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chievous character, bolters being only able to represent themselves by their own votes when their number is adequate, without being able to turn an election upside down or prevent a just division of the offices between parties. It was also clearly shown at those elections that the preparation, polling, counting, and return of fractional votes, in cases where their use was found desirable, was quite simple and convenient, occasioning no difficulty, uncertainty or confusion.

PROGRESS OF REFORM.

The State of New York a few years since used the limited vote in choosing thirty-two delegates at large to her Constitutional Convention. No voter was allowed to vote for more than sixteen. More recently she chose the six Associate Judges of her highest court on the same principle; no voter was allowed to vote for more than four. But though these were steps in the right direction and resulted in fuller representation of the people, it must be acknowledged that the limited vote is an imperfect contrivance and not fitted for extensive use. More wisely instructed, the State of Illinois the present year has adopted the free vote, not only for the election of directors or managers of incorporated companies, as before mentioned, but also for the election of Representatives in her Legislature. They will be chosen biennially, commencing with the year 1872, three being elected together from each senatorial district. In this State, in August last, a respectable convention in favor of minority representation was held at Reading. It adopted proper

resolutions and organized committees for future work. The men concerned in that convention and the friends of reform generally in this State, look forward to a Constitutional Convention as the means for securing the main objects they have in view. And they particularly desire that the members of such convention, if one should be called, shall be elected upon a plan of reformed voting, so that the whole people shall be represented in the convention.

Without a convention, however, much can be done. The Legislature has complete power over municipal elections and can reform them at pleasure, and it can also largely improve the representation of the people in the Legislature itself.

In conclusion I will say to all friends of reform, be confident and hopeful of the future. It is well for us 66 to labor and to wait." Great changes are best made when made deliberately and with due caution; not in passionate heat, but upon cool conviction. Electoral reforms may come slowly, but they are sure to come, for their necessity grows every year more evident.

A SPEECH

DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF PENNSYLVANIA, ON
MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 27, 1871, UPON
THE BILL ENTITLED

"AN ACT FOR THE FURTHER REGULATION OF BOROUGHS."*

MR. SPEAKER:-I came to this Senate to serve during my present term with the intention of devoting myself particularly to the subject of Electoral Reform. I thought that the attention of the Representatives of the people assembled in the Legislature should be directed to some fundamental and searching changes in our electoral system, by which existing abuses shall be checked or prevented in future.

Now, sir, in the first place, I propose to call attention to what has been done heretofore in this State upon this subject of reform, in the direction indicated by the present bill.

INSPECTORS OF ELECTION.

In the Constitutional Convention of 1837-8, Mr. Thomas Earle, of the county of Philadelphia, sub

*The bill upon which the above speech was delivered passed and became a law. Those sections of it which relate to the election of Councilmen, in boroughs, to the support of which the argument of the speech was directed, will be found at page 229 of this volume.

mitted propositions on two occasions, with reference to the choice of election officers by the people, upon the plan of what is now known as the limited vote. On the 27th of June, 1837, he addressed that Convention at some length in support of his second proposition. It was then submitted to a vote and rejected very strongly; by a vote of, I think, over three to one, and the majority comprised most of the strong men of the Convention-such men as Woodward, Sergeant, Forward and others. The Convention passed off and nothing was done. At the session of the Legislature in 1839, the Governor of the Commonwealth called attention in his message to the subject of electoral reform. He pointed out to the two Houses that extensive changes had become necessary in our election laws by reason of the amendments to the Constitution. He pointed out the fact that great frauds had taken place at elections in various parts of the Commonwealth, and, in short, that our electoral system had fallen under reproach and needed amendment. During the course of the session, Mr. Senator Brown, of Philadelphia county, turned his attention to this subject, and, in a Committee of Conference upon the General Election bill of that year, obtained the insertion substantially of the proposition which had been advocated by Mr. Earle, in the Constitutional Convention the year before, and for which Mr. Brown himself had voted, he being a member of that Convention. Well, sir, that proposition will be found among our statutes as one of the most important and useful provisions of the election act of 1839. It provides that

3 Convention Debates, 173.

each voter, at the time when election officers are to be chosen, shall vote for but one person for Inspector of elections during the coming year, and that the two candidates highest in vote shall be declared elected. Then follows a provision that each Inspector, so chosen, shall appoint a clerk. The Judge of the election, the only additional officer, is chosen under the old plan of the majority vote. That was in 1839, and it is to be noted that upon debate, this reform was carried in the Senate by a vote of only fifteen to eleven.

But this law as to the manner of choosing election officers has continued to the present time, a period of over thirty years, and it is well known that it is most salutary in operation and most satisfactory to the people. I do not know what the whole number of election districts in the State is at the present time; in 1838 the number a little exceeded one thousand. I suppose the number now exceeds two thousand, and it happens under this law that in nineteen-twentieths of the election districts of the Commonwealth, each of the two political parties into which our people are ordinarily divided, has an Inspector in the Election Board, and also a Clerk, and that the majority has the Judge. Sir, it is this provision of the law that has preserved our elections from degeneracy and disgrace. If it were recalled from our statute book, and we should apply to the choice of election officers our ordinary plan of voting, we might expect an enormous increase of fraudulent voting throughout the State, with consequent degeneracy of our political system, and to a great ex

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