North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1865-10-11
senator nucka!ew on State Suffrage.

stlon 10 oisirancnlse citizens OF Pennsylvan-
Ia who were not in their district at the time
when certain enrollments and drafts were
made, and achom election officers might de-
eide to hare been absent to droiG such drafts
The proceeding Of the District Attorney is
fully sustained by the very conclusive argu.
ment Of Senator Buekalew, W hlch we subj DIN.
SUFFRAGE QUALIFICATION.
propose to examine and answer ones.
tion which has been recently put into public
debate, involving the construction O. several
acts of Congress, and the constitutional rela .
tiOns of this State with the Federal Govern
ment. The question is, Are men drawn in
the Several U. s drafts who did not report
for duty, Unqualified as voters at elections
held by virtue of the Censtituiio and laws
Of this State 2'' A further question, con
nected with this, is "Are the State rfficers
Of election authorized by ag, and bound by
duty to examine the quail fcation of a voter
as responding drafted man, and to reject
United States law"
affirm two propositions upon this sub
jecr ofinquiry and shall support them by
such arguments and authority as seem to me
decisive.
The first is, that every qualification or
suffrage in Pennsylvania, save natural za'ion
persons of foreign bith, is fixed by the
G institution of the State and that neither
the Legislature of the State DOT the Congress
of the United States can change those QuAll
ficatiUhs in the slightest particular. THE
second proposition IS, that the election
boards, or ufficers of election, IN this State,
ere not authorized to try or determine any
question wha evcr under the draft laws of
the United States, nor TO reject the ballot
of any person offering TO vote upon the allie.
! cation that he is liable to dls'ran n,enr
under those laws.
l. Our State Cons titution provides, that
an elector must be white freeman, twenty.
one years old or upward; tax payer, un-
less between twenty one and twenty TWO
| years 'oi age; resident If the State for one
! year, unless IN case Of fnrmcr cl,ixcn, re-
turning, when six months will suffice and
finally, resident for ten days of the election
district where he offers to vote {: (dis'rIct
residences is not required OF soldiers in public
service, under a recent amendment.) These
are the qualifications Of suffrage fixed by the
| people OF Pennsylvania in their Constitution,
| and the whole of them, to which nothing can
be added and from which nothing can be
taken away, unless BY the same power which
established them. There ia but one excep
ton to the universal truth oe this proposition
and it is f und in the Constitution OF the
United States, in the provision conferring
authority upon Congress to pass uniform
laws OF naturalization. As this special p"wer
has wasted in Congress with the assent of the
State, she prescribes no rule for the natural
ization of foreigners. But this is the single
power, connected with suffrage Qualification
at her elections uDrxercised or unreguIa:ed
by her Constitution. Ii follows, that an act
OF the State Legi stature or an act of Congress
prescribing qualification, or creating dis
qualification of suffrage at State elections,
must be wholly unauthorized ard vnid.-
When it was desired to extend suffrage priv.
ileges to our soldiers absent in the late war,
the Legislature could not do it, and the State
Constitution was amended for the purpose.
And as to Congress the base is still more
| nj, Tharo 1s of
Congress over State suffrage in the Federal
ConstituU ion, which fact excludes all pretense
of ito existence. And the express grant to
Congress of the power to pass uniform laws
Of naturalization. which have relation to
State suffrage, is also inconsistent with the
pretension; for the grant would not have
been necessary if powers relating to citizen
ship ard suffrage have peen implied.
The existing currant debates upon suffrage
in the South, may be considered in this con-
nectinn. The President holds, and holds tru.
ly, that the Government of the United States
cannot determine the rules OF suffrage in q
Southern State. IT, e class of men called
Radicals, hold that it can ; but upon what
ground Why, upon the ground that the SC
called States of The South are States M lon
ger-at least not States in the Uninn-but
conquered territories, and as snch, subject to
Congressional jurisdiction and Interference ae
Of suffrage and other questions. In brief, III
party to the debate asserts. and the other
virtually comedies, the doctrines above stated
Of The exclusive power Of State in the Un
ion to regulate suffrage for itseIf C ear ly
then, by the common consent ofall parties
the position is established. that Congress can
not make the responding to a military draft
q quahfca'i"n Of suffrage in Per nsyIvan,a or
any other adherng State and the act Of con
gress of Sd of March, 1865. supplementary To
the Conscri ption acts must receive q cons,ruc