New-York tribune., 1908-02-02
THE ANCESTOR WORSHIPPERS.

Noltare's dictum that d good citizen needs no
ancestors would be rejected as dangerous and
revolutionary doctrine by the ancestor wor-
shippers who have just drawn up suffrage
amendment to the constitution of Maryland.
Those pous defenders of the paramount claims
of descent call themselves Democrats and pre-
tend to derive their principles from Thomas JET
ferson, one of the most genuine and conspicuous
Voltaireans of his period in philosophy and poll
ties Yet if Thomas Jefferson were alive to-
day and were TO attempt TO vote as an adopted
citizen of Maryland he would under the pro
posed amendment TO the constitution, ma hin-
self accepted first class voter, not De
cause of his intelligence or capacity or labOrs
In the cause of democracy and progress, but
solely because he could show that he was
descended from some ancestor quallhed 10 vote
in the United States prior to 1869 or from some
parent naturalized in this country since 1869.
On his own merits and without such an an
cestral birthright he would not be permitted
10 exercise the suffrage unless he submitted
successfully TO certain educational or property
tests from which the presumably gifted natural
inheritors of the ballot had been generously eX-
empted.
Ir seems that ancestral privileges under the
new scheme are to be greatly extended beyond
those previously proposed. Under the terms OF
the constitutional amendment defeated in 1900
the voting arstocracy was somewhat festrlcteu'
This was logical for the essence of arlstocracy
is exclusion and numerical limitation. NOBODY
cares very much TO belong to an indiscrlminate
and popuIarized arstocracy. SO only native
descent was honored. and unless one could snow
that he was the offspring of a citizen quailned
10 vote in the United States before 1862 he was
consigned to the plebeian class and compelled
70 prove his eligibility to associate on equal
terms with the native arstocrats.
This limitation bore rather hard on the thou
sands of naturalized citizens Of Maryland VINO
had acquired citizenship since 1869 ana on
their descendants. Their irritation at being
/ disrated defeated the Poe-Gorman scheme. SO
the new amenders have decided to ahate the
exclusive privileges of the native and TO create
a new and broader grandfather class. To the
ante sixty miners they intend to add the post
sixty miners. Therefore they will let the patri-
clan privilege vest in all aliens naturallzed
between 1869 and the date of the acceptance or
the new amendment. The naturalized is thus
exalted above the native; for he is thus created
an actual living ancestor, while the native Is
left only TO reflect the glores of past greatness.
The grandfather market is replenshed and the
hitherto disregarded alien can aspire to the
ampIest equality with possessors of ante-bellum
family trees.
We think however, that the Maryland grand
father worshipDers have overreached themselves
in admitting the lowly- alien to partnership
Hitherto they could maintain that their lmlta-
tions of the franchise did not apply exclusively
to any class and were not based on race, color
or previous condition of Servitude. But by ad-
mitting to patrician hOnors all aliens natural
lied since 1869 and excluding from such honors
all natives invested with the franchise since
! 1859 they strike at one body Of citizens alone,
the body whose citizenship was established by
I the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Con-
stitution and whose equal right with other clti-
! zens to the suffrage was guaranteed by the
! Fifteenth Amendment The discrimination
under the Maryland scheme seems based
directly on previous condition of servitude and
thus repudiates the promise of the last Demo
cratic convention to submit no dsfranchisement
scheme in violation of the guarantees of the
| federal Constitution.