The General Assembly convened at Newport, on the last Tuesday in April, 1864, (being the 31st,) in conformity with the provisions of the 3d Section of Article 4 of the Constitution, as amended by the electors on the first Tuesday of November, 1854, and adjourned on Friday, the third day of June following, to meet again in Providence, on the second Tuesday in January, 1865. L 2419 ACTS AND RESOLVES PASSED AT THE MAY SESSION, 1864. [The Chapters are numbered continuously from the Revised Statutes.] CHAPTER 529. AN ACT TO APPROVE AND PUBLISH AND SUBMIT TO THE Passed June PREAMBLE. Whereas, An Article of Amendment to the Constitu tion of the State was proposed by the last General Assembly, by the votes of a majority of all the members elected to each House, and the same has been published and read to the electors at their annual town and ward meetings in April last, as required by the Thirteenth article of the Constitution of the State, and is now presented to this General Assembly for their action thereon; and a majority of all the members elected to each House at said annual meeting being present and approving of the said proposed amendments: It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows: SECTION 1. The following propositions of Amendments to the Constitution of the State, proposed by the last General Assembly, are hereby declared approved; and for the purpose of publication and submission to the electors, shall be designated as follows: ARTICLE IV. Electors of this State, who in time of war are absent from the State, in the actual military service of the United States, being otherwise qualified, shall have a right to vote in all elections in the State for electors of President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, and General Officers of the State. The General Assembly shall have full power to provide by law for carrying this article into effect: and until such provision shall be made by law, every such absent elector on the day of such elections, may deliver a written or printed ballot with the names of the persons voted for thereon, and his Christian and surname, and his voting residence in the State, written at length on the back thereof, to the officer commanding the regiment or company to which he belongs; and all such ballots, certified by such commanding officer to have been given by the elector whose name is written thereon, and returned by such commanding officer to the Secretary of State within the time prescribed by law for counting the votes in such elections, shall be received and counted with the same effect as if given by such elector in open town, ward or district meeting; and the clerk of each town or city, until otherwise provided by law, shall within five days after any such election, transmit to the Secretary of State a certified list of the names of all such electors on their respective voting lists. ARTICLE V. Naturalized citizens of the United States, who, either before or subsequent to their naturalization, have been mustered into the military service of the United States for this State, during the existing rebellion against the government of the United States, and have been honorably discharged, shall have a right to vote in the election of all civil officers, and on all questions in all legally organized town or ward meetings, on the same terms as native citizens. ARTICLE VI. The assessors of each town or city shall assess a poll tax of one dollar annually, upon every male inhabitant of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, excepting. paupers, lunatics, persons non compotes mentis, persons under guardianship, convicts, members of the Narragansett tribe of Indians, and persons unable to contribute to the public charges, which said poll-tax shall be payable at the same time, and collected in the same manner as are the other taxes of said town or city; and the proceeds of such poll-tax shall be applied to the support of the public schools. No registry tax shall hereafter be assessed, nor shall any person, otherwise qualified, be required to pay any registry or other tax to qualify him to vote in the election of all civil officers, and in all questions, in all legally organized town or ward meetings: Provided, that no person shall at any time be allowed to vote in the election of the City Council of the city of Providence, or on any proposition to impose a tax or for the expenditure of money in any town or city, unless he shall within the year next preceding have paid a tax assessed upon his property therein, valued at least at one hundred and thirty-four dollars. SEC. 2. The said propositions of amendment shall be submitted to the electors for their approval or rejection at special meetings of the electors, to be held on the third Monday in August, A. D. 1864. The ward meetings in the cities of Newport and Providence shall be kept open from 10 A. M., to 8 P. M., of that day, and in the several towns from 10 A. M., to 5 P. M. SEC. 3. The Secretary of State shall cause the said propositions of amendment to be published in all the papers publishing the laws of the State, for four weeks Successively next preceding the day of said meetings of said electors; and the said propositions shall be inserted by the town and city clerks in the warrants or notices by them to be issued previous to said meetings of the electors, for the purpose of warning the town or ward meetings; and said propositions shall be read by the town, ward and district clerks to the electors in the town, ward and district meetings to be held as aforesaid. SEC. 4. The Secretary of State shall cause twentyfive thousand of each of the said propositions of amendment to be printed with the word "approved" upon the same, and a like number with the word "reject" thereon, and shall cause such ballots to be distributed among the town and ward clerks, in suitable proportions, previous to the day of said meetings of electors. SEC. 5. The town, ward and district meetings to be held as aforesaid, shall be warned, and the list of voters shall be canvassed and made up, and the said town, ward, and district meetings shall be conducted in the same manner as now provided by law for the town, ward and district meetings for the election of general officers. SEC. 6. At the close of the polls on said day of said meetings of the electors, the moderator and town clerk, or the warden and ward clerk, or the moderator and district clerk, shall in open town, ward or district meetings count said ballots and seal up the same, and shall certify that the ballots by them sealed up are the ballots given in at said meetings of the electors, the number of such ballots, and that the number of ballots on each of said propositions does not exceed the number of electors voting at said meetings, and shall deliver or send such ballots so sealed up and certified to the Secretary of State, before the first day of September, A. D. 1864. SEC. 7. The Governor and Secretary of State shall count said ballots on or before the fifteenth day of September, A. D. 1864, and the Governor shall announce the result by proclamation on or before the first day of October, A. D. 1864, and if said propositions of amendment, or either of them shall have been approved by three-fifths of the electors of the State present and voting thereon in said town, ward and district meetings, the same shall be declared to be a part of the |