shoes, etc.

for refusal

precinct and district, a number of persons not less than three as collectors of shoes and stockings who are hereby authorized and required to collect from the several inhabitants the number of shoes and stockings which by the assessors shall have been so determined on as aforesaid and the said inhabitants shall be allowed for every pair of good Allowleather shoes with which they shall severally furnish the collectors ance for the sum of sixteen shillings and for every pair of good woollen stockings the sum of fourteen shillings; and in case any of the said Penalty inhabitants shall neglect or refuse to furnish the said collectors with to furnish the shoes or stockings they shall be directed so to furnish them with, shoes, etc. within thirty days after such shoes or stockings shall be demanded by the collectors appointed as aforesaid the delinquents shall for such offence forfeit the sum of ten dollars for every pair of shoes and ten dollars for every pair of stockings he she or they shall so neglect or refuse to furnish as aforesaid, to be recovered in a summary way before any one Justice of the peace within the said county with costs of suit by any one of the collectors appointed as aforesaid within the city town borough manor precinct or district where the said offence shall have been committed; which said fines when recovered shall be applied by the collectors aforesaid to the purchase of shoes and stockings for the use of the troops before mentioned, and the Shoes to be depossaid collectors shall deposit the shoes and stockings so to be collected ited and in such place or places as the supervisor of the ward town manor delivered district or precinct in which they were collected shall direct to be missary. by him delivered to Peter T. Curtenius, Esq. commissary to purchase cloathing for this State or such person or persons as he shall authorize to receive the same, who is hereby directed to pay the several Payment supervisors for so many pair of shoes and stockings as he shall receive to be from them respectively at and after the rates and prices as above men- same. tioned together with one shilling for every pair of shoes and one shilling for every pair of stockings which he shall receive as aforesaid which said monies shall be paid by the several supervisors to the several collectors to enable them to pay for the shoes and stockings they shall have severally collected and as a compensation for their trouble.

CHAP. 14.

AN ACT to ascertain the places from whence the mileage fees of the respective sheriffs of the several counties in this State, shall be computed.

PASSED the 19th of March, 1778.

to com

made for

fees, to be

from

Be it enacted by the People of the State of New-York represented in Sheriffs' Senate and Assembly and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same; mileage That from and after the passing of this act, the sheriffs of the respect- computed ive counties of this State shall compute their mileage fees for the ser- places vice of all writts and process hereafter by them to be served and named. subject to the payment of mileage fees from the respective places hereinafter mentioned and from no other places whatsoever; that is to say; the sheriff of the city and county of New-York from the cityhall of the said city. The sheriff of King's county from the courthouse in the said county. The sheriff of Richmond county from the court-house in the said county. The sheriff of the county of Suffolk from a path commonly known by the name of the Wading River Path

Former regulations repealed.

about seven miles to the westward of the county-hall in the said county, at the junction of the said path with the country road which passes through Nassau-Island about the middle thereof the sheriff of Queens county from a certain pond, commonly called Wind-Mill pond near the north side of Hempsted-Plains. The sheriff of Dutchess county from the house wherein Myndert Vielle Esq now lives in Beekmans precinct. The sheriff of Westchester county from the house of William Ogden in North-Castle. The sheriff of Orange county, on the north side of the Highlands from the court-house in the township of Goshen, and on the south side of the Highlands from the court-house in the precinct of Haverstraw in the said county. The sheriff of the county of Ulster from the house of Mrs. Ann Dubois in the neighbourhood of the New-Paltz in the said county. The sheriff of the county of Albany from the city-hall in the city of Albany. The sheriff of the county of Tryon from the pass in the mountain called Anthony's Nose in the said county. The sheriff of the county of Charlotte from the meeting-house in the town of New-Perth in the said county. The sheriff of the county of Cumberland from the court-house in the said county. And the sheriff of the county of Gloucester from the meeting-house in the town of Newbury in the said county.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid That all former regulations respecting the places from which the sheriffs respectively were required to compute their mileage on the service of writts or processes shall be and they hereby are repealed annulled and made void; any thing in any act or acts of the legislature of the colony of New-York contained to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.

Persons

substi

exempt

from draft.

CHAP. 15.

AN ACT exempting persons from drafts in the militia who shall procure others to inlist in the continental regiments raised under the direction of this State and for giving relief in cases where two persons have jointly procured a man to inlist.

PASSED the 25th of March, 1778.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of New-York represented in procuring Senate and Assembly and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same tutes That each and every person who shall procure at his own expence an able-bodied man to inlist in either of the continental regiments raised or to be raised under the direction of this State and shall deliver such soldier to any commissioned officer of either of the said regiments or other person properly authorized to receive recruits for the said regiments he shall on producing a certificate of such delivery signed and authenticated as herein after directed to the commanding officer of the regiment of militia to which the said person so procuring such soldier shall belong be exempted from all drafts in the militia for the term of time for which the person so procured shall inlist.

Substi

tutes entitled to pay and

bounty as allowed Soldiers.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid That every soldier so inlisted (exclusive of what he shall receive from the person by whom he was so procured to inlist) shall be entitled to the same bounty and such other privileges as are allowed to soldiers in the Continental Army.

of substi

ence of

and certi

given.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid That every Delivery soldier so procured to inlist as aforesaid shall be delivered by the per- tute to be son by whom he was so procured to the officer or other person author- in presized to receive such soldier in the presence of a justice of the peace justice of and that every certificate of such delivery shall contain the name of the peace, the said soldier and the time of the delivery and shall be signed by ficate the officer or other person authorized to recieve such soldier to whom the said soldier shall be so delivered in the presence of the said justice of the peace by whom the usual oath shall be administered to such soldier and which justice shall countersign the said certificate and in case the said justice shall suspect any fraud or collusion between such officer and the person demanding such certificate he is hereby authorized and required to examine the said person and officer on oath touching the said fraud or collusion and if they shall appear to the said justice to have been guilty thereof the said justice is hereby authorized and required to commit the said person and officer to the gaol of the county where the offence shall happen and in case the said persons shall be found guilty thereof he or they shall be punished by fine or imprisonment at the discretion of the court before whom the offence shall be tried.

Counter

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid That every Persons person counterfeiting or fraudulently procuring such certificate with- feiting out having actually procured and delivered a soldier in manner afore- certificate said and every officer signing such fraudulent certificate shall on forgery. conviction be subject to the pains and penalties heretofore by law inflicted on persons found guilty of forgery.

guilty of

where two

Whereas the congress of the United States of America did by reso- Proviso as lution recommend that where two persons should procure an able to cases bodied man to inlist in the continental service that such two persons men have procured should be exempted from drafts in the militia. And whereas many per- one substisons supposing that resolutions would have been passed by the con- tute. vention of this State agreeable to the recommendation contained in the said resolution of congress did procure men to inlist persuant to the directions of the said resolution. And whereas no resolution having ever been passed by the convention of this State, for exempting from drafts in the militia upon the terms mentioned in the said resolution of congress the said persons who have so procured men to inlist as aforesaid cannot, neither can either of them, to their great injury, have any benefit of exemption by reason of their having so procured men to inlist as aforesaid without the interposition of the legislature in their behalf. To the end therefore That the said persons may have an equal benefit of exemption with those who have procured men to inlist persuant to the directions of the resolution of the convention of this State in such case made and provided.

fore jus

agree

which

exemp

Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid That in all cases May apwhere two persons have heretofore jointly procured a man to inlist in pear be either of the continental regiments raised under the directions of this tice and State and shall have a certificate thereof it shall and may be lawful to and for the said two persons to appear before any justice of the shall have peace within this State, and in the presence of the said justice, to agree tion. which of the said two persons shall have the sole benefit of exemption in consequence of their having jointly so procured a man to inlist as aforesaid and the substance of such agreement shall be written at the foot of or indorsed on such certificate and subscribed by the said justice and the person who by such agreement shall have been agreed to have such sole benefit of exemption as aforesaid shall have and be

Not to have exemption

tificate is

command

intitled unto the benefit of an exemption from drafts in the militia for the time the man so procured did inlist in the same manner and as fully as if he had procured a man to inlist agreeable to the directions of the said resolution of the convention of this State.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid That no person shall be intitled to an exemption by virtue of this act unless he unless cer- shall within twenty days from the date of his certificate file the same filed with with the commanding officer of the regiment of militia to which he ing officer. shall belong and the commanding officers of the several regiments of militia are hereby required to give to the several persons filing such certificates, exemptions (in writing under their respective hands) from crafts in the militia for the time the soldier so procured by the said persons respectively did inlist.

Preamble.

Ibid.

Elections

to be held

by count

ies, to be

held on

last Tues

day in April.

CHAP. 16.

AN ACT to regulate elections within this State.

PASSED the 27th of March, 1778.

WHEREAS the liberty independence and sovereignty of the people of this State must necessarily be exercised by their legislative and executive representatives and whereas the purity and equal freedom of all elections are essential to the existence and continuance of such liberty independence and sovereignty and whereas by the Constitution of this State it is provided that the election of governor and lieutenant-governor thereof shall be by ballot: And that the elections for senators and representatives in assembly during the present war shall be viva voce and whereas it is necessary so to regulate as well the said elections by ballot as those which shall be held viva voce as that every such election may be free equal, impartial unbiassed and uncorrupt.

And whereas altho the Constitution of this State has in the cases of the elections of the governor lieutenant-governor senators and members of assembly for the time being in this State determined that the election of them or some of them be annual and has distinguished which of the said elections shall be by ballot and which viva voce yet it has neither fixed an anniversary day for such elections respectively nor directed the particular mode in which the same shall be respectively conducted.

Be it therefore enacted by the People of the State of New-York represented in Senate and Assembly and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same That for the future all elections for governor, and lieutenant-governor senators and members of assembly shall be held not by counties but by boroughs towns manors districts and precincts and by wards in the several cities and for that purpose the last Tuesday in April in every year for ever hereafter until otherwise provided for by the legislature of this State shall be the anniversary day on which such elections shall respectively be held and from which the same shall be respectively continued by necessary adjournments according to the tenor true intent and meaning of the said Constitution. That the clerk of the senante shall forthwith in the present, year and senate to between the first day of February and the first day of April in every year hereafter inclose and send in writing under his hand to the several sherifs of the different counties in the respective districts within this State a notification of the names of the senators for each

Clerk of

send

notice to

sheriffs.

respective district whose Seats are to become vacant at the expiration of the year and of the number of senators, to be elected in each district for the ensuing year and also that a choice of a governor and lieutenant-governor or a lieutenant-governor only (as the case may require) will be necessary to be made at the then next election, if any such choice shall be necessary a copy of which notification shall be transmitted without delay by each sherif to some one inspector in each ward borough town manor district and precinct respectively and thereupon each set of inspectors shall without delay publickly advertise the same in writing, in so many different places as may give the electors sufficient notice thereof.

towns and

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the Inspectors several and respective supervisors and assessors and town clerks of in cities, the several cities boroughs, towns manors precincts and districts or the boroughs. majority of them or the survivors of them, or the majority of such survivors shall from time to time, be the inspectors of the said election in each city, borough town, manor district and precinct respectively within this State, except that in the city of Albany, the town clerk shall not be an inspector, and except also the city of New-York, wherein the appointment shall be as follows, that is to say: That the mayor re- In New corder aldermen assistants or common council men, assessors and vestry York city. men of the said city shall convene together at the city-hall of the said city on the first Tuesday of April in every year and then and there shall by plurality of voices elect from among the substantial freeholders actually resident in each ward in the said city, three persons for inspectors of the then next ensuing election of governor, lieutenant-governor, sen ator or senators and members of assembly or such of them as by the Constitution of this State shall be to be chosen, to be held in the several wards of the said city. That the said several and respective inspectors Inspectors for each respective ward borough town manor precinct and district (or to give the major part of them, shall without delay, convene together; and by election. writing, under their several and respective hands, to be affixed in at least three of the most public places of such ward borough town, manor precinct and district respectively,) give eight days notice of the place, (which shall be most public and convenient for the purpose) within the same, where such election for a governor lieutenant-governor senator or senators and members of assembly or such of them, as shall then be to be chosen, then next shall be held within the same on the anniversary day hereby appointed for the purpose and on such day and at such place the several inspectors attending which shall be the major part of them shall in full view and hearing of the people administer to each other and respectively take at the opening of the election the following oath or affirmation, viz.

notice of

of.

I, A. B. do solemnly and sincerely declare and swear in the pres- Official ence of Almighty God (or if of the people called Quakers, do solemnly oath, form sincerely and truly declare and affirm) that I will in all things well, faithfully, honestly and impartially, and according to the best of my knowledge and abilities, execute the office of inspector of this election.

That at every such election as aforesaid capable and sufficient elerks, Poll clerks. not less than two for each ward borough town manor district and precinct respectively, shall be appointed by the inspectors, or the major part of them, to be the clerks of every such court of elections as aforesaid respectively each of whom shall keep a poll list at every such election under the direction and view of the said inspectors respectively or the major part of them.