Gorman family papers

Arthur Pue Gorman Papers Gorman's papers highlight the workings of Maryland's Democratic Party machine, especially its decline beginning about 1903. Two issues which reveal waning Democratic Party regularity were the Panama Canal Treaty, 1903, and the Poe amendment to the Maryland Constitution which proposed to disfranchise Negroes and foreignborn.

Gorman was the minority leader in the Senate and a member of the committee on inter-oceanic canals when the Panama Canal Treaty was debated in 1903. He hoped to strengthen the Democratic Party for the 1904 elections by embarrassing the Republicans with an inquiry into the U.S. role in the Panamanian Revolution. Desire for the canal was stronger than Party loyalty, however, and Gorman had difficulties keeping his party members in line. This issue is discussed in the detailed diary (December 1903 - March 1904) Gorman kept during the negotiations. The diary only covers these few months. It is in Box 2.

In 1905 Democratic Party regularity in Maryland suffered a defeat when Isidor Rayner, the Junior U.S. Senator, broke with the party to oppose the Poe amendment to the Maryland Constitution. This was an attack against Gorman as well as the Party since Gorman drafted the amendment. The amendment was aimed at restricting the franchise and had a grandfather clause and a literacy test. Rayner was urged to oppose the amendment by Baltimore Jews. This he did in October 1905. There is much about Rayner's treachery to the party: letters between Gorman and Rayner, newspaper clippings, and excerpts of Rayner's speeches (1890s-1904) which attacked Negro suffrage and which Gorman collected to prove how unreliable Rayner was. There is also a copy of the Poe amendment. These papers document a bitter and damaging intraparty fight.

Two other items deal with the Democratic Party. The Party's decline began with the 1897 election, and the collection includes Gorman's memorandum assessing the defeat and its effect on the Party. There is also an interview (1901) of Gorman concerning a new federal election law.

There is a smaller amount of material showing Gorman in his heyday. Letters in the 1880s are patronage requests, and there is a letter (1894) from Grover Cleveland asking Gorman's advice on appointments. Also included are copies (1885) of letters between August Belmont and Nathaniel de Rothschild. Belmont sent these letters to Gorman as proof that Belmont had not been angling for the British mission during the 1882 campaign. Other correspondents soliciting and/or advising were: Governors John Lee Carroll (1884-1905) and Elihu E. Jackson (1884-99), Cardinal Gibbons (1893-96), Paul Dana (1890), Edward Lloyd (1891), John Walter Smith (1894), Andrew Carnegie (1895-1905), I.Freeman Rasin (1895), W.C. Whitney (1895), Marcus Daly (1896, 1899), William Jennings Bryan (1896, 1900), Josephus Daniels (1901), Alton Parker (1904), and Murray Vandiver (1904).

Topics covered included: Tamany Hall (1890), the Force Bill (federal election law, 1890), Wilson-Gorman tariff (1894-95), campaign strategy in Maryland elections (1895, 1897, 1901, 1905), and in national elections (1896, 1900, 1904), the gold standard (1895), need for a pro-Democratic Party newspaper in Baltimore (1893), Theodore Roosevelt's dinner with Booker T. Washington (1901), erection of a Senate office building (1905), and an attack on reform leader Charles J. Bonaparte (1905).

The collection contains 7 scrapbooks (1883-1904) which appear to have been kept by Gorman. The clippings are filed by the paper in which they appeared and chart the reporting of the Democratic Party in the Baltimore Sun, American, News, and Herald. There is one scrapbook (1898-1903) of clippins about Gorman's career.

Hannah [Donegan] Gorman Papers These papers (1906, 1910) are letters of condolence on her husband's death and a copy of the oration read at her funeral.

Arthur Pue Gorman, Jr. Papers These papers (1906-1920) are letters of condolence on his father's death, a few letters concerning his political career, and 3 scrapbooks (1900-1920) of clippings about his political activities.