voting in October whose soldiers cannot vote in the field. Anything that you can safely do to let these soldiers or any part of them go home and vote at the State election will be greatly in point. They need not remain for the Presidential election, but may return to you at once. This is in no sense an order, but is merely intended to impress you with the importance, to the army itself, of your doing all you safely can, yourself being the judge of what you can safely do."1 This letter was sent by special messenger. Many soldiers came home, but the great bulk of them stayed in the field and did not vote.1 Apparently another application was made by Morton to permit soldiers to come home to vote at the November election in Indiana. To this Lincoln replied by a telegram, in which he said: "In my letter borne by Mr. Mitchell to General Sherman I said that any soldiers he could spare for October need not remain for November. I therefore cannot press the General on this point. All that the Secretary of War and General Sherman feel they can safely do I however shall be glad of. Bravo for Indiana and for yourself personally." "2 1 Foulke's Morton, Vol. 1, pp. 307 et seq. 2 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 10, pp. 225, 242. IN CHAPTER XXVIII MASSACHUSETTS N Massachusetts the Constitution fixes the place where votes shall be cast for State officers, so that the Legislature cannot authorize a vote for them in any place other than that provided by the Constitution.1 An amendment was therefore necessary to enable soldiers to vote in the field except for presidential electors and Congressmen. For some reason there does not appear to have been in Massachusetts as much interest in the matter of soldiers' voting in the field as there was in the other States. The State had sent into the service up to 1862 nearly 50,000 men, and by October 17, 1863, 75,608 men from Massachusetts had entered the Army. About one in three of her enrolled militia went into the field during the war.2 A very large proportion of these men were voters at home, but nobody seems to have paid any attention to the matter of giving them a vote in the field. Even Governor Andrew, the soldier's friend, makes no reference to this matter in his elaborate and rhetorical messages to the Legislature. Nothing was done about it until 1864 when petitions were received by the Legislature for an amendment of the Constitution to secure the elective franchise to voters of the Commonwealth absent therefrom in the military and naval service of the United States. These were referred to the Military Committee of the House.3 1 Map, Const. Art. 2, Ch. 1; Art. 3, Ch. 2. 2 Governor's Address, Mass. Laws, 1864, pp. 369 et seq. To amend the Constitution required that the amendment should be agreed to by a majority of the Senate and two-thirds of the House present and voting thereon, that such amendment should be entered on the Journal of the two Houses with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and then be referred to the General Court then next to be chosen, and be published. And then, if the next General Court should agree to the amendment by a majority of the senators and two-thirds of the members of the House present and voting thereon, the amendment should be submitted to the people, and if approved by a majority of the qualified voters voting thereon at meetings held for that purpose, it should become a part of the Constitution. On April 6, 1864, the Committee reported a resolve for an amendment to the Constitution, which took its several readings, and was on April 13th passed by a vote of 140 to 3. It read as follows: "Any qualified voter of this Commonwealth who shall be absent therefrom in the actual military and naval service of the United States on the day appointed by the law for a general election or on the day appointed by law for a special election, shall be entitled at such times to vote as fully as if present at his place of residence." As the Constitution then contained a provision for the payment of a tax as a prerequisite to voting there should have been also an amendment to allow the Legislature to provide for this, or the votes would probably have many of them been lost as was the case in Rhode Island. Soldiers on active service were not able to pay poll taxes at home. But apparently nobody thought of this. The resolve was sent to the Senate, where it was referred to the Judiciary Committee on April 15, 1864.1 On May 4, the Committee reported it in a new draft which read as follows: "The General Court shall have power to provide by law the manner in which any qualified voter of this Commonwealth who is absent in the time of war in the military or naval service of the United States may vote in the choice of any officers that may be voted for at a general election." This resolve was passed on May 6 by a yea and nay vote of 26 to 1, and went back to the House where, on May 7, it was referred to the Judiciary Committee. On May 10, the resolve was reported favorably from the Committee, and on May 11, it was passed by a yea and nay vote of 163 to 4. In 1865, the resolve came before the Legislature for a second adoption, as required by the Constitution. Governor Andrew in his message referred to it and said: "I recommend its early adoption by the General Court, and that a day be fixed for its ratification by the people sufficiently early for our soldiers to vote at the next autumnal election." 2 The provision of the Constitution for its amendment was adopted in 1821, and the word "published" in it meant published by the General Court or by its authority. With the passage of the resolve in 1864 the first step was taken, but the Constitution required it to be published. Apparently everybody supposed it was published except the two officers whose duty it was to see that it was published. That is, the Clerk of the House whose duty it was to transmit an attested copy of the resolve to the Secretary of State, and the Secretary * Laws of 1865, pp. 695, 733. 1 Senate Journal, 1864, pp. 530, 649. of State whose duty it was to publish the resolve in the "Blue Book" or in the newspapers, as provided by the statute. The Secretary was Oliver Warner, and the Clerk of the House was W. F. Robinson, better known as "Warrington," the caustic correspondent of the "Springfield Republican" and a man of excellent ability. In the message of Governor Andrew in 1865, as before stated he called attention to the fact that the resolve had been passed in 1864 and suggested the importance of passing it speedily in 1865 so that it might be submitted to the people, and if ratified might be made effective for voting at the autumn election. The Judiciary Committee of the House in due course called for the resolve and for proof of the fact of its publication, and then discovered that it had not been published. The judiciary committee reported that the Resolve amending the Constitution was passed and attested by the two clerks, but that it had never been published, and the Secretary of State wrote them a letter saying "that no publication of the amendment to the Constitution passed for the first time by the Legislature last year has been made." The Committee said that they did not deem it within the line of their duty to ascertain why no publication had been made but the fact was in their minds conclusive to prevent any final action on the part of this legislature in the matter of the amendment, and they saw no other way than to propose the amendment and agree to it in the same manner and form as though it had never been proposed and agreed to before. Therefore, they recommended the resolve.1 1 House Document No. 77, 1865, of February 17. |