by a select commitcee upon reform in the election of members of Congress, the committee endorsed this view of this reform in most emphatic language. That committee consisted of Mr. Anthony, of Rhode Island, Mr. Ferry, of Connecticut, Mr. Morton, of Indiana, and two Southern Senators; and in addition, that honest and bold man, Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio, and myself. We passed several sessions in examination of this plan of reform, and we came to the conclusion that it was entitled to the approval of the people of the United States everywhere, completely free and clear of all party hostility or antipathies; and that it would ultimately recommend itself to just men in every political organization in our country. This plan is an improvement, great, vital and searching, upon former plans of electoral action in this country. I hold here an extract from a letter written to me by Mr. Wade, on the twenty-third of January last, which I will beg leave to read. He says:

"If free, popular government is to be preserved forever, (which God grant it may,) I do not hesitate to pronounce it"

Meaning the free vote

"The best and most efficient instrument to that end which has been devised since the declaration of our independence. Indeed I do not believe that under the crude, old system of majority voting, the principles of that great Declaration can be long perserved. It is far behind the intelligence of the age, and its palpable injustice at every election creates such heartburnings as are dangerous to the security of our institutions; while the new system seems to me to present a perfect remedy for all or nearly all those evils, and is as much superior to the old system in government as the railroad car is to the old stage coach in travelling, or the mower and reaper to the ancient methods of harvesting our hay and grain."

But I pass on to the specific character of this particular amendment, which relates to the organization of county government in this State, and provides in substance that a minority in any county exceeding one-fourth of all the voters of the county shall be enabled to appoint a representative for themselves in the board of county commissioners, and also a representative for themselves in the board of county auditors, so that all the men who from their earnings contribute to the pub

lic burdens of local government shall have a voice in the expenditure of their money and a voice also in the settlement of the accounts of its disbursement.

This proposition is indisputably—nobody can deny it-a measure of justice to the voters of our State. It bears upon its front the impress of that characteristic, so that the most captious cannot deny or question it.

Now, sir, I am one of those who believe that justice is the great principle upon which all government must be founded, and when that great principle is departed from mischief and evil will come in upon the people "as a flood" to scourge and torment them in every experiment of free government which they may undertake. -"Be just and fear not;

Let all the eads thou aim'st at be thy country's,
Thy God's and Truth s.'

Apply in your political system those principles of justice and of common brotherhood which christianity teaches and inspires, and be assured the blessing of Heaven will be upon your work and your future will be secure against those disturb ing influences which attack all and ultimately have destroyed every past experiment of free government on the face of the earth.

This proposition will produce great satisfaction to minorities in every county of this Commonwealth. The men who are now disfranchised, who although qualified by the fundamental law to vote, yet are perpetually doomed to exercise that right without result and fruitlessly-these men will be satisfied and gratitied with this change, which will arm them with a power to defend their own interests in the government of their counties, and will place them for the first time upon perfect equality with their co-electors of the counties in which they reside.

The CHAIRMAN. The Chair must remind the delegate that his time has expired.

SEVERAL DELEGATES moved that it be extended.

The CHAIRMAN. The delegate cannot proceed if there are five delegates who object. Those who object to his proceeding will rise. [A pause.] No one objects, and the delegate will proceed.

Mr. BUCKALEW. Mr. Chairman: How much of discontent, how much of bitterness exists now in our Commonwealth from this cause, from the fact that the men who contribute to the expenses of government are shut up from

all voice in its management? Emancipated from the ostracism which is now upon them these minorities we see in every county will take pride to themselves in selecting their best, their most competent and reliable men, and placing them in these positions in the government of the county. They will enjoy a satisfaction and contentment in playing well their part as our fellow-citizens in these offices of government, and this will be to them a constant guarantee that their rights in connection with that government shall not be sacrificed or disregarded. Therefore there will be better feeling in our communities, contentment among the people, general appreciation by one man of his neighbor. The old position of antagonism and hostility between them now created and which exists in choosing these officers will be to a great extent abated or removed.

There is another advantage, if possible a still greater one, although not so striking or apparent, and it is this: The majorities in our counties will themselves be protected in a double sense. In the first place, they will be protected largely from abuse and occasional corruption by their own representatives in these county boards. Now, as there is no representation of the minority, it is inevitable that abuses sometimes grave and startling, will grow up in the administration of county government. This plan which is proposed will therefore be to the majority itself a great protection and security against the bad conduct of its own reprosentatives in the county government, because they will be put in check, they will be put under the observation of representatives of the opposing party in the county. Hence you will hear less than you do now about "rings," "court house rings," and other combinations which in certain cases become extremely odious to the people, aye, and injurious to the majority itself in the county because the disgrace of such a "ring," when its evil acts transpire, is visited upon them, is among them.

But again, majorities in counties will get an advantage in another respect. They are now sometimes very unjustly complained of and abused. Constant suspicion attaches itself to the proceedings of a county government upon the part of those who are not represented in it; but if you give minorities representation in the board of commissioners and in the board of auditors, the voters so represent

ed in those boards will be satisfied that all is right and there will be less of unjust complaint and denunciation of the action of the majority. Therefore 1 am entitled to say that I believe this measure is not only one of justice, one of protection, one of infinite advantage to minorities in our counties practically; but that the advantages which will result from it will come to majority parties themselves; and so thoroughly am I convinced of this that if I were able to take but one amendment from this Convention, as a citizen, and obliged to dispense with all others, I would take an amendment of this kind by which the minority party in my own county and in every other county should obtain representation in these boards of county government. I would take that single amendment giving to the party opposed to me representation in these local governments, because, although it seems an humble proposition, I am convinced that in the outcome we will get more absolute good from it, more salutary results for the people, than from any other single change which this Convention will make.

How many men are unrepresented at present in county government? I suppose about forty-two voters in every hundred. In congressional elections we have accurate statistics showing the proportion of voters whose votes were given without result; I mean minority voters. Taking the whole United States together, for the fortieth Congress, the percentage of disfranchised voters was forty-two. In the forty-first Congress the percentage of disfranchised voters was forty-two, and again in the forty-second Congress the same enormous proportion of the people of the United States were unrepresented; I mean in the House of Representatives.

In the New York Legislature of 1869 the percentage of disfranchisement in the election of Senators was forty-one; in the election of Representatives forty-two. In the Legislature of 1870 in that State, the percentage for the Senate was forty-two, and for the House forty-two.

At the recent legislative election in Illinois, under their amended Constitution, we had a fair comparison of the two systems in the choice of Senators and Representatives for the Legislature of that State, the Senators being elected under the old plan of representation, and the members of the House under the new. The result was that in the Senate fortytwo and three-fourths per cent. of the voters lost their votes; in the House the

total of loss was four and one-half per cent. An analogous result between the old and the new plan will take place in our State by the adoption of the amendinent now proposed. At present say forty-two per cent. of the voters of Pennsylvania have no voice in the disbursement of their local taxes or in the settlement of their county accounts. Under the new plan the amount of disfranchisement would not probably exceed five per cent.

One thing more, and I leave the subject. When I was young, just commencing to read the newspapers, I read publications in regard to a defalcation in the government of Luzerne county. There had been misuse of the public funds and prostitution of official power in the close corporation which constituted the county government. Sometime after the mischief had been perpetrated the facts in part came out, and then an event which has happened often since in other counties occurred there: The books were stolen or made away with and could not be found when an investigation was proposed. I remember then seeing in news papers of that county, in the editorial col-. umns, articles headed with the words, in flaming letters, "Where are the books?" Yes, sir, and this cry has been repeated on other occasions since in counties of this Commonwealth where fraud and abuse have gone to such an extent in these closed corporate governments that when by some accident the facts began to transpire, larceny was committed on the public records and papers and they were made away with, as they were, I underderstand, on a recent occasion in the county of York. The Legislature passed a special statute by which iniquities in the court house of that county should be examined and exposed, and the records were made away with before the persons appointed could enter upon the performance of their duties. And out west in the county of Indiana a commissioners' clerk, not subjected to proper inspection through a divided board of commissioners, vigilant of the public interests and keeping an eye upon each other, made away with a large mass of the public money of that county. I do not remember the amount; it may have been as much as $40,000.

sconded and was brought back, arraigned before a jury, convicted, and put in prison as a culprit under your laws. But the mischief was done and was without remedy. Your remedies come too late now. After the evil is done, sometimes you find out that it was perpetrated and sometimes you do not; but if you find it out, your information comes too late to apply a remedy. There is no complete remedy except to provide that these boards themselves shall be so constituted that these abuses cannot take place; that representatives of both parties shall know everything that is going on, and by the constant motive which political organization in this country gives, watch each other and thus prevent abuse.

Lastly, I will presently refer you to a case of my own county, and that illustrates existing evils and points out to you the remedial character of this proposition perhaps more clearly than any other to which 1 can refer. A little fellow gets into a board of county commissioners, and after a while he becomes commanderin chief, so to speak, of county politics. All the collectors of the county respond to him, and are in constant intercourse with him. All the assessors and collectors and other county officials report to him from time to time. He adjusts their accounts; he looks after the matter of their pay; and they become an organized band to electioneer throughout the county according to his desire and according to his interest. What is the result? A county commissioner every year is picked up, put in nomination by this process, and the commissioners' clerk can retain himself in office about as long as he pleases. If you attempt to displace him it will take you years before you can accomplish your purpose. In the meantime you will not know what he is doing and you can get no sufficient information even by the official accounts which are annually settled and afterwards published for the information of the people.

In the case to which I have alluded upon one occasion the clerk received as deputy treasurer the amount of $449 80., redemption moneys of lands that had been sold for taxes. It was not put into the county statement; it was not reported in any way as a receipt by the treasurer

Mr. BUCKALEW. Sixty thousand dollars for want of vigilance in the administration of county affairs. I think he ab

it. That was on the twenty-fifth of February, 1862. After two years of effort this person was displaced, and certain public records disappeared about that time, and

subsequently larceny in the county safe of $500 took place, which afterwards was investigated in a trial in court, and the judge properly held under the law that the treasurer was responsible for the loss of the money.*

The cause of the abuses in this case which I have mentioned was the absence of vigilant political opponents in the board of commissioners and in the board of auditors; and that necessity which existed there exists everywhere in the State.

Mr. Chairman, I have spoken longer than I intended when I rose. Of course, under our pressure of time, I have not attempted to enlarge on the several points to which I have referred; but I have endeavored to show that this amendment now before the committee is not one of a party character; that it is an improved plan, considered as a plan for choosing these officers of counties; that it extends simple justice to minorities in the counties of the State; that it will produce satisfaction and contentment among our people; that it posesses eminent advantages for the majority in counties by protecting them against unjust complaints to which they are now subjected and by preventing abuses by the officers chosen by themselves under the present system; and that this change and reform is a necessity in the various counties of the State as shown by the several cases to which I have briefly referred.

I hope, therefore, that the Convention will adopt the amendment which I have proposed, and thus give to county government regeneration, improvement and reform, and exhibit to the people the fact that this Convention is fully up to the spirit of the times, to the necessities of the

occasion; that we intend real improvement in government, and not a mere sham or pretence.

But some gentlemen may say, "will this be satisfactory to the people?" I undertake to say (and with this I shall conclude) that this amendment, if it were submitted alone to the people, would be above others certain of success. It would, enlist the ardent support of over forty per cent. of the electors of the State to begin with, and then it would take to itself a large division at least of majorities in the several counties, and in addition to these interests, the support of all intelligent, independent, fair-minded and just men who hold that their party allegiance shall not over-ride their convictions of justice and general policy on a question of this kind.

Mr. CARTER. Mr. Chairman: It was evident soon after our meeting that the subject of free voting-so called, which the gentleman from Columbia has treated so fully, and which he perhaps above any other member is most competent to expound, was one that had arrested the attention of membersofthe Convention and that they had severally formed to a great extent an opinion in regard to its merits pro or con. Beiieving that, and believing further that this Convention has made up its mind in reference to the general merits of this system of voting, I do not design to multiply words in regard to it, nor to prolong this debate, which I much fear will be very extended unless we confine ourselves closely to the section before us.

Certain gentlemen, among them my very intelligent friend from Chester, (Mr. Darlington,) are always prompt to take alarm at the introduction in any manner, form, or way, and no matter to what class

Received February 25th, 1862, of William G. Hurley, Esq., the sum of four hundred and fortynine dollars and eighty cents in full of the taxes, costs and interest on ten hundred and eighty-nine acres of unseated land in Beaver township, Columbia county, a essed to the Columbia Coal and Iron Company, and which was sold by the treasurer of Columbia county, on the 15th day of June, 1858, and which sum includes the costs and taxes for which the said lands were sold, with the interest thereon, and also the taxes for the years 1858, 1859, 1860 and 1861, with the interest accrued upon the same. The said sum of four hundred and forty-nine dollars and eighty cents received in full of the redemption money, the taxes since accrued upon the said lands as above stated with the interest thereon. J. S. M'MINCH, Treasurer. pr. R. C FRUIT, Deputy. COMMISSIONERS' OFFICE, Bloomsburg, Feb. 25, '62.

of officers it may be proposed to apply this mode of election, of this "new-fangled mode of voting," as the gentleman from Chester designated it, he fires up as quickly as the hunted bull in the arena at the red-flag of the matador. If he sees any proposition looking to anything like the free vote, his ire is intensely excited and at once he goes into direct opposition to everything that embraces that idea. To him, and such as him, I do not propose to address my remarks. But there is a class of men who are not animated with that intense aversion, that pet aversión as I might designate it, of the distinguished gentleman, and, in a less degree perhaps also of his colleague from Delaware (Mr. Broomall,) the same intense aversion is displayed on all occasions. I desire to argue as briefly as possible that this manner of electing the officers designated in this section, is right and proper, although it might not be so when applied to another class whose functions and duties are altogether different.

It seems to me that: "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." The presence of my friend (Mr. Horton) near me leads me involuntarily to quote scripture, as is his wont. And I do hope that we shall confine ouselves, as far may be, to the section before us.

The question is, can we or should we rather apply this eminently just system of voting to the election of county commissioners and county auditors. That is the question. Those arguments against electing members of the Legislature or political representatives by this mode, who are expected to carry out the political views of those who sent them, and to give effect to political views which had entered into the canvass, do no apply here. Most surely in the consideration of this question we must look at what the duties of the parties are to be. In this case they are purely ministerial.

But gentlemen urge that the majority principle must always rule. Of course we concede that; nor do I wish this party majority to be so restricted in number in our repsesentative bodies that it will be practically inefficient or unable to carry out those political principles which it was elected to represent and to advocate. I wish it to secure in the representative body such a working majority-not a bare majority which may be affected, possibly, either by defection in one of the number or from death or some other casualtybut a working majority, that the major

ity principle shall rule always, as in times past. That, of course, we all ardently desire; but, sir, in relation to county commissioners, entirely a different character of duties, and purely ministerial, are assigned to those men, and what might be an objection to the election of representative bodies, on this system, does not apply here. In this connection, in this application, there is no principle conceded to create alarm. There is not even the principle designated by John Randolph in speaking of those of his political opponents, when he said that their political principles were seven, the five loaves and the two fishes. [Laughter.] Not even that is involved in this, because the men to fill the profitable offices of register, sheriff, prothonotary, and the other county offices that are profitable, will be elected as before, under the majority principle, and to the victors will the spoils revert in the future as they have in the past. But, sir, these are not oflices of profit; these officers are custodians and guardians of the interests of all; and it certainly is no more than fair that the minority, who have to pay their share of the taxes, who have to contribute to the county treasury, shall have some person as a member of that body to attend to the interests of perhaps, it may be, very large minorities. I cannot see on what ground that can be objected to as fair and just.

Some gentlemen, I doubt not, will oppose it now, because they say that this is the introduction or recognition of a false principle, and it is to that point that I rose to make these few remarks chiefly, and to indicate its eminent fitness in this case and others similar.

We recognize no new principle by its admission in this matter. We have, as a matter of history, done so long ago, have recognized it in reference to jury commissioners and inspectors of election already. That is conceded in the élection of the members of this Convention. We also have in committee of the whole, in reference to the election of the judiciary; and that it is right and proper to apply it also to the election of these two oflicers, I have no shadow of doubt. I entirely concur with the gentleman from Columbia in his assertion that this measure will be popular. I believe it will be so, because I believe in the honest intent of the masses of both political parties. I believe that it will receive their sanction, that it is right, and just, and proper in itself, and that it should be adopted.