they were, he does not know;, but they were
ascribed to the Democrats. Frauds in procuring
naturalization papers, are committed on both
sides. Since the commencement of the Conven-
tion, he had been informed by a whig, that four
Germans who had been in the country only four
months, had been carried to Baltimore for the
purpose, and afterwards voted the whig ticket in
the county. This was a whig, and he urged the
necessity of something being done to prevent it,
because he said if it is done on one side, the other
will resort to the same means in self-defence. If
frauds have not been perpetrated in Baltimore,
why did the Councils in 1838, pass an ordinance
to punish fraudulent voting? Mr. T. read from
the ordinance in proof of this statement. He
made these statements to show that something
should be done to prevent the evil. He was
satisfied that there were frauds on both sides, as
had been admitted frankly by the gentleman from
Baltimore, (Mr. PRESSTMAN.)
Mr. T. agreed with the gentleman, that the
only question was as to the efficiency of the
amendment proposed. Upon this we differ. Mr,
T. thought it would do much good in the coun-
ties as well as the cities. At seasons of election
those best acquainted with the people were in
the habit of canvassing the districts a day or two
previous to the election, and ascertaining how
the result would probably be. If the counties
should elect their Commissioners and other offi-
cers by districts, this restriction of five days re-
sidence would prevent many fraudulent votes.
If it were ascertained a day or two before the
election, that either side would be in a small
minority, they might import a few voters from
another district able to spare them, and thus by
a distribution of surplus voters from any one district,
carry a majority in all the others. In most
of the counties there are persons who vote where
they happen to be at work, being residents of the
counties, but having no fixed place of abode. In
the hands of the designing, these men might be
made to vote in any district, by being employed
there the day before the election. And again, the
judges of the elections, in some counties, hold the
incorrect opinion that a man may vote. where
he hag his washing done. If a man go to
a district a day betore the election and have
washing done there, he might vote on the ground
that this gave him residence.
Mr. PRESSTMAN. Are we to provide judges
who understand their duties ?
Mr. TUCK. No. But we should, if we can,
save the people from the necessity of having these
questions decided by them at all. Mr. T. said
that the same would be the effect in Baltimore,
in the city elections. It would prevent coloniz-
ing in the city and the counties, and if it did no
good, as some thought, it was at least worth the
trial, because no one had shown that any injury
to any person was likely to result from its opera-
tion. He insisted that a partial remedy was bet-
ter than to allow the evil to progress without any
attempt to arrest it. He believed that the people
generally would favor a restriction of this kind,
even for a longer time, as tending to preserve |
our free institutions, the permanency of which
we all have so much at heart.
Mr. WEBER moved to amend the pending
amendment by adding, at the end thereof, the
following:
"Provided, That the voter, if required, shall
make affidavit that he did not move into the
election district, to effect the election then being
held."
Mr. RIDGELY felt compelled, notwithstanding
his previous determination not to mingle in this
debate, to make some remarks, in reply to the
gentleman from Prince George's, (Mr. Tuck.)
That gentleman expressed surprise that there
should (be found any man who was unwilling
to sustain the purification of the ballot-box. He
desired to ask that gentleman, if he could sup-
pose that there was any gentleman in this Con-
vention, who would oppose its purification.—
There was more of the time of this Convention
lost in the discussion of what are either unnecessary
or irrelevant questions, than of those
which are relevant and necessary.
The object of every gentleman is the purifica-
tion of the ballot-box. To effect this common
object, some suppose that restrictions are neces-
sary, others think they are not. He never could
have supposed that the gentleman from Prince
George, would have brought up here that extra-
ordinary story, of the attempt of the Central
Whig Committee, to buy over the Empire Club
of New York. The gentleman ought to, as ho
hoped he would, have done the Whig Central
Committee the justice to say he disbelieved the
story.
Mr. TUCK explained, and said the Whig Cen-
tral Committee had refused to entertain the
thing.
Mr. RIDGELY resumed, denying that any such
proposition had ever been made. No member
of the Whig Central Committee ever dreamt of
such a thing. He was sorry the gentleman from
Prince George had brought forward this and
other cases, which seemed to show that it wag
necessary to impose restrictions on the Whigs.
He could not, after this, wonder if some Demo-
crats voted for restrictions. He eschewed all
party discussion. He came here with clean
hands and a pure heart. He was unsophisticated
enough to go before his constituents in Baltimore
county, and ask them to elect him on the no
party principle. He was so green as to believe
that there might be found in a Convention se-
lected by the people, to frame an organic law,
men capable of rising above the evanescent
operation of party feelings, and he had found his
way into this body with that impression on his
mind.
These matters are altogether irrelevant: they
had nothing to do with the main question. That
had been discussed and exhausted. The gentle-
man from Kent, (Mr. Chambers,) conceded,
that the remedy had been so diluted by its re-
duction to five days residence, as to leave but
little life in it; the gentleman from Cecil, (Mr.
McLane.) had well qualified it as a homoepathic
dose; and in reference to it he would ask, cui
bono ? The utmost that had been advanced in |
