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1284 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS (Mar. 28,
cess to the Judges window at any of the polls. Many of the
witnesses for the contestants, and all of the witnesses for the
respondents, testify to the fact, that negroes as well as white
men were voting all through the day, standing in line await-
ing their turn. Almost all, certainly all of the serious dis-
turbances of the day, occurred at a distance from the polls,
and from the testimony, do not appear to have caused any
suspension of the voting. How little effect upon the voting
was caused by these disturbances, may be learned iron) the
occurrences at the 1st Precinct of the 11th Ward, in the 2nd
Legislative District. It was sought to prove that an organ-
ized attack was there made on the negro voters, and that
many of them were prevented thereby from afterward ap-
proaching the polls. The attack was made at 6 1/2 o'clock A.
M The negro vote at this Precinct, at the municipal elec-
tion was 64, and at the November election, 62; two voters
only having failed to vote at the latter election, whether from
fear, sickness or other engagements.
In the 5th and 15th Wards, and in the 18th Ward, your
Committee find that at different periods of the day, serious
collisions between the negroes and the whites, were only pre-
vented by the active efforts of the police. The evidence pre-
sented to the Committee warrants the conclusion, that these
collisions were provoked by the approach toward the polls in
the places named, of large bodies of negroes, in many cases
Carrying weapons displayed. It is in evidence, that the po-
lice suceeded in each case of collision, in separating the com-
batants, and that in repeated instances they offered to escort
negroes who claimed to be voters to the polls, if.they felt any
apprehension for their safety.
The precincts of the last named wards, where these colli-
sions occurred, are proven to be thickly peopled by negroes,
and the testimony leads irresistibly to the conclusion, that
the threatening manner of their approach to the polls pro-
voked a riot.
A careful examination of the testimony will disclose that
no such disorder existed in nine-tenths of the voting precincts
of Baltimore city, as was calculated to excite apprehension,
or to deter any man from depositing his ballot.
There is one feature in the testimony worthy of note. Not
fifty cases of the exclusion of votes by force or intimidation,
have been testified to. In the contest of 1860, the principles
governing, which are sought to be applied to this cane, a pe-
tition was presented to the House ol Delegates, signed by
7,000 voters in the City of Baltimore, who had been pre-
vented from voting by force or intimidation,
It is a necessary conclusion from the above facts, that the
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