United States and the legislature is hereby
required to provide the means necessary to
carry this provision into full and complete
operation and effect, and at all such
elections the vote shall he by ballot. And in
case any county or city shall be divided as to
form portions of different election districts for
the election of congressmen, senator, delegate
or other officer or officer?, then to entitle a
person lo vote for search officer, he must have
been a resident of that part of the county or
city which shall form a part of the electoral
district in which he offers to vote, for six
months next preceding the election; but it
person who shall not have acquired a resi-
dence in such county or city entitling him to
vote at any such election shall be entitled to
vote in the election district from which here-
moved, until he shall have acquired a residence
in the part of the county or city to
which he has removed."
The following amendment moved by Mr,
STOCKBRIDGE was pending:
Insert at the commencement, "at all elec-
tions hereafter to be held in this State, the
vote shall be by ballot," and to strike out in
lines seventeen and eighteen the words "and
at all such elections the vote shall be by
ballot."
Mr. STIRLING. I think it would be better
to say ''all elections,'' and not "all elections
in this State," for we have provided for elec-
tions outside of the State Another difficulty
is that under that, until we get a registry
law, nobody could vote.
Mr. SCOTT gave notice that he would sub-
mit the following"' amendment:
Strike out all to the words "and incase "
in the eighteenth line, and insert:
"All elections shall be by ballot, and every
white male citizen of the United States of the
age of twenty-one years or upwards, who
shall have resided in the State one year next
preceding the election, and six months in the
city of Baltimore or in any county, shall be
entitled to be registered us a legal voter; and
such registration made in accordance with
such provisions as the general assembly may
prescribe; together with the muster rolls of
all such soldiers as may be entitled to he
registered in the State, and who may be serv
ing in the army of the United States, shall
be held and taken as the only evidence of
qualification to vote at any election hereafter,
and the general assembly shall by law pro-
vide fur taking the votes of soldiers serving
in the army of the United States in the
field "
The amendment submitted by Mr. STOCK-
BRIDGE was rejected.
Mr. SCOTT submitted the amendment of
which lie had given notice, as above.
Mr STIRLING. I desire to offer a substitute
for that amendment, when it shall be in order,
to provide that no person not registered shall
rote at. any election held after March 10, 1865; |
so that after the legislature shall hare hid an
opportunity to exercise the power we make
mandatory upon them to pass a registry law,
no person unregistered shall vote. Until that
date we cannot have a registry law.
Mr. BERRY demanded the yeas and nays
upon the amendment of Mr. SCOTT; but they
were not ordered.
Mr, MILLER, The amendment offered by
the gentleman from Cecil (Mr Scott) pro-
pose's to go even further than the section as it
stands, If I understand it, it provides that
the soldiers in the army and navy of the Uni-
ted States shall] be at all times entitled to vote.
The section restricts it to the time when the
United States are actually engaged in war.—
1 feel that I should not be discharging the
duty which I think I owe in my own judg-
ment and my own conscience, on this subject,
if I permitted this amendment to pass without
any remarks upon the subject.
1 do not wish to deprive the soldiers of the
State who may be engaged in the military
service of the United State of any right which
I think they are properly entitled to; and
among those right is, by the contingencies of
this war, that of the draft. If it should so
happen that I should lie drafted and forced
into the service of the Unitid States. or should
volunteer to go into the service of the United
States in this war,, about the last privilege
which I should desire would be the right of
voting while in that military service. I care
not in what other Stain's the privilege may
have been extended to the soldiers, whether
north or south, erst or west. I put the ob-
jection on higher grounds than that. I pro-
test against such legislation in the name of
constitutional liberty.
Reference has been made to what was done
in former times, in the history of this State,
during our revolutionary war. Legislation
upon this subject has been read to us this
morning, if we go back to those times and
search for precedents there, let us take the best
that we can obtain Such was the spirit of
liberty with which our ancestors were imbu-
ed, that they would not allow the soldiers of
the States, and of this State especially, while
engaged in the holy cause of sustaining Amer-
ican independence against the oppression of
the British crown, to vote while in the mili-
tary service. They put it upon a higher
ground, that the influence of armies was dan-
gerous to liberty, and that the military, at
all times and in all place? should be subser-
vient to the civil power of the State. Hence
it was that they prohibited these soldiers from
voting, even while engaged in the war of the
Revolution.
My objection to it is this. When a citizen
becomes a soldier he lays aside his civil rights
and is placed under martial law. The exor-
cise of the right of suffrage should he free and
untrammelled. A man, when he goes to
vote, should vote under no overpowering |
