The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1865-11-03
THE ONE-THIkD RULE

The ONE-THlkD RULE
We have often known of majority rules, pIu-
rality rules and two-third rules, hut ii was left
for the Abolition party of Maryland to introduce
and practice tie onc.third rule This rule is
something new and would not be understood by
Washington and his associates of the old Conti-
mental Congress, or by Clay, Daniel Webster or
Andrew Jackson of our own times. They lived
and laborcd for the good of the nation and the
prosperity and happiness Of the people 1t never
entered their heads that there should he a favor
ed class, who, when too unpopular o be elected
by the people, should he lcgiSael into Office
But this is absolutely the case in this State. The
Convention which changed Our organic law, was
gotten up for this very purpose, and to rob the
people of the State of species of property legally
held by them, to crafty set of aboIitionists
who had been warning upon the Constitution,
the Union, and peace of the country for thirty
five years.
But, say these Constitution makers, see how
manufactures in the east flourish this is because
they have no slavery; for this reason, too, they
all work, and are robust and healthy. Now, it
never seems to have occurred 10 the assembled
wisdom Of the State, that the east, particularly
Massachusetts,, Rhode Island and Connecticut,
dealt in slaves until the traffic became unprofta-
ble and that the slave trade was permitted 10 le
continued from 1888 TO 1908, by the Convention
that framed the National Constitution, mainly to
crafty the inhabitants of the North and Fast
We wonder if they turned philanthropsts a.
soon rs African negro stealing was made piracy
for they worked very successfully the under
ground railroad in this country, for many,years
after the year 1903.
But there is another popular error much com
mented upon and boosted of by every emancipa-
tionist-the immense manufactures of the East
while it is charged that we have few Or COM
paratively almost none, and this is charged to
the presence of slavery among us, up to the
rime of the adoption Of the present State Consti-
tuition. Now, did it never occur TO the assem-
bled wisdom, that in all civilized countries, pco-
pie adapt themselves to that business or that labor
which promises the largest reward; hence from
necessity the people Of the North are fishermen
and manufacturers. They have 10 farming land
ofconsequence, and the season being too short
TO make farming profitable, they have turned
their attention measuraby TO the two occupa-
tons named above; consequently they are but
little else than consumers, while we of the Mid
de- Southern and Western States are agricultur-
lists, finding that pursuit the most profitable. -
This is the reason why so few Of us are engaged
10 manufacturing.
Bat this is only one of the beauties of the one
third rule, adopted to secure all the offices to
themselves No avis, or bob-tails, or s!ung.shot
are needed now, to keep Copperheads from the
polls the Registry law does all that in a more
quiet aud less dangerous mode to fellows skin,
and is, therefore, some improvement on the old
mode of keeping legal voters from the ballot,hox
Under this registry law, there will be about ten
thousand votes cast in the city of Baltimore, out
of a voting population of about forty thousand,
or about one-fourth of the vote of the city Now
will any candid man pretend 10 say that any
person elected to office in that city the 7th of
Observation-Disclosures rs she isis a legally
elected MANI We hold that be is not. He is no
more the representative of that people than is
the King of Dahomey; for the reason that large
majority of the voters have been forced from the
polls by the outrageous provisions Of the Registry
law, made by the representatives of one-third of
the people, TO disfranchisc men as good and loyal
as themselves but who refused TO obey the be-
hests of the Republican party. But although
we have been for time trodden down and our
rights wrested from us by this more than despotic
enactment we are not without hope. Many
well-disposcd men of the Union party in this
State are turning with disgust from tile hideous
deformity of this relict Of harbarism, and with
their aid we have hope that we may yet be re-
stored to our former condition of citizenship -
True, our sky yet Towers, and dark clouds are
still shut down around US, but we think we see
in the distance the glimmer Of light, and although
it approaches slowly, if we are true to ourselves
and to those generous men Of the Union party
who are opposed to tyranny and are disposed to
assist in removing this incubus from off our Shout
ders, as surely as the gray sireaks which belt
the eastern sky at early dawn are harbingers Of
the near approach of the king Of day, SO surely
will we be again admitted to the privilege of
the ballot-box.
What has Maryland done, that she should be
dealt with thus severely She has never been
out of the Union. When it has suited these
Abolition despots, they have declared that Ma.
ryland was true to the Union, and could not be
driven from it, that the Union sentiment was
largely in the ascendant; but at other times,
when they desired to have some Of their neigh
hors dragged away to some Of the military bas-
tiles, then the vast preponderance of Union SEN
timent, about which they made so much stir
but little while before, had suddenly sunk into
insignifcance, and the State was in great danger
of going into secession. Now, in fact, there
never was any more danger of Maryland going
into secession, than there was Of these intensely
loyal Abolition leaders shouldering their mus
kets and going into the army to assist in putting
down the rebellion. No, they had another and