Maryland Historical Magazine, 1959, Volume 54, Issue No. 4
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Kbf) £c StSl-hO-lIt MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE VOL. 54. No. 4 DECEMBER, 1959 CONTENTS PAGE Charles J. Bonaparte and Negro Suffrage in Maryland ]ane L. Phelps 331 Some Baltimore City Place Names . William B. Marye 353 Maryland Population: 1631-1730 . Arthur E. Karinen 365 Sidelights 408 A Marylander in the Mexican War: Some Letters of J. J. Archer, ed. by C. A. Porter Hopkins. Reviews of Recent Books 423 Huthmacher, Massachusetts People and Politics, 1919-1923, by Nelson M. Blake. Nichols, Religion and American Democracy, by John Tracy Ellis. Schrier, Ireland and the American Emigration 1850-1900, by Arthur E. Karinen. Thane, The Family Quarrel: A Journey through the Years of the Revolution, by Ellen Hart Smith. Tolman. The Life and Works of Edward Green Malbone, 1777- 1807, by Anna Wells Rutledge. Degler, Out of Our Past: The Forces That Shaped Modern America, by J. Joseph Huthmacher. Bean, Stonewall's Man: Sandie Pendleton, by Theodore M. Whitfield. Lynham, The Chevy Chase Club: A History, 1885-1957, by C.A. P. H. Williams, Vogues in Villainy: Crime and Retribution in Ante- Bellum South Carolina, by Dorothy M. Brown. Notes and Queries 434 Contributors 438 Cover: The view of " The Vineyard " is reproduced from the top rail of the settee in a set of painted drawing room pieces in the Sheraton style by courtesy of the owners, Mrs. Edward C. Venable and Mrs. Herbert C. de Roth. The work of Balti- more furniture makers John and High Findlay, circa 1805, the set is on exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art. " The Vineyard," on Vineyard Lane, is described in Mr. Marye's article in this issue. Annual Subscription to the Magazine $4.00. Each issue $1.00. The Magazine assumes no responsibility for statements or opinions expressed in its pages. Richard Walsh, Editor C A. Porter Hopkins, Asst. Editor The Magazine is entered as second class matter, at the post office at Baltimore, Maryland, under Act of August 24, 1912. Jfor Christmas— Why not give membership in the Maryland Historical Society? The Quarterly Magazine and the Quarterly History Notes will bring your friends, especially those with a Maryland background, no matter where they live, reminders of old Maryland, recent findings in Maryland history, summaries of recent celebrations, and other events relating to our rich heritage. I enclose $ for dues of person (s) named below. Please send information direct. • Name: Address: Name: Address: I believe the person (s) named below will be interested. Please send information direct. • Name: Address: Name: Address: Your Signature Annual dues of the Society are $8 and up; husband and wife |I2; life membership $150. Subscriptions to the Magazine and to the quarterly news bulletin, Maryland Historical Notes, are included in the member- ship fee as well as use of the collections and admission to the lectures. The library, portrait gallery and museum rooms, are open daily except Sunday, 9 to 5, Saturday, 9 to 1. June 15 to Sept. 15, daily 9 to 4, Saturday, 9 to 1. THE MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY H. IRVINE KEYSER MEMORIAL BUILDING 201 W. MONUMENT STREET, BALTIMORE 1 GEORGE L. RADCLIFFE, President; JAMES W. FOSTER, Director MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE A Quarterly Volume 54 DECEMBER, 1959 Number 4 CHARLES J. BONAPARTE AND NEGRO SUFFRAGE IN MARYLAND By JANE L. PHELPS TN the early years of the twentieth century, Maryland and par- •*• ticularly the city of Baltimore, witnessed a strong attempt to disenfranchise Negro voters. The movement originated in the state election of 1905, and in subsequent state elections its scope spread beyond merely the Negro to encompass other voters who were deemed " unworthy " to exercise the privilege of suffrage by certain " worthy " citizens.1 Prominent in the fight against disenfranchisement was Charles J. 1 In the state election of 1905, the proposal to amend the state constitution was the Poe Amendment. In 1908, another constitutional amendment dealing with voting rights was proposed, this time it was called the Strauss Amendment. In 1911, a similar amendment was proposed and this was termed the Digges Amendment. In this study only the Poe and Strauss Amendments will be discussed. 331 332 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE Bonaparte whose very social position in Maryland and whose heritage might have made him a leader in the disenfranchisement movement. He, a leading Baltimore lawyer, had been born in that city on June 9, 1851. He was a wealthy man but not osten- tatious; by birth a member of the elite of Baltimore and Maryland society, and as a descendant of French royalty, he was held in awe by many people.2 It cannot be said that he disappointed such persons, for he was intensely interested in his genealogy, an avid collector of Napoleana; but he was an American-born citizen. He never once left the continent for a trip through Europe, and always he was more interested in the United States than in any of the European countries. His successful law practice in Balti- more was mainly devoted to the handling of estate cases and his own personal family affairs. The Bonaparte holdings in real estate in Maryland were extensive and much of his time and attention was directed to the management of these matters. Occa- sionally, however, he would accept an indigent case, usually when he felt that the poor were being unjustly treated by the law.3 In spite of his large legal practice, Bonaparte always found time to indulge his interest in reform causes which had for their aim the improvement of political and social conditions. He was one of the founders of the National Civil Service Reform League; and also belonged to the National Municipal League, of which he was president in 1908. He belonged to the Baltimore Reform 3 Charles J. Bonaparte was the grandnephew of Napoleon Bonaparte; the grand- son of Napoleon's youngest brother, Jerome, who married Elizabeth Patterson of Baltimore in 1803. Charles Bonaparte's father was Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, born in Catnberwell, England, July 7, 1805, after Napoleon had induced Jerome to abandon his young wife, Elizabeth, enticing him by offering him the throne of Westphalia if he would leave her. Their son, Jerome, married Susan May Williams, a Baltimore debutante, and of this marriage two sons were born—Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, Jr., who was born in Baltimore and died at Pride's Crossing, Mass., in 1893; and Charles Joseph Bonaparte, twenty-one years younger than his brother. Charles was educated in Baltimore, attended Harvard College and Law School. He was married at Newport, R. I., in 1875, to Ellen Channing Day and had no children (vide Joseph Bucklin Bishop, Charles Joseph Bonaparte: His Life and Public Services [New York, 1922}). An example of this was the time Bonaparte undertook to defend a poor woman who was being sued for non-payment of insurance policy funds. He spent many days examining the case, personally appeared in court, and was rewarded by the acquittal of his client (Interview with the Honorable Morris A. Soper, Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, Baltimore, Md., October 31, 1958). C, J. BONAPARTE AND NEGRO SUFFRAGE IN MARYLAND 333 League, the Society for the Prevention of Vice, and the Charity Organization Society in Baltimore, was a close friend of Cardinal Gibbons and a trustee of the Roman Catholic Cathedral, to mention but a few of the organizations in which he was interested. He first achieved national importance when Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to the Board of Indian Affairs in 1902, serving until 1904. In 1903, the President again selected him for a special investigating body, this time to delve into the Post Office scandals in Baltimore and Philadelphia. In 1904, he was the only Republi- can Presidential Elector from Maryland—an honor, he often said, not due to his personal reputation or to that of the Maryland Republican party, but, quite simply, because his name was placed near to top of the alphabetically arranged voting list. Thus, when in mid-1905, Roosevelt nominated him to the cabinet post of Secretary of the Navy, Charles Bonaparte was comparatively well known outside of Maryland and, while certainly not a national figure, people were familiar with his name and associated him with " do gooder " causes. That Bonaparte did not assume a position of leadership in the disenfranchisement movement was due not only to his regard for the Negro race and to his belief in the inherent right of the Negro to vote, but, also, to his unerring sense of what was right and just under the Constitution. The Constitution of the United States, in the Fifteenth Amendment granted the privilege of suffrage to Negroes and accordingly, Charles Bonaparte felt obliged to uphold that privilege. Bonaparte was a skilled jurist. Attorney General of the United States from 1906-1909, he was responsible for the adoption of the novel legal theory of receivership for illegal trusts and was also responsible for the institution of a special investigative force for the Department of Justice, a force which formed the nucleus of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While he was a practical lawyer, the ordinary events of day-to-day law practice sometimes bored him, but the law was his consuming passion in life. He was an artist of law; he was a lawyer's lawyer. Law for him was like a silken tapestry and any flaw in it, as in the case of a flaw in a work of art, annoyed and distressed him. Law for him was his life and his art. Yet, he was not entirely an idealist, for he well 334 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE realized how imperfect human nature could be. He knew that perfection in law, as in life, was the treasure that eluded ordinary men.