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1282 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 28,
or violence; but that in the absence of such wrong, they, the
contestants, would have been elected.
We allude to the memorials, not as recommending that
the House should decide this case under the rule of law be-
fore stated. But we feel justified in assuming that the coun-
sel for the contestants so framed them, because they were
well aware of the impossibility of showing any facts by
proof which would sustain an allegation, that under any con-
ditions of purity of the ballot-box, or freedom from disorder,
the memorialists would have received a majority of the votes
cast at the recent election.
The memorials, and the whole record, present for the de-
cision of the House this question: Shall the election held
in the City of Baltimore on November 2d, 1875, be declared
null and void, and a new election of delegates ordered by
this House?
The charges preferred by the memorialists as justifying-
such action on the part of the House us they ask, are numer-
ous. Most are unsustained by proof, while others, whatever
might be their effect on certain precincts in a case where the
contestants claimed the seats, can have no bearing on the
case as presented.
The proof is addressed almost entirely to the support of
the main charge, "that said pretended election of November
2nd, 1875, was characterized by such tumult, riot, intimida-
tion, fraud and injustice practiced on behalf of the persons
so as aforesaid returned as elected, and actively participated
in by the officers and authorities, especially the police of said
city, that a full and fair expression at the ballot-box of the
views and preferences of voters was impossible, and that said
election was therefore not free, and is void."
In connection with this main charge, it is specified that on
the day before the election with the encouragement of the police,
noiny ruffians, adherents of the returned members, assaulted
and intimidated voters; and on the day of the election the
same riotous class of persons, with the connivance of the po-
lice, took possession of the polls and assaulted and prevented
the friends of the memorialist from voting.
With reference to this charge, taken as a whole and as de-
scriptive of the condition of the city of Baltimore on Novem-
ber 2nd, 1875, we simply call attention to the fact that the
vote polled in that city of nearly 59,000 voters, answers the
charge. No such condition of disorder could have existed
without deterring a very large proportion of the quiet citizens
from offering to deposit their ballots, whether Democrats or
Reformers.
It is equally impossible that the charge that ruffians took
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