the prevention of the fraud,—besides, as the laws
now stood, or rather as they had been told by
gentlemen learned in the law, it was practically
construed—a man going from one district to
the other, in the city of Baltimore, but the night
before an election, was considered as having re-
quired the legal right to vote in the district into
which he had gone. The practice was therefore
legalized, and the person thus trampling on the
right of those amongst whom he went, could not
be reached by any penal law, because he had
only done what it has been determined he had a
legal right to do. To remedy this, we propose
now to adopt a proposition making it unlawful,
and to require such a length of residence as will
enable the lawful voters to acquire the knowl-
edge which will protect them against the conse-
quences of such practices. He adverted to this
practice of colonizing voters as prevailing to a
considerable extent, not only in Baltimore and
in some of the counties on the Chesapeake, but
also as he had beard (he knew not how truly,)
all along the Pennsylvania border. The measure
proposed appeared to him to be a wise, and in-
deed, the only proper and efficient corrective, and
he trusted the Convention would apply it. He
was far, very far, from any desire to restrict the
elective franchise—his object was to protect it
in its purity. He was aware, as the gentleman
had said, questions might arise as to what is
meant by a legal residence, but that and similar
questions can better be discussed and disposed of
at another time. It was well known the abuse
complained of did exist to a greater or less ex-
tent, and it certainly should be corrected.
Mr. KILGOUR moved to strike out thirty days
and insert, five. This restriction, he thought,
would be sufficient to prevent the evils com-
plained of.
The Chairman said the amendment was not
now in order.
Mr. KILGOUR gave notice than when in order
he would move it.
Mr. BRENT, of Baltimore city, called the yeas
and nays pending the amendment, which were
ordered:
Mr. JENIFER suggested that amidst so great a
diversity of opinions as was held on this sub-
ject, gentlemen ought nut to be too pertinacious
about their own amendments. It was the gener-
al opinion of this body that no one who was en-
titled to vote, should be allowed to lose it, but
that illegal votes should be excluded from the
polls. These, then, are the two great objects
lo be accomplished. He thought that they would
be most surely attained, not by grafting into the
Constitution any particular term of residence,
but by authorizing the Legislature to adopt reg-
ulations to that end. He had prepared a propo-
sition on this point, which he intended to offer
hereafter. He had no design to trammel the
Legislature, or to restrict the franchise. So far
from restricting it, he would give it the largest
liberty. But it was necessary that something
should be done to enable the judges of elections
to decide who are entitled to vote. Without be-
ing satisfied that the judges would be qualified
to decide on this point, it could not be entrusted |
to them to decide the question. He would be
willing to place it in the discretion of the judges,
if all the voters could be known to them. But as
that is not likely to tie the case, he desired rather
that it should be left to the Legislature to regu-
late the mode, and such was the purport of the
proposition he intended to offer. He deaired that
the Legislature should provide for a proper re-
gistration of the voles, and this would accom-
plish the object. With this impression, he in-
tended to move an amendment to this effect to
come in at the end of the section. There would
then be no inquisition into the legality of the vo-
ters. He wished to have no man voting who is not
a bona fide citizen of the State. He intended to
vole against all propositions to fix a certain
term of residence; and if any motion to that ef-
fect should be adopted, he would move its recon-
sideration.
Mr. DORSEY said that when questions of
such grave importance were before the Conven-
tion, and ho had information calculated to throw
any light upon them, he felt himself bound to
give it. As to the adage of the ounce of pre-
vention and pound of cure, he stated that the
ounce of prevention was now proposed by those
who thought with him, while the pound of cure
which the gentleman from Baltimore county sug-
gested was the punishment of those who are
guilty of these outrages on the ballot box. The
gentleman from Baltimore who first addressed
the Convention on this subject, stated that a re-
sident of the city of Baltimore was at liberty to
vote ill any of the wards of the city. There is
no restriction on such, in the city, as to residence,
whether of a day or a year; in which he con-
curred with the gentleman, as the charter of the
city imposed no such restriction. Each election
district and ward district elects its own Com-
missioners, and in Anne Arundel the same prac-
tice prevails. All the candidates—Congress-
men, Sheriff, members of the House of Dele-
gates and Commissioners of Congressional elec-
tions to be voted for, are voted for on one tick-
et—not a Congressman in one, a Sheriff in ano-
ther, and so on, but all the names are oil one
ballot, and that single one is deposited in the bal-
lot box. There was nothing in the Constitution
as to the qualification in respect to residence in
the different election districts, to prevent voters
from voting in another election district than that
in which they reside, so that the vote of one
might be changed by the residents of another.
The mode now presented appeared to him the
most judicious that had been offered, and the
best calculated to prevent abuse. The term of
thirty days was that which he proposed as a term
of residence. A gentleman, not now in his seat,
had said that it would be idle to impose any re-
strictions as to the period after naturalization,
when foreigners might be permitted to vote; and
he assigned as his reason that the judges of
elections, being warm political partizans of one
of the parties, would reject the votes offered by
voters who were not in favor of their party.
Now he would not cast any such imputation on.
the judges of election. They are the only per-
sons to whom the decision of such questions was |
