The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-02-14

or unnecessarily TO IMPEDE IT'S Tree
exercise. Under the pretense of reg
ulation the right of suffrage must be
left untrammeled by any provisions
or even rules of evidence that may in
/ juriously or necessarily impair it.
The court held the act of assembly
unconstitutional.
80 also in Pennsylvania in Page
VS.. Allen, IS Pa. st. 33S, a registry
law was declared unconstitutional on
the ground that it impaired the free
exercise of the right of suffrage as
conferred by the constitution, and
that no constitutional qualification
/ of an elector can in the least be
abridged, added to or altered by leg
islation or the pretense of legislation.
THE true line between laws which
take away or abridge the right of
suffrage and those which lawfully
regulate its exercise is defined by the
Massachusetts court in Capen VS..
Foster, 12 Pickering, 4S8. 1t is added :
Such construction would afford no
warrant for such an exercise of legis-
lative power as, under the pretense
and color of regulating, should sub
vert or injuriously restrain the right
itself
I'm Monroe VS.. Collins, II Ohio, $50,
the court said What the Legisla-
ture cannot do directly it cannot do
by indirection. If it has no power
expressly to deny or take away the
right, it has none to define it away
or unreasonably abridge or impede
its enjoyment by laws protesting to
be merely rene dial
In Switzerland VS.. Norris, "A Mary
land, 1928, Chief Justice McSherry, in
discussing the registry act, recites
the qualifications of voter as pre-
scribed by the first section of the first
article of our Maryland constitution,
and further says These qualifica-
tions fixed by the organic law can
neither be enlarged nor curtailed by
the General Assembly.
THE principle is well expressed by
Justice Strong, who later became an
eminent justice of the Supreme
Court, in McCafferty VS.. Guyer, 80 Pa.
st. III: Can the Legislature take
away from the elector his right to
vote while he possesses all the quail
fications required by the constitu-
ton? If so, the legislative power is
superior to the organic law of the
state, and the Legislature, instead of
being controlled by it, may mold the
constitution at its pleasure. Such is
not the law. A right conferred by
the constitution is beyond the reach
of legislative interference
Il need not catalogue the many
cases in the state courts which hold
that the state legislature cannot add
to the constitutional qualifications of
voter, but an act of the legislature
which directly or indirectly deprives
a person of the right to vote, although
he has every qualification which the
constitution makes necessary, is void.
81 have great respect for our Court
of Appeals, and believe it would so
again declare. Can it be true that
under the cloak. of an unconstitution-
al statute there is concealed the des-
perate purpose to destroy our fair
election law? Can it be that cunning
men mean to pass an unconstitution-
al statute to disfranchise illiterates
and incorporate shamful provision
like the Virginia constable, assistant
to illiterates, or like the infamous
Dortch law in Tennessee? Can it be
that our Maryland electors will thus
surrender the window by provision
which may be constitutional but
surely is corrupt, which puts an end to
fair elections? Can it be the purpose
of desperate politicians to insert the
grandfather's clause to disfranchise
only the colored people If So l am
confident the latter will raise Fed
eral question.
I'm Williams VS.. Mississippi, 40, U.
S. 225, the Supreme Court said of the
constitution of Mississippi and its
suffrage statutes: They do not on
their face discriminate between the
races and it has not been shown that
their actual administration was evil,
only that evil was possible under
them
THE Supreme Court also said in
the same case: Though the law it.
self be fair on it's face ana impartial
in appearance, yet, if it be applied
and administered by public authority
with an evil eye and unequal hand
so as practically to make unjust and
illegal determinations between per-
sons in similar circumstances mater
ial to their rights, the denial of legal
justice is still within the prohibition
of the constitution
Ceases will soon be carried up from
the several states which have disfran-
chised the colored voters by evasive
ballot laws inIiraofIv Yohhino than