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 to heirs, shall revert, or escheat to the people.

12. Feudal tenures.-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.

13. Allodial tenure.-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.

14. Limit of leases.-No lease or grant of agricultural land, for a longer period than twelve years, hereafter made, in which shall be reserved any rent or service of any kind, shall be valid.

15. Fines, quarter sales.-All fines, quarter sales, or other like restraints upon alienation reserved in any grant of land, hereafter to be made, shall be void.

16. Indian lands.-No purchase or contract for the sale of lands in this State made since the fourteenth day of October, one thousand seven hundred and seventyfive, 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.

17. Codification of laws.—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

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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on the twentieth day of April, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven, which have not since expired, or been repealed or altered; and such acts of the Legislature of this State as are now in force, shall be and continue the law of this State, subject to such alterations as the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; and the Legislature, at its first session after the adoption of this constitution, shall appoint three commissioners, whose duty it shall be to reduce into a written and systematic code the whole body of the law of this State, or so much and such parts thereof as to the said commissioners shall seem practicable and expedient. And the said commissioners shall specify such alterations and amendments therein as they shall deem proper, and they shall at all times make reports of their proceedings to the Legislature, when called upon to do so; and the Legislature shall pass laws regulating the tenure of office, the filling of vacancies therein, and the compensation of the said commissioners, and shall also provide for the publication of the said code, prior to its being: presented to the Legislature for adoption.

18. Grants of land.—All grants of land within the 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. ARTICLE II.-Voters.

1. Qualifications.-Every (1) male citizen (2) of the age of twenty-one years who shall have been (3) a citizen for ten days and (4) an inhabitant of this State one year next preceding an election, and (5) for the last four months a resident of the county and (6) for the last thirty days a resident of the election district in which he may offer his vote, shall be entitled to vote at such election in the election district of which he shall at the time be a resident, and not elsewhere, for all officers that now are or hereafter may be elective by the people, and upon all questions which may be submitted to the vote of the people, provided that in time of war no elector in the actual military service of the State, or of the United States, in the army or navy thereof, shall be deprived of his vote by reason of his absence from such election district; and the Legislature shall have power to provide the manner in which and the time and place at which such absent electors may vote, and for the return and canvass of their votes in the election districts in which they respectively reside.

2. Bribery.-No person who shall receive, expect or offer to receive, or pay, offer or promise to pay, con

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tribute, offer or promise to contribute to another, to be paid or used, any money or other valuable thing as a compensation or reward for the giving or withholding a vote at an election, or who shall make any promise to influence the giving or withholding 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, at the session thereof next after the adoption of this section, shall, and from time to time thereafter may, enact laws excluding from the right of suffrage all persons convicted of bribery or of any infamous crime.

3. 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 the high seas; nor while a student of any seminary of learning; nor while kept at any alms-house,

or other asylum, at public expense; nor while confined in any public prison.

4. Enactments.-Laws shall be made for ascertaining by proper proofs the citizens who shall be entitled to the right of sufferage hereby established.

5. Election by ballot.-All elections by the citizens shall be by ballot, except for such town officers as may by law be directed to be otherwise chosen.

ARTICLE III.-The Legislature.

1. Two Houses.-The legislative power of this State shall be vested in a Senate and Assembly.

2. How constituted.—The Senate shall consist of thirty-two members, and the Senators shall be chosen for two years. The Assembly shall consist of one hundred and twenty-eight members, who shall be annually elected.

3. Senate districts.-The Senate shall be divided into thirty-two districts, to be called Senate districts, each of which shall choose one Senator. The districts shall be numbered from one to thirty-two inclusive.*

4. How altered.—An enumeration of the inhabitants of the State shall be taken, under the direction of the Legislature, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, and at the end of every ten years thereafter; and the said districts shall be so altered by the Legislature, at the first 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 persons of color not taxed; and shall

*For existing Senate districts, see pages 52, 53, Northam's Civil Government.