The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-10-31
Enthusiastic Meetings.
Continued from Page OneD

trolling registration and elections,
whereby the American right of the
ballot will be denied to a large class
of deserving citizens of our county
and state. We cannot think that you,
as liberty-lOving people of this great
Republic, will consent to the political
slavery and social discrimination
against yourselves, your neighbors,
your fathers and your families which
will result, if the Democratic party
shall be given the power through a
majority in the Legislature. to still
further debase the election machinery
and the right of franchise in this
state.
My own record and opinion upon
these matters of legislation have been
freely circulated throughout this
county by the Republican committee
by the two speeches delivered by my
self in the Senate, one on March 18th.
1901, and the other on March 14th,
1901, when the Acknowledgement bill
was under consideration. Your at
tention is called to one or two quota
lions from the speeches, which de-
sire now to reiterate for public con-
sideration: Degrade the American
voter by limiting or interfering with
his free right of the exercise of politi-
cal franchise, brand him a political
slave and send him forth among his
fellow men with this discredit, dis
grace and disability upon him, and
the humiliation which he will feel,
the bitter anguish which will be re-
Elected by his family and associates,
his children and all his relations, will
exhibit itself and be most emphati-
cally felt by those who will be respon-
sible for it, not only in the next cam
paign but for many years to come.
Contented and self-respected citizens,
prosperous and happy in their sur
roundings, faithful to all public duty
and obedient to all legal obligations,
will be changed into men of broken
spirit, rebelling against the forms of
law and the management of the gov
eminent of this state, and will seek
justification for their demoralized
change of civil status in charging it
to arbitrary legislation which they
believe has violated the dearest rights
guaranteed to them as American citi-
zens, under the constitution of the
United States and of the state. HUI
initiation will take the place of per-
sonal pride, discomfort and agitation
will supersede present conditions of
peace and happiness. The men in
telligent enough to till the soil, to
successfully ply their industries, to de-
velop the wealth of the forest and
mine, to defendAtheir country's honor
on the field of battle at home and in
foreign climes, will justly and right
eously rebel against the law which
degrades them below the level of the
cunning criminal, the anarchist and
the Czolgosz's who can read and
write, but have neither moral virtue.
social status or patriotism Outlaw
and eliminate such men from partici-
patton in public affairs and from hav-
ing voice in the government of the
state and nation by their ballots. and
degrade them below the political
status of the pardoned convict, make
them an object of scorn and criticism
among their neighbors, in their com
munity, and you will breed in them
and in the generations which will de-
scend from their loins a spirit of
rebellion and revolution, which will
be full of danger and menace to the
public good. This spread of discon-
tent, anarchy and revolution against
existing forms OF government IN other
lands should be a warning to us in
this free country to steer the course
of the ship of state and the policy of
our legislation away from the rocks
of danger and the shoals of national
disaster. The near future will pre-
sent several problems of serious and
farreaching Importance, in the solu-
ton of which the public safety will
require the utmost patriotism and
most earnest support of the state and
the Republic by the plain people of
this country. They control the bal
lot box and they will learn how to
vote intelligently against all the
efforts which partisanship and politi-
cal machinery may make to disfran-
chise them. But they will not forget,
nor will they forgive the influences
and the sources of dictation which
sought to deprive them of the right
which their ancestors enjoyed for a
century in this country. To kindle
the forces of discomfort and set in
motion at this time so grave cause
for revolution and rebellion is not
only injudicious, indiscreet, but al
most reasonable in the light of social,
financial and political conditions that
exist in this country
And again on March 18th, 1901 ::
They know that they are placed by
this proposed law, and by the pre-
lenses made by its champions, before
the public with the finger of scorn
and infamy and degradation pointed
at them, and are held up to public
view as degraded beings, who alone
are subjects of corruption and bri-
berry at elections. This bill, if enacted
into law, will take away the right of
franchise from hundreds of our vet
eran soldiers, many of whom are
crippled and burdened with disease
because of their arduous service on
behalf of the preservation of the
Union and the honor of our national
flag. Think of it, my fellow-citizens,
what an infamous outrage this dis
reimbursement will perpetrate upon
the rights of our nations heroes.
The magnitude, the beauty and the
grandeur of our country today is due
to the unflinching patriotism of these
heroic men. When their country
called them into active service, at a
time when an awful crisis was pend
ing in this Union, when the dark
clouds of secession were lowering
over and about us, threatening, as
they were, to break down the Union,
no man thought to ask them if thew
could read and write, nor did any