Maryland free press., 1866-06-14
TO THE INDEPENDENT VOTERS
OF, DIS. NOS. .,a........

An era has transpired in the political
affairs ofonr State and Nation fraught with
direful andmotneatous interest to every
citizen A Radical majority in Congress
are enseaEOring to break up the Union of
these States (which has cost so much
blood and treasure 70 preserve. What a
powerful ARMED foe could not accomplish,
they are trying to effect by the more cow
ardly means of mischievous unconstiution-
al legislation, and by forced amendments
to the Constitution. which, If eyer adopted,
must lead to disruption, or to worse al
formative. that Of complete despotism of
one section fthe" Union over another.
BY one of these amendments negro
equality is to be fastened upon the people
of the Southern States, or else their repre-
sentation in Congress (uhcm once aaahori-
zedO to be'redaeed to.s mere cipher, as
well as their status in the electoral college
which, if either alternative is accepted,
must forever give the arrogant Abolition
party of the North an overwhelming pre-
dominance in the Federal government
and thereby, one section forever made sub
servient tothe other, and occupying an
irrelevant and dependent position, instead
of free and independent sovereign States
Of course as an amendment to the Con-
stitution it will not be confined to the States
lately in rebellion bat must include all the
States; but the States North having but a
meagre negro population, it will effect
them but little, if at all, which evidently
goes to snow that it is intended as meas
ure Of discrimination against the late slave
holding States of the Union. In that To-
sality a large portion of the population be-
longs.to the negro race-and consequently
universal Suffrage be once granted with
the aid Of the Frecdn.en's Bureau and bay
Oaets. and the Cira Rights Bill at their
back-that race will be able to control the
elections, and thus prove, as they are in
tended to be. the plant tools of the Radi-
cals-thus presenting to the civilized world
tho. anomalous and humiliating aspect in
the South>bf negroes holding all the To-
cal Offices and sending negroes to oCongress
to lcgislate upon matters in which the
whole people are interested-and always
TO vote in the way that such men as Thad
Stevens, Sumner & Co., shall distate-
This being the programme, it will be ne
cessary for the white people of the South to
bow in abject submission to their colored
lordlings, who of course will administer af-
fairs according to the vindictive DEGREES
that shall constantly emanate from the
fountain of al power as claimed already to
be invested in the above named leaders and
their party, or else they must resort to that
only other alternative left, that of forcible
resistance, which must end in the total ex-
termination of one or other of the conflict
ing races.
Now the question is, men of Maryland,
which side will we espouse, that of the i'll
telligent white citizens or that of untutored
negroes. And, moreover, let it not be
forgotten that Maryland will come in for
her full share of this dclectable condition
of affairs, for she cannot escape-to the
contrary notwithstanding, the assumption
of the Radicals; that no such issue is pre-
sented in Maryla Maryland has large
colored population which she must either
allow to vote at her elections. or swallow
the bitter pill of losing two fifths of her rep
resentation in Congress and the electoral
College,. If she accepts the alternative of
negro suffrage then in great measure the
same state Of things is forced upon the peo-
pie of this State, as is intended to be car
carried out in the reconstruction policy of
the Radicals in Congress concerning our
sister states of the South.
Then we say men of Maryland, be not
deceived: Ifyda honestly oppose negro
suffrage in our midst, it cannot be done by
resolving that you are opposed to negro
suffrage, and at the same time approving of
the Radical policy of the Disunionists in
=, Congress, which is committed to that one
all absorbing idea; and for the accomplish
ment and carrying out of which, six
months session of Congress has already
been devoted; and that too, in the face Of
the repeated admreo,nittiop adm of the President
se.of the United States, who, by standing on
the side of the people and the Constitution,
has made himself the enemy Of that party
in and out Of Congress, This action upon
the part of thatparty clearly shows where
- they stahd-and their determination either
. tt blot out of national existence the States
d. of the South. or to thrust upon them the
foul stigma Of negro equality at all haz.
'''' ards. 'o. ai,,,# ~ a- ..
To prevent. if possible, then, the consu.
,..k;o~ G A. ls.l \ -. - L o.,,o. 81