on the back thereof, to the officer commanding the regiment or company to which he belongs; and all such ballots, certified by such commanding officer to haye been given by the elector whose name is written thereon, and returned by such commanding officer to the Secretary of State within the time prescribed by law for counting votes in such elections, shall be received and counted with the same effect as if given by such elector in open town, ward or district meeting; and the clerk of each town or city, until otherwise provided by law, shall within five days after any such election, transmit to the Secretary of State a certified list of the names of all such electors on their respective voting lists." 1 This amendment required no legislation to enable soldiers to vote in the field under it, and the soldiers from Rhode Island voted in the field under it at the November election, 1864. But their votes were very much confused. A large number of the soldiers who voted were never qualified voters in the State. They imagined that the Constitution gave them a vote under any circumstances. A good many others had been voters previously and their names were found on the lists of voters, but as they had not paid their registration tax, they were not qualified voters at the time of the election. The result was that the total number of votes cast was 885; for Lincoln 632; for McClellan 253. Of the votes cast for Lincoln 407 were rejected, leaving only 225 that were counted, and of the votes cast for McClellan 213 were rejected, leaving only 40 which were counted, making a total of 265 qualified votes which were accepted out of 835 which were actually cast.2 The General Assembly did not undertake for 1 Acts and Resolves, May Session, 1864, p. 4. 2 Return in Office of Secretary of State. many years to pass any act under this amendment, but in June, 1898, the amendment was substantially incorporated into the General Law, where it now appears as Section 58, of Chapter II. This legislation appears to have been merely to enable the Secretary of State upon the receipt of ballots from a commanding officer to deliver them to the Returning Board which had then been established. April 21, 1914, an amendment of Section 58, Chapter II, was made to adapt the statute to the election of Senators by the people. At the time of the Spanish war, 1898, soldiers from Rhode Island voted in Virginia, where a regiment was encamped for training. The ballot was prepared by the Secretary of State and taken to Virginia by an officer of the State Militia, who superintended the voting, and returned the ballots to the Secretary of State to be canvassed. CHAPTER XXI PENNSYLVANIA N Pennsylvania the provision of the Constitution IN of 1838 giving the right to vote which was in force when the war broke out, was: "In the election by citizens every white freeman of the age of twenty-one years having resided in this State one year and in the election district where he offers to vote, ten days immediately preceding such election, and within two years paid a State or County tax which shall have been assessed at least ten days before the election, shall enjoy the rights of an elector." On March 29, 1813, the State had passed an act, "To enable the Militia or volunteers of this State when in Military Service of the United States or of this State, to exercise the Rights of Election.”1 This act provided that any person having the right to vote at a general election, who should be in actual military service on the day appointed by law for holding general elections within the Commonwealth, should be entitled to exercise the right of suffrage "at such place as may be prescribed by the commanding officer of the company or troop" to which he belongs, provided the company or troop was more than two miles from "the usual place of holding elections." The captain or commanding officer of each company or troop was to act as judge, and the first lieutenant as inspector at such election, and 1 Acts of General Assembly of Pennsylvania, December Session, 1812, p. 213. the returns were to be certified and transmitted to the proper election authorities in the State. There were sundry other provisions for the proper conduct of the election. This law was reenacted in the General Election Law of 1839, as follows: "Whenever any of the citizens of this Commonwealth, qualified as hereinbefore provided, shall be in actual military service, in any detachment of the militia or corps of volunteers, under the requisition of the President of the United States, or by authority of this Commonwealth, on the day of the general election, such citizens may exercise the right of suffrage at such place as may be appointed by the commanding officer of the troop or company to which they shall respectively belong, as fully as if they were present at the usual place of election." Under this act soldiers voted, and their votes were counted, up to 1862, when the act was held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Indeed, so well settled was the practice of soldiers' voting that in a case which arose in 1861, Chief Justice Lowrie of the Supreme Court declared that "the law providing for the voting of soldiers who are away from home in actual service so clearly covers by its terms the case of municipal elections which are held at the same time as the general election that we must declare that the soldiers in camp had a right to vote for their proper municipal officers at home, and to have their votes counted," etc. This decision was rendered on the twenty-fifth of November, 1861, and no question was made as to the constitutionality of the law.1 But on the twenty-ninth of November, 1861, the suit of Chase vs. Miller was brought in the Court of Quarter Sessions in which the question of the consti 1 Halseman et al. vs. Rems, et al., 41 Penn. State, 396. |