The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1905-06-30

Western Republican SAID to me IN the |
presence of a number of others, all of his
own party, he hoped to see the day when
the negro would be eliminated from the
suffrage III every State of the Union. Not
one of this dissented You can hear any
day in Washington Republicans saying
there ought to be Jim Crow cars on the
street railways.
The Republican politicians of Mary
land NAV tear their hair and beat their
breasts to their hearts content. But
they have a monopoly of the fun, and no
one outside wants to divide with them.
Anyone here of judgment and experience
who cares to exercise his faculties can see
as he runs the national Republican party
has abandoned the negro to his political
fate. Why? Because it is enevitable, and
because it is just. defy Mr.. Bonaparte
or Mr.. Hanna, or any of them, to ind
one rational man OF their party out OF
| ten whose views possess any value or IN
tluence who will not admit the establish
ment of negro suffrage TO have been a
blunder, if not a crime. Indeed, 1t Is Il
matter which kas passed out of the realm
of argument 1t is an admitted fact. No
word painting. no flights of imagination,
no heights or depths of denunciatlon can
alter the plain. naked fact that the negro
is no more fit for the suffrage today than
| he was on the day it was conferred upon
him. His political slavery of the last
| thirtY-five years has been worse than his
| preceding bodily slavery; it has been Vi
cious, demoralizing, degrading in the ex-
treme. The blind mule in the treadmil
displays every whit as much intelligence
as does the negro in his exercise of the
! privilege of the elective franchise. For it
is a privilege, one to be given and one to
| be taken away, and in no sense right
The negroes of Maryland voted for the
! first time at the Congressional electionin
1870. They voted the Republican ticket
i'll a mass. They have been doing so ever
since. Where is the intelligence, the dis
elimination, the weighing of issues IN
this? Why, you might as we'll carry the
horses and the dogs of Maryland to the
polls and vote them for the Republican
ticket. 1t is natural, perhaps. for Mr..
Hanna and Mr. Stone TO want to hold
on by such political asset as this, but,
for the life of me, don't see how it can
commend itself to the body of the people
of Maryland. | have said the national
| Republican party has abandoned the ne
gro to his fate because it is right. How
ever. there is another reason more deter
|
teal politicians than any mere question
of right and wrong. l know all about
| the establishment of negro suffrage. |
was here and in the midst of things when
| it was conceived and when it was Matched.
| The people mainly receive their in-
pressions of legislation through what
| takes place in the open. make no doubt,
even at this day, there are sentimental
persons who would be moved to tears of
sympathy over the high spun and high
| flown arguments uttered on the floors of
Congress in favor ofnegro suffrage. How
differently would they feel if they could
have heard what took place in caucus!
! 1t was not by Congress negro suffrage
was fastened upon this country. but by a
Republican Senatorial caucus sitting be-
hind closed doors. Congress merely reg
istered the edict of the caucus. This eau
Gus decided for negro suffrage by bare
majority of one. By what arguments
was this obtained? Not by the beautiful
talk about the Fatherhood of God and
the brotherhood of man, and all that
sort of thing. Oh, no. Simply and solely
because it was urged again and again
that the negro would be the permanent
political vassal of the Republican party.
Even then it required the most desperate
appeals to party loyalty and party inter
ests to secure this pitiful majority of one.
For there were many Republican Sena-
tors who tugged hard with their con-
sciences before they could get their own
consent to fasten this curse upon the in.
situations of this country. 1t never was
put there constitutionally or lawfully,
for it was not ratified by the free will of
the State. IT by any possibility the Su-
1 I. r
face with this question it could not decide
otherwise. Unfortunately, there is no
hope of this. Well, the scheme worked
for awhile. The Republican party, with
its hordes of negro vassals, placed its
carpetbag allies i'll control of the South.
The sickening story of that saturnalia of
crime and lust and rapine made the whole
nation shiver and shudder and thrill with
horror. What saved Maryland from
similar fate7 Only the accident that its
.4fnegroes were not sonunaerous as nsthe
i Estates, to the South The South, IN mada
I dened desperation, rose and hnrstits fet-
tiers. There was talk, as there will he
again, but there was no attempt from
/ Washington to forge the chains anew.
The Republican leaders concluded negroes
were no longer trumps, and day by day
from that time to this they are more and
more convinced to this effect. Therefore,
in their hearts they are really bidding
GodSpeed to such movements as that in
progress now in Maryland. | cannot
tell how long in the most influential Re-
publican circles the feeling has been grow
ing that the party will be in infinitely
better condition to be rid of the negro,
the Maryland Republicans to the con-
trary notwithstanding.
II read that Mr.. Hanna said for thirty
years the great struggle of the Republi-
can party i'll Maryland has been to get
and keep honest elections. This was not
always the case with the Republican
party in MARYLAND. There was time
anterior to this thirty years of which he
speaks when honest elections were Just
what the Republican party of Maryland
didn't want. From 1861 to 1867 the
Republican party Of Maryland was in
absolute control in MARYLAND and there
was not an honest election in all that
period. If there had been the Republican
party would not have been in control.
Mr.. Bonaparte and Mr.. Hanna are much
| frightened about honest elections. 1t is
only in Maryland, however, that they
demand honest elections. Philadelphia
is only hundred miles from Baltimore,
but their political vision does not seem
to extend that far. The Republicans OF
Maryland. according to Mr. Hanna,
have been struggling for thirty years for
honest elections. The Republicans of
Philadelphia for the past thirty years
have been struggling against honest cleo
tionS and have succeeded. There has not
| been an honest election in Philadelphia in
more than that time. The people of
| Philadelphia have very recently risen in
their wrath and swept out the infamous
Republican ring-permanently,i it Is to he
hoped, although some fear only tempo
rarily. In the meantime the members of
this ring have leisure. and it might induce
a change of heart if they were invited
over to Baltimore to hear Mr.. Hanna
lecture on honest elections.
| Il am loath to credit the confident
claims that thousands of Democrats will
vote against the Poe amendment can
not see by what process of reasoning. AS
| to this, time will tell. But if any Gre
dence is to be placed in reports constant
" coming here, thousands of Republicans
will vote for it, and this seems more like
| ly. 1t is tervently to be hoped the Demo-
Gratis in Maryland will accept Mr.. Bona
parties challenge and make the question
of the amendment the one issue of the
| campaign. 1t is very plainly to be seen
that the Republicans have determined
Systematically and persistently to mis-
represent the effect of the amendment, es-
! mari IIy 70 Re h.