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1300 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 28
the Fifth Ward. No one, however, was seriously hurt, ex-
cept in the collision in the neighborhood of the polls of the
First Precinct of the Eighteenth Ward. Several men were
there wounded, but a majority of 'them were shown to be
white persons, and members of the Democratic Conservative
Party. None, however, were killed or fatally wounded. In
the other precincts of these wards and in the other wards of
the city, the election passed off quietly. Every one who was
entitled to vote under the law Could do so. As further evi-
dence that this election was not characterized by the intimi-
dation and violence alleged to have been resorted to by the
iuccessful party to effect its ends, it may be mentioned that
of the fifty-eight thousand eight hundred and twenty-one
totes polled in the city, Mr. Harris, the defeated gubernato-
rial candidate, and who ran behind his ticket, received twen-
ty-one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three of them.
Now, as to the charges against the Police Commissioners,
in reference to their appointment of Judges and Clerks of
laid elections.
The evidence was conclusive—was, in fact, produced by
those who sought to fasten upon the Police Commissioners a
dereliction of duty and malfeasance in office, in this respect,
that although under the law, the appointment of the Judges
and Clerks of Election rested exclusively in the discretion of
the Police Commissioners, yet they stated to the gentlemen
representing the combined elements of opposition to the
Democratic Conservative party, the dominant party in the
City of Baltimore, who had inquired of them as to the course
they intended to pursue in the appointment of said judges
and clerks, that they had determined to appoint two judges
and one clerk, in accord with the dominant party, and one
Judge and one clerk in sympathy with the opposition party,
and would appoint as said opposition judges and clerks, such
men as might be recommended by said gentlemen; provided,
fhey were quali6ed, competent, discreet and worthy.
They further stated, that the holding of a federal, State
or municipal office, would not be considered as a disqualifica-
tion for either position.
Acting on this statement, the said gentlemen, or one of
them, who acted on authority for the whole, furnished a list
of opposition judges to the Police Commissioners, numbering
& all eighty, being one for each election precinct in the city.
Of this number, seventy-seven were commissioned by the
Board leaving three places vacant, which was filled by the
Police Commissioners themselves, in the appointment of three
discreet persons in sympathy with the opposition party. As
it had been customary to allow the judges of election to
Meet their own clerks—those clerks who had been selected
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