Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1870-05-27
The Fifteenth Amendment Bill.

The Committee of Conference of the House
of Representatives and Senate on the bill t.
enforce the Fifteenth Amendment met or
Tuesday morning last and agreed upon re.
port, which was signed by Senators Stewar
and Edmuuds, and Representatives Bingham
and Davis; Senator Stockton aud Represen.
tative Keer declining to sign.
In the Senate, on Tuesday, Mr.. Stewart
from the Committee of Conference, made the
report and explained what had been DONE
The third section had been amended by in
sertiug that any judge, inspector, or Other
officer of election who shall "wrongfully" re-
fuse, &c., to receive, register, &C., the word
"wrongfully" being added.
In other sections, to make the bill harmo-
NOUS, "indctment" had been struck out in
certain places and "prosecution" inserted, the
intent being to provide that where All offence
against this act is made Infamous it shall be
punished by Indictment; and where the Of
fence is not Infamous, by indictment or other
wise. Section 13 is so amended as to strike
out all after the words "shall BE-" where they
occur the second time, and insert necessary
to aid in the execution of judicial processes
issued under this act" In section 16 the
word "emisratng" is struck out where it &C.
ours, and "immigrating" inserted. After sec
ton 20, which relates to registration, two
additional sections are inserted which have
reference to the evidence to be used. Section
20 is amended so as to provide that any reg
istration made under the laws of State shall
be considered to be registration within the
meaning of this act. This has been suggest
ed by the fact that in many of the States
State elections for members of Congress are
held, and one registration has of course done
for both. The two additional sections are in
tended to simplify the matter of evidence, so
that where there has been unlawful registra-
ton or unlawful voting the burden of proof
shall not be on the Governments. Section FL,
now made section %, has been redrawn so as
to make it apply to q specific case, where a
party has been deprived of an Office by the
exclusion of the ballots of those who would
have voted for him, on account of race, color
or previous condition of servitude.
Mr.. Stewart desired the bill passed to-day
10 order that it might be operative at the Vir-
ginia election on Thursday.
Mr.. Thurman said that was the very reason
why it should not be urged. 1t would be
utterly impossible for the people of Virginia
to know what the provisions of this bill were
by Thursday, and SO a man might be pun
ished for violating law whose provisions he
did not know. Even in despotic France a
law was publicly proclaimed all over the
Empire before it went into operation.
Mr.. Drake thought that for once the Sena-
tor from Ohio (Mr. Thurman) was right, and
that the bill should not be pushed through,
so as to have it operate before its provisions
could possibly be known.
Mr.. Sawyer said the people of Virginia well
knew that the things which were provided
against in this bill were wrong in themselves.
Finally, after further debate, the Senate, at
6 P. NJ, adjourned, without a vote being
taken on the report.
On Wednesday, the Senate again took up
the report of the Corr -=sz-3dlvl -ttee and
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