19. All laws and statutes, public and private, 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force and not repugnant to this constitution, shall continue in force until they expire by their own limitation, or are repealed by the General Assembly.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 contracts, judgments, actions, and rights of action, shall be as valid as if this constitution had not been made. 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 made. 20. 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 in the same times and places in each county as the present supreme judicial court until the General Assembly shall otherwise prescribe. 21. The citizens of the town of New Shoreham shall be hereafter exempted from military duty and the duty of serving as jurors in the courts of this state. The citizens of the town of Jamestown shall be forever hereafter exempted from military field duty. 22. The General Assembly shall, at their first session after the adoption of this constitution, propose to the electors the question, whether the word "white," in the first line of the first section of Article II. of the constitution shall be stricken out. The question shall be voted upon at the succeeding annual election; and if a majority of the electors voting shall vote to strike out the word aforesaid, it shall be stricken from the constitution; otherwise not. If the word aforesaid shall be stricken out, section third of Article II. shall cease to be a part of the constitution. 23. The president, vice-president and secretaries shall certify and sign this constitution, and cause the same to be published. Done in convention at Providence, on the eighteenth day of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, and of American Independence the sixty-sixth. JOSEPH JOSLIN, _President of the Convention_. WAGER WEEDEN, } _Vice Presidents_. SAMUEL H. WALES,} _Attest_: WILLIAM H. SMITH,} _Secretaries_. JOHN S. HARRIS } The State Seal. The coat of arms of the State is familiar to every citizen, for it is impressed on public documents and meets the eye on monuments and in newspapers. Its simplicity and its significance, as well as its correct heraldry render it superior to that of any of the other states; and the words by which it is described in our statute book, have a singular force and beauty. "There shall continue to be one seal for the public use of the State; the form of an anchor shall be engraven thereon, and the motto thereof shall be the word HOPE."