The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-09-16
RRpuBL1oAN STATE PLATFORM.
Adopted at the Convention Held In Bal
timore, September 6th-The Poe
Amendment Strongly
Denounced.

| affect the common sisterhood of the States of
| the country. cannot refrain from an expression
Of pride. nevertheless in their identity with the
| party whose President stands fora square deal"
/ for every American, wherever be was born and
| whatever his ancestry, and who. with the cor
| dial acclaim of political friends and former po-
ltical foes, and the approving voice of the civil
lized nations of the earth, has recently been
hailed as the first citizen and foremost states
| man of the world.
They condemn the unfair, the unjust and the
| oppressive changes in the honest election law
| of 1895, and appeal with confidence to the indie
pendent citizenship of our State, withoutregard
to party Affiliations, to bear testimony to the
hurtful consequences Of the successive depar-
lures from that law through the action of recent
partisan Democratic Legislatures.
| They assert that the constitutional amend
| ment soon to be submitted to the voters is but
| the elimination of plot, long meditated and
carefully planned, to make and keep Maryland
| under the control of the political party now
| dominant and as now organized. regardless Of
| her peoples wishes, and, at the same time. to
insure to the men who make up the political
| organization now in power perpetual control of
their own party. and through it of the State
| governmental control to be used In the future.
as it has been in the past, for their own selfish
ambition and fraudulent aims and purposes,
without regard to the fair fame vital interests
| of our State.
| They point out to every intelligent citizen,
| and especiallysto every business man, the folly
| of making Maryland surely Democratic State
| lions or financial issues that hereafter may be
| presented. as they have been presented before !;
| and that at the very time when. through the un-
wisdom of the national policies of misnamed
| Democracy, of q character akin to that and
| largely influenced by that which controls in our
minority in the councils of the nation; and they
warn against the consequent peril to the States
/ prosperity and the development of her natural
| impolitic and so suicidal course.
They declare these evils, however, to be among
| ened by the so-called Poe amendment; and de-
| nounce that measure as false and mischievous
in principle; that, from its nature. is intended
| mnistration, and as being fraught with the
| Rravest danger to the liberties of our citizens
They invite p parrcuiar Intention to the fact
that the so-called Poe amendment grants politi-
| cal privileges to one class of our citizens and
denies them to another, because the grand
| fathers of the former did, and those of the lat
| ter did not, enjoy the like privileges.
It establishes doctrine of political rights by
| inheritance, that at once contravenee the prin-
| ciplee of the democracy of Thomas Jefferson
| and the spirit of the Declaration Of Indepen-
dence; and. after the election of single year.
Il provides that all young men, of all colors and
conditions alike, who seek admission to the ex-
ercise of manhood suffrage, shall be subject to
the discreditfng and degrading requirement that
they shall submit themselves to an examination
in constitutional law that shall be prescribed by
and subject to the approval of a board of cleo
ton officers of character that experience has
found to be quite frequently illiterate, and not
infrequently corrupt.
The purpose of the said amendment is to rein
state. with enlarged powers, the partisan boards
of registration of the class that prevailed pre-
vious to the election law of 1895. who again and
again proved themselves Indifferent to their
| duty and subservient to the political agencies
through which their appointment was secured
and oftentimes guilty of such extent of crimi
Would hest suSserye the Interests of their poiiti
| cal masters.
It will empower these petty, partisan officers
to decide arbitrarily who shall and who shall not
enjoy the election franchise, without any ap-
| peal that can give substantial relief. II. indeed
there can be any appeal at all to the courts: Il
| will thus enable the present Democratic pOlitf-
cal organization, and its successors in political
| power and machinery, to determine In advance
sons who shall Be registered. in order to enable
1t to carry every election district and voting
precinct In the State.
| The said amendment by transparent and
impudent pretense. processes to aim at protec-
ton against an Ignorant suffrage" yet 1t pro-
s tine rne SO ee f
| give assurance that they will vote as those who
| administer the law shall require and endangert
the suffrage of the most enlightened citizen who
desires to vote and who dares to give an intima-
ton of his intention to vote as his judgment
and conscience may dictate
chiefly against what its sponsors pronounce az
the evils of ignorant and corrupt negro suffrage
| gives no hope that in its administration the
Ignorant negro will not be accorded as much
| consideration as the colored man who, by dint
of enterprise and energy. may have acquired ar
| elementary education as well as that interest
| in government which comes from the acquisi
ton of property. 1t gives no reasonable assur.
ance that the corrupt negro, to whom political
party principle is a stranger, may not be prefer
| red to that element of the race who may be
found, with honest loyalty and good faith. to
| being in opposition to that which appoints and
controls the election officers
It affects the right OF suffrage OF many more
| white men than there are colored voters In the
State; imperils the franchise of all citizens OF
foreign birth or parentage; imposes an insult
ing and unending restriction on all the young
men of the generations to come, and by the
power to prescribe precariOus and oppressive
requirements as to the evidence upon which the
ancestral title to vote under the so-cailed
.sgrandfather clause" may depend, opens the
way and provides the opportunity to jeopardize
the right to vote of any or every citizen OF our
The proponents of this measure gravely pre-
tend to fear an influx of negro population from
the South, in case this amendment should be de-
feated. and yet the fact is, that under carpet
bag constitutions. adopted in nearly all of the
States of the South prior to January LIST, 1869,
actually did vote in those States in the Congress
sional election of 1868, the whole colored popu
| latiOu of that Southern section OF our country
who shall. before the end of next year, arrive at
the age of 81, will be empowered, under this
amendment, If they should migrate to the State
| of Maryland, to vote here after the required
period Of residence, without the educational
| test prescribed for our native c0lOred p0pula-
I.tion and without the educational test that will
| be prescribed for the young white population OF
this State after the end Of the next calendar
year.
| incumbent upon them to make any reply to the
| partisan war CRY and senseless sham and shib-
boeth of negro domination" The Republican
| equality among the races favors no negro domi-
| nation over the white people here or elsewhere,
| and can be depended upon to guard against the
in Maryland with equal safety and with greater
| sincerity than bipartisan organization that wears
| the mantle and usurps the name of Democracy.
| as understood in its best and broadcast sense in
The Republicans Of Maryland point with con-
ad d ' Of the late lamenteS Lloyd
L0wndes, the four years of whose incumbency
in Office witnessed the enactment of such nom
partisan legislation of far-reaching utility as
will constitute sufficient answer for all men of
common fairness and common sense to the silly
social equality, and all of the attendant train of
/ imaginary and fabricated evils that party expe-
diency can conjnre up to serve the exigencies
of q desperate political organization.
In recognition of the paramount and predomi-
| nant character of the issue presented by this
proposed amendment. and with view to accen
| tuating the Importance thereof and cOncen-
| trating the energies of our party toward move
| ment for the preservation of that right preserv-
| alive of all others, and without which none
4 other can be secure. the Republicans of Mary
| land refrain from any declaration upon ordinary
| measures and policies of administration in this
] campaign and with firm faith in the justice of
| the cause in which they. co ordinately and In
| co operation with allied and independent ele-
| ments of our population who think alike with
| them on this question, call upon all good citi-
| zens whatever their politics or their party, to
| aid in preventing the establishment of a condi-
| ton which will rob Maryland of the essentials
| of self-government endanger her progress and
| prosperity and discredit and disgrace her before
| the American people.
THE DENVER Republican points out in an
editorial that the farmer has been making
money at rate that makes the small business