MARYLAND. 



409 



into all the mechanical branches of business does exist 

 even as one of the fundamental principles of their 

 organization ; and 



Whereas, We claim that the colored American in his 

 relationship to national industry is identical with that 

 of the white American, this idea is in harmony with 

 the great declaration of principles made by the^fathers 

 that all men were created equal, free, and endowed by 

 their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that 

 among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 

 ness: therefore 



Jtesolved, That we hold these truths to be self-evi- 

 dent, that any exclusion in the admission of appren- 

 tices in the workshops of the country, on account of 

 race or color, is unjust in its interest and anti-repub- 

 lican in its form. 



And further resolved, We pledge ourselves to make 

 this question of the exclusion of colored apprentices 

 from the workshops of the country our political watch- 

 word, and that we will support no man and no party 

 that supports these exclusive principles. 



Resolved, That this convention return a vote of 

 thanks to President Grant for his hearty indorsement 

 of the fifteenth amendment to the United States 

 Constitution on colored suffrage. 



Resolved, That we regard it as an innovation on the 

 rights of our people in excluding them from our city 

 public schools as teachers for the great crime of being 

 black. 



Resolved, That ladies and gentlemen have the right 

 to enjoy what they pay for, regardless of color. 



Resolved, That the colored Bepublican citizens of 

 the State of Maryland in State Convention assembled 

 this 1st day of June, 1869, return our sincere and 

 united thanks to that Supreme Being who ruleth the 

 destinies of the universe, her people and nations, for 

 having permitted us to see this, the long-hoped-for 

 time, when we can assemble beneath the protecting 

 folds of our country's starry emblem of protection 

 and grandeur, and there openly and boldly assert that 

 we are free American citizens, and that the flag floats 

 over none other than freemen on American soil. 



Resolved, That we return our sincere thanks to the 

 Federal officers throughout the country for their ap- 

 pointments, to offices of trust and profit, of colored 

 citizens ; for that has demonstrated to us that they 

 have acted irrespective of race or color, and we assure 

 them that when Maryland's 40,000 colored Eepubli- 

 can citizens can wield the ballot, that they who have 

 taken the front in doing our brothers justice shall not 

 be forgotten j we will likewise remember those gen- 

 tlemen in this our native State that have defined the 

 word office so as to mean position. 



Resolved, That we maintain and recognize the jus- 

 tice and expediency of according to all men equal 

 political rights. 



Resolved, That we pledge ourselves to support at all 

 times the regular nominee of the Eepublican party. 



Whereas, President Ulysses S. Grant and his Cab- 

 inet have nobly recognized the ballots of 700,000 

 colored Eepublicans who aided in securing their tri- 

 umphant election, by appointing colored men to high 

 positions as foreign mimsterSj consuls-general, assess- 

 ors of internal revenue, one judge of court, postmas- 

 ters, justices of the peace, etc. : therefore, 



Resolved, That we, the colored Eepublicans of 

 Maryland in State Convention assembled, do fully 

 realize the healthful influence of these humane and 

 practical acts for which our hearts and the hearts of 

 our long-neglected and patient race shall ever burn 

 with indelible gratitude to them for their just recog- 

 nition and impartial manifestation in acknowledging 

 the claims of all American citizens. 



Resolved, That the colored people are citizens and 

 men, and having always by taxation borne their por- 

 tion of the public expense ; always conducting them- 

 selves in obedience to the laws of the State, even to 

 degrading and oppressive laws ; always ready to ren- 

 der patriotic aid to the State in times of peril ; ready 

 to contribute our means for internal improvement to 



beautify the Commonwealth equally with other citi- 

 zens ;^ ready to do our whole duty to our State in the 

 most important sense in which duty can be practised, 

 still, with all this and more, we are denied the com- 

 monest immunities of manhood already granted in the 

 other States through the progress of liberal public 

 sentiment. 



Resolved, That it is the duty of the State to see that 

 we^ get that which we pay for, by educating all of its 

 citizens at the public expense throughout the State 

 that we may be better able to discharge the new du- 

 ties devolving upon us with discretion ; that if the 

 Government, as it did during the recent civil war, 

 expects us to bear arms, there is no reason why we 

 should not be allowed, in a time of peace, to organize 

 volunteer companies to acquaint ourselves with mili- 

 tary service, and, therefore, we recognize the order 

 of the police commissioners, which discriminates 

 between us and other citizens by forbidding such or- 

 ganizations among us, as an outrage upon our liber- 

 ties and totally without force of law. 



Resolved, That we are, and have been for a long 

 time, in the history of Maryland, submitting patiently 

 to innumerable and constantly-repeated outrages (to 

 some of which we have just referred), as citizens 

 and human beings, excluded as we are from every 

 humanizing privilege pleasantly enjoyed by the citi- 

 zens of our native State ; our females degraded : our 

 wives, children, and ourselves lessened to the level 

 of brutes by being crowded, men and women, together 

 like four-footed animals in the same sleeping apart- 

 ments, and dirty, filthy cabins of nearly every steam- 

 boat running from our native city, on some of which 

 there is not even a division between the sleeping 

 apartments of the men and women ; and still more, 

 not even a private place into which the females may 

 retire. 



Resolved, That a similar condition of oppressive 

 injustice meets us on nearly every railway train which 

 leaves Baltimore, in being compelled to pay for that 

 which we do not receive by forcing the most respect- 

 able colored ladies and gentlemen into smoking-cars, 

 where they are insulted, not only by making them pay 

 for first-class tickets and giving second-class fare, out 

 the obscene language often used by white men in such 

 cars, in the presence of pur females, adds another item 

 to the crimes used against us by railway and steam- 

 boat companies. 



On the llth of June a mass meeting of col- 

 ored Eepublicans was held in Baltimore, at 

 which a long series of resolutions was adopt- 

 ed, the most important being the following : 



Resolved, That we, the colored Eepublicans of Balti- 

 more city, totally ignore the so-called Convention of 

 June 1, 1869, believing its acts destructive of the 

 best interests of the colored people of Maryland, and 

 infamous and subversive or the cardinal principles 

 of the great Eepublican party, viz., freedom of speech 

 and action. 



Be it further resolved, That we particularly repro- 

 bate and ignore that portion of the proceedings of the 

 so-called Convention that arrogates to men without 

 votes the control of the poli tical future ^of our State, 

 even in contemptuous disregard of Divine power, 

 and repudiate this dictatorial action as foreign to the 

 wishes of the masses of the colored people of our 

 State. 



June 18th, the colored Republicans of Fred- 

 erick County assembled -in the city of Fred- 

 erick, and adopted a series of resolutions utterly 

 repudiating the action of the convention of 

 June 1st. The two most important resolu- 

 tions were the following : 



Resolved, \, That we repel the idea that we have 

 met in the interest of any wing of the Eepublican 

 party ; and aver that we acknowledge allegiance to 



