NEW YORK. 



581 



to go into the market hereafter decently as a bor- 

 rower. 



The State is even now in the market for money to 

 pay its bounties to volunteers. The whole amount 

 of "the appropriation I urge upon you will be more 

 than repaid in the first negotiation the State may 

 make, by the enhanced price of its securities. We 

 shall lose more in our immediate transactions than 

 the cost of providing the coin for this interest. Not 

 only our future profit but our immediate gain will be 

 served by adhering now to the strictest letter of our 

 contracts. 



The saving proposed by not paying in coin is small 

 and temporary, while the dishonor is lasting, and the 



Eecuniary loss consequent upon this dishonor, will 

 e in the end enormous. 



Bad faith on the part of New York, the leading 

 member of our confederacy, must, inevitably, weaken 

 very greatly, if it do not destroy the credit of our 

 Government securities in foreign markets. Com- 

 pared with the importance of this State action in its 

 effect upon the credit of the Government, the cost of 

 paying our interest in coin is insignificant. 



Aside from the consideration 01 interest or policy, 

 our duty, in my judgment, was plain. It is to pay 

 the debts of the State ; to pay them in precisely the 

 mode in which they were promised to be paid ; to 

 keep the honor of the State unsullied ; and to this 

 plain duty we should be true, cost what it mav. 



HORATIO SEYMOUR. 



The Governor on the same day made an ap- 

 peal " to men of capital, the bankers, the mer- 

 chants, and others of the people of the State 

 who have its honor at heart, whereby at least 

 so much of the interest as belongs to non- 

 resident creditors, if not the whole," might be 

 paid in gold or its equivalent. This appeal was 

 successful. 



Provision was also made at this session of the 

 Legislature to secure the votes of soldiers in the 

 field at elections. By the Constitution of the 

 State, adopted in 1846, it was provided "that 

 for the purpose of voting no person shall be 

 deemed to have gained or lost a residence by 

 reason of his presence or absence, while em- 

 ployed in the service of the United States." A 

 soldier in the field, however, could not vote, 

 because the Constitution at the same time re- 

 quired that each person should vote "in the 

 election district of which he shall at the time 

 be a resident, and not elsewhere." Governor 

 Seymour suggested to the Legislature of 1863, 

 by special message, an amendment of the Con- 

 stitution by which the absent soldiers could be 

 entitled to vote. The views of this body and 

 the Governor being in conflict, they failed to 

 concur in an act relative to the subject, and a 

 constitutional amendment was prepared and 

 passed by the same body. It was subsequently 

 concurred in by the Legislature of 1864, and 

 submitted to and adopted by the people at a 

 special election in March, 1864. The vote given 

 was 306,874, and the majority in favor of the 

 amendment, 210,716. 



The necessary power having been given to 

 the Legislature, a law "to enable the qualified 

 electors of the State, absent therefrom in the 

 military service of the United States, in the 

 army or navy thereof, to vote," was passed by 

 the Legislature and approved by Gov. Seymour 

 on the 21st of April. 



It extends the right to vote, in time of war, 

 to qualified electors "in the actual military ser- 

 vice of the United States, in the army or navy 

 thereof, who shall be absent from the State of 

 New York on the day of election." This ex- 

 tension is expressly limited, by the language 

 used, to commissioned officers and enlisted men. 

 Sutlers, clerks, teamsters, officers' servants, and 

 the rest of the crowd of non-combatants around 

 every army, cannot vote except at the polls of 

 their respective election districts. Nor can 

 soldiers or sailors in the State on the day of 

 election vote elsewhere than in the election 

 districts in which they reside, Qualified elec- 

 tors of the State in the regiments of the regu- 

 lar army, or in such of the militia regiments as 

 are in the service of the United States, have the 

 same right to vote that volunteers have, if ab- 

 sent from the State on the day of the election. 



An elector authorized to vote by the pro- 

 visions of the law, can do so at any time within 

 the sixty days next previous to the election. 

 For that purpose he must execute a proxy, au- 

 thorizing any elector of the town or city in 

 which he resides, whom he may name in the 

 proxy, to deliver his vote to the inspectors of 

 the election district in which the voter resides, 

 on the day of the election. The proxy must be 

 signed by the person voting, and must also be 

 attested by a subscribing witness and sworn to 

 before any field officer, captain, adjutant, or 

 commandant of any company or detachment on 

 detached service, in the service of the United 

 States, and commissioned as officers in the vol- 

 unteer force of the State of New York ; or, if 

 the absent elector is in the navy, before " the 

 captain or commandant of any vessel in the 

 naval service of the United States to which the 

 said absent elector may belong or be attached." 

 The voter is also required to make and subscribe 

 before any such officer an affidavit of his quali- 

 fication as an elector. 



The elector can vote " for all officers for whom 

 he would have a right to vote if he were pres- 

 ent " at the election. He must fold his ballots 

 and inclose them with his proxy in an envelope, 

 duly sealed, on the outside of which must be 

 his affidavit of qualification as an elector. The 

 envelope must be inclosed in another envelope, 

 which must be sealed and directed to the per- 

 son authorized by the proxy to cast the vote, 

 and transmitted to him "by mail or other- 

 wise." 



The person to whom the proxy is directed 

 may open the outer envelope, but not the inner 

 one. On the day of the election he must de- 

 liver the inner envelope to the inspectors at the 

 polls. If the name of the soldier making the 

 affidavit of qualification as a voter, indorsed on 

 the envelope, is on the list of registered elec- 

 tors, the inspectors will open the envelope and 

 deposit the ballots in the appropriate boxes. 

 If the name is not on the list, an affidavit must 

 be made by a "householder of the district," 

 that he knows the soldier to be "a resident 

 of the district," or the envelope will not be 



