Page:Constitution of the state of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations - 1824.djvu/18

 the yeas and nays, to all the Town Clerks in the State; and said propositions shall be, by said Clerks, inserted in the warrants or notices by them to be issued, for warning the next annual town meetings in April; and the Clerks shall read them to the electors, when assembled, with the names of all the Senators and Representatives who shall have voted thereon, with the yeas and nays, before the election of Senators and Representatives shall be had. If two thirds of the members chosen at said annual meeting present in each House shall approve any proposition thus made, the same shall be published in the newspapers, and again sent to the electors, in the mode to be prescribed by the act of approval; and, if then approved by two thirds of the electors of the State, present and voting thereon, in Town-Meeting, to be specially convened for that purpose, shall become a part of the Constitution of this State.

1. This Constitution, if adopted, shall go into operation on the first Tuesday of May, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty five. The first election of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Senators and Representatives, Secretary, Attorney-General and General-Treasurer, under said Constitution, shall be had on the third Wednesday of April next preceding. All civil, judicial and military officers, now appointed, or who shall hereafter be appointed by the General Assembly, or other competent authority, before the said first Tuesday of May, shall hold their offices, and may exercise their powers, until ten days thereafter. All laws now in force, and not repugnant to this Constitution, shall continue in force until they expire by their own limitation, or are repealed by the General Assembly.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 action, shall be as valid as though this Constitution had not been made. The present government shall exercise all the powers, not repugnant to this Constitution with which it is now clothed, until the said first Tuesday of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.