66               The Maryland Constitution of 1864.            [412

the Constitution will be followed in part, and in part a
grouping by subjects.¹⁰⁸

Article 1, on the Elective Franchise, largely followed
the plan of the corresponding article in the preceding Con-
stitution. It also contained one of the best of the new
provisions, that requiring the General Assembly to pro-
vide for an uniform registration of the names of the voters
of the state, a thing as yet unknown in Maryland. This
registration was made the evidence of the qualification of
citizens to vote at all elections.¹⁰⁹ In relation to bribery,
section 5 of the same article added to the former prohibi-
tive provision a clause disfranchising a person guilty of
fraud in procuring for himself or any other person a nomi-
nation for any office. This was the result of a motion by
Mr. Stockbridge, who desired to incorporate in addition
the application of this provision to primary meetings and
nominating conventions, an advanced reform movement
only beginning to be considered at the present day. The
Convention voted it down as impracticable.¹¹⁰

The oaths of allegiance for voters and public officials as
contained in this article were perhaps the most unpopular
feature of the Constitution, and did more to cause its re-
luctant acceptance by the state and its final abrogation in
1867¹¹¹ than any other one thing in connection with it.
They were of course the direct outcome of the war and
only applicable to the conditions arising at that time.
General Schenck's much-discussed order governing the
elections of 1863, the various invasions and raids into

¹⁰⁸  The entire new Constitution, as adopted, may be found in
Proc, 721-70.

¹⁰⁹ Proc., 434, 513, 686; Deb., iii, 1784. This provision was carried
out by the Legislature of 1865. See Steiner, "Citizenship and
Suffrage in Maryland," pp. 47-8.

¹¹⁰ Proc., 510-1; Deb., ii, 1381-3. Mr. Miller had desired to make
voting compulsory by an article in the "Declaration of Rights,"
Proc., 111-2.

¹¹¹ The present Constitution of Maryland was formed in that
year.