and put it again before the people? Is that
the purpose for which it is to be called to-
gether. The gentleman has amended the sine
die clause, but still I should like to learn the
reasons why this should be adopted.
Mr. ABBOTT. The resolution carries its
own explanation upon its face. If the gen-
tleman cannot understand it, he cannot un-
derstand the English language.
Mr. DENNIS. I confess there are a great
many things the gentleman does that I cannot
understand. I call for the yeas and nays on
the resolution.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The question being taken, the result was—
yeas 51, nays 18—as follows:
Yeas—Messrs. Goldsborough, President;
Abbott, Annan, Audoun, Baker, Carter, Cun-
ningham, Cushing, Daniel, Davis, of Wash-
ington, Dellinger, Earle, Ecker, Farrow, Gal-
loway, Greene, Hatch, Hebb, Hoffman, Hop-
kins, Hopper, Jones, of Cecil, Keefer, Ken-
nard, King, Larsh, Markey, Mayhugh,
McComas, Mulligan, Murray, Negley, Ny-
man, Parker, Pugh Purnell, Ridgely, Rus-
sell, Sands, Schley, Scott, Smith, of Worces-
ter, Stirling, Stockbridge, Swope, Sykes,
Thomas, Todd, Valiant, Wickard, Wooden
—51.
Nays—Messrs. Billingsley, Blackiston,
Bond, Briscoe, Brown, Chambers, Dennis,
Dent, Duvall, Hodson, Hollyday, Horsey, Lee,
Miller, Morgan, Parran, Smith, of Dorches-
ter, Turner—18.
The resolution was accordingly adopted.
THIRD READING OF REPORTS.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I move that we proceed
this morning to take up reports upon their
third reading; and I first move to take up
report No. 12, upon the elective franchise, I
make this motion in order that they may go
into the bands of the committee on revision.
Mr. PUGH. I second that motion because
the committee on revision cannot get along
until these reports are passed.
The motion was agreed to.
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.
The convention accordingly proceeded to
the third reading of the article on the elec-
tive franchise, and section first was read as
follows:
Section 1. All elections shall be by ballot,
and every white male citizen of the United
States of the age of twenty-one years or up-
wards, who shall have reaided 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 as 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 be registered in the State, and who |
may be serving in the army of the United
States, shall be held and taken as the only
evidence of qualification to vote at any elec-
tion hereafter, and the general assembly shall
by law provide for taking the votes of sol-
diers serving in the army of the United States,
in the field; and in case any county or city
shall be so divided as to form portions of dif-
ferent electoral districts for the election of
Congressmen, senator, delegate, or other offi-
cer or officers, then to entitle a person to vote
for such 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
be offers to vote, for six months next preced-
ing the election; but a person who shall not
have acquired a residence in such county or
city, entitling him to vote at any such elec-
tion, shall be entitled to vote in the election
district from which he removed, until he shall
have acquired a residence in the part of the
county or city to which he has removed.
Mr. HEBB. That word "not" should not
be in the nineteenth line of this section. It
should be "but a person who shall have ac-
quired a residence.' It was not in the old
constitution.
Mr, SANDS. That very word "not" heals
the ambiguity of the section in the old con-
stitution.
Mr. HEBB. If it meant one thing in the old
constitution without the word "not," it must
mean a different thing here with it.
Mr. SANDS. It was a clerical error in the
old constitution, and the committee inserted
it tor the very reason that it cleared up the
ambiguity.
Mr. STIRLING. It strikes me upon reading
it precisely as it struck the gentleman from
Allegany (Mr. Hebb.) The clause now say».
that a man who has not acquired a residence
shall be entitled to vote.
Mr. SANDS. Certainly; if he has not ac-
quired it there, he shall be entitled to vote in
the election district from which he removed.
Mr. STIRLING. The provision in the old
constitution was this: that a man may go
back to the election district in which he re-
sided before his removal to another district,
if be has not resided for six mouths in the dis-
trict in which he now lives' But it never
allowed a man to go from one county to an-
other county to vote because he had not re-
sided in the new county for six months.
Mr. SANDS. The gentleman utterly mis-
takes the purport of it. It is not to go from
one county to another, but to go from one dis-
trict to another.
Mr. STIRLING. The interpretation put upon
it in the city of Baltimore is different. With-
out this provision, according to the opinion
of Reverdy Johnson and other eminent law-
yers, it required a six months residence in
moving from ward to ward
Mr. ABBOTT. I myself happen to have been
a judge of elections for the last two years, and |
