, 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 disability shall cease. 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 continue Commander-in-Chief of all the military force of the State.
§ 7. [Qualifications and duties of lieutenant-governor; succession to the governorship.]-The Lieutenant-
Governor shall possess the same qualifications of eligibility for office as the Governor. He 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 become incapable of
performing the duties of his office, or be absent from the State, the President of the Senate shall act as
Governor until the vacancy be filled or the disability shall cease; and if the President of the Senate for
any of the above causes shall become incapable of performing the duties pertaining to the office of
Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly shall act as Governor until the vacancy be filled or the disability
shall cease.
§ 8. [Salary of lieutenant-governor.]-The Lieutenant-Governor shall receive for his services an annual
salary of five thousand dollars, and shall not receive or be entitled to any other compensation, fee or
perquisite, for any duty or service he may be required to perform by the Constitution or by law.
§ 9. [Bills to be presented to governor; approval; passage of bill by legislature if not approved.]-Every
bill which shall have passed the Senate and Assembly shall, before it becomes 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 the house in
which it shall have originated, which shall enter the objections at large on the journal, and proceed to
reconsider it. If after such reconsideration, two-thirds of the members elected to that house 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 elected to that house, it shall become a law
notwithstanding the objections of the Governor. In all such cases, the votes in both houses shall be
determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the members voting 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
become a law without the approval of the Governor. No bill shall become a law after the final
adjournment of the Legislature, unless approved by the Governor within thirty days after such
adjournment. If any bill presented to the Governor contain several items of appropriation of money, he
may object to one or more of such items while approving of the other portion of the bill. In such case, he
shall append to the bill, at the time of signing it, a statement of the items to which he objects; and the
appropriation so objected to shall not take effect. If the Legislature be in session, he shall transmit to the
house in which the bill originated a copy of such statement, and the items objected to shall be separately
reconsidered. If on reconsideration one or more of such items be approved by two-thirds of the members
elected to each house, the same shall be part of the law, notwithstanding the objections of the Governor.
All the provisions of this section, in relation to bills not approved by the Governor, shall apply in cases
in which he shall withhold his approval from any item or items contained in a bill appropriating money.
ARTICLE V.
[State Officers; Civil Service.]
Section 1. [State officers.]-The Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, Attorney-General and State
Engineer and Surveyor shall be chosen at a general election, at the times and places of electing the
Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, and shall hold their offices for two years, except as provided in
section two of this article. Each of the officers in this article named, excepting the Speaker of the
assembly, shall at stated times during his continuance in office, receive for his services a compensation
which shall not be increased or diminished during the term for which he shall have been elected; nor
shall he receive to his use any fees or perquisites of office or other compensation. No person shall be
elected to the office of State Engineer and Surveyor who is not a practical civil engineer.
§ 2. [First election of State officers.]-The first election of the Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer,
Attorney-General and State Engineer and Surveyor, pursuant to this article shall be held in the year one
thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, and their terms of office shall begin on the first day of January
following, and shall be for three years. At the general election in the year one thousand eight hundred
and ninety-eight, and every two years thereafter, their successors shall be chosen for the term of two
years.
§ 3. [Superintendent of public works; appointment; powers and duties of.]-A Superintendent of Public
Works shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and hold
his office until the end of the term of the Governor by whom he was nominated, and until his successor
is appointed and qualified. He shall receive a compensation to be fixed by law. He shall be required by
law to give security for the faithful execution of his office before entering upon the duties thereof. He
shall be charged with the execution of all laws relating to the repair and navigation of the canals, and
also of those relating to the construction and improvement of the canals, except so far as the execution of
the laws relating to such construction or improvement shall be confided to the State Engineer and
Surveyor; subject to the control of the Legislature, he shall make the rules and regulations for the
navigation or use of the canals. He may be suspended or removed from office by the governor,
whenever, in his judgment, the public interest shall so require; hut in case of the removal of such
Superintendent of Public Works front office, the Governor shall file with the Secretary of State a
statement of the cause of such removal, and shall report such removal and the cause thereof to the
Legislature at its next session.
The superintendent of Public Works shall appoint not more than three assistant superintendents, whose
duties shall be prescribed by him, subject to modification by the Legislature, and who shall receive for
their services a compensation to be fixed by law. They shall hold their office for three years, subject to
suspension or removal by the Superintendent of Public Works, whenever, in his judgment, the public
interest shall so require. Any vacancy in the office of any such assistant superintendent shall he filled for
the remainder of the term for which he was appointed, by the Superintendent of Public Works; but in
case of the suspension or removal of any such assistant superintendent by him, he shall at once report to
the Governor, in writing, the cause of such removal. All other persons employed in the care and
management of the canals, except collectors of tolls, and those in the department of the State Engineer
and Surveyor, shall be appointed by the Superintendent of Public Works, and be subject to suspension or
removal by him. The Superintendent of Public Works shall perform all the duties of the former Canal
Commissioners, and Board of Canal Commissioners, as now declared by law, until otherwise provided
by the Legislature. The Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall have power to
fill vacancies in the office of Superintendent of Public Works; if the Senate be not in session, he may
grant commissions which shall expire at the end of the next succeeding session of the Senate.
§ 4. [Superintendent of state prisons, appointment, powers and duties of.]-A Superintendent of State
prisons shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and hold
his office for five years, unless sooner removed; he shall give security in such amount, and with such
sureties as shall he required by law for the faithful discharge of his duties; he shall have the
superintendence, management and control of state prisons, subject to such laws as now exist or may
hereafter he enacted; he shall appoint the agents, wardens, physicians and chaplains of the prisons. The
agent and warden of each prison shall appoint all other officers of such prison, except the clerk, subject
to the approval of the same by the Superintendent. The Comptroller shall appoint the clerks of the
prisons. The Superintendent shall have all the powers and perform all the duties not inconsistent
herewith, which were formerly had and performed by the inspectors of State Prisons. The Governor may
remove the Superintendent for cause at any time, giving to him a copy of the charges against him, and an
opportunity to be heard in his defense.
§ 5. [Commissioners of the land office; of the canal fund; canal board.]-The Lieutenant-Governor,
Speaker of the Assembly, Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, Attorney-General and State
Engineer and Surveyor shall be the commissioners of the land office. The Lieutenant-Governor,
Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer and Attorney-General shall be the commissioners of the canal
fund. The canal board shall consist of the commissioners of the canal fund, the State Engineer and
Surveyor, and the Superintendent of Public Works.
§ 6. [Powers and duties of boards.]-The powers and duties of the respective boards, and of the several
officers in this article mentioned, shall be such as now are or hereafter may be prescribed by law.
§ 7. [State treasurer, suspension by governor.]-The Treasurer may be suspended from office by the
Governor, during the recess of the Legislature, and until thirty days after the commencement of the next
session of the Legislature, whenever it shall appear to him that such Treasurer has, in any particular,
violated his duty. The Governor shall appoint a competent person to discharge the duties of the office
during such suspension of the Treasurer.
§ 8. [Certain offices abolished.]-All offices for the weighing, gauging, measuring, culling or inspecting
any merchandise, produce, manufacture or commodity whatever, are hereby abolished; and no such
office shall hereafter be created by law: but nothing in this section contained shall abrogate any office
created for the purpose of protecting the public health or the interests of the State in its property,
revenue, tolls or purchases, or of supplying the people with correct standards of weights and measures,
or shall prevent the creation of any office for such purposes hereafter.
§ 9. [Civil service appointments and promotions.]-Appointments and promotions in the civil service of
the State, and of all the civil divisions thereof, including cities and villages, shall be made according to
merit and fitness to be ascertained, so far as practicable, by examinations, which, so far as practicable,
shall be competitive; provided however, that honorably discharged soldiers and sailors from the army
and navy of the United States in the late civil war, who are citizens and residents of this State, shall be
entitled to preference in appointment and promotion, without regard to their standing on any list from
which such appointment or promotion may be made. Laws shall be made to provide for the enforcement
of this section.
ARTICLE VI.
[Judiciary.]
Section 1. [Supreme Court; how constituted; judicial districts.]-The Supreme Court is continued with
general jurisdiction in law and equity, subject to such appellate jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals as
now is or may be prescribed by law not inconsistent with this article. The existing judicial districts of the
State are continued until changed as hereinafter provided. The Supreme Court shall consist of the
Justices now in office, and of the judges transferred thereto by the fifth section of this article, all of
whom shall continue to be Justices of the Supreme Court during their respective terms, and of twelve
additional Justices who shall reside in, and be chosen by the electors of, the several existing judicial
districts, three in the first district, three in the second, and one in each of the other districts; and of their
successors. The successors of said Justices shall be chosen by the electors of their respective judicial
districts. The Legislature may alter the judicial districts once after every enumeration under the
Constitution, of the inhabitants of the State, and thereupon reapportion the Justices to be thereafter
elected in the districts so altered.
§ 2. [Judicial departments; appellate division, how constituted; governor to designate justices; reporter;
time and place of holding courts.]-The Legislature shall divide the State into four judicial departments.
The first department shall consist of the county of New York; the others shall be bounded by county
lines, and be compact and equal in population as nearly as may be. Once every ten years the Legislature
may alter the judicial departments, but without increasing the number thereof.
There shall be an Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, consisting of seven Justices in the First
Department, and of five Justices in each of the other departments. In each department four shall
constitute a quorum, and the concurrence of three shall be necessary to a decision No more than five
Justices shall sit in any case.
From all the Justices elected to the Supreme Court the Governor shall designate those who shall
constitute the Appellate Division in each department; and he shall designate the Presiding Justice
thereof, who shall act as such during his term of office, and shall be a resident of the department. The
other Justices shall be designated for terms of five years, or the unexpired portions of their respective
terms of office, if less than five years. From time to time as the terms of such designations expire, or
vacancies occur, he shall make new designations. He may also make temporary designations in case of
the absence or inability to act, of any Justice in the Appellate Division. A majority of the Justices
designated to sit in the Appellate Division in each department shall be residents of the department.
Whenever the Appellate Division in any department shall be unable to dispose of its business within a
reasonable time, a majority of the Presiding Justices of the several departments at a meeting called by
the Presiding Justice of the department in arrears may transfer any pending appeals from such
department to any other department for hearing and determination. No Justice of the Appellate Division
shall exercise any of the powers of a Justice of the Supreme Court, other than those of a Justice out of
court, and those pertaining to the Appellate Division or to the hearing and decision of motions submitted
by consent of counsel. From and after the last day of December, one thousand eight hundred and ninetyfive,
the Appellate Division shall have the jurisdiction now exercised by the Supreme Court at its
General Terms, and by the General Terms of the Court of Common Pleas for the City and County of
New York, the Superior Court of the City of New York, the Superior Court of Buffalo and the City
Court of Brooklyn, and such additional jurisdiction as may be conferred by the Legislature. It shall have
power to appoint and remove a reporter.
The Justices of the Appellate Division in each department shall have power to fix the times and places
for holding Special and Trial Terms therein, and to assign the Justices in the Departments to hold such
terms; or to make rules therefor.
§ 3. [Judge or justice not to sit in review; testimony in equity cases.]-No Judge or Justice shall sit in the
Appellate Division or in the Court of Appeals in review of a decision made by him or by any court of
which he was at the time a sitting member. The testimony in equity cases shall be taken in like manner
as in cases at law; and, except as herein otherwise provided, the Legislature shall have the same power
to alter and regulate the jurisdiction and proceedings in law and in equity that it has heretofore exercised.
§ 4. [Terms of office; vacancies, how filled.]-The official terms of the Justices of the Supreme Court
shall be fourteen years from and including the first day of January next after their election. When a
vacancy shall occur otherwise than by expiration of term in the office of Justice of the Supreme Court
the same shall be filled for a full term, at the next general election, happening not less than three months
after such vacancy occurs; and, until the vacancy shall be so filled, the Governor by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, if the Senate shall be in session, or if not in session the Governor, may fill
such vacancy by appointment, which shall continue until and including the last day of December next
after the election at which the vacancy shall be filled.
§ 5. [City courts abolished; judges become justices of Supreme Court; salaries; jurisdiction vested in
Supreme Court.]-The Superior Court of the City of New York, the Court of Common Pleas for the City
and County of New York the Superior Court of Buffalo, and the City Court of Brooklyn, are abolished
from and after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six, and thereupon the
seals, records, papers and documents of or belonging to such courts, shall be deposited in the offices of
the Clerks of the several counties in which said courts now exist; and all actions and proceedings then
pending in such courts shall be transferred to the Supreme Court for hearing and determination. The
Judges of said courts in office on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six,
shall, for the remainder of the terms for which they were elected or appointed, be Justices of the
Supreme Court; but they shall sit only in the counties in which they were elected or appointed. Their
salaries shall be paid by the said counties respectively, and shall be the same as the salaries of the other
justices of the Supreme Court residing in the same counties. Their successors shall be elected as Justices
of the Supreme Court by the electors of the judicial districts in which they respectively reside.
The jurisdiction now exercised by the several courts hereby abolished, shall be vested in the Supreme,
Court. Appeals from inferior and local courts now heard in the Court of Common Pleas for the City and
County of New York and the Superior Court of Buffalo, shall be heard in the Supreme Court in such
manner and by such Justice or Justices as the Appellate Divisions in the respective departments which
include New York and Buffalo shall direct, unless otherwise provided by the Legislature.
§ 6. [Circuit Courts and Courts of Oyer and Terminer abolished.]-Circuit Courts and Courts of Oyer and
Terminer are abolished from and after the last day of December, one thousand eight hundred and ninetyfive.
All their jurisdiction shall thereupon be vested in the Supreme Court, and all actions and
proceedings then pending in such courts shall be transferred to the Supreme Court for hearing and
determination. Any Justice of the Supreme Court, except as otherwise provided in this article, may hold
court in any county.
§ 7. [Court of Appeals.]-The Court of Appeals is continued. It shall consist of the Chief Judge and
Associate Judges now in office, who shall hold their offices until the expiration of their respective terms,
and their successors, who shall be chosen by the electors of the State. The official terms of the Chief
Judge and Associate Judges shall be fourteen years from and including the first day of January next after
their election. Five members of the court shall form a quorum and the concurrence of four shall be
necessary to a decision. The court shall have power to appoint and to remove its reporter, clerk and
attendants.
§ 8. [Vacancy in Court of Appeals, how filled.]-When a vacancy shall occur otherwise than by
expiration of term, in the office of Chief or Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals, the same shall be
filled, for a full term, at the next general election happening not less than three months after such
vacancy occurs; and until the vacancy shall be so filled, the Governor, by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate, if the Senate shall be in session, or if not in session the Governor may fill such
vacancy by appointment. If any such appointment of Chief Judge shall be made from among the
Associate Judges, a temporary appointment of Associate Judge shall be made in like manner; but in such
case, the person appointed Chief Judge shall not be deemed to vacate his office of Associate Judge any
longer than until the expiration of his appointment as Chief Judge. The powers and jurisdiction of the
court shall not be suspended for want of appointment or election, when the number of Judges is
sufficient to constitute a quorum. All appointments under this section shall continue until and including
the last day of December next after the election at which the vacancy shall be filled.
§ 9. [Jurisdiction of Court of Appeals.]-After the last day of December, one thousand eight hundred and
ninety-five, the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals, except where the judgment is of death, shall be
limited to the review of questions of law. No unanimous decision of the Appellate Division of the
Supreme Court that there is evidence supporting or tending to sustain a finding of fact or a verdict not
directed by the court, shall be reviewed by the Court of Appeals. Except where the judgment is of death,
appeals may be taken, as of right, to said court only from judgments or orders entered upon decisions of
the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, finally determining actions or special proceedings, and
from orders granting new trials on exceptions, where the appellants stipulate that upon affirmance
judgment absolute shall be rendered against them. The Appellate Division in any department may
however, allow an appeal upon any question of law which, in its opinion, ought to be reviewed by the
Court of Appeals.
The Legislature may further restrict the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals and the right of appeal
thereto, but the right to appeal shall not depend upon the amount involved.
The provisions of this section shall not apply to orders made or judgments rendered by any General
Term before the last day of December, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, but appeals
therefrom may be taken under existing provisions of law.
§ 10. [Judges not to hold any other office.]-The Judges of the Court of Appeals and the Justices of the
Supreme Court shall not hold any other office or public trust. All votes for any of them, for any other
than a judicial office, given by the Legislature or the people, shall be void.
§ 11. [Removal of judges.]-Judges of the Court of Appeals and Justices of the Supreme Court, may be
removed by concurrent resolution of both houses of the Legislature, if two-thirds of all the members
elected to each house concur therein. All other judicial officers, except Justices of the Peace and judges
or justices of inferior courts not of record, may be removed by the Senate, on the recommendation of the
Governor, if two-thirds of all the members elected to the Senate concur therein. But no officer shall be
removed by virtue of this section except for cause, which shall be entered on the journals, nor unless he
shall have been served with a statement of the cause alleged, and shall have had an opportunity to be
heard. On the question of removal, the yeas and nays shall be entered on the journal.
§ 12. [Compensation; age restriction; assignment by governor.]-The Judges and Justices hereinbefore
mentioned shall receive for their services a compensation established by law, which shall not be
increased or diminished during their official terms, except as provided in section five of this article.
No person shall hold the office of Judge or Justice of any court longer than until and including the last
day of December next after he shall be seventy years of age. No Judge or Justice elected after the first
day of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four, shall be entitled to receive any
compensation after the last day of December next after he shall be seventy years of age; but the
compensation of every Judge of the Court of Appeals or Justice of the Supreme Court elected prior to
the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four, whose term of office has been, or
whose present term of office shall be, so abridged, and who shall have served as such Judge or Justice
ten years or more, shall be continued during the remainder of the term for which he was elected; but any
such Judge or Justice may, with his consent, be assigned by the Governor, from time to time, to any duty
in the Supreme Court while his compensation is so continued.
§ 13. [Trial of impeachments.]-The Assembly shall have the power of impeachment, by a vote of a
majority of all the members elected. The Court for the Trial of Impeachments shall be composed of the
President of the Senate, the senators, or the major part of them, and the Judges of the Court of Appeals,
or the major part of them. On the trial of an impeachment against the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor,
the Lieutenant-Governor shall not act as a member of the court. No judicial officer shall exercise his
office, after articles of impeachment against him shall have been preferred to the Senate, until be shall
have been acquitted. Before the trial of an impeachment the members of the court shall take an oath or
affirmation truly and impartially to try the impeachment according to the evidence, and no person shall
be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. Judgment in cases of
impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, or removal from office and
disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under this State; but the party
impeached shall be liable to indictment and punishment according to law.
§ 14. [County Courts.]-The existing County Courts are continued, and the Judges thereof now in office
shall hold their offices until the expiration of their respective terms. In the county of Kings there shall be
two County Judges and the additional County Judge shall be chosen at the next general election held
after the adoption of this article. The successors of the several County Judges shall be chosen by the
electors of the counties for the term of six years. County Courts shall have the powers and jurisdiction
they now possess, and also original jurisdiction in actions for the recovery of money only, where the
defendants reside in the county, and in which the complaint demands judgment for a sum not exceeding
two thousand dollars. The Legislature may hereafter enlarge or restrict the jurisdiction of the County
Courts, provided however that their jurisdiction shall not be so extended as to authorize an action therein
for the recovery of money only, in which the sum demanded exceeds two thousand dollars, or in which
any person not a resident of the county is a defendant.
Courts of Sessions, except in the county of New York, are abolished from and after the last day of
December, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five. All the jurisdiction of the Court of Sessions in
each county, except the county of New York, shall thereupon be vested in the County Court thereof, and
all actions and proceedings then pending in such Courts of Sessions shall be transferred to said County
Courts for hearing and determination. Every County Judge shall perform such duties as may be required
by law. His salary shall be established by law, payable out of the county treasury. A County Judge of
any county may hold County Courts in any other county when requested by the Judge of such other
county.
§ 15. [Surrogates' Courts; surrogates, their powers and jurisdiction; vacancies.]-The existing Surrogates'
Courts are continued, and the Surrogates now in office shall hold their offices until the expiration of
their terms. Their successors shall be chosen by the electors of their respective counties, and their terms
of office shall be six years, except in the county of New York, where they shall continue to be fourteen
years. Surrogates and Surrogates' Courts shall have the jurisdiction and powers which the Surrogates and
existing Surrogates' Courts now possess, until otherwise provided by the Legislature. The County Judge
shall be Surrogate of his county, except where a separate Surrogate has been or shall be elected. In
counties having a population exceeding forty thousand, wherein there is no separate Surrogate, the
Legislature may provide for the election of a separate officer to be Surrogate, whose term of office shall
be six years. When the Surrogate shall be elected as a separate officer his salary shall be established by
law, payable out of the county treasury. No County Judge or Surrogate shall hold office longer than until
and including the last day of December next after he shall be seventy years of age. Vacancies occurring
in the office of County Judge or Surrogate shall be filled , in the same manner as like vacancies
occurring in the Supreme Court. The compensation of any County Judge or Surrogate shall not be
increased or diminished during his term of office. For the relief of Surrogates' Courts the Legislature
may confer upon the Supreme Court in any county having a population exceeding four hundred
thousand, the powers and jurisdiction of Surrogates, with authority to try issues of fact by jury in probate
cases.
§ 16. [Local judicial officers.]-The Legislature may, on application of the board of supervisors, provide
for the election of local officers, not to exceed two in any county, to discharge the duties of County
Judge and of Surrogate, in cases of their inability or of a vacancy, and in such other cases as may be
provided by law, and to exercise such other powers in special cases as are or may be provided by law.
§ 17. [Justices of the peace; District Court justices.]-The electors of the several towns shall, at their
annual town meetings, or at such other time and in such manner as the Legislature may direct, elect
Justices of the Peace, whose term of office shall be four years. In case of an election to fill a vacancy
occurring before the expiration of a full term, they shall hold for the residue of the unexpired term. Their
number and classification may be regulated by law. Justices of the Peace and judges or justices of
inferior courts not of record, and their clerks, may be removed for cause, after due notice and an
opportunity of being heard by such courts as are or may be prescribed by law. Justices of the Peace and
District Court Justices may be elected in the different cities of this State in such manner, and with such
powers, and for such terms, respectively, as are or shall be prescribed by law; all other judicial officers
in cities, whose election or appointment is not otherwise provided for in this article, shall be chosen by
the electors of such cities, or appointed by some local authorities thereof.
§ 18. [Inferior local courts.]-Inferior local courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction may be established by
the Legislature, but no inferior local court hereafter created shall be a court of record. The Legislature
shall not hereafter confer upon any inferior or local court of its creation, any equity jurisdiction or any
greater jurisdiction in other respects than is conferred upon County Courts by or under this article.
Except as herein otherwise provided, all judicial officers shall be elected or appointed at such times and
in such manner as the Legislature may direct.
§ 19. [Clerks of courts.]-Clerks of the several counties shall be clerks of the Supreme Court, with such
powers and duties as shall be prescribed by law. The Justices of the Appellate Division in each
department shall have power to appoint and to remove a clerk who shall keep his office at a place to be
designated by said Justices. The Clerk of the Court of Appeals shall keep his office at the seat of
government.The Clerk of the Court of Appeals and the clerks of the Appellate Division shall receive
compensation to be established by law and paid out of the public treasury.
§ 20. [No judicial officer, except justice of the peace, to receive fees; not to act as attorney or
counselor.]-No judicial officer, except Justices of the Peace, shall receive to his own use any fees or
perquisites of office; nor shall any Judge of the Court of Appeals, or Justice of the Supreme Court, or
any County Judge or Surrogate hereafter elected in a county having a population exceeding one hundred
and twenty thousand, practice as an attorney or counselor in any court of record in this State, or act as
referee. The Legislature may impose a similar prohibition upon County Judges and Surrogates in other
counties. No one shall be eligible to the office of Judge of the Court of Appeals, Justice of the Supreme
Court, or, except in the county of Hamilton, to the office of County Judge or Surrogate, who is not an
attorney and counselor of this State.
§ 21. [Publication of statutes.]-The Legislature shall provide for the speedy publication of all statutes,
and shall regulate the reporting of the decisions of the courts; but all laws and judicial decisions shall be
free for publication by any person.
§ 22. [Terms of office of present justices of the peace and local judicial officers.]-Justices of the Peace
and other local judicial officers provided for in sections seventeen and eighteen in office when this
article takes effect, shall hold their offices until the expiration of their respective terms.
§ 23. [Courts of Special Sessions.]-Courts of Special Sessions shall have such jurisdiction of offenses of
the grade of misdemeanors as may be prescribed by law.
ARTICLE VII.
[State Finance; Forest Preserve; Canals.]
Section 1. [State credit not to be given.]-The credit of the State shall not in any manner be given or
loaned to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation.
§ 2. [State debts, power to contract.]-The State may, to meet casual deficits or failures in revenues, or for
expenses not provided for, contract debts; but such debts, direct or contingent, singly or in the aggregate,
shall not at any time exceed one million of dollars; and the moneys arising from the loans creating such
debts shall be applied to the purpose for which they were obtained, or to repay the debt so contracted,
and to no other purpose whatever.
§ 3. [State debts to repel invasions.]-In addition to the above limited power to contract debts, the State
may contract debts to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or defend the State in war; but the money
arising from the contracting of such debts shall be applied to the purpose for which it was raised, or to
repay such debts, and to no other purpose whatever.
§ 4. [Limitation of legislative power to create debts.]-Except the debts specified in sections two and
three of this article, no debts shall be hereafter contracted by or on behalf of this State, unless such debt
shall be authorized by a law, for some single work or object, to be distinctly specified therein; and such
law shall impose and provide for the collection of a direct annual tax to pay, and sufficient to pay, the
interest on such debt as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal of such debt within
eighteen years from the time of the contracting thereof. No such law shall take effect until it shall, at a
general election, have been submitted to the people, and have received a majority of all the votes cast for
and against it at such election. On the final passage of such bill in either house of the Legislature, the
question shall be taken by ayes and noes, to be duly entered on the journals thereof, and shall be: "Shall
this bill pass, and ought the same to receive the sanction of the people ?" The Legislature may at any
time, after the approval of such law by the people, if no debt shall have been contracted in pursuance
thereof, repeal the same; and may at any time, by law, forbid the contracting of any further debt or
liability under such law; but the tax imposed by such act, in proportion to the debt and liability which
may have been contracted in pursuance of such law, shall remain in force and be irrepealable, and be
annually collected, until the proceeds thereof shall have made the provision hereinbefore specified to
pay and discharge the interest and principal of such debt and liability. The money arising from any loan
or stock creating such debt or liability shall be applied to the work or object specified in the act
authorizing such debt or liability, or for the repayment of such debt or liability, and for no other purpose
whatever. No such law shall be submitted, to be voted on, within three months after its passage or at any
general election when any other law, or any bill, or any amendment to the Constitution shall be
submitted to be voted for or against.
§ 5. [Sinking fund, how kept and invested.]-The sinking funds provided for the payment of interest and
the extinguishment of the principal of the debts of the State shall be separately kept and safely invested,
and neither of them shall be appropriated or used in any manner other than for the specific purpose for
which it shall have been provided.
§ 6. [Claims barred by statute of limitations.]-Neither the Legislature, canal board, nor any person or
persons acting in behalf of the State, shall audit, allow, or pay any claim which, as between citizens of
the State, would be barred by lapse of time. This provision shall not be construed to repeal any statute
fixing the time within which claims shall be presented or allowed, nor shall it extend to any claims duly
presented within the time allowed by law, and prosecuted with due diligence from the time of such
presentment. But if the claimant shall be under legal disability the claim may be presented within two
years after such disability is removed
§ 7. [Forest preserve]-The lands of the State, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest
preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or
exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold,
removed or destroyed.
§ 8. [Canals, not to be sold; not applied to certain canals; disposition of funds.]-The Legislature shall not
sell, lease or otherwise dispose of the Erie canal, the Oswego canal, the Champlain canal, the Cayuga
and Seneca canal, or the Black River canal, but they shall remain the property of the state and under its
management forever. The prohibition of lease, sale or other disposition herein
contained, shall not apply
to the canal known as the Main and Hamburg street canal, situated in the city of Buffalo, and which
extends easterly from the westerly line of Main street to the westerly line of Hamburg street. All funds
that may be derived from any lease, sale or other disposition of any canal shall be applied to the
improvement, superintendence or repair of the remaining portion of the canals.
§ 9. [No tolls to be imposed; contracts for work and materials no extra compensation.]-No tolls shall
hereafter be imposed on persons or property transported on the canals, but all boats navigating the canals
and the owners and masters thereof, shall be subject to such laws and regulations as have been or may
hereafter be enacted concerning the navigation of the canals. The Legislature shall annually, by
equitable taxes, make provision for the expenses of the superintendence and repairs of the canals. All
contracts for work or materials on any canal shall be made with the persons who shall offer to do or
provide the same at the lowest price, with adequate security for their performance. No extra
compensation shall be made to any contractor; but if, from any unforseencause, the terms of any
contract shall prove to be unjust and oppressive, the canal board may, upon the application of the
contractor, cancel such contract.
§ 10. [Canal improvement, and cost thereof.]-The canals may be improved in such manner as the
Legislature shall provide by law. A debt may be authorized for that purpose in the mode prescribed by
section four of this article, or the cost of such improvement may be defrayed by the appropriation of
funds from the state treasury, or by equitable annual tax.
ARTICLE VIII.
[Corporations and Charities.]
Section 1. [Corporations, formation of.]-Corporations may be formed under general laws; but shall not
be created by special act, except for municipal purposes, and in cases where, in the judgment of the
Legislature, the objects of the corporation cannot be attained under general laws. All general laws and
special acts passed pursuant to this section may be altered from time to time or repealed.
§ 2. [Dues of corporations.]-Dues from corporations shall be secured by such individual liability of the
corporators and other means as may be prescribed by law.
§ 3. [Corporation, definition of term.]-The term corporations as used in this article shall be construed to
include all associations and joint-stock companies having any of the powers or privileges of corporations
not possessed by individuals or partnerships. And all corporations shall have the right to sue and shall be
subject to be sued in all courts in like cases as natural persons.
§ 4. [Savings bank charters; restrictions upon trustees; special charters not to be granted.]-The
Legislature shall, by general law, conform all charters of savings banks, or institutions for savings, to a
uniformity of powers, rights and liabilities, and all charters hereafter granted for such corporations shall
be made to conform to such general law, and to such amendments as may be made thereto. And no such
corporation shall have any capital stock, nor shall the trustees thereof, or any of them, have any interest
whatever, direct or indirect, in the profits of such corporation; and no director or trustee of any such
bank or institution shall be interested in any loan or use of any money or property of such bank or
institution for savings. The Legislature shall have no power to pass any act granting any special charter
for banking purposes; but corporations or associations may be formed for such purposes under general
laws.
§ 5. [Specie payment.]-The Legislature shall have no power to pass any law sanctioning in any manner,
directly or indirectly, the suspension of specie payments, by any person, association or corporation,
issuing bank notes of any description.
§ 6. [Registry of bills or notes.]-The Legislature shall provide by law for the registry of all bills or notes,
issued or put in circulation as money, and shall require ample security for the redemption of the same in
specie.
§ 7. [Liability of stockholders of banks.]-The stockholders of every corporation and joint stock
association for banking purposes, shall be individually responsible to the amount of their respective
share or shares of stock in any such corporation or association, for all its debts and liabilities of every
kind.
§ 8. [Billholders of insolvent bank, preferred creditors.]-In case of the insolvency of any bank or banking
association, the billholders thereof shall be entitled to preference in payment, over all other creditors of
such bank or association.
§ 9. [Credit or money of the State not to be given.]-Neither the credit nor the money of the State shall be
given or loaned to or in aid of any association, corporation or private undertaking. This section shall not,
however, prevent the Legislature from making such provision for the education and support of the blind,
the deaf and dumb, and juvenile delinquents, as to it may seem proper. Nor shall it apply to any fund or
property now held, or which may hereafter be held, by the State for educational purposes.
§ 10. [Counties, cities and towns not to give or loan money or credit; limitation of indebtedness.]-No
county, city, town or village shall hereafter give any money or property, or loan its money or credit to or
in aid of any individual, association or corporation, or become directly or indirectly the owner of stock
in, or bonds of, any association or corporation; nor shall any such county, city, town or village be
allowed to incur any indebtedness except for county, city, town or village purposes. This section shall
not prevent such county, city, town or village from making such provision for the aid or support of its
poor as may be authorized by law. No county or city shall be allowed to become indebted for any
purpose or in any manner to an amount which, including existing indebtedness, shall exceed ten per
centum of the assessed valuation of the real estate of such county or city subject to taxation, as it
appeared by the assessment rolls of said county or city on the last assessment for state or county taxes
prior to the incurring of such indebtedness; and all indebtedness in excess of such limitation, except such
as may now exist, shall be absolutely void, except as herein otherwise provided. No county or city
whose present indebtedness exceeds ten per centum of the assessed valuation of its real estate subject to
taxation, shall be allowed to become indebted in any further amount until such indebtedness shall be
reduced within such limit. This section shall not be construed to prevent the issuing of certificates of
indebtedness or revenue bonds issued in anticipation of the collection of taxes for amounts actually contamed,
or to be contained in the taxes for the year when such certificates or revenue bonds are issued and
payable out of such taxes.
Nor shall this section be construed to prevent the issue of bonds to provide for the supply of water; but
the term of the bonds issued to provide the supply of water shall not exceed twenty years, and a sinking
fund shall be created on the issuing of the said bonds for their redemption, by raising annually a sum
which will produce an amount equal to the sum of the principal and interest of said bonds at their
maturity. All certificates of indebtedness or revenue bonds issued in anticipation of the collection of
taxes, which are not retired within five years after their date of issue, and bonds issued to provide for the
supply of water, and any debt hereafter incurred by any portion or part of a city, if there shall be any
such debt, shall be included in ascertaining the power of the city to become otherwise indebted.
Whenever hereafter the boundaries of any city shall become the same as those of a county, the power of
the county to become indebted shall cease, but the debt of the county at that time existing shall not be
included as a part of the city debt. The amount hereafter to be raised by tax for county or city purposes,
in any county containing a city of over one hundred thousand inhabitants, or any such city of this State,
in addition to providing for the principal and interest of existing debt, shall not in the aggregate exceed
in any one year two per centum of the assessed valuation of the real and personal estate of such county
or city, to be ascertained as prescribed in this section in respect to county or city debt.
§ 11. [State board of charities; State commission in lunacy; State commission of prisons.]-The
Legislature shall provide for a State board of charities, which shall visit and inspect all institutions,
whether state, county, municipal, incorporated or not incorporated, which are of a charitable,
eleemosynary, correctional or reformatory character, excepting only such institutions as are hereby made
subject to the visitation and inspection of either of the commissions hereinafter mentioned, but including
all reformatories except those in which adult males convicted of felony shall be confined; a state
commission in lunacy, which shall visit and inspect all institutions, either public or private, used for the
care and treatment of the insane (not including institutions for epileptics or idiots); a state commission of
prisons which shall visit and inspect all institutions used for the detention of sane adults charged with or
convicted of crime, or detained as witnesses or debtors.
§ 12. [Boards appointed by governor.]-The members of the said board and of the said commissions shall
be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and any member may
be removed from office by the Governor for cause, an opportunity having been given him to be heard in
his defense.
§ 13. [Existing laws to remain in force.]-Existing laws relating to institutions referred to in the foregoing
sections and to their supervision and inspection, in so far as such laws are not inconsistent with the
provisions of the Constitution, shall remain in force until amended or repealed by the Legislature. The
visitation and inspection herein provided for, shall not be exclusive of other visitation and inspection
now authorized by law.
§ 14. [Maintenance and support of inmates of charitable institutions.]-Nothing in this Constitution
contained shall prevent the it Legislature from making such provision for the education and support of
the blind, the deaf and dumb, and juvenile delinquents, as to it may seem proper; or prevent any county,
city, town or village from providing for the care, support, maintenance and seen lar education, of
inmates of orphan asylums, homes for dependent children or correctional institutions, whether under
public or private control. Payments by counties, cities, towns and villages to charitable, eleemosynary,
correctional and reformatory institutions, wholly or partly under private control, for care, support and
maintenance, may be authorized, but shall not be required by the Legislature. No such payments shall be
made for any inmate of such institutions who is not received and retained therein pursuant to rules
established by the state board of charities. Such rules shall be subject to the control of the Legislature by
general laws.
§ 15. [Commissioners continued in office.]-Commissioners of the state board of charities and
commissioners of the state commission in lunacy, now holding office, shall be continued in office for
the term for which they were appointed, respectively, unless the Legislature shall otherwise provide. The
Legislature may confer upon the commissions and upon the board mentioned in the foregoing sections
any additional powers that are not inconsistent with the other provisions of the Constitution.
ARTICLE IX.
[Education.]
Section 1. [Common schools.]-The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a
system of free common schools, wherein all the children of this State may be educated.
§ 2. [Regents of the university.]-The corporation created in the year one thousand seven hundred and
eighty-four, under the name of The Regents of the University of the State of New York, is hereby
continued under the name of The University of the State of New York. It shall be governed and its
corporate powers, which may be increased, modified or diminished by the Legislature, shall be
exercised, by not less than nine regents.
§ 3. [Common school, literature and the United States deposit funds.]-The capital of the common school
fund, the capital of the literature fund, and the capital of the United States deposit fund, shall be
respectively preserved inviolate. The revenue of the said common school fund shall be applied to the
support of common schools; the revenue of the said literature fund shall be applied to the support of
academies; and the sum of twenty five thousand dollars of the revenues of the United States deposit fund
shall each year be appropriated to and made part of the capital of the said common school fund.
§ 4. [No aid to denominational schools.]-Neither the State nor any subdivision thereof, shall use its
property or credit or any public money, or authorize or permit either to be used, directly or indirectly, in
aid or maintenance, other than for examination or inspection, of any school or institution of learning
wholly or in part under the control or direction of any religious denomination, or in which any
denominational tenet or doctrine is taught.
ARTICLE X.
[Local Officers; General Provisions.]
Section 1. [Sheriffs, clerks of counties, district attorneys and registers; governor may remove.]-Sheriffs,
clerks of counties, district attorneys, and registers in counties having registers, shall be chosen by the
electors once in every three years and as often as vacancies shall happen, except in the counties of New
York and Kings, and in counties whose boundaries are the same as those of a city, where such officers
shall be chosen by the electors once in every two or four years as the legislature shall direct. Sheriffs
shall hold no other office, and be ineligible for the next term after the termination of their offices. They
may be required by law to renew their security, from time to time; and in default of giving such new
security, their offices shall be deemed vacant. But the county shall never be made responsible for the
acts of the sheriff. The Governor may remove any officer, in this section mentioned, within the term for
which he shall have been elected; giving to such officer a copy of the charges against him, and an
opportunity of being heard in his defense.
§ 2. [Appointment or election of officers, not provided for by this Constitution.]-All county officers,
whose election or appointment is not provided for by this Constitution, shall be elected by the electors of
the respective counties or appointed by the boards of supervisors, or other county authorities, as the
Legislature shall direct. All city, town and village officers, whose election or appointment is not
provided for by this Constitution, shall be elected by the electors of such cities, towns and villages, or of
some division thereof, or appointed by such authorities thereof, as the Legislature shall designate for that
purpose. All other officers, whose election or appointment is not provided for by this Constitution, and
all officers, whose offices may hereafter be created by law, shall be elected by the people, or appointed,
as the Legislature may direct.
§ 3. [Duration of term.]-When the duration of any office is not provided by this Constitution, it may be
declared by law, and if not so declared, such office shall be held during the pleasure of the authority
making the appointment.
§ 4. [Time of election.]-The time of electing all officers named in this article shall be prescribed by law.
§ 5. [Vacancies in office, how filled.]-The Legislature shall provide for filling vacancies in office, and in
case of elective officers, no person appointed to fill a vacancy shall hold his office by virtue of such
appointment longer than the commencement of the political year next succeeding the first annual
election after the happening of the vacancy.
§ 6. [Political year.]-The political year and legislative term shall begin on the first day of January; and
the Legislature shall, every year, assemble on the first Wednesday in January.
§ 7. [Removal from office for misconduct, etc.]-Provision shall be made by law for the removal for
misconduct or malversation in office of all officers, except judicial, whose powers and duties are not
local or legislative and who shall be elected at general elections, and also for supplying vacancies
created by such removal.
§ 8. [Office deemed vacant.]-The Legislature may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed
vacant when no provision is made for that purpose in this Constitution.
§ 9. [Compensation of officers.]-No officer whose salary is fixed by the Constitution shall receive any
additional compensation. Each of the other state officers named in the Constitution shall, during his
continuance in office, receive a compensation, to be fixed by law, which shall not be increased or
diminished during the term for which he shall have been elected or appointed; nor shall he receive to his
use any fees or perquisites of office or other compensation.
ARTICLE XI.
[Militia.]
Section 1. [State militia.]-All able-bodied male citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five
years, who are residents of the State, shall constitute the militia, subject however to such exemptions as
are now, or may be hereafter created by the laws of the United States, or by the Legislature of this State.
§ 2. [Enlistment.]-The Legislature may provide for the enlistment into the active force of such other
persons as may make application to be so enlisted.
§ 3. [Organization of militia.]-The militia shall be organized and divided into such land and naval, and
active and reserve forces, as the Legislature may deem proper, provided however that there shall be
maintained at all times a force of not less than ten thousand enlisted men, fully uniformed, armed,
equipped, disciplined and ready for active service. And it shall be the duty of the Legislature at each
session to make sufficient appropriations for the maintenance thereof.
§ 4. [Appointment of military officers by the governor.]-The Governor shall appoint the chiefs of the
several staff departments, his aides-de-camp and military secretary, all of whom shall hold office during
his pleasure, their commissions to expire with the term for which the Governor shall have been elected;
he shall also nominate, and with the consent of the Senate appoint, all major-generals.
§ 5. [Manner of election of military officers prescribed by legislature.]-All other commissioned and noncommissioned
officers shall be chosen or appointed in such manner as the Legislature may deem most
conducive to the improvement of the militia, provided however that no law shall be passed changing the
existing mode of election and appointment unless two-thirds of the members present in each house shall
concur therein.
§ 6. [Commissioned officers; their removal.]-The commissioned officers shall be commissioned by the
Governor as commander-in-chief. No commissioned officer shall be removed from office during the
term for which he shall have been appointed or elected, unless by the Senate on the recommendation of
the Governor, stating the grounds on which such removal is recommended, or by the sentence of a courtmartial,
or upon the findings of an examining board organized pursuant to law, or for absence without
leave for a period of six months or more.
ARTICLE XII.
[Cities and Villages.]
Section 1. [Organization; restriction of powers.]-It shall be the duty of the Legislature to provide for the
organization of cities and incorporated villages, and to restrict their power of taxation, assessment,
borrowing money, contracting debts, and loaning their credit, so as to prevent abuses in assessments. and
in contracting debt by such municipal corporation.
§ 2. [Classification of cities; general and special city laws; special city laws; how passed by legislature
and acceptance by cities.]-All cities are classified according to the latest State enumeration, as from time
to time made, as follows: The first class includes all cities having a population of two hundred and fifty
thousand or more; the second class, all cities having a population of fifty thousand and less than two
hundred and fifty thousand; the third class, all other cities. Laws relating to the property, affairs, or
government of cities, and the several departments thereof, are divided into general and special city laws;
general city laws are those which relate to all the cities of one or more classes; special city laws are
those which relate to a single city, or to less than all the cities of a class. Special city laws shall not be
passed except in conformity with the provisions of this section. After any bill for a special city law,
relating to a city, has been passed by both branches of the Legislature, the house in which it originated
shall immediately transmit a certified copy thereof to the mayor of such city, and within fifteen days
thereafter the mayor shall return such bill to the house from which it was sent, or if the session of the
Legislature at which such bill was passed has terminated, to the Governor, with the mayor's certificate
thereon, stating whether the city has or has not accepted the same.
In every city of the first class, the mayor, and in every other city, the mayor and the legislative body
thereof concurrently, shall act for such city as to such bill; but the Legislature may provide for the
concurrence of the legislative body in cities of the first class. The Legislature shall provide for a public
notice and opportunity for a public hearing concerning any such bill in every city to which it relates,
before action thereon. Such a bill, if it relates to more then one city, shall be transmitted to the mayor of
each city to which it relates, ad shall not be deemed accepted unless accepted as herein provided, by
every such city. Whenever any such bill is accepted as herein provided, it shall be subject as are other
bills, to the action of the Governor. Whenever, during the session at which it was passed, any such bill is
returned without the acceptance of the city or cities to which it relates, or within such fifteen days is not
returned, it may nevertheless again be passed by both branches of the Legislature, and it shall then be
subject as are other bills, to the action of the Governor. In every special city law which has been
accepted by the city or cities to which it relates, the title shall be followed by the words "accepted by the
city," or "cities," as the case may be; in every such law which is passed without such acceptance, by the
words "passed without the acceptance of the city," or "cities," as the case may be.
§ 3. [Election of city officers, when to be held; extension and abridgment of terms.]-All elections of city
officers, including supervisors and judicial officers of inferior local courts, elected in any city or part of
a city, and of county officers elected in the counties of New York and Kings, and in all counties whose
boundaries are the same as those of a city, except to fill vacancies, shall be held on the Tuesday
succeeding the first Monday in November in an odd-numbered year, and the term of every such officer
shall expire at the end of an odd-numbered year. The terms of office of all such officers elected before
the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, whose successors have not then
been elected, which under existing laws would expire with an even-numbered year, or in an oddnumbered
year and before the end thereof, are extended to and including the last day of December next
following the time when such terms would otherwise expire; the terms of office of all such officers,
which under existing laws would expire in an even-numbered year, and before the end thereof, are
abridged so as to expire at the end of the preceding year. This section shall not apply to any city of the
third class, or to elections of any judicial officer, except judges and justices of inferior local courts.
ARTICLE XIII.
[Official Oath; Bribery; Passes.]
Section 1. [Oath of office.]-Members of the Legislature, and all officers, executive and judicial, except
such inferior officers as shall be by law exempted shall, before they enter on the duties of their
respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm)
that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of New York,
and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of _____________, according to the best of
my ability;" and all such officers who shall have been chosen at any election shall, before they enter on
the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the oath or affirmation above prescribed,
together with the following addition thereto, as part thereof:
"And I do further solemnly swear (or affirm) that I have not directly or indirectly paid, offered or
promised to pay, contributed, or offered or promised to contribute any money or other valuable thing as
a consideration or reward for the giving or withholding a vote at the election at which I was elected to
said office, and have not made any promise to influence the giving or withholding any such vote," and
no other oath, declaration or test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust.
§ 2. [Official bribery and corruption.]-Any person holding office under the laws of this State, who,
except in payment of his legal salary, fees or perquisites, shall receive or consent to receive, directly or
indirectly, anything of value or of personal advantage, or the promise thereof, for performing or omitting
to perform any official act, or with the express or implied understanding that his official action or
omission to act is to be in any degree influenced thereby, shall be deemed guilty of a felony. This section
shall not affect the validity of any existing statute in relation to the offense of bribery.
§ 3. [Offer or promise to bribe.]-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 deemed guilty of an attempt to bribe,
which is hereby declared to be a felony.
§ 4. [Person bribed or offering a bribe may be a witness.]-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.
§ 5. [Free passes, franking privileges, etc., not to be received by public officers; penalty.]-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.
§ 6. [Removal of district attorney for failure to prosecute; expenses of prosecutions for bribery.]-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 XIV.
[ Amendments and Conventions.]
Section 1. [Amendments to Constitution, how proposed, voted upon and ratified.]-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, 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; and 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, then it shall be the duty of the Legislature to submit each proposed amendment or amendments to
the people for approval in such manner and at such times 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 the Constitution from and after the first
day of January next after such approval.
§ 2. [Future constitutional conventions; how called; election of delegates; compensation; quorum;
submission of amendments; officers; rules; vacancies; taking effect.]-At the general election to be held
in the year one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, and every twentieth year thereafter, and also at such
times as the Legislature may by law provide, the question, "Shall there be a convention to revise the
Constitution and amend the same?" shall be decided by the electors of the State; and 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 of April next ensuing after their 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 mileage 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 the 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,
employes 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
shall 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 at the time and in the manner provided by such convention, at an election which
shall be held not less than six weeks 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 amendment, shall go into effect on the first day of January next after
such approval.
§ 3. [Amendments of convention and legislature submitted coincidently.]-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 at the general election held in the year one thousand
eight hundred and ninety-four, or at any subsequent election, shall, if approved, be deemed to supersede
the amendment so proposed by the Legislature.
ARTICLE XV.
Section 1. [Time of taking effect.]-This Constitution shall be in force from and including the first day of
January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, except as herein otherwise provided.
Done in Convention at the Capitol in the city of Albany, the twenty ninth day of September, in the year
one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America
the one hundred and nineteenth.
In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our
names.
JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE,
President and Delegate at Large.
CHARLES ELLIOTT FITCH,
Secretary.
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