CHAPTER XXVIl
 

jOLITICS had not been entirely in abe3-ance
during the progress of the war, but the
political contests had been entirely one
sided. The Democratic party, which had
alw-ays been so powerful in the County, had be¬
come in the public mind identified with the cause
of secession, and disloyalty to the United States.
And this sentiment was none the less pronounced
because a large number of the Federal volunteers
from the County had been" Democrats. It yvas
therefore useless for the Democratic party to put
any candidates in the field, and especially so be¬
cause of the registration law that had been enacted
while the war was in progress.' Under this law,
as it was administered, about two thousand white
adults were prohibited from voting. Not only did
the law require that a man should be loyal to the
Government in.order to entitle him to vote, but
under a set of questions required by the Governor
in 1865 to be put to applicants for registration,
a man might disfranchise himself by the oper¬
ation of his mind. If at any time he had wished
for a Confederate victory, he could not vote.

President Lincoln having issued his procla¬
mation granting freedom to the slaves in the se¬
ceded States, the question of abolishing slavery
in Maryland came under discussion. In January,
1864, the Legislature passed an act providing for
a Constitutional convention to accomplish this ob¬
ject—that being the only way in which it could
be done. The bill passed both Houses of the
General Assembly on January 28. The vote in
the Senate was 13 in the affirmative to 2 in the
negative. In the House it was 48 to 17. The
election "for or against a convention" took place on
 

the first Wednesday in iApril, and delegates to the
convention were elected at the same time. The
vote of AVashington County was 3298 for the' con¬
vention to 651 against it. The delegates elected
were Peter Negley, Henr)' W. Dellinger, James P.
Alayhugh, John R. Sneary, Lewis B. Nyman and
Joseph F. Davis.

The vote on the adoption of the new constitu¬
tion was taken on the 12th and 13th of October
1864. A feature of the election whicli was unusu¬
al at that time, but has since become common, was
that by resolution of the convention a portion of
the new constitution went into effect before it was
adopted by the people. That is to say, the oatli
prescribed for voters in the new instrument was
required to be taken by those who voted on its
adoption. The vote of Washington County was
2441 for the adoption of the Constitution, and 985
against it.

d'he dissatisfaction with the operation of the
registration law enacted under the new constitu¬
tion was so great that when the Democratic party
began to revive in 1866, there was a call for a
State convention to protest against it. d'he dele¬
gates sent by AA^ashington County to this conven¬
tion w-ere Richard H. Alvey, James AVason, Zach¬
ariah S. Clagett, David Cushwa, William Dodge
and George Schley. As soon as the war was over,
and the Union was safe, many who had abandoned
the Democratic party returned to their old
affiliation and for a few years after the w-ar,
Washington County was almost uniformly in the
Democratic column. An election for or against a
Constitutional convention was held April 13, 1867.
Party lines were drawn on this issue, the Repub-