Here members of the General Assembly are classed with those holding “offices.”
The original Constitution of New York is more positive:—
“The chancellor and judges of the Supreme Court shall not at the same time hold any other office, excepting that of Delegate to the General Congress upon special occasions; and the first judges of the county courts in the several counties shall not at the same time hold any other office, excepting that of Senator or Delegate to the General Congress.”[300]
Here the post of Delegate to the General Congress, and also of “Senator,” is treated as an “office.”
Surely this is enough. The post of Senator is an office of honor or profit, and a “Senator” is an “officer.”
2. But, assuming that the post of Senator is an “office,” and that a Senator is an “officer,” the question occurs, To what “department of the public service” does he belong?
Clearly he is not of the “military” or “naval” department. But if not “military” or “naval,” he must be “civil.” Here again consult the dictionary. I cite Webster.
“Civil. It is distinguished from ecclesiastical, which respects the Church, and from military, which respects the army and navy.—This term is often employed in contrast with military: as, a civil hospital, the civil service, &c.”