Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1909-09-24

the welfare of the negro than the Republi-
can party has ever done or ever will do
and that ever since the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Amendments the Republican
politicians of Maryland have simply driven
their negro voters to the polls, like cattle to
the shambles, for one purpose alone, and
that is to retain their hold upon the Fed
eral Offices in Maryland
am the last person upon this earth to
prosecute anyone, either on account of race,
religion or any other cause, and | would
not under any circumstances deprive the
negro of any rights that God has given him
or any privileges that he is entitled to, and
far be it from me to Cypress him or subject
him to the slightest hardship. On the con-
trary, | would ameliorate and advance his
condition in every way possible But ! tell
you tonight that the suffrage in the hands
of an ignorant electorate, who have not the
slightest conception of what they are vot-
ing for or what anyone represents for whom
they are voting, is menace and weapon
of danger, and never a weapon of protec-
ton or defense.
want to say this, that Maryland is the
only State in the Union in which this ele-
ment of voters, on account of their num-
Der, possess a controlling influence, be-
cause they do not practically exercise the
right of suffrage in other States in which
similar conditions prevail. Surely our
citizens do not want this situation to
continue and grow more intolerable as the
years 60 by. One thing is certain, and
that is that if this amendment does not
conform to the demands Of the community.
then no amendment can be framed that
will. This is the best that can be done to
meet the emergency. 1t has been made
the pivotal issue of this campaign, and |
believe that as this discussion proceeds the
best element of this community, upon re-
Election, will conclude that we must crap
pie with this issue once and forever and
that we cannot afford to let it slumber.
The justice of the cause is with us. because
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments,
comforting the right of suffrage, were IN
lawfully adopted by the most infamous
system of tyranny and corruption that was
ever inflicted upon the people. We cannot,
as great State, isolate ourselves form all
the generations yet to come, form every
other State in the Union, and admit and
proclaim that through all the future our
institutions shall be governed and control
led at the ballot box by the predominating
influence of ignorance and illiteracy. We
are not evading the Constitution of the
United States We cannot violate or evade
it. but we are marching right up to the con-
fines of that instrument and we are settling
our own right of suffrage in subordination to
its unlawful limitations. say unlawful"
because the question of the legality of the
adoption of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments will be opened in the Supreme
Court of the United States, and have the
strongest hopes that this tribunal will strike
down this iniquitous interference with the
rights of the States. The right to determine
upon the qualifications of our electors, sub
ject to these provisions of the Federal Con-
stitutiOn so long as they subsist, is vested in
us, and we propose to exercise it, and now
that we have given you an amendment free
from every objection the question is, Shall
Maryland be debased or elevated in the
estimation of the country. and have we or
have we not the right to determine upon
an educational test for the voters of our
State We are asserting the greatest doc
trine of States rights that is yet left to us
under the remnant and residue of rights
that we have saved from the wreck of the
Constitution by the Republican party. We
are doing it without fear and without being
in the slightest degree affected by any
criticism of our opponents, and as we elu-
cidate this question during the progress Of
the campaign have no misgiving as to
the result, because l have supreme conf
dence in the fact that the honor and the
courage and the intelligence of our people
will assert itself and demand the right to
control the destinies of Maryland The
managers of the Republican party might
as well make up their minds to accept what
is inevitable with submission, with resig
nation and with fortitude and they may
be consoled by the fact that when the vic
tory is won thousands of their felow-Re-
publicans will rejoice with us in having
this Calling yoke and intolerable burden
lifted from the shoulders of their party"