Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1913-11-12
GRANDFATHER CLAUSE
|. DEFENDED BY MARBURY
A Question Of State Rights Before
the Supreme Court
MANY QUESTIONS ASKED.
Counsel Contends That The fifteenth
Amendment Should Not BE So
Construed as To Limit The
Powers q The State.

Annapolis Election Law, which pro-
hibits registration except under GER
tain conditions Of thoss who could not
vote or whose ancestors could not
vote on January /, 1868.
The political Significance OF the
case attracted a number Of promi-
ntnt lawyers to the courtroom to
hear William l.. Msrbury, recently a
candidate for Senator, defend the
law. Solicitor General Davis was
present for ths Federal Government
as an auditor. Edgar R. Cans, of
Baltimore, will attack the law in
further arguments today. Members
OF the court yesterday piled Mr.. Mar
bury with many questions. The court
recently heard arguments in the Ok
lahoma grandfather clause" cases,
which have not been derided.
At one time or an lther every jus
tice on the bench excepting Messrs.
Holmes, Lamar and Lurton, asked Mr..
Marbury questions which were de-
signed 20 bfing out points not covered
in his brief or in his argument. The
questions of Justice were patticu-
larly searching.
Ia his argument Mr.. Marbury held
hat the allegations contsint d ia the
declarations in these cases do not
show case where the State of Mary
land or any person acting under its
authority has deried or abridged the
right of the plaintiffs to vote on &C
count of race, color or previous con-
ditions of servitude.
That the inhibitions contained the
Fifteenth Amendment against the de-
NAL or abridgment OF the right OF
citizens of the United States TO
vote" on account or race, color and
previous conditions of servitude, is
| by the plain language of the amend-
ment made to apply only to the right
TO vote which citizens of the United
states have by virtue of such citi-
zenship: that is, the right TO vote
derived from the United States, and
hat the inhibition therein contained
does not apply to or in any wav affect
the right to vote in state or munich
pal elt ctions conferred by state upon
any of it, citizens.
That allowing the broadest possible
construction, the right of citizens Of
the United States TO vote mentioned
in the Fifteenth Amendment, which
the states are thereby prohibited
from denying or abridging on account
# race. color. etc. is the right t.
vote at elections of public general
character, and does not include the
right to vote IL corporate bodies
created solely by legislative will and
wherein such right is dependent alto
gether upon legislative discretion as
in municipal corporations.
at is well settlej, said Mr.. Mar
bury, THAT il an act of Con yress he
fairly open to two constructions, &C
.ording to one OF which it would be
constitutional, and according to the
other unconstitutional, the former
Instruction will be adopted.
eff il can be shown that in ado pit.
ing an anne idment like the Fife eoth,
when construed as applicable tn state
elections, the states, or rather three
fourths of them, are undertaking to
exerciss a power which is in its ma
ture without limit, and which, if car
ried to its natural limit, would result
in depriving any state of a function
or pow~r essential to its construed
existence as a state within the mean
ing of the Constitution, and thus de-
stroy the state, thea we shall contend
that the Fifteenth Amendment as thus
construed must be deemed not to have
been within the scope Of the amending
power intended to be conferred upon
ihree-fourths of the states by the
people ia the adoption of the federal
Constitution, and for that reason
void.
"Now, il is submitted that the
right to regul ate the exercise of the
elective franchise at its own cleo
tioas. to determine for itself who
shall constitute its electorate. is one
of the 'funeti0ns essential to the ex-
istence of state, that is to say, tn
Kind of state which is contemplated
by the Constitution. A political body
not possessing that right would not
BE- state within the meaning of
the Con-titution. Certainly il would
not be an 'indestructible state.
"Of the other states, three-fourths
or any number of them, or any
other outside authority, has the
right without its cInsent TO regu
late in any way the right of suf-
rage in any state-tc determine who
shall vote or who shall not vote at
state elections, BY prohibiting
state from prescribing such quslifi
cations or conditions or for the tx
eruise OF the suffrage as it may
deem necessary for its own welfare
and for the protection of the per-
sonal and property rights of its cit
izens, then such state holds its ex-
istence entirely at the mercy of such
outside power or authority. Ii is q
mere province or depe ndency whose
government NAV st any time be turn
ed over to such persons or such per-
son as the outside authority may
choose 10 clothe with the right of
suffrage at state elections and thus
with all political power.
1.-The right TO regulate the condi-
tions upon which the elective fran.
chise may be exercised is in its ns-
ture within limit If the right of q
state TO regulate its own electorate st
state elections msy he restrained IN