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ARTICLE XII.

Of Education.

SEC. 1. The diffusion of knowledge, as well as of virtue, among the people, being essential to the preservation of their rights and liberties, it shall be the duty of the general assembly to promote public schools, and to adopt all means which they may deem necessary and proper to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education.

SEC. 2. The money which now is, or which may hereafter be appropriated by law for the establishment of a permanent fund for the support of public schools, shall be securely invested and remain a perpetual fund for that purpose.

SEC. 3. All donations for the support of public schools or for other purposes of education, which may be received by the general assembly, shall be applied according to the terms prescribed by the donors.

SEC. 4. The general assembly shall make all necessary provisions by law for carrying this article into effect. They shall not divert said money or fund from the aforesaid uses, nor borrow, appropriate, or use the same, or any part thereof, for any other purpose, under any pretence whatsoever.

ARTICLE XIII.

On Amendments.

The general assembly may propose amendments to this constitution by the votes of a majority of all the members elected to each house. Such propositions for amendment shall be published in the newspapers, and printed copies of them shall be sent by the secretary of state, with the names of all the members who shall have voted thereon, with the yeas and nays, to all the town and city clerks in the state. The said propositions shall be, by said clerks, inserted in the warrants or notices by them issued, for warning the next annual town and ward meetings in April; and the clerks shall read said propositions to the electors when thus assembled, with the names of all the representatives and senators who shall have voted thereon, with the yeas and nays, before the election of senators and representatives shall be had. If a majority of all the members elected to each house, at said annual meeting, shall approve any proposition thus made, the same shall be published and submitted to the electors in the mode provided in the act of approval; and if then approved by three-fifths of the electors of the state present, and voting thereon in town and ward meetings, it shall become a part of the constitution of the state.

ARTICLE XIV.

Of the Adoption of this Constitution.

This constitution, if adopted, shall go into operation on the first Tuesday of May, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fortythree. The first election of governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of

state, attorney general, and general treasurer, and of senators and representatives under said constitution, shall be had on the first Wednesday of April next preceding, by the electors qualified under said constitution. And the town and ward meetings therefor shall be warned and conducted as is now provided by law. All civil and military officers now elected, or who shall hereafter be elected, by the general assembly, or other competent authority, before the said first Wednesday of April, shall hold their offices and may exercise their powers until the said first Tuesday of May, or until their successors shall be qualified to act. All statutes, public and private, not repugnant to this constitution, shall continue in force until they expire by their own limitation, or are repealed by the general assembly. All charters, contracts, judgments, actions, and rights of actions shall be as valid as if this constitution had not been made. The present government shall exercise all the powers with which it is now clothed, until the said first Tuesday of May, one thousand eight hundred and forty-three, and until the government under this constitution is duly organized.

SEC. 2. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid against the state as if this constitution had not been adopted.

SEC. 3. The supreme court, established by this constitution, shall have the same jurisdiction as the supreme judicial court at present established, and shall have jurisdiction of all causes which may be appealed to, or pending in the same; and shall be held at the same times and places, and in each county, as the present supreme judicial court, until otherwise prescribed by the general assembly.

SEC. 4. The towns of New Shoreham and Jamestown shall continue to enjoy the exemptions from military duty which they now enjoy, until otherwise prescribed by law.

Done in convention, at East Greenwich, this fifth day of November, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and forty-two.

JAMES FENNER, President.
HENRY Y. CRANSTON, Vice Pres't.

THOMAS A. JENCKES,
WALTER W. UPDIKE, Secretaries.
S

8

THE

PUBLIC LAWS

OF THE STATE OF

RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.

An Act establishing the Digest of Laws, as reported by the committee, appointed to revise the laws of this State, and amended by the General Assembly. Passed January Session, 1844.

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Whereas, the committee, appointed to revise the laws of this state, have completed the business of their appointment, and the several bills reported by them, as proper to constitute the public statute laws of the state, have been carefully examined and considered by this assembly, and such amendments have been made thereto, and such additional acts passed, as have been deemed proper, and the digest reported by said committee, after being so amended as aforesaid has been approved, and the several acts therein contained, have been separately passed and enacted; in relation thereto,

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. The Secretary of State, William R. Staples and Charles F. Tillinghast, are appointed a committee to procure and superintend the printing and publication of the laws aforesaid.

SEC. 2. The said committee shall cause all said laws, and such other public laws which are not temporary, as may be passed at this present session of the assembly, or at any other session or sessions previous to the publication of said digest, to be arranged in proper order, with a copious index and proper notes at the commencement of each act, or on the side of the page, and prepared for the press as soon as conveniently may be; and to reserve three hundred copies for the use of the state, to be disposed of as is provided in the following section.

SEC. 3. As soon as said digest shall be published, the secretary shall cause the copies reserved for the state, to be distributed in the following manner: one copy to his excellency the governor, one to his honor the lieutenant governor, one to each of the present members of the general assembly, four to the secretary of state of the United States, one to the executive of each of the United States, one to the secretary of this state, one to the attorney general, one to the general treasurer, one to each of the clerks of the house of representatives, one to the clerk of the senate, one to each clerk of the supreme court and court of common pleas, one to each sheriff, two to each town clerk, one to each jailer, one to the warden of the state prison, one to the library of Brown University, one to each cabinet of the Rhode-Island Historical Society, one to the judge of the circuit court of the United States for the first circuit, one to the district judge for the Rhode-Island district, one to the district attorney for the same district, two to the library of congress, one to the secretary of the senate, one to each of the clerks of the house of representatives of the Congress of the United States.

SEC. 4. The copies to be presented to the secretary, the attorney general, the general treasurer, clerks of the house of representatives, clerk of the senate, clerks of the courts, sheriffs, town clerks, jailers and warden, shall be preserved by said officers as appendages to their several offices, and be delivered with the other books and papers appertaining to their said offices, to their successors.

SEC. 5. Within one month after said laws shall have been printed and distributed as aforesaid, the governor shall issue his proclamation, announcing that the laws contained in said digest shall be in full force and effect immediately after the expiration of thirty days from the date of said proclamation. The secretary shall cause said proclamation to be published in all the newspapers printed within this state, in which the laws of the state are published; and the said laws contained

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