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 29
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John P. Poe: "There is no debatable State issue in this campaign; the only ques- tion is, will the people of Maryland carry the flag and keep step to the music of na- tional Democracy, or will they desert the party that has brought peace and prosperity to their borders. We to-night are but a part of the great army of Democrats which is engaged in the herculean task of bringing back this form of government to its right- ful owners, the people."
Mr. Raynor, at a Democratic meeting on Wednesday, October 21st, said: "We have a painful recollection of the reform they (meaning the Republicans) inflicted upon us, and we will never give them another opportunity to reform us again. I have the highest esteem for some of the gen- tlemen engaged in the fusion movement, but it is the most incongruous combination that has ever appeared in our midst. How queerly Messrs. Bruce and Marbury must feel when they are dreaming about the bosses and ring rule, to turn around upon their pillows and find the patriots sleeping
right beside them, who have never gone dry a single day since they have been in the Democratic party, and who never dis- covered that they were reformers until they were reformed out of office. There are two kinds of fusion movements; one is the re- volt of the people against corruption and misrule, the other is a combination of par- tisans to avenge their grievances. The tax- payers who started it have been ruled out of it, even the colored brother has been ig- nored; they have refused to place a single representative of that race upon the legis- lative ticket. I again raise the standard of reform within the party, and proclaim that not only will it be realized, but with some slight additions the demands of the people have been gratified. I have never known the day yet that a man of ability could not force his way to the front in the ranks of the Democratic party, and I have never in my experience yet met the leader who is bold enough to trample upon his rights."
At a Democratic meeting at Broadway Institute, Thursday, October 22d, Charles G. Kerr asserted: "I am in favor of the strictest enforcement of a reasonable Sun- day law. It will secure to every citizen the right he has under our Constitution to wor- ship God according to his own conscience, free and untrammeled from public disturb- ance or individual molestation. I do not know why a poor Hebrew man or woman, who religiously keeps the Jewish Sabbath, should be prevented from working on a sewing machine on a Christian Sunday."
Tuesday, October 27th, Independent Democrats gathered in the New Assembly Rooms, where speeches were delivered.
Mr. W. Cabell Bruce: "I would be ut- terly lost to the obligations of duty if I failed
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to allude to the professed dissatisfaction that is manifested by the people in reference to the State Attorney's office.
"I do not propose to say one word of un- kindness in reference to the incumbent of that office. I have received more than one act of courtesy at his hands; in all the re- lations of life I wish him well.
"So far as the Independent Democrats are concerned, they are never so happy as when the breeze is blowing briskly."
Danicl Miller: "I have been educated to believe that the strict application of busi- ness principles to the proper conduct of af- fairs is a necessity."
William L. Marbury: "If I am State's Attorney and there comes before me the case of a young man detected in the viola- tion of the law, I would temper justice with mercy, and attempt to save the young man from being a criminal, and give him a chance to retrace his steps to virtue. But I would not allow the right to use the Nolle Pros because of a political pull. Jus- tice should be administered independently of politics.
"Mr. Latrobe represents, and has for many years represented both in theory and practice, the idea of a political party govern- ment of the city; this system has come to be what is known as the spoils system in politics; it has prevailed in this city for many years under the successive adminis- trations of Mr. Latrobe."
An Independent Democratic meeting, held Thursday, October 29th, was addressed by Mr. S. Davis Warfield. He said: "I notice in the morning papers Mr. Latrobe has un- dertaken to question Mr. Marbury's analy- sis of the finances as conducted under Mr.
Latrobe's administration." Mr. Warfield then entered into a minute consideration of Mr. Marbury's figures and charges and concluded as follows: "All these matters were thoroughly canvassed two years ago, and the public opinion on the methods of Mr. Latrobe's administration, so decided that the ring did not dare to place him be- fore the people of Baltimore for re-election. The public thoroughly understood the sit- uation; it is entirely a question whether they will now take the control of their af- fairs into their own hands or permit the continuance of a system which has saddled upon them a tax rate for which they have not and cannot, so long as that system con. tinues, get value received."
On the same evening there was a Re- publican meeting at Bohemia Hall, at which Mr. Gco. M. Sharp spoke: "He had heard it said Governor Jackson had not read the Constitution, and also heard it said that the Governor claimed to have read the Constitution, but he forgot it. It was also .
stated that he read it once, and said he could not find anything about the Governor in it. He was told he was reading the Constitu- tion of the United States and not of Mary- land. He wanted to know if there were not Democrats enough in Maryland to show us the state of affairs at Annapolis, and to let us know if there is not more money miss- ing."
At China Hall a meeting was addressed by Archibald Stirling, who said: "The people want fair elections and fair election laws, and for that reason the Republicans of Maryland have coalesced with the Inde- pendents for the last four years."
H. Clay Nail: "The rule of Gorman and Rasin is more despotic than that of the
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Czar of Russia. The Democrats are calling Frank Brown a Napoleon. What do you think old Bonaparte would say if he knew it?"
Mr. Thos. G. Hayes made a speech at Cross Street Hall. He claimed: "This is a preliminary contest to the great battle of 1892, and if staunch old Maryland should break loose from her mooring, the effect on her neighboring States would be most dis- astrous. Would it not be an appalling thing to the Democrats of this State to re- turn Senators in favor of the obnoxious force bill, and unseat the adroit Arthur P. Gorman, who contributed so largely to its defeat last season?"
At the election in November Vannort, for Governor, received 26,583 votes, and Brown received 44,123 votes; for Mayor, S. Davis Warfield received 31,090 votes, and Ferdinand C. Latrobe received 40,357 votes; Charles G. Kerr, for State's Attor- ney, against whom the fiercest of the fight was waged, had 40,151 votes, and Wm. L. Marbury had 30,924 votes; for Attorney General, Sharp had 27,640 votes, and John P. Poe 41,366 votes.
1892.
Benjamin Harrison, Republican nominee for President, was opposed by Grover Cleveland, Democrat. Harry Wells Rusk and Isidor Rayner were the Democratic candidates for Congress in the Third and Fourth Districts. Against them were Charles Herzog and A. Worth Spates.
August 26th a Harrison banner was un- furled in front of the Young Men's Re- publican Club, and the assemblage listened to speeches.
George L. Wellington: "We want again
that administration that has been so thor- oughly American that the strong arm of the Government goes out over the seas and to every land, and holds its hands to protect the American citizen, whether born in America or naturalized here, and says: "This is our son and no man dare touch him.' We want the same policy that pro- tects our interest in the Bering Sea; the policy that brought Chili to terms, and says to Canada 'if you don't treat our vessels as you do your own we will retaliate.' . We want that same policy of protection to American industries and the elevation of American labor."
William M. Marine: "General Harrison has his homerecord and his political record; both commend him to his countrymen. He has made a good husband and father, and one of the best of Presidents, why should the Nation desire to lose his services. It will not care to do so. It is more difficult to secure a new commander, with capacity, than it is to part with an efficient one. The people should ponder over this proposition; it is worthy of their consideration."
Thursday, October 13th, Charles Herzog spoke at a meeting in the Concordia Opera House. In the course of his speech he thus expressed himself: "Ever since a ma- jority of the people of the State resolved to create a Nation and become one of the great powers of the world, the discontented, first calling themselves Republicans and afterwards Democrats, have tried in vain to hamper, bind and obstruct the progress and development of the Nation. The as- sertion that the Democratic party has never proposed, and, as a necessary consequence, has never enacted any measure tending to the progress and welfare of the Nation, is
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of easy demonstration. From the begin- ning of our National existence the Demo- cratic doctrine has been that the United States, as a Nation, has no authority to de- velop the country, foster its industries or protect the working man in his labor."
Mr. A. Worth Spates: "No part of our Republic is more interested in the great question to be passed upon by the people in November next than is our State, es- pecially our city, standing like a giant sen- tinel, at the head of a great water-way lead- ing to the sea. A protecting policy, under which our Nation has become the most powerful upon the globe, and under which our own immediate manufactures are pros- pering as never before; under which the industries of our own city are multiplying; under which tin, brass and other factories are towering heavenward on every side; a protecting policy which enabled us to rapidly recover from the war of revolution, is antagonized as never before.
"We contend for protection for the home and fireside, for enterprise and progress, for America for Americans, for the policy of Washington and Lincoln, the tongue of the past discloses it to be right, and the voice of history tells us it is just."
Tuesday evening, October 18th, at the Germania Mannerchoir Hall, Robert C. Davidson, in addressing the Democrats, said: "The greatest contest of our history is now upon us; it includes both the financial and governmental system. On one side is arrayed the combined power of capital, constantly reinforced by the present sys- tem of taxation, and on the other, of which our party is the true representative, stand the great masses of the people, striving not merely for the meager existence, but for
one under proper political and financial en- vironment, which would furnish them with more than a competent allowance. This is prevented by the present tariff system, which is restrictive in the extreme, and Mc- Kinleyism is our Shibboleth, and with it we will win. The Republican party, by its ad- vocacy of the force bill, strikes at home rule. Any party advocating such a meas- ure should be driven from the halls of power with the lashes of the people's wrath."
Isidore Rayner: "The Democratic plat- form was modeled upon the principle that the rates of duty should be levied upon the greatest luxuries, and the lowest rates of duty on the greatest necessities, so as to put as low taxes on every article of use and consumption within the reach of the Ameri- can household.
"The force bill is not a dead issue, it is a live issue; it means that local governments in the South shall be overthrown. This is my Democracy: Honest taxes, honest bal- lot and an honest currency, and this is the Democracy of Grover Cleveland."
John P. Poc: "The issues of this fight are all absorbing. They clearly mark the dif- ferences between the two parties. The two great questions are Federal taxation and the force bill. The former affects all the people need for the comforts of their fam- ilies. When after a political exile of twenty years the Democratic party returned home, the great heart of this Nation re- joiced at the end of internal dissensions and the great Grant's wish for peace was real- ized, and not till then. Then came a great political calamity in 1888. Home rule in the States was well-nigh destroyed, and no relief was given to the people from the
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great burden of taxation that rested and now rests upon them."
In the election in November Cleveland received 51,000 votes, and Harrison 36,800. In the Third District for Congress Rusk received 19,806 votes, and Herzog 13,579 votes, and in the Fourth District Rayner 21,455 votes, and Spates 14,646 votes.
1893.
Ferdinand C. Latrobe was the Demo- cratic nominee for Mayor this year, and William T. Malster the Republican nomi- nee. Marion De Kalb Smith was the Democratic candidate for Comptroller, and James Turner Perkins the Republican.
Tuesday evening, October 24th, the Democrats held a meeting, at which Mr. Latrobe spoke. He said: "I am not the only Mayor who has been elected six terms. In the city of Providence, Mayor Doyl was elected seventeen consecutive terms. There is some hope for me, you see, even after this term. Now then, the Mayor don't govern the city. The Mayor and City Council do. No man governs any one thing in this country, except, perhaps, his wife."
On Thursday evening, October 26th, at a Republican meeting, Mr. Malster said: "I am not sent here for the purpose of mak- ing a speech. I came to see you and to ask you if it is well with you-if the lines have been closed and the pickets stationed. For you must know our antagonists are always on the alert.
"You are men of intelligence, men of thought and reflection, and well capable of acting for yourselves, and if the present method of municipal administration does not accord with your ideas of good govern- ment, the remedy is in your hands, where I propose to leave it."
In Baltimore City, Perkins, Republican, for Comptroller, had 30,083 votes, and Smith, Democrat, 40,437 votes. Malster, Republican, for Mayor, had 31,400 votes, and Latrobe, 38,286 votes.
1894.
The candidates in Baltimore for Con- gress were H. Wells Rusk, Democrat, and William S. Booze, Republican, and in the Fourth District, John K. Cowen, Demo- crat, and Robert H. Smith, Republican; for Judge of the Supreme Bench, John J. Dobler, Republican, and Charles G. Kerr, Democrat.
A meeting of the Republicans was held in the Third Congressional District on the evening of Thursday, October 18th, at which Dr. Booze spoke. He said: "Under the last Republican administration prosper- ity was general throughout the country, now we are the subjects of financial de- pression. It is felt and realized in every avenue of trade and business that those who most suffer are the laboring classes. The amount of wages paid yearly has de- creased 44 per cent., with 2,000,000 of workmen out of employment."
The evening of the same day John K. Cowen, the Democratic nominee for Con- gress in the Fourth District, spoke in Hol- lins' Hall. Mr. Joseph S. Heinsler pre- sided, and in his address said: "Every Democrat will come boldly up to the front on election day and do his whole duty. We must bury all personal animosities. We have but one duty to perform, and that is to support this National administration.
"We want a solid delegation in the next Congress from this grand old Common- wealth of Maryland. Men whom Grover Cleveland can rely upon, and it is not your
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duty to permit him to be shackled and manacled, hand and foot, by a Republican House of Representatives lead by Tom Reed."
Mr. Cowen: I am here to discuss the tariff question; my Republican friends say I wear the red cap of the barricades; that I am inimical to American industries and labor. They say that I am a free trader, and this I do not deny. They say that it means ruin to American industries and labor. I take issue with that statement. I shall endeavor to establish that instead of being a menace it is a great developer of industries. Trade is the exchange of product for product, service for service. It is the cause of Christian civilization.
"The exchange of one man's labors for another's is the thing that has dotted coun- tries with towns and cities. The exchange of product for product has established your mills here and elsewhere. If you do not believe in free trade, then you believe in re- stricted trade."
The Republicans held a meeting on Tuesday, October 23d, in Hollins' Hall. Mr. Smith said that he asked the indulgence of the audience while he read his speech: "I have written it out in order that there may be no mistake. I want you to know, and I want the people of the district to know, just where and how I stand in this fight. Not only is this city made up of hospitable homes and warm-hearted people, but homes and people are free from a condi- tion of things which exist in our neighbor- ing city, in which the guardians of the life and property of her people have been con- victed of corruption and fraud which have shocked the civilized world. Not so with us. I do not believe that there is a more
efficient police force or fire department in any city in this country than Baltimore has. It is true when my tax bill comes in I wince a little, and I wonder whether or not economy could have been practiced some- where, so that the rate could have been less than $1.70 on a hundred. But when I look out at the asphalt pavement in front of my door and the public school houses that have been and are being built, and faithful teach- ears that are being paid, at the police who guard your homes and mine-your life and mine, by night and by day, through winter and summer; at the brave firemen who expose their lives to save the lives and property of others, I say when I look at all these and other departments which are necessary for the proper government and care of the city, I say to myself I guess it's all right, and that even though Baltimore is ruled by the criminal classes, they rule it right well."
Mr. Smith's utterances created dis- pleasure and contributed no little toward his defeat. He defended his opponents from the charges made against them, an unusual proceeding.
Mr. George R. Gaither: "There was a danger in sending a corporation attorney to Congress. Mr. Cowen has been known for the tremendous attacks upon the ring of this city, and for his efforts for so many years to accomplish its overthrow. Upon the husteing and every part of this city he has denounced the corruption of the men who control the affairs of this city, and has sounded the note of reform. And yet we suddenly find him accepting a nomination at the hands of the very men whom he has so villified and abused. We need only quote his own language: 'I therefore call
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Meinst Schmeissen
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upon the people of this city who value a pure judiciary, who do not wish to see their court house disgraced by (naming local leaders), to expose their specious argu- ments to stamp out the blot and to protect from the foul hands of the bosses the judi- ciary which they have secured after so fierce a struggle.'"
At a Democratic meeting Wednesday evening, October 24th, Mr. Harry W. Rusk spoke, saying: "The campaign is based on the tariff and the retention of Grover Cleveland and the Democratic party in power. To carry out the Democratic platform to the letter. The Democratic party will not be satisfied until this is ac- complished. The Democratic party has corrected the blunder of the Harrison ad- ministration and repealed the Sherman law, so that every dollar shall be of equal pur- chasing power, in order that the poor man may not be paid with a depreciated dollar, and the rich man paid in whatever coin he selects. We found the enormous surplus in the Treasury wasted by the Republican party, when, as Mr. Cleveland said, it ought to be in the pockets of the people. We found panics under the Mckinley tariff which was fostered upon the people under the false pretense that it would raise wages and give revenue to the Government. But the paramount duty of the party is tariff revision."
At a Republican meeting on Friday, Oc- tober 26th, Mr. Chas. L. Wilson, in his ad- dress, said: "It is as much the duty and Constitutional right of Congress to protect the industries by which the people could honestly earn a comfortable living as it is to protect them in person and property by criminal laws."
At a Democratic meeting Wednesday, October 31st, Mr. Skipwith Wilmer thus expressed himself: "With the question of State rights, the force bill and Federal elec- tion laws, and the silver question, relegated to the past, the only question of any moment is one of taxation. The Demo- cratic party deals with this simply when it says 'that the only taxation should be such as to support a Government economically administered.' But the Republicans believe in taxing the people to make business more profitable."
Isidor Rayner: "The time has passed when the words free trade drive the Demo- crats like cowards. The only difference now is that one man believes in a little less taxation than another, that 60,000,000 of people ought not to enrich the other 5,- 000,00 of the populace."
On the same evening Wm. M. Marine made a speech at a Republican meeting, in which he said: "Since the era of universal prosperity, stretching through a quarter of a century past, Baltimore has almost doubled its population. Why has that re- sult been obtained? It is due to the opera- tions of a protective tariff. The industries which have been fostered within the period named have been such as a tariff promotes. Baltimore is virtually a city of small manu- facturers in connection with its larger fac- tories and foundries. They have been nurtured by a policy of protection, and could not have grown without it.
"The coal industry is one of large pro- portions, and should the Gorman tariff du- ties on the importation of Canadian coal prove ineffective to keep out that con- modity from competition with coal front American mines, the disaster may affect
15
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corporate as well as National interests. The manufacture of clothing by those en- gaged in that industry has caused Balti- more to rank as the largest producing city of clothing in the United States. Free trade is an alarm bell sounding the death knell of its reigning industries."
At the election in November for Con- gress in the Third District, Booze, Repub- lican, received 15,721 votes; Rusk, Demo- crat, received 16,209 votes. In the Fourth District Smith, Republican, received 16,178 votes, and Cowen, Democrat, 17,184 votes. Dobler, Republican, for Judge, had a plur- ality over Kerr, Democrat, of 3,321 votes.
1895.
The candidates for Governor this year were Lloyd Lowndes, Republican, and John E. Hurst, Democrat. The nominees for Mayor of Baltimore were Alcaeus Hooper, Republican, and Henry Williams, Democrat.
Tuesday, October 15th, a Republican meeting was held in the Music Hall. George L. Wellington, in calling the meet- ing to order, said, as he looked out upon the concourse that it seemed to him that Maryland had wakened from its torpor of the last thirty years: "We have here wisdom, strength and beauty. We have here the enthusiasm of youth; the wisdom of age, capital, labor and trade are gathered together; the rich and the poor; the white and the black. In addition we have fair women to grace the occasion.
"I wish to introduce to the assemblage a staunch Republican, an old soldier, brave in war and generous in peace, Gen. Felix Agnus."
Gen. Agnus: "A funeral train loaded
with dead issues, frosted hopes, and a paralyzed future passed through this hall the other night. A good crowd assembled to view it, because funerals are attractive to some people. It left a lot of gloom, and I want to tell you how refreshing it is to look into your pleasant and confident faces, and to see that gloom dispelled, and to know that ours is the people's train. Wellington the engineer, tells me that on the 5th of November he proposes to put on all steam and let her go at the rate of ninety miles an hour, and he will never stop until he lands his passengers safely, both at Annapolis and the City Hall of Baltimore.
"What Lloyd Lowndes promises, he will do, and citizens of all parties may feel as- ured that nothing can swerve him from the path of honor and duty. Nothing can in- duce him to be unfaithful even in thought to the welfare of the State. Mr. Lowndes has also a remarkable memory for names and faces. I know of only one statesman who could equal him in this, and that was our dear old friend and leader, James G. Blaine."
Lloyd Lowndes: "I consider the princi- pal issues in this campaign are re-assess- ment, honest registration, fair elections, good citizenship and good government. The Republican party stands pledged for a re-assessment of the property of this State, and if it is successful the Legislature will promptly pass such a law. Should I be successful in November next, I promise you with God's assistance that Maryland shall have a pure and honest government, and I will so try to manage the affairs of this State that those who shall give me their support will never regret their confidence thus be- stowed."
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