may vote on one, two, or three days, just as
the convention see fit to prescribe.
That is what the law says on that subject.
That would be clear, perfectly clear, if
there was not one word more in this section
on the subject. But the gentleman from Baltimore
county (Mr. Ridgely) has carefully abstained
from reading the concluding and
conclusive portion of the section upon this
subject. What is it?
—" and the provisions hereinbefore con-
tained for the qualification of voters and the
holding of elections, provided in the previous
section of this act, shall be applicable to the
election to be held under this section."
What is " the election to be held under this
section ?" It is the election to be held upon
the adoption of this constitution which we
are now framing; and no other election is to
be held under this section except that. The
qualifications of those who are to vote upon
this question, as this sixth section prescribes,
are to be the same which this law says shall
be their qualifications.
—"and the provisions hereinbefore con-
tained for the qualification of voters and the
holding of elections, provided in the previous
section of this" act, shall be applicable to the
election to be held under this section."
Human language could not express it in
plainer terms. The qualifications of the peo-
ple who are to vote upon the adoption of this
constitution are those which are prescribed
under the existing constitution and this law.
This law added some new qualifications, or
some new restrictions upon the right of suf-
frage, which were not embodied or embraced
in the existing constitution of the State.
What were they? We must go to the law
to see what they were. In the first section
it is provided;
" And the said judges of election shall at
said election, administer the oath or affirma-
tion to every person offering to vote, whose
vote shall be challenged on the ground that
such person has served in the rebel army, or
has either directly or indirectly given aid,
comfort, or encouragement to those in armed
rebellion against the government of the
United States, or is for any other reason not
a legal voter, in the manner and form pro-
vided by section 21 of article 35 of the Code
of public general laws relating to elections;
and a judge or judges of election, failing to
comply with the provisions of this act. shall
be liable to the same penalties as he or they
would be by the non-compliance with the ex-
isting election laws of this State."
Then these are the additional provisions,
or qualifications, or restrictions, or whatever
you may choose to call them, superadded by
the law of 1864 to the qualifications contained
in the constitution of the State. Under the
provisions of the constitution of the State
every free white man, twenty-one years of
age, and a citizen of the United States, one |
year a resident of the Sate, and six months a
resident of the county, had a right to go to
the polls and vote, without challenge and
unquestioned. Then this law comes in and
says in addition to that, if he be challenged
for any of the reasons specified in this law,
the judges shall put the oath to him. It wag
under that law, and subject to the rules and
regulations prescribed by the governor of
Maryland in carrying out that law, in the
interpretation which he placed upon it, that
the people of the State did vote for this con-
vention. And when we come to the sixth
section, which prescribes the submission of
the constitution to the people for ratification,
it goes back precisely to the same constit-
uency which voted under this law for the
convention.
If the provisions of this report had stopped
with the provisions of this law, and said
nothing further; if it had prescribed that the
voters upon this constitution should, when
challenged for any of the reasons here set
forth, take .the oath a? prescribed in the law,
if the same regulations land rules were to
prevail, I should have said that the report
was in strict conformity with the law under
which we are acting, the organic fundamental
law, as the gentleman from Baltimore county
says. But that is not the report. There-
port sends it back with a restriction upon
the sight of suffrage, neither contained in the
existing constitution nor in the law of 1864.
It sends it back to the oath prescribed in the
present constitution, which can have no
effect in law until adopted by the people;
and that oath is to be made operative on the
day of election, before the constitution is
ratified. That oath, as every gentleman in
the convention knows, is an entirely different
oath in its form and character, from that
which we adopted and prescribed in the act
of 1864. We are then undertaking to Bay
that additional restrictions shall be put upon
the right of suffrage at the election at which
this constitution is to be adopted.
Furthermore, it is declared in another sec-
tion of this report that those who could not
vote at all under the present constitution, for
the calling of this convention, who bad no
right of suffrage either under the constitution
or under the convention bill, shall, at the
election which is to decide the future fate of
Mary land, and to decide in a great degree the-
future condition) of the State of Maryland in
reference to this important subject of emanci-
pation, be entitled to vote; that people who
could not vote to send men here to emancipate
slaves, may, on the adoption of this constitu-
tion, vote to carry into effect the constitu-
tion which they bad no power to send dele-
gates here to frame.
On this construction of the law of 1864,
and on the gentleman's own argument that
that is the fundamental law for the govern-
ment of this body, I say it is impossible for |
