NEW YORK. 



545 



shall be prohibited, and to regulate the sale for 

 medicinal, mechanical, chemical, or sacramental 

 use, and so provide for the enforcement of this 

 act." This bill was vetoed by the Governor 

 on the 20th of May. In giving his reasons for 

 withholding his signature, Governor Dix said : 



I fully concur in the correctness of this proposi- 

 tion, us a matter both of principle and policy ; and I 

 have never doubted the propriety of adopting such 

 measures of legislation as are needed to secure the 

 result. It lies in the direction of popular liberty 

 of the right of the people to regulate their local af- 

 fairs in such manner as they deem essential to their 

 welfare. My chief objection to the bill is that it con- 

 tains a limitation of this principle. It leaves to the 

 people of the several cities and towns only a partial 

 and restricted option in deciding what it shall be 

 lawful to drink within their respective municipal 

 limits. It compels them to prohibit absolutely, or 

 virtually, to accept by declining to prohibit every 

 beverage, which can by possibility intoxicate. It 

 permits them to express their wishes on a single 

 proposition, but precludes such an expression on any 

 other. It says to them in substance : If you wish to 

 prohibit the use of ardent spirits within your limits, 

 you must prohibit ale, beer, and cider, also; fur 

 these have, by a decision of the Court of Appeals, 

 been classed with intoxicating liquors. If, on the 

 other band, you wish the inhabitants of your town or 

 city to have the privilege of drinking beer or cider, 

 you cannot have it unless you make the use of ardent 

 spirits equally free from restriction. You must pro- 

 hibit all or none: you cannot have the one without 

 the other. * * * The bill, therefore, while profess- 

 ing to leave to the people the largest liberty in this 

 respect, restricts them to the narrowest ; they are not 

 permitted to have a choice as to what beverages it 

 shall be lawful to use within their respective bounda- 

 ries. The bill is framed in the interest of restric- 

 tion, and not of freedom of choice. I deem this nar- 

 row view of the subject exceedingly unwise. A 

 wide difference of opinion prevails among the people 

 of the State in regard to the propriety of distinguish- 

 ing between ardent spirits and the lighter beverages, 

 some of which do not intoxicate unless taken in un- 

 comfortable quantities, and which, in countries where 

 they are in general use, have proved a restraint 

 upon the consumption of spirituous liquors, and, to 

 a great extent, a safeguard against the prevalence of 

 intemperance. I do not assume to decide which class 

 of thinkers baa the right side of the question. But 

 a just toleration of the freedom of opinion ought to 

 restrain the advocates of either from attempting to 

 maintain their position by compulsion. It is in this 

 view that I deem the provisions of the bill indefen- 

 sible. 



This action of the Governor pave rise to 

 some rather violent animadversions in the 

 House, but the attempt to pass the bill over 

 his veto failed, the vote standing 2 yeas to 60 

 nays. A motion to recommit with instruc- 

 ting to exempt lager beer from its operation 

 was lost by a vote of 42 to 78. 



An act known as " the Civil Rights Bill " was 

 passed on the 9th of April. It provides that 

 " no citizen of this State shall by reason of 

 race, color, or previous condition of servitude, 

 be excepted or excluded from the full and equal 

 enjoyment of any accommodation, advantage, 

 facility, or privilege, furnished by * * * li- 

 censed owners, managers, or lessees, of thea- 

 tres, or other places of amusements," etc. An 

 act amending the law in relation to the crime 

 of murder makes it impossible to convict of 

 vot. xiii. 88 A 



murder, in the first degree, unless there is clear 

 proof of a deliberate and premeditated design. 

 It has been claimed that the effect of this law is 

 virtually to abolish the death-penalty. It 

 makes murder in the second degree homicide 

 intentionally committed, but without delibera- 

 tion or premeditation, and the penalty is im- 

 prisonment for life. In two cases, tried since 

 the law went into operation, in the city of 

 New York, in which the homicide was appar- 

 ently intentional, verdicts were rendered of 

 manslaughter in the third degree. 



Among the other bills passed was one re- 

 moving from office the police justices in the 

 city of New York, who were elected by the 

 people, and authorizing the mayor to fill their 

 places by appointment ; and an act to regulate 

 the rate of interest and prevent usury. This 

 latter act repeals the old usury law, and makes 

 the penalty for contracting for a higher rate 

 of interest than seven per cent, a forfeiture of 

 the interest only instead of the whole amount 

 of the debt. The question of granting the 

 privilege of voting to " tax-paying female citi- 

 zens " was referred to the Judiciary Committee 

 in the Senate, with instructions to report an 

 amendment to the constitution, but nothing 

 was done. 



The commission appointed to prepare and 

 submit to the Legislature such amendments to 

 the constitution of the State as they might 

 deem expedient, held sessions at Albany dur- 

 ing the winter of 18Y2-'73, and finally com- 

 pleted their work on the 14th of March. The 

 report of the commission embodying the pro- 

 posed changes was immediately transmitted to 

 the Legislature. No change was made in Ar- 

 ticle I. In section 1 of Article II. the dis- 

 crimination against colored citizens was re- 

 moved. Section 2 provides against bribery at 

 elections as follows : 



SECTION 2. No person shall receive, expect, or offer 

 to receive or pay, offer or promise to pay, contribute, 

 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 withhold- 

 ing a vote at an election, or who shall make any 

 promise to influence the giving or withholding of 

 any such vote, or who shall make or become directly 

 or indirectly interested in any bet or wager depend- 

 ing upon the result of any election, shall vote at such 

 election; and upon challenge for such cause, the 

 person so challenged, before the inspectors or other 

 officers authorized for that purpose receive his vote, 

 shall swear or affirm before such inspectors or other 

 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 contrib- 

 ute to another to be paid or used, any money or oth- 

 er valuable thing as a compensation or reward tor 

 the giving or withholding a vote at such election, 

 and has not made any promise to influence the giv- 

 ing 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 any 

 infamous crime. 



In Article III. the organization of the Legis- 



