The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-02-28
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ELEC-
TONS OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES
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TONS OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES
OF MARYLAND IN THE CONTESTED
CASE OF TIE DELEGATION FRONTAL
TIMORE CITY,
The Committee on Elections, to whom was re-
ferred the memorial of Adam Denmead and others,
contestng the seats of Charles L. Kraft and Others
retained delegates to represent the city of Bal
timore in this House, respectfully beg leave to sub
nit the following report:
Your committee are aware of the important and
responsibility which has been imposed upon
them by this House. If the rights of the sitting
members and the contestants alone were involved
in the points raised by the memorial, our duty
would be sufficiently grave, but the public-the
people of the entire State-have such a paramount
interest in the contest throws the mere question
of right between the sitting members and contest
ants into comparative insignifcance.
The grounds of contest set forth in the memorial
are substantially as follows:
LIST. Disqualification of certain of the Judges, be-
cause fear, interest or bias
I'd. The use of striped or marked tickets, which
destroyed, to great extent the right of ballot, by
depriving it of its most essential legal safeguards
to wit: freedom and secresy in its exercise.
Sd. Systematic and premeditated violation of the
freedom of election by intimidation prier to and on
the day of election, BY riot involving every species
/ of assault upon voters by the exclusion of many
who desired to VOTE and the coercion Of others to
vote against their will and preference
| 4th The casting of large number of fraudulent
votes and their reception by the judges.
| 9Th. The last, and in the Judgment of your COM
mittee, the greatest, we'll as most amentable
specification, is the completely of the authorities of
the city in the crimes, from the rudest assaults up
to the most deliberate and shocking murders which
| took place in the city of Baltimore on the I'd of
November last.
In the opinion of your committee these are the
gravest charges, touching the exercise of the
elective franchise, which have ever been made in
the history of the State of Maryland, or of our
| Republic. They are seemingly extravaganza
and really so anomalous, that their bare presenta-
tion excites the gravest surprise and notification
and, if they be sustained by the proofs they will
present case which outstrips, in the magnitude
and enormty of the abuse of the elective franchise
| the most prophetic foreboding of the enemies OF
popular government and suffrage. If these charges
be sustained by the proofs, the question of your in
| terposition between an enslaved, DISTINGUISHED
community, and their oppressors, should not admit
of remark or debate.
The law of the case, understood by your COM
mittee, is well settled, and uniform in all the au-
thorities, from the earliest down to the most mo-
! dern.
| Amongst other principles, the following are
| clearly laid down:
l. Where the judges of election are not duly ap-
pointed, or do not duly qualify, or conduct in so
| illegal and arbitrary a manner as to violate the
freedom of election the whole proceedings will be
void. (Cushng's Law of Leg. Assemb., p. ~
2. That secrecy is the right which the ballot was
designed to secure and where it is Invested of this
essential Ingredient, the election is void. (Cush-
ing, PIP az, e. Aud aside from oil ante don't
| authority, the Constitution of State, in pro
vidiug that Gall elections shall be by ballot" was
designed to secure something more than the simple
| right of depositing piece of paper in a box, by
of vote; it doubtless meant to provide, for the
electors, system radically different from oral suf:
frage, whose distinguishing feature is publicity and
that was done by guaranteeing to them the right
| OF secret ballot
8. Fraudulent and illegal votes can never avail
to make election. Wherever they are Offered
they are to be rejected by the Judges but it. either
from ignorance or completely on the part of the
Judge of election they are received by him. still
appear, the ''illegal votes will be rejected and ht
who has the highest number of remaining good
votes will be entitled to his seat" Moore Us
Lewis; Clark and Hale, 1881. In such cases where
the contest is made upon the grounds of fraudulent
and illegal votes Alone the burden is upon the con
testant of proving the extent of the illegal voting
and of showing that when the baot-box is purgeC
of the fraud, he has majority of the remaining
good and legal votes
4. The law is stern in REFRESHING fraud, and rob
bling it of its purposed fruit, but is far more sterl
and memorable in its dealings with violence, ant
neither "the presence of military force during al
election nor the interruption of the proceedings b.
riot and disturbance, can in any degree be endured
by the Constition." (Male on Elections p. 63. y
AS early as the reign of Edward the First "a D
1875 it was ordained Because elections ought t
be free, the king commandeth, upon great forfei
ture, that no man, by force of arms, nor by malic
or menacing, shall disturb any to make free cleo
tion," and from that early day to the present
"When the freedom Of election hos been piolated b.
riots, the election has been uniformly set aside
notwithstanding the returning officer has been abb
to continue and finish the POLL and to comply will
the exigency of the writ by the return of mem
bers" Haywood, Law. of County Elections, $50
Male on Elections, Us.
1t matters not, under the rule, whether tn
votes effected by the riot and violence be many o
few, if there be 'actual force or violence or dis
play of numerical strength, accompanied wit
threats, and the conduct of the parties engaged,
of such character to strike terror into tn
mind of man of ordinary frmness, the election
will be held absolutely void without reference t.
the number of voters thereby affected" (Cush
ing, secs. Isl, 1873, 1885, The reason of this is two
fold-in the first place, it is utter impossibilit
to define the limits of the fear which riot has en-
gendered. 10 man, Speaking of has o,on conduct
can tell how far fear may have influenced it," an
much less can the extent of the influence of tn
contagion of public panic be ascertained But i
the next place, the violation of the freedom G
choice vitiates every election, and "the freedom @
election is as much violated by the intimidation an
coercion OF the minority as of the majority" (Ro
gers on Elections, 240.
The very word ELECTION implies choice-prefer
ence; and where those who have the right [
choose, and the will to exercise that right ar
prevented or deferred from its exercise, there ca
be no election. 'The of avoiding an electio
are all but corollaries flowing from one great prin
ciple That elections should be free Upon tn
preservation of this vital principle, not only tn
prosperity, but the very existence, of the State a
aree State, depends. The violation of this, even
the earliest days of representation, called fort
the spirited, though feeble, voice of the peopl
s's%sad Sc Male on Elections
1891
Such is the law. In the opinion of your CON
mittee, it covers all the points presented in th
memorial of the contestants and the proofs sui
la,
to the facts. The testimony is more or less conclr
sive in all the waIds except the eighty of the spt
citicatons of the contestants, nor was there sing
witness produced by the sitting members to cor
trovert this direct and positive testimony; whethe
such non-producton of contra testimony arose frol
the inability of the sitting members to produce il
or from other reasons conclusive at the time t
them as to the propriety of their course your con
mttee is not advised but the entire absence of sue
testimony is and must be regarded as fact of niue
and great significance.
The witnesses examined by the contestants e.
tabish concusively that the strong arm of violence
on the I'd of November last, struck down and il
deed almost annihitated the right of suffrage
. Baltimore city. In nineteen of the twenty ware
this violence made itself manifest in every col
ceivable shape of intimidation and assault, from il
1 mdest form of rude jostling and crowding, up
the use of the awl, the sung shot, the bowie-knif
the pistol, and the musket, and productive
all the results of such violence, from simple intim
dation up to the most fragrant and deberat
murder.
This state of things was not the result of mel
momentary passion, and the strife of momentar
success Your committee are bound to beliey
from the evidence that it had been planned and de
cided upon before the day; in proof of which, a
tention is called to the procession which took plac
the night before the election. In that processo
were carried banners and transparencies with mo
toes and devices of violence and death. On on
was the figure of bleeding head with the device
"The head of Reformer"
On another was an uplifted arm with clenche
fist, with the device
With this ioe'H do the cork"
On another was this inscription:
"Reform movement Reform man
f If you can vote, PU Be id"
f There other banners with devices of sim
larly threatening and intimidating character
When this procession halted in Monument Square
it was presided over by Senator in Congress, an
addressed by member of the House of Represel
tatives of our own State of Maryland. (See test
D. 1851 In connection with these facts, the part
Fan organ of the clubs, on the day before the ele
r ton, contained calls for the gathering of clut
< bearing most infamous names and repute, and vi
der the lead of some of the most notorious rufiar
of the city. This, in the Judgment of your con