582 



NEW YORK. 



opened, and the soldier will *ose his vote. The 

 affidavit required is only to prove residence, 

 and the law provides no separate affidavit of 

 qualification of colored men, as required by the 

 Constitution. 



Conventions were held in September hy the 

 Republican and Democratic parties, and nomi- 

 nations made for State officers. The resolutions 

 adopted by each convention were like in spirit 

 and similar in views to those adopted by the 

 Presidential conventions. The nominations of 

 the Republicans were, for Governor, Reuben E. 

 Fenton ; Lieut.-Governer, Thomas G. Alvord. 

 The nominations of the Democrats were, for 

 Governor, Horatio Seymour ; for Lieut.-Gov- 

 ernor, David R. Floyd Jones. 



On September 30th Gov. Seymour addressed 

 the following circular with reference to the act 

 to authorize soldiers to vote, to the command- 

 ants and surgeons of New York regiments in 

 the field : 



STATE OF NEW YOKE, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, | 

 ALBANY, Sept. 30, 1864 )' 

 ofN. Y. S. Vols. 



To , 



The Legislature of this State, at its last session, 

 passed an act which received my signature and 

 became a law, on the 21st of April, 1864, entitled 

 " an act to enable the qualified electors of this State, 

 absent therefrom in the military service of the United 

 States, in the army or navy thereof, to vote." 



This act inaugurates a new feature in our system 

 of elective franchise, and I feel it incumbent upon 

 me to call your attention to its provisions, and to 

 ask that you see it faithfully and impartially carried 

 out. The act provides for this in the following sec- 

 tion : 



SEO. 13. Any officer of this State or of the United States, 

 or any other person, who shall directly or indirectly control 

 or attempt to control any such enlisted elector in the exercise 

 of any of his rights under this act, by menace, bribery, fear 

 of punishment, hope of reward, or any other corrupt or arbi- 

 trary measure or resort whatever, to annoy, injure, or other- 

 wise punish any such officer or man, for the manner in which 

 ho may have exercised any such right, shall be deemed 

 guilty of an offence against the sovereignty of this State, 

 which shall be punished as a misdemeanor, and for which ho 

 may be indicted and tried at any future time, when he may 

 be found within the limits of the State ; and upon conviction 

 he shall be imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year, 

 and fined in a sum not exceeding one thousand dollar?, and 

 he shall also thenceforth be ineligible, after conviction thereof, 

 to hold any office in this State. 



The twelfth section of the act herein referred to, 

 provides for the preparation, by the Secretary of 

 State, of blank forms and envelopes, which, togeth- 

 er with copies of the soldiers' voting act, have been 

 forwarded by express to the different regiments and 

 battalions of New York State volunteers in the Uni- 

 ted States service, and to the sick and wounded New 

 York soldiers in U. S. hospitals, under the Tollowing 

 order : 



WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, | 

 WASHINGTON, August 8, 1854. ( 

 Special Orders No. 262. 



19. All officers in the military service of the United 

 States will render every facility to such Express Companies 

 as may be charged by the Governor of New. York with the 

 delivery of the necessary forms and blanks required to se- 

 cure the votes of soldiers of that State in the field, with a 

 view to the blanks beinar delivered with the least practical 

 delay. By. order of the Secretary of War, 



E. D. TOWNSEND, 



[Offisial.] Assistant Adjutant General. 



E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General. 



I send you a set of ballots prepared by the friends 

 of General McClellan, and have requested the Secre- 

 tary of State to forward to you a set prepared by the 

 friends of Mr Lincoln. 



The State and Local Committees ol the two politi 

 cal parties will gend you the necessary number of 

 ballots. 



You can do much toward securing to your officers 

 and men a fair expression of their political prefer- 

 ences, if you wDl detail one or more officers of your 

 command of each political party, to distribute the 

 ballots and to aid soldiers and commissioners in filling 

 up the requisite powers of attorney. You are also 

 requested to use every effort to send forward the 

 envelopes, containing the powers of attorney and 

 ballots, to the electors in the several election districts 

 of this State, named on the back thereof cither by 

 express or mail, or through such reliable commis- 

 sioners as may visit your command. 



I feel confident that every officer from New York 

 will feel an honorable pride in seeing that the laws 

 of his State are carried out according to their letter 

 and spirit, and that they will protect all under their 

 care in the full and free exercise of their personal and 

 political rights. 



Truly yours, &c. 



HORATIO SEYMOUR. 



On October 28th, Major-Gen. Dix, command- 

 ing in the Department of the East, issued the fol- 

 lowing order relative to interference with the 

 election : 



HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST, ) 

 NEW YOKK CITY, Oct. 23, 186-i ( 

 General Orders A"o. 80. 



Satisfactory information has been received by tha 

 Major-Gencral commanding, that rebel agents in 

 Canada design to send into the United States, and 

 colonize, at different points, large numbers of refu- 

 gees, deserters, and enemies of the Government, with 

 a view to vote at the approaching Presidential elec- 

 tion ; and it is not unlikely, when this service to the 

 rebel cause has been performed, that they may be 

 organized for the purpose of shooting down peaceable 

 citizens and plundering private property, as in the 

 recent predatory incursions on the Detroit River and 

 at St. Albans. Against these meditated outrages on 

 the purity of the elective franchise and these nefarious 

 acts of robbery, incendiarism, and murder, it is tha 

 determination of the Major-General commanding to 

 guard by every possible precaution, and to visit on 

 the perpetrators, if they shall be detected, the most 

 signal and summary punishment. All the classes of 

 persons enumerated, whether citizens of the insurgent 

 States who have been in the rebel service or engaged 

 in acts of hostility to the Government, deserters from 

 the military service of the United States, or men 

 drafted or subject to draft, who have fled to evade 

 their duty to their country, are liable to punishment 

 for the crimes they have already committed ; and no 

 effort will be spared to arrest them. For this purpose 

 all provost marshals and their deputies within this 

 department are commanded to exercise all possible 

 vigilance, and to adopt such measures as may be 

 necessary to detect persons coming into the United 

 States for the purpose of voting or of committing 

 depredations on private property and to prevent their 

 escape ; and it is earnestly recommended to the elec- 

 tors of the States in this department to take, within 

 their respective election districts, such measures as 

 may be required for their own security, and to aid 

 the military authorities in frustrating the designs of 

 rebel agents or emissaries, or in bringing the perpe- 

 trators to punishment. 



Should any of these malefactors succeed in perpe- 

 trating their crimes, effective measures will be taken 

 to prevent their return to Canada, and for this pur- 

 pose special directions will be given, and suitable 

 guards for the frontier will be provided before the 

 day of election. 



As a further precaution, all persons from the in- 

 surgent States now within the department, or who 

 may come within it on or before the third of Novem- 

 ber proximo, are hereby required to report their. 



