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enjoyment of privilege-which I wish to see continued. These are a part, and an essential part of the rights of the people-of the dear people, if gentlemen will so have it, which I, for one, will never consent to barter, or see taken from them. I repeat, therefore, that as time to the industrious poor man is money, he has obstacles placed in his way by the onerous and oppressive provisions of this registry law, which do prevent him from enjoying the right of suffrage in an equal degree with his more wealthy and intelligent neighbors. I repeat, that these people are entitled to at least equal protection with other classes. On whom, let me ask, in times of war, must the country mainly rely for the bone and sinew of your army-for the men to shoulder their muskets and march in the defence of their country? Is it on the rich and well-born? Ah, no. Generally too fond of their ease and comfort, to risk the fatigue and privations of the tented field, they pay their fines, or send substitutes. The poor man is not able to do so he must march. I am aware there are exceptions--many honorable exceptions to this rule-but not enough to destroy it as a rule. I see across the House two of my gallant Philadelphia friends, (Mr. Scort and Mr. BIDDLE) who at their country's call, volunteered their services and bared their bosoms for her defence; and that, too, in carrying on a war, the declaration of which they may have disapproved; esteeming it one thing to oppose the measure of declaring the war, and another to go for their country, right or wrong, in all conflicts with a foreign or domestic foe: And, in doing so, they did but live out their lives and their patriotic principles. There were others of my political opponents who honorably did the same thing—and it gives me pleasure, after the lapse of twenty odd years, when the asperities of party spirit, I trust, are in some measure worn off, to acknowledge the just merits of those who then, as now, I politically opposed.

I am charged, too, with having done injustice to the Legislature of 1835-'6-and the expression used by me, that we never had such a Legislature before, and never will have such an one again, is found fault with. Sir, I repeat it that Legislature was elected under circumstances which, I trust, never will, and I believe never can, occur again. The dissentions and divisions of the democratic party permited a minority to elect a majority of the Legislature, and put the State at the mercy of that minority. It is true, that they legislated with indecent haste-it is true, that they acted as men who knew they were disappointing the wishes and expectations of the people. To screen themselves, and to maintain their ill gotten power, they gerrymandered the State for representative and senatorial districts, without regard to number of taxables, or situations of counties, but simply with a view of so arranging the districts, that the majority of the people should not rule. For instance, they thought my own dear native Montgomery was too democratic, and they attached her to the good old federal counties of Chester and Delaware, in order to keep her in order. See the result-an insulted people rose in their might: Montgomery has elected a senator for the Delaware part of the district, and sent three democratic senatoral delegates to this Convention, two more than could otherwise have been obtained. A district, too, was formed, reaching from the Susquehanna river to the Allegheny mountain, so arranged, that it was thought impossible for a democrat to be elected in it. When the next election came, you find the people rising in all the majesty of

but one

1200 to 1600 majority. In fact, at the last general election, there were eight Senators elected in these cut and carved districts; and, to the astonishment of all, and the dismay of the principal actors in the scene, opponent of the democratic party succeeded, and that but by a few votes.Although I may not be embued with the spirit of prophecy, I see most clearly that the official term and the official influence of this modern Spartan band will expire together; and before the seven years alluded to by the gentleman from Beaver, during which he thinks they are so safe, shall have gone round, they will be sunk back to their original insignificance, and be forgotten, except as their deeds may be refered to as warnings to others.

Mr. McCAHEN said, he wished to make a few brief remarks. He said brief because as SHAKESPEARE says, "we must be brief when traitors take the field". Gentlemen all round the House have taken occasion to speak of the city and county of Philadelphia, and the application of the registry law there. If those gentlemen had resided in the county of Philadelphia, and had been acquainted with the difficulties under which we labored in consequence of that act, they would have been better able to judge of the facts, and not made so many mis statements as they have. He was familiar with the application of the registry law there, and he knew there were many persons entitled to vote under the provisions of the Constitution, who were deprived of the right to vote in consequence of this law; those even who had paid a tax to the support of the Government, were deprived of the right of suffrage merely because their names were not on the register. It was known to every gentleman who had ever been there, that the county of Philadelphia was made up of a dense population; there were many lanes and alleys which were thickly inhabited, and many families resided in the same house. By the registry law, the person who made the registry was judge of the elections and the qualifications of the citizens, and they could deprive such citizens as they chose of the right to vote. The law was unjust and partial, it cutting off many poor men from the enjoyment of the right of suffrage, while the rich were always secure, because property must be assessed.

The district of Kensingtoh contained a large number of fishermen, and the registry was made at a season of the year when they were away from home, engaged in the fisheries, and the officers never registered any one on the recommendation of another. They were, therefore, deprived of their rights merely because they were not at home at the season when the registry was made. But gentlemen have said that there was a great deal of fighting and disturbance at the elections in the city and county of Philadelphia. He admited there was some fighting there at the elections of 1834; but if the newspapers told the truth, there were equal disturbances in other parts of the State. At the elections of 1835, all was peaceable and he did not believe the registry law had the slightest tendency to preserve quiet at elections; and so far from extending the right of suffrage as had been asserted by some of the friends of that measure, it threw great difficulty in its way. In addition to the case cited by his colleague (Mr. DORAN) he could give numerous instances, if it was necessary: where individuals entitled to vote under the Constitution were deprived in consequence of this registry law, and all that had been said about the city

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about it. The gentleman from Beaver (Mr. DICKEY) had admited that he only had been informed of what he had stated, and he would tell that gentleman that it was like all hearsay testimony, entitled to very little credit. Another high-handed act of the Legislature, was, that they passed a law declaring that the inspectors and judges of the election for 1835, should also be judges and inspectors for the year 1836, contrary to the will of a large majority of the people of those districts, because by an unfortunate division in the ranks of the democratic party the election officers of that year were elected by a minority of the voters. All this went to show that instead of enlarging the right of franchise in the city and county of Philadelphia, it restricted it to a very considerable extent; and as to what had been said by gentlemen in relation to his district he would only say if gentleman had resided among us they would find the people there as honest, upright, high-minded and patriotic as in any other county in the State. The county of Philadelphia had a large population, and had a large representation in your hall of legislation, but he trusted this was not to have any influence here which would cause the rights of her citizens to be the less respected. He thought the Constitution should express in clear terms that which should constitute the qualifications of electors, and leave nothing to the action of the Legislature on this subject; and believing that the amendment would effect this object he would vote for it.

Mr. Scort confessed he did not see the relevancy of much of the argument which we have had, to the real question before the Chair, that is upon the propriety of agreeing to the amendment of the gentleman from Montgomery, (Mr. STERIGERE); nevertheless, the discussion having taken a wide range, it seems impossible to confine it within what might originally have been considered proper bounds. In the course of this discussion, a particular act of the Assembly had been almost the sole object of attack; and, the few remarks he should trouble the committee with, would refer to it, because it was his fortune to have been a member of the Legislature which passed that law, occupying, for a short time, a place occupied, during the preceding part of the session, by a better man, who died while a member of the House of Representatives. Great pains have been taken to show, that the registry act was an unconstitutional law.Well, if that be true, there is no occasion to amend the Constitution, for the purpose of getting rid of it. If it be true, that the law violates the existing Constitution, he would beg to remind gentlemen that that instrument provides a means of getting rid of that unconstitutional law. If the law be unconstitutional, and otherwise objectionable, the best thing gentlemen can do, is to adhere to the present Constitution, and bring the matter before the judicial tribunals of the country, who will, beyond all question, if gentlemen can make it appear to be unconstitutional, declare it null and void, and there will be an end of it. If we attempt to change the Constitution in this feature, to which, it is said this law is opposed, we may so change it as to support and uphold the law; he would, therefore, suggest to those gentlemen who held the opinion, that the law was opposed to our fundamental law, to hold on to the present Constitution, and take the matter before the Supreme Court, who will pass upon the subject to their entire satisfaction, if they can make it appear to the court, as it appears to them.

said that the law was unconstitutional, by the gentleman from Northampton (Mr. PORTER). This was the opinion of an able lawyer, but he hoped he might be allowed to say, that if this was the gentleman's opinion, it was an opinion which ought to be asserted with some degree of modesty, as it might safely be regarded as not very certain, when we look round this Hall, and see how many gentlemen there are, who were members of that Legislature, and voted for that very act of Assembly, who have been returned by their respective constituents, not to legislate, but to pass upon the Constitution of the land.

It had been indignantly urged by a gentleman from the county, that the law had been forced upon the county without their assent-that it was a matter with which the State at large had no concern, and all action upon which should have been postponed (until asked for-that it was reprobated by the city and county-passed hastily and without just cause, and merited the severest reprobation. He denied, peremptorily, that it was a matter in which the State had no concern: she had the deepest interest-every county in the State had the deepest interest-in the freedom and purity of the elections in every part of the State. The representatives from the city and county of Philadelphia, did not legislate upon subjects belonging to their own district only: their voice was heard, and, when the numbers of the delegation were considered, was potential too, in promoting the general welfare of the Commonwealth: their votes might rule her legislation for weal or for woe. Even over the local interests of the remotest county, their influence was felt, and their votes told. Suppose, in the general prostration of the resources of the nation, it should once more become necessary to look around for objects of taxation to supply a diminished revenue; and, the eye of the legislator should light upon the broad acres of the farmer, and the rich personalities of the east, and pause between the two-would not the farmer feel that these representatives had a voice, the just exercise of which was important to them? Had not the whole Commonwealth an interest in the just, and pure, and free election of their Governor? of every representative in the Senate of the State? and in the Congress of the United States? Away, then, with this idea, that the rest of the Commonwealth had nothing to do with the exercise of the elective franchise in the city and county of Philadelphia. If they perceive that franchise to be abused there, or corrupted there, or its free and fair exercise impaired there, it is due to themselves to interfere, though the whole county should raise its voice in hostility. It would be due, not only to themselves, but to the cause of freedom throughout the world; endangered, and disgraced as the cause must be, by any corruption of this, the corner stone of the republican structure of Government.

Was there not, he asked, sufficient cause, at that time, to put that Legislature upon inquiry? Of the election frauds in the county of Philadelphia, he knew nothing. But in his own fair, and beautiful, and beloved city, he had seen, before the passage of that registry act, her citizens in hostile array, contending with violence and riot, for the possession of the place of their primary elections-and bloodshed had followed in the train of that contest. Conflagration, too, in an adjoining district, has done its work. And at the polls he had beheld men, pressed by incumbent crowds against the wall, through the window in which their ballots were to be received, till

at the peril of limb, if not of life, exercised their right, projected bodily over the heads of masses of men, in order to effect their escape. Was not this, he again asked, fit cause for inquiry? And if, under the knowledge of these things, a law was passed, wise or unwise, to restore the freedom of elections, cannot common charity find some other motive of that law, than one which imputes dishonor to the law-maker? It had been asserted, too, that at these elections, New Jersey, and even New York furnished their respective quotas of voters, usurping the places of the sons of the soil, and influencing the results of the polls. Of the truth of the assertion he could not judge. Nor did he suppose that disorder, and riot, and fraud, if fraud existed, were to be imputed to any one political party exclusive of others. It was one of the bitter fruits of the bitter spirit of party which cursed the land, that wrong or injury perpetrated by any one, was more fiercely retaliated and exaggerated by the other. And thus all the precious gifts of freedom were brought into danger, and her institutions into disgrace. Was it not right, then, he asked once more, that the guardians of the Commonwealth should enquire into these things? And are they to be branded with impurity of motive for so doing, because they did not agree in politics with those who preceded them in the halls of legislation? They passed a law! What then? If unwise or imperfect, was it not capable of amendment or repeal? And if at a subsequent session, one chamber was in favor of that repeal, and the other and graver branch against it, is it necessary or proper, in a body like this, to suppose that difference of opinion might not be honest? After the law had gone into operation, order and quiet were restored-the aged, the infirm, could and did vote-the numbers, when the ballots were deposited in the boxes, were not diminished. Riot and conflagration did cease-freemen once more felt that their dearest franchise might be exercised without peril of life-and it was exercised in peace and harmony by all men-of all parties. Whether this was owing to that abused law or not, he could not say; it was at least a fair supposition, and he would leave it to the committee to judge. He did, however, say that, among his constituents, it was an act extremely popular. Those who had aided in its passage were returned to the Legislature, in the cases in which they presented themselves to the suffrages of the people. And on the floor of this Convention, elected to reconsider the structure of our Government, and to revise the organic law of the State, are found not a few of its advocates, from all parts of the Commonwealth. And when upon this floor Senators are reproached with their votes, those Senators might point to the fact of their being here as a proud refutation of the injustice. It was, indeed, a hardy act, and he was a bold individual who would undertake with his single arm to hold the scales, and weigh the Senate of Pennsylvania against the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, and pass his judgment between them. The spirit which was equal to this, was better fitted for the chair of a dictator than that of a representative.

The registry act, he added, was not hastily passed, nor without reflection. It was passed in one shape at the ordinary session of the Legislature, was then examined by the public, commented upon, and at the extra session revised and remodelled. Its origin is supposed by one gentleman to be found in the act of parliament levelled by SIR ROBERT PEEL, against the forty shilling freeholders of Ireland. He (Mr. S.) was inclined to believe,

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