The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-03-31
THEY WOULD NULL|Fy
FEDERAL CONSTITUTION
State Democrats Scheming to Violate
the Federal Law.

Not content with the opprobrium
which Democrats have brought upon
Maryland by their dishonest ballot laws
and not content with causing the finger
of shame to be pointed to this state as
the state where fraudulent elections
thrive, these same Democrats now pro-
pose to make Maryland stand forth in
the galaxy of states as an open, defiant
and fragrant violator of the law of
the land, the Fifteenth Amendment of
the Constitution of the United States,
which guarantees to all citizens the
right to vote irrespective of race, color
or previous condition of servitude.
This is the bold proposition agreed
upon by Democratic members of the
General Assembly in their caucus in
Annapolis Friday night. They pledged
themselves to enact new registration
law under which negroes, though given
the right by the United States. cannot
register and, therefore, cannot vote
Such drastic step was not an issue in
the last state campaign. In that cam
paign, indeed. the people of Maryland,
by majority of over Is, 600, defeated
a proposed amendment to the State
Constitution by whicn over 80 per cent
of negroes and large percentage of
whites would have been deprived of
their suffrage Seven years ago an
other amendment, with the same object
in view, was rejected by majority of
oyer SO, 600.
Flying in the face of this sentiment,
adverse to their schemes, rushing on
ward to their doom, and realizing their
inability to enslave the people of Mary
land by an amendment to the Constitu-
ton restricting the right to vote, they
have the audacity, the brazen hardi-
hood, to defy the federal law to ac-
cOmplish their end.
Can Maryland afford to be classed as
viOlator of the law?
Can it afford to subscribe to the dis
carded doctrine that The colored man
has no rights which the white man is
bound to respect?
Shame upon the Democrats of Mary
land that they would drag down into
the mire the fair name of their state
and make it a criminal.
( Beyond this attempt of the Demo-
Gratis to gain control of this comm n
wealth is a far more important question.
! 1t is the question of reputation of the
rights of the federal government and
the assumption OF the rights of the
state over the paramount rights of the
national government. The mere ques
ton whether the negro shall or shall
not vote sinks into insigniicance along
side that of supremest moment, the
question of national unity, of obser-
vance of national authority, of respect
for national sovereignty.
Those lawyers who by specious argu-
ments convinced members of the Gen
eral Assembly that the revolutionary
step which they proposed is legal, that
the United States Supreme Court will
not pass upon the validity of the pro
posed violation of the law, have every
thing to gain and nothing to lose by
their advocacy of fantastic idea They
are imbued with the old idea of state S
rights and have never rec onciled them
selves to the new conditions established
by war fought when they were in
their swaddling clothes, if, indeed, they
were born. TO them the South before
the war is a sentiment, not even a
memory.
The mean est parallel in American his
tory to Maryland's prospective viola
ton of the Constitution of the United
States was the Notification act OF
South Carolina in 1928. This act grew
out of the refusal of the state, under
the leadership of John c. Calhoun, tc
recognize the validity of the Tariff act
of 1928
South Carolina, like Maryland, anc
unlike New York and Virginia, ratified
the federal Constitution without reser-
walton. Virginia expressly reserved
the right to withdraw from the Union
whenever things did not go to suit her,
stating IN her act of ratification that
the powers granted in the Constitution,
being derived from the people, may
be resumed by them whenever the
same shall be perverted to their injury
or oppression. New York had taker
the same position, stating that "the
powers of government may be resumed
by the people whenever it shall become
necessary to their happiness. South
Carolina assumed this right as much as
if it had been an essential condition OF
ratification, as with Virginia and New
York.
The doctrine of the unconstitutional
ity of protection was at the bottom Of
the notification proceedings in South
]