They were then to prepare lists of the persons voted for, with the number of votes for each person against his name, and sign and seal up such list and cause the same, together with the poll-lists, to be delivered into the office of the Secretary of State. These votes were to be canvassed and counted by the Governor and Council with the other votes for the same offices, and the result declared.

These provisions were first made applicable to the election of presidential electors, and then by a separate section in the act it was provided that soldiers should be allowed to vote for representatives in Congress, and each was to be considered as voting in the city, town or plantation and representative district where he resided when he entered the service. The elections for this purpose were to be held at the same times and places, and conducted under the same regulations as provided by the act for voting for presidential electors.

Then the act contained a provision that "in case the Constitution of this State shall be so amended at the annual election to be held on the second Monday of September next as to allow such citizens to vote for Governor, Senators and other officers at the times and in the manner provided in the resolves passed by the present Legislature, proposing an amendment to the Constitution for that purpose, "then all such citizens desiring to vote should present but one ballot on which should be printed or written the names of all the candidates voted for except presidential electors which should be borne on a separate ballot. There were further provisions for the counting of the votes and declaring elections, etc., and finally the act provided that the Secretary of State should seasonably prepare and deliver to each regiment and battery without the State, poll-lists and forms for

returns of votes in conformity with the provisions of the act and with the amendment of the Constitution in case the same should be adopted and "this act and said amendments, if adopted, shall be printed in each poll-list so delivered." 1

The amendment for voting in the field for State officers provided that "citizens of Maine absent on military service of the United States or of the State and not in the regular army of United States, being otherwise qualified electors, shall be allowed to vote on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of November, 1864, for Governor and State Senators, and their votes shall be counted and allowed in the same manner and with the same effect as if given on the second Monday of September in 1864, and that they shall be allowed to vote for Governor and Senators and Representatives on the second Monday of September annually thereafter forever in the manner herein provided.”

The manner provided was very fully set forth in the amendment. It required that three ranking officers of each regiment or company should be supervisors of elections, and if there were no officers then three non-commissioned officers, according to their seniority. And if there were no officers or noncommissioned officers present, or if they refused to act, the voters, not less than twenty in number, might choose by written ballot, enough of their own number as supervisors. It required the polls to be opened and closed at such hours as the supervisors should direct, provided due notice and sufficient time should be given for all voters in the regiment or company to vote. It provided for proper ballot boxes, and that

1 Acts and Resolves of Maine, 1864, p. 209.

on one side of every ballot should be printed or written the name of county and of the city or town in which the person resided, and on the other side the names of the persons to be voted for, and the office which they were intended to fill. It also provided that if the right to vote was challenged the supervisors might require him to make true answers to all interrogatories upon the subject, and should hear any other evidence offered by him or by those who challenged his right. The amendment then provided for keeping poll-lists of persons allowed to vote, and for counting and making public declaration of the votes at the heads of the respective commands on the day of the election or as soon thereafter as possible. The polllists were then to be sealed and sent to the Secretary of State.

The amendment after having thus fully provided for soldiers' voting in the field, provided that the State might "pass any law additional to the foregoing provisions, if any shall, in practice, be found necessary in order more fully to carry into effect the purpose thereof." This Amendment is Section 4, of Article II of the present Constitution.

Another amendment also provided for voting in the field for judges, registers of probate, sheriffs, and all other county officers. This Amendment is Section 12 of Article IX of the present Constitution.

It will be observed that this constitutional amendment does not carry the right to vote for presidential electors or members of Congress, but deals only with electing certain State officers.

The net result was that the Constitution was amended to permit soldiers to vote in the field as to certain state officers, and a law was enacted to permit them to vote in the field for represen

tatives in Congress and presidential electors. The distinction was obviously made which the Supreme Court of Vermont made in their opinion on the validity of the soldiers' voting bill, to wit: that State Constitutions which were silent upon the subject of voting for electors and representatives did not prevent the legislators from providing that such officers should be voted for at any place or time that they saw fit.

The soldiers' vote in the field in 1864 was 4,174 for Lincoln, and 741 for McClellan,' a total of only 4,915, or about 4 per cent of the total vote of the State, which was 106,014.

The provisions of the soldiers' voting act of 1864, are now Sections 133-4-5 and 6, Chapter 6, Revised Statutes of Maine, 1903.

1 Greeley's American Conflict, Vol. 2, p. 672.

TH

CHAPTER XVI

CALIFORNIA

HE only overland connection between California and the other Union States during the Civil War was by the Overland Mail route, a distance of about twenty-seven hundred miles. As a trip by this line took about a month the California troops were nearly all on duty in the territories and on the border.

A soldiers' voting Act was prepared to give them the right to vote in the field in 1864.

A bill was introduced in the House on March 3, 1864, "To provide for the support of the privilege of free suffrage during the continuance of the war." On March 15, the bill was reported from the Committee, the rules were suspended and the bill passed.

On March 26, the Senate passed the House Bill under suspension of the rules, by a vote of 32 to 6.1 It took effect April 1, 1864, and required the Adjutant General to make a list of all electors in the military service of the United States before the second Tuesday of June, 1864, and to deliver it to the Secretary of State; required the Secretary of State to classify or arrange the list making therefrom separate lists of all electors in each regiment, squadron and battery, specifying the name, residence and regiment and rank of each elector, and also the county, congressional, senatorial and assembly district for the officers, for which the elector was by the act entitled to vote.

1 House Journal, 1864, p. 447; Senate Journal, 1864, pp. 545, 546.