body. There would he no personal frienships or
partialities to gratify in the choice of subordinate
officers, which have always been the cause of in-
ducing a trading in votes. The great object
would be to carry out party views and establish
party principles; and there would he no trading
of votes under such circumstances.
The object was that the Governor's election
should he separated from the other State elections.
The Governor was a high and important officer
in the State, and his election should take place
at such time, and under such circumstances as
would remove all temptation to a trading of
votes. It ought to take place too when the
greatest number of votes could be obtained, and
it was shown, by all past experience, that at what
is called the Presidential election the greatest
number of votes is always given. Was it not desirable
to all who professed Democratic or repub-
lican principles, that the voice of the people
should be fully and fairly expressed, that the
election of Governor should take place on the
day when the largest number of votes would be
cast? This was his object, and no other. As to
which party would be successful, it did not enter
into his calculation for a moment. He therefore
would separate the election of Governor from the
rest of their State elections, and then the practice
of trading votes would be wholly excluded from
the election of President and Governor. He
would therefore have the election of President
and Governor to take place on the same day,
from which he thought no possible injury could
result, and to which he could see no possible ob-
jection.
It would also accomplish another important
object. By having but one instead of two warmly
contested, important elections, it would prevent
our becoming familiarized to vice by the frequen-
cy of scenes of bribery and corruption. In his
opinion, any man who would trade his vote,
ought not to enjoy the right of suffrage. It was
a departure from the principle upon which free
suffrage was founded, and no man could practice
it without violating that principle and impairing
the value of the elective franchise as possessed by
his fellow citizens.
The gentleman from Queen Anne's thought
that to vote for connecting the election of President
and Governor would be to vote for increas-
ing bribery and corruption which would take
place at elections. He (Mr. D.) did not think
this would be so, but that it would rather tend to
prevent those demoralizing evils.
in conclusion, he repeated, that if the Gov-
ernor and President should be elected at the
same time, in his opinion, the voice of the people
would be fully and fairly expressed, and
that there would be no trading, no bartering of
votes, no undue influences indirectly operating,
but the question would be settled upon those
questions which always influence party elections.
He would therefore vote for the combi-
nation of these two elections and their occur-
rence at the same time.
After a few remarks by Mr. BRENT
Mr. DORSEY explained that his object was,
and had been from the time he took a seat in this |
Convention, to put an end to those corrupting
pecuniary influences which of late had reflected
disgrace upon our public elections in many parts
of the State. Instead of such corruptions being
Increased, they would be diminished by fixing
the election of electors of President and Vice
President of the United States and of Governor
of our State on the same day: instead of two
days of bribery and corruption, we should have
but one. As to the gentleman's wish that this
corruption should he put an end to, and that the
Governor should be elected without traversing
the country, his wish and his voles are in direct
discordance, if the elections were united, there
would be much less occasion for the Governor
personally to address the people. If the "wish"
expressed by the gentleman were strong enough
to influence his acts, he would have voted for
the proposition submitted by him who addresses
you, Mr. President, for the election of the Gov-
ernor by an electoral college. And the sincer-
ity of his desire to rescue our elections from those
corrupt pecuniary influences now notoriously
exerted upon them, would have been much more
apparent if, instead of voting against, he had
voted for those amendments which he (Mr. D.)
had offered, to prevent the raising of money
either in this State or out of it, to be used for
electioneering purposes.
Mr. BROWN said that the charge was that
immense amounts of money were raised in Bal-
timore to bear upon the elections. It was to
remedy this evil that the efforts of the gentle-
man were directed. Now, what did they pro-
pose to do? They proposed to lay Maryland at
the feet of the District of Columbia. Where
did they find all these officers with large emolu-
ments? Where did they find a set of office-
holders more interested in keeping their offices
than in the District of Columbia? Did they
invite these men to contribute from their large
salaries to carry on the canvass in Maryland?
If they wished this to be done, they could not
adopt a better course than to put the Governor's
election on the same day as the election for
President. Then money would be poured in
from Washington, from Boston, from New
York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, where the
large offices were held. Millions would be
furnished from the city of Washington alone, to
be thrown into Maryland. He had no doubt
that if the election of the very next President
turned upon Maryland, they would raise mil-
lions of dollars to effect the result. If money
had been raised in Baltimore to carry these
elections, he knew nothing of it. He never
knew a dollar used in an election in his life.
By connecting the presidential election and the
Governor's election together, all this money
would tend to bear upon the Governor's elec-
tion as well as upon the President's election.
Why connect these elections, then?
The gentleman from Dorchester (Mr. PHELPS)
had objected to frequent elections, on the ground
of expense. What would be the expense of
holding elections every four years? There would
be no other expense added to the regular ex-
pense of elections, in respect to economizing— |
