Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/221

rights and immunities conferred by the three consti- tutional amendments have given him no protection against the stronger edict of public opinion. Sur- rounded by opportunities which he cannot share and by advantages from which he is excluded, the future offers no prospect of release from a bondage whose im- perceptible manacles are forged and riveted by the tyranny of nature. Note 3. Page 112. Five years after the scene I had witnessed, or may be more, the same disgusting practice was being kept up, as will be seen from the following clipping taken from The Nezu York Times of August 17, 1903 (page 1), and which reads : — MARKET FOR NEGRO VOTES McComas and Mudd Fractions Bid Openly from $2 to $25 a Head at Maryland Primaries. (Special to The New York Times.) Baltimore, Aug. 16. — In the Republican faction fight between Senator McComas and the anti-organi- zation combine at the primary election in the counties yesterday there was wholesale bartering in votes in Prince George County. About $25,000 was spent in this county alone in buying negro votes. At Upper Marlborough all kinds of ruses were worked by negroes to obtain funds from both factions, and they were for the most part successful. At least $2 each were paid for the black votes, but as a rule they brought from $5 to $25, One negro got $50 extra for voting twelve members of his family. As soon as the polling window was raised, the colored voters made a rush for it, but refrained from voting until supplied with the " long green." The men with the cash stood opposite the window