three years must elapse before they can be again capable of serving. Sheriffs shall annually renew their bonds. 8. Justices of the peace shall be elected by ballot at the annual meetings of the townships in the several counties of the State, and of the wards in cities that may vote in wards, in such manner and under such regulations as may be hereafter provided by law. They shall be commissioned for the county, and their commissions shall bear date and take effect on the first day of May next after their election. They shall hold their offices for five years; but when elected to fill vacancies, they shall hold for the unexpired term only; provided, that the commission of any justice of the peace shall become vacant upon his ceasing to reside in the township in which he was elected. The first election for justices of the peace shall take place at the next annual town-meetings of the townships in the several counties of the State and of the wards in cities that may vote in wards. 9. All other officers, whose appointments are not otherwise provided for by law, shall be nominated by the governor, and appointed by him, with the advice and consent of the senate; and shall hold their offices for the time prescribed by law. 10. All civil officers elected or appointed pursuant to the provisions of this constitution, shall be commissioned by the governor. 11. The term of office of all officers elected or appointed, pursuant to the provisions of this constitution, except when herein otherwise directed, shall commence on the day of the date of their respective commissions; but no commission for any office shall bear date prior to the expiration of the term of the incumbent of said office. ARTICLE VIII GENERAL PROVISIONS 1. The secretary of state shall be ex officio an auditor of the accounts of the treasurer, and as such, it shall be his duty to assist the legislature in the annual examination and settlement of said accounts, until otherwise provided by law. 2. The seal of the State shall be kept by the governor, or person administering the government, and used by him officially, and shall be called the great seal of the State of New Jersey. 3. All grants and commissions shall be in the name and by the authority of the State of New Jersey, sealed with the great seal, signed by the governor, or person administering the government, and countersigned by the secretary of state, and it shall run thus: "The State of New Jersey, to greeting." All writs shall be in the name of the State; and all indictments shall conclude in the following manner, viz., " against the peace of this State, the government and dignity of the same." 4. This constitution shall take effect and go into operation on the second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-four. ARTICLE IX AMENDMENTS Any specific amendment or amendments to the constitution may be proposed in the senate or general 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 then next to be chosen, and shall be published for three months previous to making such choice, in at least one newspaper of each county, if any be published therein; and if in the legislature next chosen as aforesaid, such proposed amendment or amendments, or any of them, 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 amendments, or such of them as may have been agreed to as aforesaid by the two legislatures, to the people, in such manner and at such time, at least four months after the adjournment of the legislature, as the legislature shall prescribe; and if the people at a special election to be held for that purpose only, shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments, or any of them, by a majority of the electors qualified to vote for members of the legislature voting thereon, such amendment or amendments so approved and ratified shall become part of the constitution; provided, that if more than one amendment be submitted, they shall be submitted in such manner and form that the people may vote for or against each amendment separately and distinctly; but no amendment or amendments shall be submitted to the people by the legislature oftener than once in five years. ARTICLE X SCHEDULE That no inconvenience may arise from the change in the constitution of this State, and in order to carry the same into complete operation, it is hereby declared and ordained, that 1. The common law and the statute laws now in force, not repugnant to this constitution, shall remain in force until they expire by their own limitation, or be altered or repealed by the legislature; and all writs, actions, causes of action, prosecutions, contracts, claims and rights of individuals and of bodies corporate, and of the State, and all charters of incorporation, shall continue, and all indictments which shall have been found, or which may hereafter be found, for any crime or offense committed before the adoption of this constitution, may be proceeded upon as if no change had taken place. The several courts of law and equity, except as herein otherwise provided, shall continue with the like powers and jurisdiction as if this constitution had not been adopted. 2. All officers now filling any office or appointment shall continue in the exercise of the duties thereof, according to their respective commissions or appointments, unless by this constitution it is otherwise directed. 3. The present governor, chancellor and ordinary or surrogategeneral and treasurer shall continue in office until successors elected or appointed under this constitution shall be sworn or affirmed into office. 4. In case of the death, resignation or disability of the present governor, the person who may be vice-president of council at the time of the adoption of this constitution shall continue in office and administer the government until a governor shall have been elected and sworn or affirmed into office under this constitution. 5. The present governor, or in case of his death or inability to act. the vice-president of council, together with the present members of the legislative council and secretary of state, shall constitute a board of state canvassers, in the manner now provided by law, for the purpose of ascertaining and declaring the result of the next ensuing election for governor, members of the house of representatives, and electors of president and vice-president. 6. The returns of the votes for governor, at the said next ensuing election, shall be transmitted to the secretary of state, the votes counted, and the election declared in the manner now provided by law in the case of the election of electors of president and vicepresident. 7. The election of clerks and surrogates, in those counties where the term of office of the present incumbent shall expire previous to the general election of eighteen hundred and forty-five, shall be held at the general election next ensuing the adoption of this constitution; the result of which election shall be ascertained in the manner now provided by law for the election of sheriffs. 8. The elections for the year eighteen hundred and forty-four shall take place as now provided by law. 9. It shall be the duty of the governor to fill all vacancies in office happening between the adoption of this constitution and the first session of the senate, and not otherwise provided for, and the commissions shall expire at the end of the first session of the senate, or when successors shall be elected or appointed and qualified. 10. The restriction of the pay of members of the legislature, after forty days from the commencement of the session, shall not be applied to the first legislature convened under this constitution. 11. Clerks of counties shall be clerks of the inferior courts of common pleas and quarter sessions of the several counties, and perform the duties, and be subject to the regulations now required of them by law until otherwise ordained by the legislature. 12. The legislature shall pass all laws necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this constitution. STATE OF NEW JERSEY: I. George Wurts, Secretary of State of the State of New Jersey, do hereby certify the foregoing to be a true copy of the Constitution of the State of New Jersey as amended, as the same is taken from and compared with the original Constitution and amendments thereto, now remaining on file in my office. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my official seal, this twenty-sixth day of October, A. D. eighteen hundred and ninety-seven. GEORGE WURTS. [L. S.] NEW MEXICO For organic acts relating to the land now included within New Mexico see in this work : Mexican Constitution, 1824 (Texas, p. 3475). Constitution of Coahuila and Texas, 1827 (Texas, p. 3495). Texas Declaration of Independence, 1836 (Texas, p. 3528). Convention with Texas, 1838 (Texas, p. 3543). Annexation of Texas, 1845 (Texas, p. 3544). Admission of Texas, 1845 (Texas, p. 3546). Mexican Treaty of Cession, 1853 (Arizona, p. 255). TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT OF NEW MEXICO-1850 @ [THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION] An Act proposing to the State of Texas the Establishment of her Northern and Western Boundaries, the Relinquishment by the said State of all Territory claimed by her exterior to said Boundaries, and of all her Claims upon the United States, and to establish a territorial Government for New Mexico. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following propositions shall be, and the same hereby are, offered to the State of Texas, which, when agreed to by the said State, in an act passed by the general assembly, shall be binding and obligatory upon the United States, and upon the said State of Texas: Provided, The said agreement by the said general assembly shall be given on or before the first day of December, eighteen hundred and fifty: For other statutes of an organic nature relating to New Mexico, see to provide for extra sessions of legislature, March 3, 1853; to extend southern boundary, August 4, 1854; to prohibit slavery in, June 19, 1862; to regulate elective franchise in, January 25, 1867; to prohibit special acts of incorporation, March 2, 1867; to abolish and forever prohibit the system of peonage in, March 2, 1867; to make valid certain laws of, March 26, 1867; to give qualified veto power to governor and to extend the duties of the secretary of the Territory, July 27, 1868; to repeal law taxing cattle, April 10, 1869; to amend a Territorial law, July 14, 1870; to convene legislative assembly, April 20, 1871; to limit the duration of legislative sessions and to fix pay of members, January 23, 1873; to repeal law of Territory incorporating the Jesuit Fathers, February 3, 1879; to fix number of members and compensation of each house of legislature, June 19, 1878, June 27, 1879; to legalize an election and to reapportion members of legislature, December 21, 1881; to limit sessions of legislature, February 14, 1884; to limit legislature's power to pass special acts of incorporation, March 3, 1885; to prohibit various forms of special legislation, July 30, 1886; to reorganize courts, February 28, 1887; to permit erection of counties, July 19, 1888; to grant control of liquor traffic, August 8, 1890; to permit appeals to circuit court of appeals, March 3, 1891; to make valid certain bond issues, January 16, 1897. First. The State of Texas will agree that her boundary on the north shall commence at the point at which the meridian of one hundred degrees west from Greenwich is intersected by the parallel of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, and shall run from said point due west to the meridian of one hundred and three degrees west from Greenwich; thence her boundary shall run due south to the thirty-second degree of north latitude; thence on the said parallel of thirty-two degrees of north latitude to the Rio Bravo del Norte, and thence with the channel of said river to the Gulf of Mexico. Second. The state of Texas cedes to the United States all her claim to territory exterior to the limits and boundaries which she agrees to establish by the first article of this agreement. Third. The State of Texas relinquishes all claim upon the United States for liability of the debts of Texas, and for compensation or indemnity for the surrender to the United States of her ships, forts, arsenals, custom-houses, custom-house revenue, arms and munitions of war, and public buildings with their sites, which became the property of the United States at the time of the annexation. Fourth. The United States, in consideration of said establishment of boundaries, cession of claim to territory, and relinquishment of claims, will pay to the State of Texas the sum of ten millions of dollars in a stock bearing five per cent. interest, and redeemable at the end of fourteen years, the interest payable half-yearly at the treasury of the United States. Fifth. Immediately after the President of the United States shall have been furnished with an authentic copy of the act of the general assembly of Texas accepting these propositions, he shall cause the stock to be issued in favor of the State of Texas, as provided for in the fourth article of this agreement: Provided, also, That no more than five millions of said stock shall be issued until the creditors of the State holding bonds and other certificates of stock of Texas for which duties on imports were specially pledged, shall first file at the treasury of the United States releases of all claim against the United States for or on account of said bonds or certificates in such form as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury and approved by the President of the United States: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to impair or qualify anything contained in the third article of the second section of the "joint resolution for annexing Texas to the United States," approved March first, eighteen hundred and forty-five, either as regards the number of States that may hereafter be formed out of the State of Texas, or otherwise. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That all that portion of the Territory of the United States bounded as follows: Beginning at a point in the Colorado River where the boundary line with the republic of Mexico crosses the same; thence eastwardly with the said boundary line to the Rio Grande; thence following the main channel of said river to the parallel of the thirty-second degree of north latitude; thence east with said degree to its intersection with the one hundred and third degree of longitude west of Greenwich; thence north with said degree of longitude to the parallel of thirty-eighth degree of north latitude; thence west with said parallel to the summit of the Sierra Madre; thence south with the crest of said mountains |