Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1913-10-28
ELECTION CASE UP
TO SUPREME COURT
Brief Involving Race Issue Filed
by Lawyers.
SUITS BROUGHT BY NEGROES.
Attorneys Content Fifteenth Amend
msnt To Constitution Not Appli-
cable To State Elections.

William IL. hdWlSs OF DdilthibEcs dAo
Ridgely P. Melvin, City Counselor of
Annapolis, attorneys, supporting
their appeal in the Annapolis election
case and invols Ing the application Of
the Fifteenth Amendment to the
Constitution to State or municipal
elections.
Stripped of legal yerbiage, this
brief falls upon the highest court TO
determine whether or net State
may permit negroes TO vote on local
affairs. For nearly fifty years this
issue hes been before the country
and before the courts, and 1t seems
that at last an opinion is about to
be handed down which will guide
the states in limiting the right of
local suffrage as they please.
The court permitted the Maryland
ers to file their brief il the Okla
homa grandfather clause" case Il
was shown by Mr.. Marbury and his
associates that the Annapolis contest
was in most particulars parallel to
that which arose in Oklahoma and
that the court might properly rule
upon the two issues at the same time.
The attorneys in their brief take
the ground that neither the Consti-
futon of the United States nor any of
its amendments gives the Federal
government the right to prescribe
the qualifications Of voters in purely
State or municipal elections. They
insist that the Fifteenth Amendment,
which is relied upon by the opponents
of the grandfather clause" APP
plies only to Federal elections.
If they are sustained by the Su-
preme Court, therefore, the constitu-
tionality of the measure adopted in
practically all Southern states bar
ring the negro from participation in
State, county or municipal politics
will be fixed. For long time many
of these Commonwealths have inn
posed such limitations upon the
negro's right to vote as to practically
exclude him from the polls. Again
and again appeals have been taken to
the Federal courts, but many phases
OF the main issue have remained un-
settled.
The Maryland lawyers, in their
carefully prepared brief, after refer
ring specifically to the grandfathers
clause" of the Annapolis registration
act, claim that the ne groes who were
disiranchised by il have no ground
for damages because they were ex-
cldded under the property clause.
The grandfather clause" does
not violate the Fifteenth Amendment,
it is further commended Even if this
clause excluded all negroes. it would
not necessarily follow that they were
excluded on account of their race,
They might have been excluded on
account of their politics, for instance,
or on account of some mental or
moral characteristics which would not
be affected by the Fifteenth Amend
ment.
In arguing that the Fifteenth
Amendment does not apply to local
elections, the brief holds that this
amendment confers the right to vote
upon citizens of the United States
and not such right to vote as they
may derive from the Individual
states. The inhibitions of the amend
ment against acknowledgements on ac-
count of trace, color or previous con-
dition of servitude, therefore, apply
only in Federal elections and in no
way affect the right of citizen of
a State to vote at State or mu-
nicipal election.
in support of this contention the
Marylanders refer to the history cf
the Fifteenth Amendment. They
show that when it was first drawn
it read "No State shall deny or
abridge the right of its citizens to
vote or hold officer on account of
race, color or previous condition. /"
The Judiciary Committee of Con-
gress reported back the resolution
striking out the words 1.-THE rights of
its citizens that is, the citizens of
a State and substituting the words
1.-The right of citizens of the United
States to vote. ("
The right to vote for members of
Congress and of the United States
Senate is a right possessed by citi-
zens of the United States, the Mary
landers admit, but they insist that
the right to vote for the Governor Of
or the Mayor Of Baltimore,
for instance, is right conferred not
upon the citizens of the whole coun-
try but upon the citizens of Maryland
and of Baltimore.
1.-The right, the brief says, ito
for itself who shall con-
stitute its electorate is one of the
functions esse otial to the existence
Of State, and any invasion of that
right is beyond the power of amend
ment conferr upon three-fourths of
the State by the people in the adop-
ton Of thu constitution; otherwise
there would be no indestructible
states.
eff this amendment should be con-
{ trued," the brief further states, ''to
be applicable to State or municipal
it would fall within the
EXPIRE ss prohibition contained in Ar
ticle 5 of the Constitution against
any amendment which would deprive
q State of its equal representation in
the Senate without its consent.
The Annapolis case involves three
suits for S., 90 damages each brought
by John II. Anderson and others
against Charles E. Myers and A.
Calude Kalmey, registrars Of voters in
These registrars refused
TO allow Anderson and his associates.
who are negroes, to register as legal
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