CHAPTER V.

Amendments to the Constitution of 1821.

Eight amendments to the Constitution of 1821 were adopted, as follows:

1. 1826. Extending the qualifications of voters.

2. 1826. Providing for the election of justices of the peace.

3. 1833. Reducing the duties on manufactured salt. 4. 1833. Providing for the election of mayor in the city of New York.

5. 1835. Restoring to the general fund the duties on manufactured salt, and on sales at auction, after the payment of a certain amount of the canal debt.

6. 1839. Providing for the election of mayors of cities.

7. 1845. Abolishing property qualifications of public officers.

8. 1845. Hearing on charges against judicial officers. 1st. Suffrage.-It is apparent that the people were not satisfied with the provision relating to suffrage, contained in the second Constitution. The debates in the Convention, to which we have already referred, show that there was a wide divergence of opinion on the question of the qualifications of voters, but, because the Constitution was submitted as a whole, there was no opportunity for the people to express their opinion directly concerning any particular provision.

Two years after the Constitution took effect, Governor De Witt Clinton, in his message to the legislature, January

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4, 1825, requested the attention of the legislature to a "more accurate definition, a more liberal extension, and a more secure enjoyment, of the elective franchise. Without the right of suffrage, liberty cannot exist. It is a vital principle of representative government, and it ought, therefore, to be effectually fortified against accident, design, or corruption." Referring to the classification of voters under the Constitution, he said: "This arrangement excludes a great body of citizens from the elective franchise." He pointed out some possible results of the system established by the Constitution, and said that "the right of a citizen ought not to be held at the pleasure of others, but should be fixed and unchangeable.” “The labor of a day on the highway, or the payment of a petty commutation, however meritorious in themselves, certainly do not furnish such high evidences of public service in the agents as to justify a monopoly of the elective franchise; and such, I am persuaded, is not the wish of that respectable portion of the community. I, therefore, submit to your consideration, whether the Constitution ought not to be so modified as to render citizenship, full age, and competent residence, the only requisite qualifications."

That part of the Governor's message relative to suffrage was referred to a select committee, which reported on the 18th of January, approving the Governor's suggestion, and recommending a constitutional amendment, providing for an extension of the qualifications of electors. The report considers the subject with considerable detail, reviewing the action of the late convention, and pointing out some defects which the new Constitution had developed by actual experience. The committee suggested that, in view of the fact that the new Constitution had been in operation only three years, there should be some hesitation in recommending changes; but that it is

"one of the soundest maxims of republicanism that 'without the right of suffrage, liberty cannot exist,' and that no time is improper to recommend a more accurate definition, a more liberal extension, and a more secure enjoyment of the elective franchise." Referring to the provision of the Constitution making labor on the highways a qualification of an elector, the committee remarked that the effect of this is to make the right to vote dependent on the option of the overseer of highways, who, in preparing the list, may include or exclude names, according to his whim or caprice, and thereby confer or deny the right of suffrage. The committee proposed an amendment eliminating all qualifications for white persons, except residence and citizenship, and requiring persons of color to be residents three years and possess a freehold worth $250. The resolution as finally adopted by the senate at this session, and concurred in by the assembly, swept away all property qualifications applicable to white voters, and made the simple and comprehensive declaration that "every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been an inhabitant of this state one year next preceding any election, and for the last six months a resident of the county where he may offer his vote, shall be entitled to vote in the town or ward where he actually resides, and not elsewhere, for all officers that now are or hereafter may be elective by the people."

2d. Election of justices of the peace.-Governor Clinton, in his annual message to the legislature, in 1825, also called attention to the method of choosing justices of the peace, established by the Constitution, and said:

"By the Constitution a complex mode of choosing justices of the peace, through the instrumentality of the supervisors of towns and judges of the county courts, is established. As this system has been found inexpedient in its operation, and exceptionable in all its important

bearings, I recommend such an alteration, through the forms of the Constitution, as shall bring the choice of those magistrates directly home to the people, in their primary assemblies. They are certainly much better judges of the claims and qualifications of their local magistrates than persons at a distance, and they have stronger inducements to make good selections."

The Governor's recommendations were referred to a select committee in the senate, which, on the 3d of February, 1825, reported unanimously in favor of the election of justices of the peace, and proposed an amendment to the Constitution to accomplish that result. This amendment was adopted by the senate, and concurred in by the assembly, and ratified by the people in November, 1826.

3d. Reducing the duties on manufactured salt.-By the canal act passed April 15, 1817, the minimum duty on manufactured salt was fixed at $.12% a bushel. By the constitutional amendment adopted in 1833 this minimum was reduced to $.06 a bushel.

4th. Election of mayor of the city of New York.By 10, article 4, of the Constitution, mayors of cities were to be appointed by the common councils. By the amendment adopted in 1833 the mayor of the city of New York was to be elected by the people.

5th. General fund.—Restoring to the general fund the duties on manufactured salt and on sales of goods at auction, after the payment of a certain amount of the canal debt, except $33,500, already appropriated for other purposes.

6th. Providing for the election of the mayors of cities. -The reform adopted for New York in 1833 was extended to other cities by an amendment ratified in 1839, giving the people in all cities the right to elect their own mayor.