Milford chronicle., 1888-12-07
REPUBLICAN LEAGUE
CONVENTION.
IKRGR nEETIQG MI DOVER.
81 Clubs Represented by Leading
observation-disclosures to the
National Convention to be
held at Baltimore, Md.
Next March.

phlDooC VI SlSCtihH loul dSlcBAAtB u
represent them at the meeting of til,
National League in Baltimore. ami a
l.30 o'clock p. M, the President, DR.
Geo. w. Marshall, called the Conven
ton to order. The viee-Presidents o
the districts were given seats on th'
platform, and the vice-President fol
Delaware of the National League, Jas
r. Whitaker, and Captain E. Mitchell
member Of the Executive Committee
Of The National League, were also in
vited to take seats on the platform.
III calling the meeting to order, DR.
Marshall made an address that wai
well received, and at points roundly
applauded.
PRESIDENTS ADDRESS.
Representatives ofhe RebN6Iieon CTu5.
If Dela50aYe.
BRETHREN Shortly before our late
election, I received from the President o.
the National Republican League of the
United States a notice that a convention
of that body would be held on the 10TH
inst.
As the President of the State League
of Delaware-there being no provision
in the constitution of the State League
for the mode i'll which delegates to the
National Convention should be chosen,
might myself have appointed the dele
gates to represent our State League in the
National Convention; but deeming il
more in accordance with the principles
of the Republican party, that the whole
body OF our fraternity should exercise the
power of appointing delegates of their
own choice, I have issued a call for a
State Convention for the purpose of elect
ing for themselves such delegates to rep
resent them i'll the National Convention
as they might see proper. III response
to that call You are assembled here to-
day.
The number of delegates to be chosen
by you is four, the President Of the State
League by the constitution of the Ma.
tional League, is, by virtue Of his Office,
made delegate to the National Conven-
ton.
l think it would be wise that one dele
gate should be appointed from each of
the political districts as delineated some
years ago at one -four State conventions
and as by the State League, and that each
district should choose its own delegate
in conformity with one of the fundamen-
tai principles of our party, and not Ill ac-
cordance with the doctrine of the Odious
unit rule.
congratulate you, my brethren, upon
the success which we have achieved at
the late election, and I think that our or
ganization has a right to claim much
credit for the partial victory which we
have obtained in our little State.
I call it partial victory, because willis st
we have done nobly in the late campaign,
we have not yet accomplished all we de-
sire, and in the exuberance of our joy at
what we have done, we must not forget
that there is a great work yet to be ac-
complished i'll the future in the wrestling
of our State entirely from Democratic
domination.
It is true we have succeeded i'll Sussex
county i'll electing our entire ticket; and
electing in Kent a Senator and seven
Representatives in our General Assem-
bly,, our coroner and two members of the
Levy Court; but we must not forget that
in New Castle county we have failed to
elect single candidate on the Republi-
can ticket. Notwithstanding that in the
latter county we should have had under
fair assessment and collection laws hon
estly administered, much larger major
ity than i'll either, or probably in both,
the other counties.
Our friends in New Castle assure us
and have no doubt they speak advisedly
that i'll New Castle alone, more than
$500 Republicans who should have been
clothed with the right of suffrage, have
been deprived of their vote by the NAL
of the odious assessment
and collection laws which disgrace our
statute book.
But for this, no honest doubt can be
that on the 9th day of No
vember last, the people of Delaware
would have recorded their vote i'll favor
of Harrison and Morton and Protection
to American industry; and while speak
ing i'll regard to these infamous enact
ments, let me remind you that in all
it will be impossible for the
Legislature at its approaching session to
afford us any relief, although two-thirds
of the members of the House of Repre-
will be Republicans, we shall
have in the Senate only two out of nine
which constitutes that body.
Still, however, think it should be the
duty of the Republican members of the
House of Representatives, by all means,
to set their seal of disapprobation upon
those enactments, by passing bill for
their repeal and substituting in their stead
a Registration Law which shall afford to
every freeman of the age of twenty-one
years or upwards, an opportunity to have
his name enrolled and an opportunity to
pay the tax that may be fairly assessed
against him, and to exercise the highest
privilege of citizenship.
II may be that the Almighty, who holds
in His hands the destinies of States and
Nations, may put it into the hearts of three
or more of the Democratic members of
our State Senate, to give their concur
renee in such an enactment. But at all
events, it will show to the people of the
State, that the Republican party has been
sincere in its advocacy of free ballot and
a fairscount at all our elections.
In the event of the failure to obtain re-
lief from the operation Of these iniqui-
.ous laws, you will readily see that the
labor which is to be accomplished in Sc
curing a free, full and fair election two
years hence, will be arduous in the ex-
here to-day, who we'll remember the mag
nitude of the task imposed upon the Re
publican party in 1880 and 1882, to ac-
anything like a complete as
of men who were known to be |
Republicans, and who did not possess |
zeal estate or personal property made by
our laws the subject of taxation.
Hundreds of young men-both white |
md colored- who were twenty-five years
I'D, and therefore not entitled to vote on |
lge, and whose names had been handed |
II by themselves or their parents to be
placed on the assessment list, failed to |
each the tax book of the Clerk-of-the-
oeace or the collector of taxes, and hun
lreds of others who had succeeded in
,etting their names on the tax books,
we're denied the opportunity of paying
heir taxes, and thereby deprived of the
light Of suffrage; and in some instances
ollectors were known to feign them
elves afflicted with smallpox, in order
+