Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/16

8 free male citizens of the age of 21 years and upwards residing and assessed in such hundred or election district." He shall write the word "naturalized" opposite the name of any one on said list who appears from evidence in his office to have been naturalized; and here, by this officer, is virtually made a registration of voters — a list making a prima facie case of right on the payment of tax — a list given to and used by the inspector of elections for that purpose, whose duty it is made to write the word "voted" opposite the name of every one who has voted.

It will be noticed that the clerk of the peace does not simply take from the assessment lists in his official custody the names of those assessed, but he also has to decide and fix on the residence of the persons on this list, and certifies the place of residence, as well as the fact of assessment, thus making a prima facie case of right to vote on the payment of a tax. Now this is not a complete registration or list of voters, because of the possible change of the residence of voters after the first of September, or from other causes, but it is as complete as the clerk of the peace can make it, and is in close analogy, and, indeed, almost identical with lists of voters made out under a system of registry laws, eo nomine, which exists in Pennsylvania; the only substantial difference being that there the assessor makes out the list of voters from the assessment lists he has previously made, and here the clerk of the peace makes out the list of voters from the assessment lists which have been made by the assessors, perfected in the levy court.

Why is not this list made out by the clerk of peace such an one as should be guarded and scrutinized? It is made by a public officer, charged with the performance of a duty, who has office hours and a known place for the transaction of public business. If he is a dishonest and unprincipled man he has the means of perpetrating great frauds, and in no way more easily than by placing on this list of voters men who are not assessed.

We have argued this question hitherto on two grounds: First, that it was necessary to give such a construction to the