I am informed by my friend of the fact that
in Baltimore city the commissioner of enrol
ment states that the law of the United States
prohibiting felons from serving in the army
and navy has been rescinded and is not now
regarded. The United States have seen the
error of this, and have done what my colleague
is unwilling to do, gone back from their for-
mer policy. It is notorious that persons con-
fined in Baltimore jails have been let out if
they would enlist.
Mr. STIRLING. They bad not been con-
victed.
Mr. CUSHING. But they were persons who
were so sure of being convicted that rather
than stand a trial they have deliberately taken
upon themselves the hardships of enlistment
in this war, three years service in which are
worse than a five years term in the peniten-
tiary. It is notorious that this has been done.
I do not at all see bow the institutions of our
land are lo be endangered by a few of these
men coming out and voting. I do not think
their influence would be worse than that of
the rowdies who accumulate around many of
our polls.
Mr. THRUSTON. It certainly will be a dan-
gerous change to make in the law, and it is an
experiment which I do not think is justified
by the arguments which have been made.—
The fact that unconvicted felons are allowed
to vote is certainly no argument for adding
to their number those who are convicted and
known to be felons. I think the section should
remain as it is, in this respect, and I am there-
fore decidedly opposed to the amendment.
Mr, EDELEN submitted the following amend-
ment to the section:
Insert after the word "crime," in the sec-
ond line, ' 'or of any crime punishable by the
constitution and laws of this state with con-
finement in the penitentiary."
Mr. EDELEN. My object in offering this
amendment is to render that certain and de-
terminate that which seems now to be very un-
certain and indeterminate. I desire to give a
legal common sense definition of the term
here used, "infamous crime;" and I see. no
better mode of doing it than to adopt the
definition which the revised statutes of New
York have adopted upon this subject, abolish-
ing all the common law distinctions between
infamous crimes and other crimes, between
felonies and misdemeanors, and letting the
whole stand, for the purposes of this section
upon the definition which I propose to insert.
I have here Bouvier's Law Institutes, the best
authority upon the subject; and really I am
at a loss to understand the definition which
he gives of infamous crimes. I will read his
definition for the benefit of the convention ;
"Infamy, in a general sense, is the con-
dition of a person who is regarded with con-
tempt and disapprobation by the generality
of men on account of his vices. But in a
legal sense, it is the state of one who hag been |
lawfully convicted of a crime, followed by a
judgment, by which he has lost his honor.
The crimes which render a person infamous
are, first, treason; second, felony; third,
frauds; which come within the section of the
crimen falsi of the Roman law, as perjury
and forgery, piracy, swindling and cheating,
baratry, and bribing a witness to keep away.
The consequences of infamy, are the loss of
political rights, and incapacity to testify as a
witness."
[Bouvier's Institute, volume 1, page 72.]
1 desire ley this amendment to render the
meaning determinate and clear. I remember
that awhile ago my friend from Baltimore
city (Mr. Stirling,) and my friend from Cecil
(Mr. Scott,) differed very materially upon this
point. The gentleman from Baltimore city
insisted that manslaughter, under the Mary-
land law, was not an infamous crime, and the
gentleman from Cecil thought it was. I de-
sire to make it definite.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. There is a class of
crimes which it is quite as desirable to in-
clude, as those which the gentleman has in-
cluded; for instance, counterfeiting, for which
a man is sent to the penitentiary under the
laws of the United States; robbing the mail,
or the post office. I see no reason why these
should be excepted.. I think the phraseology
should be changed to include this class of
offences; and I therefore move to add after
the word "State," the words "or of the
United States."
Mr. EDELEN accepted the amendment.
Mr. THOMAS submitted the following amend-
ment to the amendment:
Insert after the words "years," in the first
line, the words "who shall have been a
second time."
The amendment was rejected.
The question recurring upon the amend-
ment submitted by Mr. EDELEN,
It was rejected.
The question recurred upon Mr. CUSHING'S
amendment,
Mr. PUGH. I wish to give my reasons very
briefly for sustaining that proposition. 1
notice that in all the remarks that have been
made, the point I made was not noticed ex-
cept to a slight extent by the gentleman from
Anne Arundel (Mr. Miller.) My idea is, that
the object of the law is both to prevent crime
and to reform. A child is punished by the
parent for an act it has committed. It is
punished because it has committed a wrong ;
and the idea of the parent is to reform the
child. I take it for granted, that by adopt-
ing such a course as this, by marking the law
so that after a convict has served out his
term in the penitentiary, you shut the door
of reformation and leave him forever under
the ban, you neglect to provide for what the
law contemplates. It is the intention of the
law to punish him to make him do better, |
