John Prentiss Poe (1836-1909)
MSA SC 3520-1509
Biography:
Born in Baltimore City, August 22, 1836. Son of Neilson Poe (second cousin of poet Edgar Allan Poe) and Josephine Emily (Clemm) Poe. Attended the French and English Academy; Mount St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg; Princeton College, graduated 1854. Studied law under his father. Admitted to the bar, 1857. Married Anne Johnson Hough or Howard on October 16, 1852; nine children included Marguerita, S. Johnson, Edgar A., John P., Jr., Neilson, Arthur, and Gresham. Died of a stroke in Ruxton, Baltimore County, October 14, 1909.
Clerk, Commercial & Famers Bank, Baltimore. Librarian, Baltimore Law Library. Engaged in the practice of law; later with his sons under the name John P. Poe & Sons. School commissioner, 1871-88. Professor of law, University of Maryland School of Law after 1869. Dean, University of Maryland School of Law, 1871-1909. Baltimore city counselor, 1882-84. President, Baltimore City Tax Commission, 1885. President, State Tax Commission, 1886. Member of Maryland Senate, Baltimore City, 1890, 1892. Codified Maryland public laws and ordinances of Baltimore. Attorney general, 1891-95. Member of the Joint Legislative Committee of Investigation into the activities of Treasurer Stevenson Archer, 1890. President, Maryland State Bar Association, 1898-99. President, Baltimore Bar Association, 1900. Delegate, Democratic National Convention, 1904. Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, 1907. Counsel to Democratic State Central Committee. Member, Old St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore.
In 1904, in partnership with Arthur Pue Gorman, Poe authored the "Poe Suffrage Amendment" that sought to disenfranchise black voters in Maryland by introducing a grandfather clause and an "understanding" clause. Critics charged that the amendment was unconstitutional, undemocratic and would undermine Maryland's entire way of government. Republicans saw the measure as a partisan attempt to weaken their party. White foreign-born citizens believed that the grandfather clause and the "understanding" requirement would work to against them as well as blacks. Black voters organized the Negro Suffrage League and established chapters throughout the state in order to marshal opposition to the amendment. As a result, voters defeated the Poe amendment at the polls by a significant margin.
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