I, DAVID L. SWAIN, Governor of the State of North-Carolina, do hereby certify, that the within Amendments to the Constitution, proposed by a Convention held in the City of Raleigh, on the 4th day of June last, were submitted for ratification or rejection to the good people of the State, according to an ordinance of the said Convention; that the returns of all the votes given were made to me, and by me duly opened, in the presence of the Secretary of State and Public Treasurer, and that a majority of the votes so given and returned was in favor of ratification: And I do therefore certify, declare, and make known, that the within Amendments have been ratified by the good people of the State, have become part of the Constitution, and, as such, will have full force, effect and operation, from and after the first day of January next.

[L. S.]

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have signed this certificate, and have caused the Secretary of State to countersign the same, and to affix the GREAT SEAL of the State hereunto.

Done at Raleigh, this fourth day of December, A. D., eighteen hundred and thirty-five.

By the Governor :

WM. HILL, Secretary of State.

D. L. SWAIN.

AMENDMENT.

AN ACT TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NORTHCAROLINA.

Whereas, at the session of the last General Assembly, begun and held at Raleigh, on the third Monday of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fiftyfour, a bill entitled "A bill to amend the Constitution of the State of North-Carolina," was read three times in each house of the said General Assembly, and agreed to by three-fifths of the whole number of members of each house respectively: and, whereas, the bill so agreed to, hath been duly published six months previous to the election of the members of this present General Assembly, according to the clause of section one of article four of the amended constitution, and the directions contained in the second section of the said bill; and it is the intention by this bill to agree to the preamble and first section of the bill aforesaid, containing the said alteration of the constitution of this State: and whereas, a large number of the people are disfranchised by the freehold qualification now required of voters for members of the Senate; therefore,

SECTION I.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of NorthCarolina, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, (two-thirds of the whole number of members of each house concurring,) That the second clause of the third section of the first article of the amended constitution, ratified by the people of North-Carolina, on the second Monday of November, in the year of our Lord, eighteen hundred and thirty-five, shall

be amended to read as follows: "Every free white man of the age of twenty-one years being a native or naturalized citizen of the United States, and who has been an inhabitant of the State for twelve months immediately preceding the day of any election, and shall have paid public taxes, shall be entitled to vote for a member of the Senate for the district in which he resides." [Ratified the 11th day of December, 1856.]

A SUPPLEMENTARY ACT TO TAKE THE SENSE OF THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE RELATIVE TO THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION.

Whereas, a bill to amend the Constitution of the State of North-Carolina, has been read in each house of the present General Assembly on three several days, and agreed to by two-thirds of each house respectively, in the precise words. following: "A bill to amend the Constitution of the State of North-Carolina :"

Whereas, at the session of the last General Assembly, begun and held at Raleigh, on the third Monday of November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and fiftyfour, a bill entitled "a bill to amend the Constitution of the State of North-Carolina," was read three times in each house of the said General Assembly, and agreed to by three-fifths of the whole number of members of each house respectively. And whereas, the bill so agreed to hath been duly published six months previous to the election of the members of this present General Assembly, according to the clause of section one of article four of the amended Constitution, and the directions contained in the second section of the said bill; and it is the intention, by this bill, to agree to the preamble and first section of the bill aforesaid, containing the said alteration. of the Constitution of this State: And, whereas, a large number of the people are disfranchised by the freehold qualification now required of voters for members of the Senate; there

fore, Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North-Carolina, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, two-thirds of the whole number of members of each house concurring, That the second clause of the third section of the first article of the amended constitution, ratified by the people of North-Carolina, on the second Monday of November, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and thirty-five, shall be amended to read as follows: "Every free white man of the age of twenty-one years, being a native or naturalized citizen of the United States, and who has been an inhabitant of the State for twelve months immediately preceding the day of any election, and shall have paid public taxes, shall be entitled to vote for a member of the Senate for the district in which he resides."

SECTION I.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North-Carolina, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the foregoing amendment to the Constitution of this State, as embodied in the preceding section, be submitted by the Governor to the people on the first Thursday in August, 1857, sixty days notice having been given in ten newspapers.

SECTION II.

Be it further enacted, That the courts of pleas and quarter sessions, of the several counties in the State, at the term thereof to be held next after the first day of April, 1857, shall appoint two inspectors to superintend the polls to be opened at each and every separate election precinct in the said counties, for ascertaining the will of the freemen of North-Carolina, relative to the ratification of said amendment; and if any such court or courts shall fail to make such appointments, or if any person so appointed shall fail to appear and act as such at the election hereinafter directed to be held, it shall be the duty of the sheriff of the county, or his deputy at any precinct, with the advice of one justice of the peace, or if no justice be

present, with the advice of three freeholders, to appoint an inspector where the court shall have failed to make an appointment, or in place of any person who has been appointed and failed to appear and act; and the inspector or inspectors thus appointed, after being duly sworn faithfully to perform their duties in such election, shall have the same authority as if appointed by a court as aforesaid.

SECTION III.

Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the sheriffs, in each and every county in the State to open polls at the several election precincts in his county, on the first Thursday in August, 1857, and the same shall be kept open for one day, from the hour of ten o'clock in the morning to the hour of six o'clock in the afternoon, under the same rules and regulations as now exist for the election of members of the General Assembly, when all persons qualified according to the constitution to vote for members of the House of Commons may vote for or against a ratification of the said amendment; those desiring such amendment to vote with a written or printed ticket " Approved," those of a contrary opinion to vote with a written or printed ticket "Not Approved" That said sheriffs shall compare and certify the results of the elections, on or before the Saturday following, and transmit the same in twenty days thereafter to the Governor of the State.

SECTION IV.

Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of said sheriffs to make a duplicate return of the polls, in their respective counties, sworn to before the clerk of the county court, one copy of which shall be deposited in said clerk's office, and the other copy transmitted to the Governor of the State at Raleigh, within twenty days after the holding of said polls.