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. SECTION 13. Every law which imposes, continues or revives a tax, shall Acts imdistinctly state the tax and the object to which it is to be posing tax. applied, and it shall not be sufficient to refer to any other law to fix such tax or object. SECTION 14. On the final passage in either house of the legislature of Ibid. every 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 ayes and noes, which shall be duly entered on 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. 8 N. Y., 241, 317; 13 N. Y., 143; 19 N. Y., 116; 17 N. Y., 235. ARTICLE VIII. tions, how Corporations may be formed under general laws; but shall Corpora not be created by special act, except for municipal purposes, created. 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 All general laws and special acts passed pursuant to this section may be altered from time to time, or repealed. 26 B., 657; 15 B., 657; 16 B., 188; 20 B., 119. corpora Dues from corporations shall be secured by such individual Debts of liability of the corporators and other means, as may be pre- tions. scribed by law. SECTION 3. tions de The term corporation, as used in this article, shall be con- "Corpora strued to include all associations and joint stock companies aned. 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. 14 B., 559; 6 Pai., 554; 14 B., 405; 1 B. C. R., 547. ters. The legislature shall have no power to pass any act granting Bank charany special charter for banking purposes; but corporations or associations may be formed for such purposes under general laws. Specie pay ments. Bank notes. Individual liability of ers. SECTION 5. 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. SECTION 6. 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. SECTION 7. The stockholders in every corporation and joint stock assostockhold ciation for banking purposes, issuing bank notes or any kind of paper credits, to circulate as money, after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty, 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 contracted after said first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty. 8 Cow., 387; 24 W., 473; 18 N. Y., 199. SECTION 8. Bill holders. In case of the insolvency of any bank or banking association, the bill-holders thereof shall be entitled to preference in payment over all other creditors of such bank or association. Cities and villages. Funds for SECTION 9. 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 corporations. 10 W., 547; 5 H., 121; 15 N. Y., 297, 532; 18 N. Y., 38; 24 B., 446, 232. ARTICLE IX. SECTION 1. The capital of the common school fund, the capital of the education. literature fund, and the capital of the United States deposit fund shall be respectively preserved inviolate. The revenues of the said common school fund shall be applied to the support of common schools; the revenues 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 a part of the capital of the said common school fund. 13 B., 400. ARTICLE X. SECTION 1. Sheriffs, clerks of counties, including the register, and clerk County of the city and county of New York, coroners, and district officers. attorneys shall be chosen by the electors of the respective counties once in every three years, and as often as vacancies shall happen. Sheriff's shall hold no other office, and be ineligible for the next three years 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 defence. 2 W., 266; 11 W., 511. SECTION 2. officers. town offi All county officers whose election or appointment is not County 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 City and or appointment is not provided for by this constitution, shall cers. 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 pro- Other offivided 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. 25 B., 532; 15 N. Y., 532; 2 B., 517; 7 B., 30. cers. office. When the duration of any office is not provided by this Duration of 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. SECTION 4. election. The time of electing all officers named in this article shall Time of be prescribed by law. SECTION 5. The legislature shall provide for filling vacancies in office, Vacancies. 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. 24 W., 215. Political year. Removals SECTION 6. The political year and legislative term shall begin on the first day of January, and the legislature shall, every year, assemble on the first Tuesday in January, unless a different day shall be appointed by law. SECTION 7. Provision shall be made by law for the removal for misconfrom office. duct 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. When office vacant. Militia. Militia officers, how ap pointed. Ibid. office. · SECTION 8. 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. ARTICLE XI. SECTION 1. The militia of this state shall, at all times hereafter, be armed and disciplined and in readiness for service; but all such inhabitants of this state of any religious denomination whatever, as from scruples of conscience may be averse to bearing arms, shall be excused therefrom upon such conditions as shall be prescribed by law. SECTION 2. Militia officers shall be chosen or appointed as follows: Captains, subalterns and non-commissioned officers shall be chosen by the written votes of the members of their respective companies. Field officers of regiments and separate battalions by the written votes of the commissioned officers of the respective regiments and separate battalions; brigadier-generals and brigadge inspectors by the field officers of their respective brigades; major-generals, brigadier-generals and commanding officers of regiments or separate battalions, shall appoint the staff officers to their respective divisions, brigades, regiments or separate battalions. SECTION 3. The governor shall nominate, and with the consent of the senate, appoint all major-generals and the commissary-general. Tenure of The adjutant-general and other chiefs of staff departments, and the aids-de-camp of the commander-in-chief shall be appointed by the governor, and their commissions shall expire with the time for which the governor shall have been elected. The commissary-general shall hold his office for two years. He shall give security for the faithful execution of the duties of his office, in such manner and amount as shall be prescribed by law. SECTION 4. manner of The legislature shall, by law, direct the time and manner of Time and electing militia officers, and of certifying their elections to the election. governor. SECTION 5. how com moved. The commissioned officers of the militia shall be commis- officers, sioned by the governor; and no commissioned officer shall be missioned. removed from office unless by the Senate, on the recommenda- And retion of the governor, stating the grounds on which such removal is recommended, or by the decision of a court-martial, pursuant to law. The present officers of the militia shall hold their commissions, subject to removal, as before provided. SECTION 6. may be In case the mode of election and appointment of militia Election officers hereby directed, shall not be found conducive to the abolished. improvement of the militia, the legislature may abolish the same, and provide by law for their appointment and removal, if two-thirds of the members present in each house shall concur therein. ARTICLE XII. SECTION 1. Members of the legislature, and all officers, executive and Oath of judicial, except such inferior officers as may be by law office. 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, as the case may be) 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 no other oath, declaration, or test, shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust. ARTICLE XIII. SECTION 1. ments. Any amendment or amendments to this constitution may be Amendproposed 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 with 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 such proposed amendment or |