Every male citizen of New York may vote who is twenty-one, who has been a citizen for ten days, who has lived in the State for a year, and for four months in the county in which he votes.  He can vote for all “officers that now are, or hereafter may be, elective by the people.”  Art, II.  Sec. 1.  “But,” the section goes on to say, “no man of color, unless he shall have been for three years a citizen of the State, and for one year next preceding any election shall have been possessed of a freehold estate of the value of 250 dollars, (50l.,) and shall have been actually rated, and paid a tax thereon, shall be entitled to vote at such election.”  This is the only embargo with which universal suffrage is laden in the State of New York.

The third article provides for the election of the Senate and the Assembly.  The Senate consists of thirty-two members.  And it may here be remarked that large as is the State of New York, and great as is its population, its Senate is less numerous than that of many other States.  In Massachusetts, for instance, there are forty Senators, though the population of Massachusetts is barely one-third that of New York.  In Virginia, there are fifty Senators, whereas the free population is not one-third of that of New York.  As a consequence, the Senate of New York is said to be filled with men of a higher class than are generally found in the Senates of other States.  Then follows in the article a list of the districts which are to return the Senators.  These districts consist of one, two, three, or in one case four counties, according to the population.

The article does not give the number of members of the Lower House, nor does it even state what amount of population shall be held as entitled to a member.  It merely provides for the division of the State into districts which shall contain an equal number, not of population, but of voters.  The House of Assembly does consist of 128 members.

It is then stipulated that every member of both houses shall receive three dollars a day, or twelve shillings, for their services during the sitting of the legislature; but this sum is never to exceed 300 dollars, or sixty pounds, in one year, unless an extra session be called.  There is also an allowance for the traveling expenses of members.  It is, I presume, generally known that the members of the Congress at Washington are all paid, and that the same is the case with reference to the legislatures of all the States.

No member of the New York legislature can also be a member of the Washington Congress, or hold any civil or military office under the General States government.

A majority of each House must be present, or, as the article says, “shall constitute a quorum to do business.”  Each House is to keep a journal of its proceedings.  The doors are to be open—­except when the public welfare shall require secrecy.  A singular proviso this in a country boasting so much of freedom!  For no speech or debate in either House, shall the legislator be called in question in any other place.  The legislature assembles on the first Tuesday in January, and sits for about three months.  Its seat is at Albany.