known to the officers of the State regiments
the provisions of this article of the schedule,
and request them to exercise the right hereby
conferred upon them, and shall take all means
proper to secure the soldiers' vote; and the
general assembly at its first session after the
adoption of this constitution, shall make
proper appropriation to pay any expense that
may arise herein."
Mr. DUVALL moved to amend the section by
inserting the following after the words
" means proper to secure the soldiers' vote:"
" And if any officer or person shall give or
offer to give directly or indirectly, any bribe,
present, or reward, or any promise, or any
security for the payment or delivery of money
or any other thing to induce any voter in the
military service of the United States to re-
frain from casting his vote, or forcibly to pre-
vent him in any way from voting, or to pro-
cure a vote for any candidate or person pro-
posed or voted for as elector of president and
vice-president of the United States, or repre-
sentative in congress, or for any office of
profit or trust created by the constitution or
laws of this State, or by the ordinances or
authority of the mayor and city council of
Baltimore, the officer or person giving or of-
fering to give, and the voter receiving the
same, and the officer or person who gives or
causes to be given an illegal vote, knowing it
to be such, at any election to be hereafter
held in this State, or under the provisions of
sections 1,2,3,4 and 5 of schedule, relating
to the ' vote ' of those persons in the military
service of the United States, &c."
Mr. SCOTT. I see no use in cumbering this
section of the report with this amendment.
We have the same provision in the article on
elective franchise.
Mr. DUVALL. I desire to make the provi-
sion applicable to officers in the army as well
as to citizens.
Mr. SCOTT. It applies to every case now.
Any attempt to make it more definite would
he like saying " the whole world and the rest
of mankind."
The question was upon agreeing to the
amendment of Mr. DUVALL.
Upon this question Mr. MARBURY called for
the yeas and nays, which were ordered.
The question was then taken by yeas and
nays, and resulted—yeas 19, nays 41—as fol-
lows:
Yeas—Messrs. Billingsley, Blackiston, Craw-
ford, Dail, Davis, of Charles, Dent, Duvall,
Edelen, Hodson, Hollyday, Horsey, Johnson,
Lansdale, Lee, Marbury, Mitchell, Morgan,
Parran, Smith, of Dorchester—19.
Nays—Messrs, Goldsborough, President;
Abbott, Annan, Audoun, Baker, Barron,
Carter, Cunningham, Cushing, Daniel, Davis,
of Washington, Dellinger, Ecker, Galloway,
Greene, Hebb, Hopper, Jones, of Cecil, Keefer
Kennard, King, Markey, McComas, Mullikin,
Nyman, Parker, Pugh, Purnell, Russell, |
Schley, Schlosser, Scott, Smith, of Carroll,
Smith, of Worcester, Sneary, Stirling, Stock-
bridge, Swope, Sykes, Todd, Wooden—41.
The amendment was accordingly rejected.
Pending the call of the yeas and nays, the
following explanations were made by mem-
bers as their names were called :
Mr. ABBOTT. Believing that that difficulty
is already sufficiently covered, I vote "no."
Mr. AUDOUN. Believing that this amend-
ment is only offered for the purpose of retarding
the progress of the convention, I vote
" no."
Mr. DUVALL. I disclaim the imputation
made by the gentleman from Baltimore city
(Mr. Audoun.) lamas truly anxious that
this convention shall close its labors as any
man upon this floor. I vote '• aye."
Mr. SMITH, of Carroll. For the simple and
only reason that full provision is made for the
punishment of the crime indicated in this
proposition, I vote "no,"
No further amendment was offered to this
section.
The next section was then read as follows:
"Section 5. If this constitution shall be
adopted by the people, the provisions con-
tained herein for taking the soldiers' vote on
the adoption of the constitution, shall apply
to all elections to be held in this State, until
the general assembly shall otherwise pro-
vide."
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I desire to offer an
amendment to this section, in order to make
it what the committee evidently designed it
should be. As it now stands it seems to me
that the committee have left a loose joint in
one place, it now reads that the provisions
"for taking the soldiers' vote on the adop-
tion of the constitution shall apply to all elec-
tions held in this State, until the general as-
sembly shall otherwise provide." Now that
"otherwise provide" might be held to mean
that the legislature could provide that the
soldiers' vote should not be taken at all. 1
therefore move to amend by striking out the
words "otherwise provide," and inserting
"provide some other mode of taking the
same."
The question being taken, the amendment
was adopted.
No other amendment was offered to this
section.
On motion of Mr. STIRLING,
The vote by which the following section
was adopted was reconsidered :
"Sec. 3. The judges shall, as soon as
possible, transmit said returns, with the tickets
so strung, to the governor, who shall re-
ceive the returns of the soldiers' vote, and
shall cast up the name, and judge of the gen-
uineness and correctness of the returns, and
may recount the threaded tickets, so as to
satisfy himself, and the governor shall count
said vote with the aggregate vote of the State
on the adoption or rejection of this constitu- |
