§ 60. Legislature restricted
No person ought in any case, or in any time, to be declared guilty of treason or felony, by the Legislature, nor to have a sentence upon conviction for felony commuted, remitted, or mitigated by the Legislature.
§ 61. Offices of profit; compensation; illegal fees
As all persons of full age, to preserve their independence (if without a sufficient estate) ought to have some profession, calling, trade, or farm, whereby they may honestly subsist, there can be no necessity for, nor use in, establishing offices of profit, the usual effects of which are dependence and servility, unbecoming free citizens, in the possessors or expectant, and faction, contention and discord among the people. But if any person is called into public service to the prejudice of that person's private affairs, the person has a right to a reasonable compensation; and whenever an office through increase of fees or otherwise, becomes so profitable as to occasion many to apply for it, the profit ought to be lessened by the Legislature. And if any officer shall wittingly and willfully, take greater fees than the law allows, it shall ever after disqualify that person from holding any office in this State until the person shall be restored by act of legislation.
§ 62. Record of deeds
All deeds and conveyances of lands shall be recorded in the Town Clerk's office in their respective towns; and, for want thereof, in the County Clerk's office in the same county.
§ 63. Entails to be regulated
The Legislature shall regulate entails in such manner as to prevent perpetuity.
§ 64. Punishment at hard labor, when
To deter more effectually from the commission of crimes, by continued visible punishments of long duration, and to make sanguinary punishments less necessary, means ought to be provided for punishing by hard labor, those who shall be convicted of crimes not capital, whereby the criminal shall be employed for the benefit of the public, or for the reparation of injuries done to private persons: and all persons at proper times ought to be permitted to see them at their labor.
§ 65. Suicide's estate not forfeited; no deodorant
The estates of such persons as may destroy their own lives, shall not, for that offense, be forfeited, but shall descend or ascend in the same manner as if such persons had died in a natural way. Nor shall any article which shall accidentally occasion the death of any person, be deemed a deodorant, or in any wise forfeited on account of such misfortune.
§ 66. Citizenship
Every person of good character, who comes to settle in this State, having first taken an oath or affirmation of allegiance to the same, may purchase, or by other just means acquire, hold and transfer land or other real estate; and after one year's residence shall be deemed a free denizen thereof, and entitled to all rights of a natural born subject of this State, except those privileges, the right to which is herein elsewhere determined, and except also that such person shall not be capable of being elected Treasurer, or Representative in Assembly, until after two years' residence, nor be eligible to the office of Governor or Lieutenant-Governor until the person shall have resided in this State as required by section 23 of this Constitution.
§ 67. Hunting; fowling and fishing
The inhabitants of this State shall have liberty in seasonable times, to hunt and fowl on the lands they hold, and on other lands not in closed, and in like manner to fish in all boat able and other waters (not private property) under proper regulations, to be made and provided by the General Assembly.
§ 68. Laws to encourage virtue and prevent vice; schools; religious activities
Laws for the encouragement of virtue and prevention of vice and immorality ought to be constantly kept in force, and duly executed; and a competent number of schools ought to be maintained in each town unless the general assembly permits other provisions for the convenient instruction of youth. All religious societies, or bodies of people that may be united or incorporated for the advancement of religion and learning, or for other pious and charitable purposes, shall be encouraged and protected in the enjoyment of the privileges, immunities, and estates, which they in justice ought to enjoy, under such regulations as the general assembly of this state shall direct.
§ 69. Charters, limit on right to grant
No charter of incorporation shall be granted, extended, changed or amended by special law, except for such municipal, charitable, educational, penal or reformatory corporations as are to be and remain under the patronage or control of the State; but the General Assembly shall provide by general laws for the organization of all corporations hereafter to be created. All general laws passed pursuant to this section may be altered from time to time or repealed.
§ 70. Workers' compensation
The General Assembly may pass laws compelling compensation for injuries received by employees in the course of their employment resulting in death or bodily hurt, for the benefit of such employees, their widows, widowers or next of kin. It may designate the class or classes of employers and employees to which such laws shall apply.
§ 71. Declaration of rights not to be violated
The Declaration of the political Rights and privileges of the inhabitants of this State, is hereby declared to be part of the Constitution of this Commonwealth; and ought not to be violated on any presence whatsoever.
