of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. [The three following sections were proposed as amend ments at the first session of the eighth congress. They are printed in the Laws of the United States as article 12.] ARTICLE XII. 1. The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for president and vice-president, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. They shall name in their ballots the person voted for as president, and in distinct ballots, the person voted for as vice-president; and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as president, and of all persons voted for as vice-president, and of the number of votes for each; which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the president of the senate. The president of the senate shall, in the presence of the senate and house of representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes for president, shall be the president, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as president, the house of representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the president. But, in choosing the president, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the house of representatives shall not choose a president whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the vice-president shall act as president, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the president. 2. The person having the greatest number of votes as vice-president shall be the vice-president, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the senate shall choose the vice-president. A quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. 3. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president, shall be eligible to that of vice-president of the United States. ARTICLE XIII. 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. [In the edition of the Laws of the U. S., before referred to, there is an amendment printed as article 13, prohibiting citizens from accepting titles of nobility or honor, or presents, offices, etc., from foreign nations. But, by a message of the president of the United States, of the 4th of February, 1818, in answer to a resolution of the house of representatives, it appears that this amendment had been ratified only by twelve states, and therefore had not been adopted. See vol. iv. of the printed papers of the 1st session of the fifteenth congress, No. 76.] ARTICLE XIV. [The five following sections were proposed as an amendment to the Constitution at the first session of the thirty-ninth Congress. Under date of July twentieth, 1868, Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, certifies that, from official documents on file in the State Department. it appears, that such amendment has been ratified by the Legislatures of the States of Connecticut, New Hampshire, Tennessee, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Nebraska and Iowa - also by the newly constituted Legislatures of the States of Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina and Alabama making twenty-nine out of the whole number of States, to wit: thirty-seven; that the Legislatures of the States of Ohio and New Jersey have, prior to July 20, 1868, filed in the State Department resolutions withdrawing the consent of said States to said amendment. The certificate of Secretary Seward concludes as follows: "That if the resolutions of the Legislatures of Ohio and New Jersey ratifying the aforesaid amendment are to be deemed as remaining of full force and effect notwithstanding the subsequent resolutions of the Legislatures of those States, which purport to withdraw the consent of said States from such ratification, then the aforesaid amendment has been ratified in the manner herein before mentioned, and so has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the Constitution of the United States." Both Houses of Congress having on the 21st day of July, 1868, adopted concurrent resolutions declaring the ratification of the fourteenth article of amendment of the constitution of the United States. by the requisite number of States, and that the same be duly promulgated by the Secretary of State, Secretary Seward, under date of July 28, 1868, certifies to the ratification of the amendment by the Legislatures of the aforementioned States, and in addition by the Legislature of the State of Georgia, and that said amendment has become a part of the constitution. It is understood that the consent of the Legislature of Oregon, has since been withdrawn, and the validity of the consent of the Legislatures of the States of Georgia and West Virginia thereto, is questioned.] SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. SECTION 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for president and vice-president of the United States, representatives in congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participa tion in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state. SECTION 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in congress, or elector of president and vice-president, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who having previously taken an oath as a member of congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; but congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability. SECTION 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void. SECTION 5. The congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. Adopted November 3, 1846. ARTICLE I. SECTION 1. No person to be disfranchised. SEC. 2. Trial by jury. SEC. 3. Religious liberty. SEC. 4. Writ of habeas corpus. SEC. 5. Bail, fines. SEC. 6. Grand jury. SEC. 7. Private property-Private roads. SEC. 10. Right of petition-Divorces-Lotteries. SEC. 12. Feudal tenures abolished. SEC. 13. Allodial tenure. SEC. 14. Certain leases invalid. SEC. 15. Fines and quarter sales abolished. SEC. 16. Sale of lands. SEC. 17. Old colony laws and acts of the Legislature - Common lawCommissioners to be appointed—their duties. SEC. 18. Grants of land since 1775-Prior grants. ARTICLE II. SECTION 1. Qualification of voters-Freehold required for man of color. SEC. 2. Persons excluded from right of suffrage. |