History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc, Part 23

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344

USA > Maryland > Baltimore County > Baltimore City > History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc > Part 23

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We therefore humbly petition your hon- orable body to extend friendly aid to the freedmen of Cuba, and the bondsmen under Spanish masters by assisting the patriots to free the island from Spanish rule and slav- ery, both of the blacks and whites, in duty bound, we will ever pray, &c.

WHEREAS, There is crimination and re- crimination between certain colored Repub- licans; and

WHEREAS, This political crimination is working against consolidation of the col- ored working Republicans;

RESOLVED, That we ask these aspirants for leadership to settle their personal dif- ferences between themselves and not to create any political dissensions in the work- ing Republicans of the State.

RESOLVED, In the words of the immortal Andrew Jackson, "By the Eternal," we, the colored workingmen, will stump this State in our own interest if these aspirants do

not seal their pledge of consolidation by stopping their recriminations.

The new voters did not tire of the novel- ties of meetings. There was a constant re- currence of them. A large one was held at the Broadway Institute, ratifying the adop- tion of the fifteenth amendment of the Con- stitution of the United States. Edington Fulton presided, with forty-three white and colored vice-presidents. There were eleven secretaries and eleven sergeants-at-arms.

Mr. Fulton, in his speech, admonished the newly enfranchised voter that he should remember that exercising the suffrage "brings new duties, new responsibilities and perhaps new perils." He exhorted him to "prepare to meet them fairly, fully and hon- estly," saying: "The right of citizensnip which we white Republicans have asked the law to give to the colored man must be granted also by us, individually, without any grudging, in no half-way sense, but willingly as a matter of right and justice. And the colored citizen, who will soon be called upon to exercise the right of suffrage, must remember that the Republican party has contended for its rights against many ob- stacles, under many discouragements, and that, though we have won the field, we have still to make sure its defense against a pow- erful and vigilant enemy. He will need to bring to the exercise of his new duties, cour- age and forbearance, steadfastness and pa- tience, and above all, an abiding confidence that the Republican party, whatever may be the hesitancy or timidity of individuals belonging to it-means to remain true to its principles and true to the rights of all men."

Archibald Stirling, Jr., said: "He never had been scared off in times past by the talk of negro equality, so much feared by

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the Democratic politicians. He was not afraid of any man on the globe getting ahead of him. If a man could do so, let him do it. He trusted when they next met it would be to congratulate each other that Maryland was governed by the Republican party with the offices held by both blacks and whites."

Dr. Henry J. Brown, a colored man, urged that the claims of his race to posi- tions should be recognized to a certain extent. The colored man desired educa- tion for his children and would not be sat- isfied with a modest recognition. Sambo had gone from the cornfield to the Senate chamber. .

Col. William U. Saunders, colored: "The Republican party enters upon a new career of glory reinforced by a half million of those whose representatives did not hesti- tate to snatch liberty and the fruits of vic- tory from Lee at Appomattox-reinforced by a quarter million of men, not one of whom would vote for the Democratic party."

A. Ward Handy, colored: "We know what our sufferings have been in the past, in chains and bound. No black man has a right to cast a ballot except it be for the Republican party, which, when we were in the water was the only party to throw a rope to us. If any one attempts to stop the consolidation of the black element of the party from the white he had better stand from under or he will be crushed."

William M. Marine: "The present status of the colored race is hopeful; they are marching toward the promised land; they have left Egypt and passed over the Red Sea. Their Moses was Abraham Lincoln, who, like the Israelitish leader, had his Pis-

gah on which he was fated to die. The Emancipation Proclamation is still a pillar of fire and is leading onward. Andrew John- son is not Joshua but a political renegade, expelled from this camp."

On the evening of January 14th, a meet- ing was held at Douglas Institute, ratify- ing an effort made. to unite Republicans throughout the city and States.

Mr. William M. Marine: "The day of shaking among the dry bones of the ante- diluvian anti-progressive Democracy of Maryland is at hand and lo! the graveyards are yawning. One after another the diffi- culties in the path of the onward march of Republican triumph in Maryland are being removed. The storm of denunciation which was unmercifully showered upon the men who advocated the principles of universal franchise has now somewhat abated. It was a great tornado and the heavens were very black and the whole scene dreary enough to appall the bravest. To-night this meet- ing declares that the colored element of this State is consolidated within the lines of the Republican party; that differences are ex- tinguished; that the ranks stand unbroken; that voting is a prelude to securing proper legislation in the perpetuation of freedom; that such an end is to be obtained by a co- operation with the friends of emancipation and not with its foes. I am not in favor of universal suffrage because it will make the Republican party stronger, but for the higher reason, justice and the public good demand it.

"The Republican party in this State has done what it consistently could do in the past for colored citizens. That more has not been accomplished is due to the fact

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that the odds have been overwhelmingly against us. Give us strength surpassing that of the Democratic party and we will not inquire why the fifteenth amend- ment should be defeated. Nor will we ask what rights are denied the negro when we know that he is not permitted a fair chance in the race of life, and is in all respects by the legislation of the party in power in this State, regarded as a distin- guished jurist of Democratic faith once de- cided, as 'having no rights that a white man is bound to respect.'"

Dr. H. J. Brown was trustful "that every colored man will march to the polls and cast a Republican ballot when the amendment shall be adopted. Governor Bowie had filled a paragraph of his message with sophistry regarding the colored citizen. He writes such words believing he cannot be induced to vote the Democratic ticket. There is an intuition in the mind of the col- ored man which teaches him who are his friends. Governor Bowie has commented on the number of colored people in the penitentiary; who is to blame for that? It is partly owing to the fact that the Demo- cratic and rebel policemen frequently ar- rest colored people when they do not ar- rest white people for similar causes."

Col. William U. Saunders: "There are some gentlemen who still retain their old fogy notions respecting the necessity of the black code. There are others who think that possibly in the future the col- ored vote will be divided, and that the Dem- ocratic party will receive the support of a large portion of that vote. Among these I think will be Governor Bowie, whose views on the subject made up portions of a long-winded document."

On the ratification of the amendment and its being officially announced by President Grant, a large mass meeting of colored citi- zens was held April 7th, at the corner of Howard and Little Montgomery streets.

Capt. Perley R. Lovejoy: "The hours of slavery's nights were numbered when Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation; the day of freedom dawned clearly over the land when the fourteenth amendment gave to all the protection of the courts and equality-before the law; but the glorious sun of liberty rose up high in the heavens only when the fifteenth amend- ment proclaimed a full recognition of man- hood, with the power of the ballot-box to maintain it."

Judge Hugh L. Bond said "that if he did not believe that God had made of one blood all the nations of the earth he would trem- ble for the result. But believing in the universal brotherhood of man, he knew that no colored man was better than a white man of the same capacities, and no white man was better than a colored man, except as he had the opportunities of making him- self better. No white man, if he is igno- rant, is better qualified to vote than a black man equally ignorant. He should insist that before the black man takes a promi- nent part in the administration of the Gov- ernment, he must be educated. The Dem- ocratic orators talk a great deal about the common people. Under the fifteenth amendment, the rights and privileges of all men would be so guarded, there would be such an equality of advantages, that there would be no common people. All classes would participate in the common benefits. The colored people up to this time have had no advantages. They had not even

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had the privilege of talking with people of much sense. The first thing they must do is to get education, and how are they to get it except through the common schools of the State?"

The Judge referred to his difficulties in finding the place of meeting. At last on Howard street, a man told him to keep straight on, and he would find the place. "The colored people have started on a new and untried road. For years they were grouping in dark alleys and devious and crooked ways, until they finally reached emancipation. Now, since the fifteenth amendment has been adopted, they have got to Howard street, and all they have to do is to keep right straight on. How are you going to walk? That is a question you must answer for yourselves. No act of As- sembly can help you. Everything you are to be hereafter must be the work of your own hands. You must start from the plane of the fifteenth amendment and make your- selves whatever you have the capacity to be. Every white man must do the same. We cannot pass an act of Congress to make men seven feet high. He has to eat mush and potatoes and grow seven feet high.

"Before long the Democratic politicians will be after your votes. That party is like a shark that desires gudgeons. An Eastern Shore paper contained an article in which it was proposed to divide the colored vote with whiskey. The writer was as much in need of a school as any of the colored peo- ple and rather more in need of a church. If the negro voter is above the Democratic party; if his political walks are on a higher plane; if he has better and nobler aspira- tions, let's credit him with them, but here is a man who proposes to drag

him down to his own level by giving him whiskey. No matter how far the Republi- can party overstepped the law in the stormy times gone by, and grasped men by the throat who were striking at the Nation's life, sometimes without legal warrant, there was always a tone of moral feeling about its ways and methods; but this man pro- poses to debase you with whiskey. Spurn such a man as you spurn the cup he offers; shun him as you would the enemy of your life and soul.

"He did not believe that it was a duty to whip everybody who was a rebel in 1861. If a rebel comes into court and pleads the statute of limitations, we will allow him the benefit of the statute. If the man who after emancipation took a cart load of little negro children to the Orphans' Court and had them bound to him and they were brought before that fanatical Judge Bond and set free-if that man comes into court and says he is not the man, all right; give him the benefit of his denial.

"If the Republican who, in 1867, said that Judge Bond was a fire brand and disor- ganizer of the party, when he asserted that the safety of the Nation demanded the en- franchisement of the colored man, comes in and repents, we will all say, welcome! with the proviso, however, that he is soundly converted. If he is willing to come in on our platform, let him come. Let us have a meeting for the conversion of sinners. Now is the day of salvation.

"We must have a good school system. Better provide for education than build rail- roads in Virginia. If we must build them, let it be to Leonardtown. I can go to Omaha before you can get to Leonardtown by the quickest route.

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"The Bill of Rights says 'the right of the citizen to bear arms shall not be infringed.' The Board of Police Commissioners passed a law forbidding you to bear arms-not the Commissioners. They have no more right to pass a law-but the Board of Police Commissioners. They have no more right to prohibit you from bearing arms than wearing a hat. It is the privilege of every man to bear arms if he don't disturb the peace. The black people have as much right to organize for the defense of the State as the white people. The colored people had more important duties to perform, how- ever, than to walk around the streets with muskets; there were matters of industry and education to engage their attention.

"The moment you show yourself worthy of citizenship by supporting none but good men for office, that moment nine-tenths of the barriers will be removed that now stand in the way of the full exercise of your rights. There will be hardships endured. Some men will be knocked down for attempting to exercise the rights of a citizen; some will lose their places; but this is a part of the price that must be paid. We all must suf- fer; we all have suffered, as the men who have gone before us have suffered and died on the battlefield. Whoever suffers in this cause will be a martyr and the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Exercise your privileges then with manly determina- tion, and although you may suffer at first, victory will come at last."

John H. Butler, colored: "In 1850 the Fugitive Slave Law was passed and an at- tempt was made to start all the people of the country on a hunt for negroes. Thank Almighty God, the negro hunt is over. When the slave owners of the South at-

tempted to found a Confederacy on the cornerstone of human bondage, they did not know that they were lighting the fires that were to burn until the love of liberty glowed in the bosom of every black man."

William M. Marine: "The elevation of your race to higher conditions of manhood will be greatly aided by the church and the school house. We want in the future a cessation of agitations whose hate keep alive discord and fanaticism. Act conscien- tiously, so that your progress and advance- ment may insure to the permanent good of our common country."

So important an event as the adoption of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States could not be passed over by the colored people of the city of Baltimore with local meetings. A great demonstration was arranged for the 19th of May, in Monument Square. Numerous important personages were invited, includ- ing the President and Vice-President and the President's cabinet and other prominent statemen and chieftains. Frederick Doug- las was there. It was his first public ap- pearance to speak in Baltimore. The stand at the hour of the opening exercises fell and its occupants were thrown in layers on top of one another. Douglas and Creswell went down together. No one was injured. The meeting was addressed from the bal- cony of Gilmore's Hotel.

In November, 1870, at the Congressional election, the colored citizen for the first tiine voted in Maryland. Seven wards in the eastern section of Baltimore City were part of the Second Congressional District, while the thirteen upper wards constituted the Third District. On Thursday, Septem- ber Ist, William M. Marine was nominated

For S. Semolen,

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in Convention at the Broadway market hall by the Republicans of the Second District over Edwin A. Abbott, by a vote of 65 for Marine and 35 for Abbott. In the prima- ries of the party, he had defeated Mr. Ab- bott and John T. Ensor, both of whom had combined in one common cause. The vote in the primaries of the seven wards was Marine, 2,313; Ensor, 571; Abbott, 293. Ensor's name was not presented to the Con- vention, the Seventh District of Balti- more county, of which county he was a resident, having pronounced against him with the city wards and Harford county.

In the Third District, R. Stockett Ma- thews and Adam E. King contested the honor of the nomination. In the primaries, Mathews had 2,802 votes, and King 2,142. A "locking of horns" took place in the Con- vention. Major William H. Weigel was placed in possession of the chair through the adroitness of Samuel T. Hatch, who re- fused all demands for recognition and put the motion to make Weigel chairman, and decided the result in his favor. Dr. Wil- liam J. Nichols claimed to have been elected and after a stormy scene, Archibald Stir- ling, Jr., moved an adjournment. Weigel submitted the motion and although two- thirds of the delegates voted no, he de- clared the yeas had it, and with the King contingent left the hall. The Mathews men remained and organized themselves as the Convention and adjourned. The dispute was settled by the State Central Committee, and resulted in Matthews' and King's with- drawal and the nomination of Washington Booth.

An active canvass was conducted. Mr. Marine explained in one of his speeches the attention paid the colored voter. He said:

"It is well known that the uneducated con- dition in which our colored friends found themselves as the result of their not here- tofore having participated in discussions of party politics, had required more attention to them than was usually paid to voters. This was necessary to prevent their being deceived and to enable them to discharge the duties of citizenship in accordance with their own desires. Nor is this work ended. The white voter, who has often much to learn in politics, will not begrudge the col- ored man the same privilege he exercises himself, especially not when it consists only in ascertaining how to protect his own rights."

The largest meeting of Mr. Marine's campaign was held at Jackson Square. From the west side of the Square to Broad- way, bounded by Fairmount avenue and Fayette street, was, at the time the meeting was held, vacant ground. The main stand was in proximity to the Square; a stand for German speakers was near to Fayette street. Both stands were elaborately deco- rated with gas-jets, flags, chandeliers, Chi- nese lanterns and similar decorations. At the German stand the tri-colored banner of the North German Confederation was dis- played.

A procession marched through the prin- cipal streets. "Mr. Marine's name was the subject of many puns." "Marines have be- come good sailors;" "Marines are not to be terrified by Archers;" "Sixth Ward Ma- rine Corps;" "We believe in universal suff- rage, and we want no man to suffer without cause;" "Result of the Democratic Admin- istration in Maryland-$40,000,000." The Seventh Ward delegation had a banner or- namented with a picture of a street car, on

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which was the company's advertisement: "Colored Persons Admitted into This Car." "Democratic Judges are Spiritualists- They receive Dead Men's Votes on Elec- tion Days."

Ex-Mayor John Lee Chapman presided at the main stand. In the course of his re- marks, he said: "I want you to remember that the City Hall will cost five times what a Republican Administration contracted to have it built for; that railroad interests amounting to millions have been sacrificed; that your police force is costing more than twice what it did under Republican rule; that nearly all the leading positions filled by the Democratic party under the present city government are receiving double the pay annually that they received under Re- publican rule."

During his speech the ex-Mayor spoke of an investigation of his administration, fol- lowing his having been legislated out of of- fice by a committee appointed for that pur- pose. It resulted in nothing being un- earthed against him, but discoveries were exposed of Democratic indiscretions in the sale of city stock, whereupon the committee "dropped the curtain, fearing a more hid- eous evil."

Hon. John M. Langston elaborated the following points in his speech: "The Re- publican party has given practical signifi- cance and force to the cardinal doctrines of our declaration of independence; it has secured the accomplishment of the great na- tional purposes announced by the fathers of the American Government in the Constitu- tion of the United States. These purposes are set forth in the preamble of the Consti- tution itself, as follows: To form a more perfect Union. To establish justice. In-

sure domestic tranquility. Provide for the common defense. Promote the general wel- fare and to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity. The Republi- can party has accomplished the abolition of slavery; it has enfranchised the colored American; it has put in his hand the ballot; to fix the abolition of slavery, the citizen- ship of the negro, and to render the denial to him of political powers, an impossibility, it has secured the adoption of the Thir- teenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend- ments of the United States Constitution; to secure the immediate and entire respect of these rights and powers so lately guaranteed in this manner to the freedmen, it has en- acted what is known as the enforcement bills."

R. Stockett Mathews directed his re- marks incidentally to the charge against Mr. Marine, that he was too young to represent the District in Congress. He referred to that section of the Constitution of the United States which declares that a man must have attained to the age of twenty-five years before he is eligible to a seat in the lower house of Congress. Said Mr. Ma- thews: "We hear but one objection against Mr. Marine and that is, he is too young for the nomination. Other men have been nominated and sent to Congress not older than he who were a match for some of the oldest members. He has attained to the Constitutional age and if he is too young, the founders of the Government were mis- taken in their opinions as to a man's ca- pacity at the age of twenty-five.

Mr. Marine spoke as follows: "Abra- ham Lincoln, standing upon the battlefield at Gettysburg, surrounded by the graves of eleven hundred loyal soldiers who fell upon

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that historic ground to perpetuate our Un- ion, summed up in those brief, yet expres- sive, simple words, the ground work of the Republican party's faith, when he declared 'that the Nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that governments of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'

"In that memorable year of 1776, the birth of freedom dawned upon this Continent; during the intervening years to 1850, slavery changed the spirit of the Govern- ment from its original intendment. Neither the Whig nor Democratic parties had the wisdom to shape legislation so as to correct abuses that for an unbroken series of years were constantly creeping into and becoming a part of the fundamental law of the land. The Republican party came forth a re- former, 'that the Nation under God might have a new birth of freedom.' There were abuses to correct-a longer continuance of them assured anarchy. It is true, the rights of one portion of our citizens were guar- anteed them; but another class of people were oppressed. To liberate and elevate the down-trodden, establish free speech, free soil and a free press, untrammel thought and maintain a Government of liberty, reg- ulated by law, were the high missions of the Republican party; the pledges made by it in its origin have all been kept and faith- fully executed. It has done more than main- tain fealty to party principles. It has not swerved in allegience to the Federal Un- ion. Can our Democratic opponents say so much for themselves?

"Democracy in Maryland, as expounded by our opponents, means not only anti-pro- gression, but slavery in a qualified form. Our statute books have their pages encum-

bered with a multiplicity of laws unequal in operation, and dispensing with an illiberal hand the privileges of the State. On the bases of cast and color the rights of some men are withheld, to add to the preroga- tives of some others. The gentlemen who have made; those who have interpreted, and those who have executed the laws of Mary- land for three years past, have used but one volume of precedents; their guide has been the dusty, antiquated old book that was used by the Democratic politicians of the last century; its pages are filled with the ideas of a dead age. The results of such an influence upon the men who govern us is working disastrously to the State.

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Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n Publication date: 1898 Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1344

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344