. Voting in the field; a forgotten chapter of the civil war . t at the usual place of election. Under this act soldiers voted, and their voteswefe counted, up to 1862, when the act was heldunconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Indeed, sowell settled was the practice of soldiers voting thatin a case which arose in 1861, Chief Justice Lowrieof the Supreme Court declared that the law provid-ing for the voting of soldiers who are away from homein actual service so clearly covers by its terms thecase of municipal elections which are held at the sametime as the general election that we must declare


. Voting in the field; a forgotten chapter of the civil war . t at the usual place of election. Under this act soldiers voted, and their voteswefe counted, up to 1862, when the act was heldunconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Indeed, sowell settled was the practice of soldiers voting thatin a case which arose in 1861, Chief Justice Lowrieof the Supreme Court declared that the law provid-ing for the voting of soldiers who are away from homein actual service so clearly covers by its terms thecase of municipal elections which are held at the sametime as the general election that we must declare thatthe soldiers in camp had a right to vote for theirproper municipal oflficers at home, and to have theirvotes counted, etc. This decision w^as rendered onthe twenty-fifth of November, 1861, and no questionwas made as to the constitutionality of the law.^But on the twenty-ninth of November, 1861, thesuit of Chase vs. Miller was brought in the Court ofQuarter Sessions in which the question of the consti- ^ Halseman et al. vs. Rems, et al., 41 Penn. State,. /j, y( UyC^^^i^L^<-^ PENNSYLVANIA 191 tutionality of the act was raised. On the sixth ofJanuary, 1862, the Court of Quarter Sessions filed anelaborate opinion sustaining the constitutionality ofthe act. This opinion is reported in the Legal Intelligencerof February 7, 1862. It is preceded by a very learnedargument by Lyman Hakes against the constitutional-ity of the State Law. He said that the language of theConstitution was explicit that a man could vote inhis election district, which meant that he could votenowhere else. The language of the Constitution wasthe language of the ablest men of the time, and itwas assumed that they knew what they said that the reasons for such construction werecontrolling. What has ever been the effect of an army vote, butin the end to subvert republican government and theelection of military It was so with Rome, and inlater days both Napoleons have mounted to despoticpowe


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