The Greeley tribune., 1906-10-18
VIRGINIA ELECTORS.
In the Old Days They Had to Vote
or Pay Extra Taxes,

~ Ioxe0.
In the clerks office of MeckIruburg
I find an old copy Of the acts Of the
general assembly of Virginia. In it an
act is found passed by the assembly on
Dec. 90, lIS5. which required all per
sons entitled to vote to do so. This is
the bill ANY elector qualified accord
ing to this act failing to attend any an
nual election OF delegate or of seua-
tor and IL u poll be taken to give or
offer to give his vote shall pay one
fourth of his portion Of all such evies
and taxes as shall be assessed and
levied in his county the ensuin= year.
And for discovering such defaulters the
sheriff or other officer taking the poll
shall within ten days after the said
election deliver to the clerk of the
county or corporation court. as the
case may be. copy Of the poll by him
taken, to be kept in his Office, who shall
suffer any candidate or elector 10 take
copy thereof, and the said clerk is
hereby directed to cause COPY OF the
same to be delivered to the next grand
jury. to be sworn for the county or
corporation. who shall be charged by
the presiding magistrate, to make pre-
sentiment of all such persons qualified
to vote residing in the said county or
corporation who shall have failed to
have given their votes at the said elec-
tion agreeable to law. And for the
better information Of the said jury the
sheriff Of the county is hereby COM
manded. under the penalty of ESQ. to
be recovered and appropriated as the
penalties for other neglects of his
duty, to lay before them a list of all
the landholders resident therein"
There are filed in the clerks office
many certified excuses to the court for
failure to vote, begging to be excused.
by voters who had been Indicted for
failure to vote. Some of these excuses
are novel as well as amusing. One fel-
low writes that the election was held
on his fishing day. Another one says
he was working in meeting house;
then another says he was ignorant Of
the day of the election. Still another
said he would have had to walk eight
cen miles, as his mare was very lame
and his plow horse very poor One
odyS u SOpS tuhl ut
was ready fixed to start to the court
house of said county to vote when he
was Informed that certain COW Of his
which had a young calf was missing,
when l get out to look for her and did
not find her that day, and several days
after found her drowned In the riv-
err" This excuse satisfied the court, as
the paper is marked Excused"
Sir Peyton Skipwith, baronet of
Preastwould, who settled in this coun-
ty from England in the eighteenth cen
tury. makes his excuse in his own
handwriting, dated June 10, 1913: "P.
Skipwith's reasons for not attending
the two last elections in Mecklenburg.
Il was summoned to attend the high
court of chancery early in March and
did not consider myself legally dis
missed until after the seventeenth day
| of the court, which happened on
Wednesday, the Goth of the Month, SO
that 1t vas not in my power to attend
the election of member of congress,
and on my way up from Richmond
unfortunately broke one Of my car
| riage wheels, SO that l could not with
| any degree of convenience get repaired
in time to attend the election Of mem
Der of the general assembly, and In
| consequence of an injury l received
some years ago in my back and loins
cannot ride more than three or four
miles at time, and the very short
rides on horseback that l sometimes
take about my plantation, for l never
attempt to ride anywhere else, are sue
ceeded by violent pain and sometimes
fever, which was the case the last
time l attempted to ride to our court,
and I trust and believe that the wor-
shipful court has more humanity than
to desire man at near sixty years of
age to do what so certainly injuries his
health and feelings."-Richmond Times
Dispatch.