68                The Maryland Constitution of 1864.            [414

or by an act of the General Assembly passed by a two-
thirds vote of all the members elected to each house, and
restoring the offender to his full rights of citizenship.
The "Officers of Registration" and "Judges of Election"
were "carefully to exclude from voting, or being regis-
tered, all persons so as above disqualified." The hands of
these officials were strengthened by the additional clause
that "the taking of such oath shall not be deemed con-
clusive evidence of the right of such person to vote," thus
leaving to them individually the final judgment in the
matter. In order to cover the first election under the
Constitution and the subsequent registration for which the
Legislature was to provide, the above-given oath was re-
quired of all voters and the Judges of Election must state
in the returns that this provision had been complied with.¹¹⁵
Mr. Berry of Prince George's attempted to insert a clause
limiting the imposition of the oath to cases where there
was a challenge "by a legally qualified voter, resident of
said district or ward in which the vote is offered," but it
was voted down 12 yeas to 47 nays.¹¹⁶ A similar fate had
befallen the attempt of Mr. Davis of Charles to declare in
the first section of the same article that "all persons
[should] be considered loyal who [had] not been con-
victed in some Court of Law of disloyalty."¹¹⁷

Mr. Stirling also offered the provision which was adopt-
ed, with several amendments, and contained an equally
stringent oath of office.¹¹⁸ It required of "every person
elected or appointed" to any office under the Constitution
or laws pursuant thereto, that he should not only swear
allegiance to the Constitution, Laws, and Government of
the United States "as the supreme law of the land, any
law or ordinance of this or any state, to the contrary, not-
withstanding," and that he had not used any unfair meas-

¹¹⁵ Mr. Stirling distinctly stated this object, Deb., ii, 1272.

¹¹⁶ Proc., 466-7. See Nelson, "Baltimore," p. 573.
¹¹⁷ Proc., 462-3.

¹¹⁸ Proc., 472-4, 505-8 (Section 7 in Constitution).