The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1905-09-14
REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.
DlSfranchisement Plot Declared Par
amount issue to be Decided by
Voters This Fall,

The Republicans of maryland. :
convention assembled, while realizs
the fact that no national issues re
involved in the present campais III
this State, except in so far as + at
tempt to adopt an un-Americl' I'M
Republican, un-Democratics a. thus
far, unprecedented sufTrage1stem III
one State of the Union Jay Affect
the common sisterhood cthe States
OF the country, cannot eIraih from
an expression of pride nevertheless
in their identity withae party whose
President stands for square deal
for every America wherever he
was born and whoever his ancestry,
and who. with II cordial acclaim of
political friend, and former polit-
ical foes, and te approving voice of
the civilized ytions Of the earth, has
recently bee hailed as the first citi-
zen and fCemost statesman of the
world.
They cuGemn the unfair, the un-
Just and the oppressive changes in
the hoJst Election law Of 1896, and
appeg with confidence to the indie
penRnt citizenship ofour State, with
out regard to party affiliations, to
bear testimony to the hurtful couse-
oIeuces OF the successive departures
from that law through the action of
recent partisan Democratic Legisla-
lures.
They assert that the constitutional
amendment soon to be submitted to
the voters is but the elimination of a
plot, long meditated and carefully
planned, to make and keep Maryland
under the control of the political par.
ty now dominant and as now organ.
lied, regardless of her people's wishes
and, at the same time, to insure tC
the men who make up the politica
organization now in power perpetu
al control of their own party, anC
through it of the State government
control to be used in the future, a.
it has been in the past, for their Owl
selfish ambition and fraudulent aim
and purposes, without regard to the
fair fame or vital interests OF GU
State.
They. point out every intelllgen
citizen, and especially to every bust
ness man, the folly of making Mary
land surely Democratic State fol
all time, regardless Of the industrial
conditions or financial issues tina
hereafter may be presented, as the,
have been presented before; ant
that at the very time when, throug,
the unwisdom of the national policie
Of misnamed Democracy, of char
acter akin to that and largely inhu
enced by that which controls in GU
State, that party has dwindled to
hopeless minority in the councils o
the nation; and they warn agains
the consequent peril to the State
prosperity and the development {
her natural resources and opportun
ties by so unwise, so impolitic and S
suicidal a course.
They declare these evils, however
to be among the least of the man
wherewith we are threatened by til
so-called Poe amendment: and d.
nounce that measure as false an
mischieyous in principle, that, fror
its nature, is intended to be one-sideC
unfair and fraudulent in its admin
tration, and as being fraught wit
the gravest danger to the liberties {
our citizens and our right of Repul
lcan self-government.
They inYite particular attention t
the fact that the so-caled Poe amen
ment grants political privileges 1
one class of our citizens and deni
them to another, because the gran
fathers of the former did, and tho
of the latter did not, enjoy the Ill
privileges.
1t establishes doctrine of polite
rights by inheritance, that at on
contravenes the principles of the dei
ocraeY of Thomas Jefferson and IL
spirit of the Declaration of Indepe
dence; and after the election of
single year, it provides that all your
men, of allscolors and conditions alik
who seek admission to the exercise
manhood suffrage shall be subject
the discreditlng and degrading I
quirement that they shall sunni
to an examination in constitution
law that shall be prescribed by al
subject to the approval of a board
election officers of a character thi
experience has found to be quite fl
quently corrupt.
The purpose of the said amen
ment is to reinstate, with enlarg,
powers, the partisan boards of reg
tratlon of the class that prevail
previous to the Election law of IS!
who again and again proved thel
selves indifferent to their duty al
subservient to the political agenci
through which their appointing
was secured, and oftentimes guilty
such extent of criminal DISCHARGE