The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-05
Secretary BOnapaTte Takes Fling
 at Governor Vardaman
OPPOSES THE AMENDMENT
Appeals to Men of Foreign Birth, Say ina the New Amendment Will Take Away Their
 Suffrage.


 meeting of the republican state conven- ton were held tonight for the purpose of making nomination for state comp troller, Henry M. Mccullough of Cecil county being given the nomination unani- mously Secretary of the Navy Charles J. Bonaparte presided and he and George R. 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 de- clared purposes of which Is the disfran- chisement of negroes, but wEich the sec retary contended will, if adopted. result In depriving thousands of white citizens, especially those of foreign birth or parene- age. of the right to vote. In the course of his speech he said:
 Robs Negroes of Rights.
 'The democratic platform admits that the party wishes and that the proposed amendment Is meant to rob the negroes of their constitutional rights, and denies that the disfranchisement of white men IS either desired or intended; the admission is discreditaby true; the denial more dis creditably false Every mai. who voted for the amendment in the legislature, every man who was prominent in It's ad- yocacy 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 and told without disguise or shame that they have all plotted together to de- feat and overthrow what Is owned to be the undoubted purpose and intent of that constitution. and is boast that they can and will do this with impunlty. Now If this be true. I do not ask, l need not ask any republican what one should call or think of men like these; but l do ask whether any sane white man can or will believe such men If they tell him they will respect his rights. Do we take the word of one who thus trihes with his oath and glories in doing it?
 "As to this question, however. we need take nobodys words a voter has only to read the proposed amendment and judge for himself. He ought not to doubt after doing so much, if he does then let him 
 tried to do since they came back to power in 1900. and doubts will trouble him no more. The colored voters of Maryland were last year 92,00O; the white voters placed by the amendment in precisely the same case with the colored will be as nearly as we can judge from official figures over 64,000. Does this look like a measure affecting negroes only2 In the city of Baltimore we have some 1S,000 colored voters The Poe amendment drops from them over 45,0O0 white voters, the rights of five white men are endan- gered to expose two negroes to the same risk, yet we are told and asked to be- lieve that no white voter need concern himself personally as to whether the amendment be or be not adopted.
 Takes Shot at vardaman.
 'It is said that we shall have no exhi- bition in this campaign at least one governor of a southern state to show us what sort of governor we may expect to have ourselves when the Poe amend ment has become part of our constltu- ton and how much better In this respect we shall then fare than 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 como, l must own that I per sonalIy think his choice eminently ap- proprlato.
 "Evidence furnished us by these visit ing executives Is to the effect that in their respective states few no white men have been disfranchised under con- stitutional amendments from which the Maryland amendment is said to be copied. In most southern states there are no in dependents, and so few white republi- cans that the disfranohisement of black men accomplishes therein great part what the ring would accomplish here through the amendment. Moreover, in those states a grandfathers clause, whatever It's in- herent injustice or incompatibility with American institutions. does cover but an infinite small portion of the white popu- lation. Thus in Virginia the inhabitants Of foreign birth or foreign parentage amounted in 1900 to less than per cent of the population. and in some southern states the precentage to even smaller; in the city of Baltimore they amounted to 3S per cent of the population
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