The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-05
|DISPARAGES THE SOUTH
SECRETARY BONAPARTE STEAKS
 TO MARYLAND REPUBLICANS.
Declares That Democrats of Maryland Will Disfrnnchise Whites as We'll As Negroes Under Proposed
 COnstitutiOnal Amendment.

Baltimore Oct. 4.-An adjourned meeting of the Republican State com
 mittee was held tonight for the pur- pose of making a nomination for State comptroller, Henry Nj. Mccullough of Cecil County, being given the nomi-
 nation unanimously. Secretary of the
 Navy Charles J. Bonaparte presided and he and George B. Gather, president of the second branch of the city council were the principal speakers.
 | Secretary Bonaparte confined his re- marks chiefly to a consideration of the
 proposed legislative amendment, the
 declared purpose of which Is the dis the secretary contended will, if adopt ed, result in depriving thousands of
 white citizens. especially those of for eign birth or percentage, of the right to vote. In the course of his speech he said:
 The Democratic platform admits that the party wishes and that the pro- posed amendment is meant to rob the negroes of their constitutional rights; 1t denies that the disfranchisement of white men is either desired or in- tended; the admission is dicreditably true; the denial more discreditably false. Every man who voted for the man who was prominent in its advoca- cy last Thursday has sworn-some of them often-to uphold the constitution of the United States. All of them have held, some hold now. offices of trust and profit by virtue of that oath; yet we are told told and without dis guise or shame that they have all plotted to defeat and overthrow what is owned to be the undoubted purpose and intent of that constitution and is a boast that they can and will do this with impunity. Now if this be 40 oelr Republican what one, should call or think of men like these; but I do ask whether any sane white can or will believe such men if they tell him they will respect his rights. Do we take the word of one who thus trifIes with his oath and glories in doing 1t? As to this question. however, we need take nobody's word; a voter has only to read the proposed amendment and judge for himself. He ought not to doubt after doing so, but if he does then let him think on what these
 men have done and tried to do since they came back into power in 1900 and doubts will trouble him no more. The
 colored voters of Maryland were last year 52,000; the white voters placed
 by the amendment in precisely the | same case with the colored will be as
 nearly as we can judge over s4,oo0. | Does this look like a measure affect ing negroes only? In the city of Bal
 timore we have some 1S,00U colored voters. The Poe amendment groups
 with them over 45,00J white voters; the rights of five white men are en-
 dangered to expose those of two ne- groes to the same risk, yet we are told and asked to believe that no white
 voted need concern himself personally | as to whether the amendment be or be not adopted.
 | Tt is said that we shall have on | exhibition in this campaign at least | one Governor of Southern State to
 show us what sort of Governor we may
 expect to have ourselves when the Poe amendment has become a part of our constitution, and how much better in this respect we shall then fare than l we do now. It will be an interesting
 feature of the campaign, and if current
 reports are well-founded as to the one Governor who Is sure to come, I must
 own that I personally think his choice | emin entity appropriate for the cause he will be here to advocate. I hear | also that certificates are to be furnish | ed us by these visiting executives to | the effect that in their respective States few or no white men have been dis-
 franchised under constitutional amend l ments, from which the Maryland
 amendment is said to be copied. In l most Southern States, there are nc
 independents and so few white Repub-
 licans that the disfranchisement of black men accomplishes there in great | part what the ring would accomplish
 here through the amendment. More- | over, in those States grandfathers'
 clause. whatever its inherent injus-
 tice or incompatibility with American | institutions. does cover but an infinite
 small portion of the white population. ] Thus, in Virginia the inhabitants of foreign birth or foreign parentage | amounted in 1900 to less than 8 per cent of the population and In some | Southern States the percentage to even l smaller; in the city of Baltimore they | amounted to 3s per cent of the popula- tion"