ENCOURAGEMENT OF LITERATURE, &c. KNOWLEDGE and Learning, generally diffused through a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government; and spreading the opportunities and advantages of education through the various parts of the country, being highly conducive to promote this end; it shall be the duty of the Legislators and Magistrates, in all future periods of this government, to cherish the interest of Literature and the Sciences and all seminaries and public schools, to encourage private and public institutions, rewards and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benovolence, public and private charity, industry and economy, honesty and punctuality, sincerity, sobriety, and all social affections, and generous sentiments, among the people

OATH and Subscriptions; Exclusion from Offices; Commissions; Writs; Confirmation of Laws; Habeas Corpus; the Enacting Stile; Continuance of Officers; Provision for a future Revision of the Constitution, &c. ANY person chosen Governor, Councillor, Senator, or Representative, military or civil officer, (town officers excepted) accepting the trust, shall before he proceeds to execute the duties of his office, make and subscribe the following Declaration, viz.

I, A. B. do solemnly swear, that I will bear faith and true allegiance to the State of New-Hampshire, and will support the Constituiton thereof. So help me God.

I, A. B. do solemnly and sincerely swear and affirm, that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me as according

to the best of my abilities, agreeably to the rules and regulations of this Constitution, and the laws of the State of New-Hampshire. So help me God.

Any person having taken and subscribed the oath of allegiance, and the same being filed in the Secretary's office, he shall not be obliged to take said oath again.

Provided always, When any person chosen or appointed as aforesaid, shall be of the denomination called Quakers, or shall be scrupulous of swearing, and shall decline taking the said caths, such shall take and subscribe them, omitting the word swear and likewise the words So help me God, subjoining instead thereof, This I do under the pains and penalties of perjury.

And the oaths or affirmations shall be taken and subscribed by the Governor, before the President of the Senate, in presence of both Houses of the Legislature, and by the Senators and Representatives first elected under this Constitution, as altered and amended, before the President of the State, and a majority of the Council then in office, and for ever afterwards before the Governor and Council for the time being; and by all other officers, before such persons, and in such manner, as the Legislature shall from time to time appoint.

All commissions shall be in the name of the State of New-Hampshire, signed by the Governor, and attested by the Secretary or his Deputy, and shall have the great seal of the State affixed thereto.

All writs issuing out of the Clerk's office in any of the Courts of Law, shall be in the name of the State of New-Hampshire; shall be under the seal of the Court whence they issue, and bear test of the chief, first, or senior justice of the Court; but when such Justice shall be interested, then the writ shall bear test of some other Justice of the Court, to which the same shall be returnable, and be signed by the Clerk of such Court.

All indictments, presentments, and informations, shall conclude against the peace and dignity of the State.

The estate of such persons as may destroy their own lives, shall not for that offence be forfeited, but descend or ascend in the same manner, as if such persons had died in a natural way. Nor shall any article which shall accidentally occasion the death of any person, be henceforth deemed a deodand, or in any wise forfeited on account of such misfortune.

All the laws which have heretofore been adopted, used, and approved, in the Province Colony, or State of New-Hampshire, and usually practised on in the Courts

of

of Law, shall remain and be in full force, until altered and repealed by the Legislature; such parts thereof only excepted, as are repugnant to the rights and liberties contained in this Constitution: Provided that nothing herein contained when compared with the 23d Article in the Bill of Rights, shall be construed to affect the laws already made respecting the persons, or estates, of ab

sentees.

The privilege and benefit of the Habeas Corpus shall be enjoyed in this State, in the most free, easy, cheap, expeditious and ample manner, and shall not be suspended by the Legislature, except upon the most urgent and pressing occasions, and for a time not exceeding three

months.

The enacting stile in making and passing acts, statutes, and laws, shall be-Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened.

No Governor, or Judge of the Supreme Judicial Court, shall hold any office or place under the authority of this State, except such as by this Constitution they are admitted to hold, saving that the Judges of the said Court may hold the offices of Justice of the Peace throughout the State; nor shall they hold any place or office, or receive any pension or salary, from any other state, government, or power whatever.

No person shall be capable of exercising, at the same time, more than one of the following offices within this State, viz. Judge of Probate, Sheriff, Register of Deeds; and never more than two offices of profit, which may be held by appointment of the Governor, or Governor and Council, or Senate and House of Representatives, or Superior or Inferior Courts, military offices, and, offices of Justice of the Peace, excepted.

No person holding the office of Judge of any Court, (except Special Judges)Secretary, Treasurer of the State, Attorney-General, Commissary-General, military officers receiving pay from the Continent or this&tate, (excepting officers of the militia, occasionally called forth on an emergency Register of Deeds,Sheriff,or officers of the customs,

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including naval officers, collectors of excise, and state and continental taxes, hereafter appointed, and not having settled their accounts with the respective officers with whom it is their duty to settle such accounts, members of Congress, or any person holding any office under the United States, shall at the same time hold the office of Governor, or have a seat in the Senate, or House of Representatives, or Council; but his being chosen and appointed to, and accepting the same, shall operate as a resignation of his seat in the Chair, Senate, or House of Representatives, or Council: and the place so vacated shall be filled up. No member of the Council shall have a Seat in the Senate or House of Representatives.

No person shall ever be admitted to hold a seat in the Legislature, or any office of trust or importance under this government, who, in the due course of law, has been convicted of bribery or corruption, in obtaining an election or appointment.

In all cases, where sums of money are mentioned in this Constitution, the value thereof shall be computed in silver at six shillings and eight pence per ounce.

To the end that there may be no failure of justice, or danger to the State, by the alterations and amendments made in the Constitution, the General Court is hereby fully authorised and directed to fix the time when the alterations and amendments shall take effect, and make the necessary arrangements accordingly.

It shall be the duty of the Selectmen, and assessors, of the several towns and places in this State, in warning the first annual meeting for the choice of Senators, after the expiration of seven years from the adoption of this Constitution, as amended, to insert expressly in the warrant, this purpose, among the others for the meeting, to wit, to take the sense of the qualified voters on the subject of a revision of the Constitution; and the meeting being warned accordingly, and not otherwise, the Moderator shall take the sense of the qualified voters present, as to the necessity of a revision; and a return of the number of votes for and against such necessity, shall be made by the Clerk, sealed up, and directed to the

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General Court at their next session; and if it shall appear to the General Court by such return, that the sense of the people of the State has been taken, and that, in the opinion of the majority of the qualified voters in the State, present and voting at said meetings, there is a necessity for a revision of the Constitution, it shall be the duty of the General Court to call a Convention for that purpose, otherwise the General Court shall direct the sense of the people to be taken, and then proceed in the manner before mentioned. The delegates to be chosen in the same manner, and proportioned, as the Representatives to the General Court, provided that no alterations shall be made in this Constitution, before the same shall be laid before the towns and unincorporated places, and approved by two-thirds of the qualified voters present and voting on the subject.

And the same method of taking the sense of the people, as to a revision of the Constitution, and calling a Convention for that purpose, shall be observed afterwards at the expiration of every seven years.

This Form of Government shall be enrolled on parchment, and deposited in the Secretary's office, and be a part of the laws of the land; and printed copies thereof shall be prefixed to the books containing the laws of this State in all future editions thereof.

JOHN PICKERING, President, P. T.

Attest, JOHN CALF, Secretary.