Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1874-10-02

Our neighbour, the IairptniCHt, takes
exception to the speech Of DR.. Hcnklc, as
reported in the Beacon and which we pub
lish to-day. The exception is taken TO
| that portion of the remarks wherein the
Doctor is reported as having said that they
(the 18th and 18th Amendments were de
racto amendments however and we are com
PEELED TO submit to them, but he would
blot them out if he could"
Whatever may be DR.. Henkle's private
views on this subject, the Democratic party
stands to-day fully pledged to sustain the
18th and 18th Amendments, and to protect
the negroes in their right to vote, as it is
pledged TO ensure to them full enjoyment
of all their other rights. But We do not
believe that the remarks of our nominee
are obnoxious TO the criticism of our con
temporary. We recently had a full, free
and frank conversation with Dr.. Henkle
on this and kindred subjects. He express
political views were in entire accord with
the well settled principles of our party.
Whilst expressing his decided opinion
that the time had come when il was ne
cessary for the white race to assert their
supremacy, and their determination that
the Government should be controlled by
them in order TO prevent the prevailing
tendency Of the Republican party to Atri-
canize it, for the sordid purpose of hold
ing on to the loaves and fishes, he at the
same time was very emphatic in expressing
his sense of the duty of the white people
and the Democratic party to protect the
blacks in all their legal rights, and to mcte
out to them with unstintcd generosity the
means to educate and make intelligent and
valuable citizens OF them. We feel il due
to DR.. Henkle to make this statement from
our own personal knowledge.
Doubtless the Doctor, like the rest OF
us, thinks that the elective franchise was
most improvidently conferred on the negro.
Doubtless he thinks, as we do, that a great
wrong was done to the black race when
this right was given them, but at the same
| time we arc sure he believes, as all other
men of well balanced minds believe, that
it is too late to talk about repeating the
| 18th Amendment, but that it is now the
part of wise craftsmanship to make the
most of our bad bargain. Revolutions
never go backward, and a Democratic
| Government and a Democratic party can
never take away from its citizens the right
| to vote when once bestowed on them. We
would drop in that metaphorical last
ditch" before we would consent to it. But
still this does not prevent us from having
the opinion that the right ought not to
have been given to the blacks when it was,
and in the way it was. The Fifteenth
Amendment was adopted by fraud and
though the instrumentality of Federal
bayonets, and having been SO adopted, we
feel it is blot on the political escutcheon
of the Nation, and as such blot, we too
would like to see it blotted out. But as
much as we would like to see this done,
we are not willing, in order to crafty our
feelings in this respect, to do the gross
wrong and injustice now of taking away
from the black man the right to vote,
though our experience is that the great
mass of them show themselves less capable
of intelligently exercising it this year than
they were two years ago.