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1340 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 29,
be Democrats, it is well to bear in mind that Police Commis-
sioner Milroy and Marriott Boswell, Clerk to the Police
Board, testify that all changes so made were based upon in-
formation as to the fitness and political sympathy of the new
appointees, by Deputy Marshall Frey.
Very significant evidence of fraud at the State election, is
found in the singular discrepancy between its results and
those of the Municipal election held a few days previously.
The evidence shows clearly that the same parties controlled
by the same organizations, contested both elections, the same
principles were involved in each, and no evidence has been
offered to show, nor is it the fact that the successful Guber-
torial and Legislative candidates were at all superior to
General Latrobe in personal standing or popularity. A
marked difference, therefor, between the results of the two
elections cannot be satisfactorily explained by any change in
popular sentiment during the five days intervening between
them.
If we compare the returns of the Municipal and Stale elec-
tions, we find the total vote of the former 53,607, of the lat-
ter 58.921, an increase at the State election of 5,314. Now
it must be conceded that the vote at the Municipal election
of 1875, was the largest ever cast in the City of Baltimore,
exceeding that of 1873, by 18,204, and that of the Presi-
dential election of 1872, by 9,390, and also exceeding the reg-
istered vote of Baltimore city, as shown by the books of reg-
istration on January 1st, 1875, by more than 5,000.
Join to these the other equally undeniable facts that the
canvass for both elections was conducted as a whole, sus-
tained by the same speakers, who urged the same arguments
and considerations, and was practically closed on the eve of
the Municipal election, and that this canvass was the most
active, earnest and thorough, and the interest aroused in the
people the most absorbing within the memory of any living
man, and the conclusion is inevitable that the entire legal
vote of Baltimore city if not something more, was brought
out at the Municipal election.
Now the evidence before us, especially that from the 5th
and 15th Wards, and 1st precinct of the 18th Ward, where
the colored vote is very heavy, shows at the State election
such general and systematic intimidation and violence prac-
tised upon colored people, as practically to eliminate their
vote from the returns.
In the 1st precinct of the 18th Ward, for instance, which
has a registered colored vote of over 800, it is an undisputed
fact, proved both by the Democratic and Reform clerks, that
only three (3) colored men were allowed to vote, This shows
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