The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1908-12-31
TAFT IS OPPOSED To CON-
STITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
Says Maryland DISTINGUISHING Meas
ure Should Be Condemned.


81 don't think anyone can read my
North Carolina speech with any care
and on that base the belief that | would
favor such bill (disfranci Using amend
ment) as that proposed in Maryland
Collector Stone wrote to Judge Taft
on December 9, saying that the address
delivered by the President-elect the
preceding day at the annual banquet of
the North ECarolina Society in New
York was being construed as in favor
of the Constitutional amendment to be
submitted to the voters of Maryland
next fall. He inclosed copy of the
amendment.
Judge Taft reply in full was as fol-
lows:
Augusta, Ca, Dec. %, 1908.
My Dear MIR. Stone:
| have your letter of December 9, but
have not been able to answer it until
now. | don t think anyone can read my
North Caroline speech with any care
and on that ase the belief that | would
favor such as bill as that proposed in
Maryland. The provision that the first
class of eligible voters shall be those
persons who on the first day of January
IN the year 1869, or prior thereto, were
entltledtO vote under the laws of Mary
land or any other state of the United
States wherein they then resided, and
that the male defendants of such per-
sons, as second class, shall be entitled
to vote, was intended to exempt the
persons thus made eligible from the
educational or property qualifications
which follow IN the descriptions of the
fifth and sixth classes of persons who
shall be entitled to vote. The same
thing may be said of the,third and fourth
classes which include foreign-born citi-
zens of the United States naturalized
between January / 1869, and the date
of the adoption of the proposed section,
and the male descendants of such per-
sons. This is in order to exempt such
immigrants and their defendants from
educational or property qualifications.
Now, we know the first four classes
include no negroes at all In other
words, it is intended to free the whites
from educational or property qualifca-
tons, but to subject all negroes to
them.
The whole law ought to be condemned.
1t is not drawn in the spirit of justice
and equality having regard for the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments,
and | sincerely hope that no Republican
and no Democrat who desires equality
Of treatment to the black and white
races will vote for it. Sincerely YOURS,
VIM. H. TAFT
Hon. William F. Stone, Collector of
Customs, Baltimore, Nd.
Whyithere should have been, if there
really was, any consolation for Demo-
Gratis and CONSERVATION for Republicans
in the speech made by Judge Taft seems
hard to understand, except for the fact
that he discussed the whole subject
without any show of feeling and with
full appreciation of all the circumstances
surrounding the matter.
He said in his North Carolina speech:
| am not going to rehearse the pain
full history Of reconstruction or what
followed it. l come at once to the
present condition of things, stated from
a constitutional and political standpoint.
And that is this: That in all Southern
States it is possible, by election laws
prescribing proper qualifications for the
suffrage which square with the Fiji.
teenth Amendment and which shall be
equally administered as between the
black and the white races, to prevent
entirely the possibility of domination
of Southern State, county or municipal
governments by an ignorant electorate,
black or white.
1t is further true that the sooner such
laws, when adopted, are applied with
exact equality and justice to the two
races the better for the moral tone Of
the State and community concerned
Negroes should be given an opportun-
ity, equally with white, by education
and thrift to meet the requirements of
of eligibility which the State LegIsla-
lures in their wisdom shall lay down in
order to secure the safe exercise of the
electoral franchise. The negro should
ask nothing other than an equal chance
to qualify himself for the franchise,
and when that is granted by law and
not denied by legislative discrimination,
he has nothing to complain of.
The proposal to repeal the Fifteenth
Amendment is utterly impracticable,
and should be relegated to the limbo of
forgotten issues. What we are consid-
ering is something practical, something
that means attainable progress. 1t
seems to me to follow, therefore, that
there is, or ought to be, a common
ground upon which we can all stand in
respect to the race question in the
South and its political bearing that
takes away any justification for main
tanning the continued solidity of the
South to prevent the so-called negro
domination.
The fear that, in some way or other.
a social equality between theraces shall
be enforced by law or brought about by
political measures really has no founda-
tions except in the imagination of tn Sc
who fear such a result The Federal