1874.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 329

delivered the following message from his Excellency, the
Governor, together with the bill therein named:

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
Annapolis, February 10th, 1874.
To the House of Delegates :

I respectfully return, without my signature, House Bill
No. 5, entitled an Act to provide for the defence of Officers
of Registration, Judges of Elections, and others, who are or
may he indicted in the United States Court for acts done in
the performance of duties imposed, or in the exercise of rights
secured under the Constitution and Laws of this State, which
acts are alleged to he in violation of the Act of Congress, ap-
proved May the thirty-first, eighteen hundred and seventy,
entitled " An Act to enforce the rights of citizens of the
United States to vote in the several States of this Union, and
for other purposes."

The main object of the bill, namely, the protection of
State officers who, in the performance of their duties im-
posed by State Laws, are subjacted to criminal prosecution,
under the Act of Congress, approved May the thirty-first,
eighteen hundred and seventy, has my entire concurrence;
and a hill providing for the defence of such persons, and
guarded with suitable checks, to prevent the wasteful ex-
penditure of the public money in the obtention of witnesses
tor the accused, would not be open to just exception.

The bill submitted to me, however, is too ambiguous in its
terms, and to carry it out according to its apparent directions,
would exhaust the entire contingent iuod annually placed
by the General Assembly at the disposal of the Executive.

At the last session, I approved an Act somewhat similar
to that now returned, though it was free from many of the
objections to which this bill is subject. Under that Act, the
costs of the defendant, in one case, amounted to $500.33.

A case has been already tried in the United States Court,
within the last few days, intended to be covered by this bill,
the costs in which, inclusive of the fine, amounted to $1,100.
One has been settled without trial, with costs at $400.

I am informed that there are some thirty cases in all,
which, if conducted on the same scale, will absorb the con-
tingent fund before one-third of them is disposed of.

It seems to me, therefore, to be manifestly my duty to call
your attention to this condition of things, that same other
fund may be provided to meet the expenses contemplated in
the defence of State's officers.

It is important, also, that the summoning of the witnesses
for the defendants should be confided to responsible hands,