language admitted them to the suffrage.

In the Constitution

of New York alone, of all the States up to 1868, was the negro expressly allowed to vote; but even there he was discriminated against by a heavy property qualification, not applicable to the whites, and which excluded about ninety per cent. of the negro voters.6

Ignoring the enforced acquiescence of the Southern States during the Reconstruction period, impartial negro suffrage, when made an issue before the people, has never obtained a majority vote in a single State of the Union, save in Iowa and Minnesota, during the fall of 1868;7 and, at the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861, it is believed that neither under the National, nor any State, government, was there a single office, civil or military, filled by a negro in the United States.8

This aversion of the American people to negro suffrage and office holding, was almost as great as their hostility to negro slavery. From early Colonial times a large portion, if not a majority, of the white people of this country have been opposed, at least in theory, to negro slavery. A majority of the States always prohibited it, and the remainder were deterred from abolishing it only because of practical difficulties. But, up to the Reconstruction Act of March 2nd, 1867, the people of no single State had ever voted for impartial negro suffrage, nor had any party (including the Abolitionists themselves) ever declared for it in a national platform. On the contrary, although in

5 The Constitutions of Maine and Rhode Island limited suffrage to "citizens of the United States." The Supreme Court of the United States in March, 1857, decided, in Scott v. Sandford, 19 How., 393, state that a free negro was not a citizen of the United States; but the suffrage clauses of these Constitutions were allowed to remain unchanged, although Rhode Island amended its Constitution in 1864 and Maine in 1865. See Poore's Constitutions. When the Fifteenth Amendment passed Congress, the Radicals thought Rhode Island would probably reject it. See New York Tribune of February 22nd, 1869, p. 1. 6 Thorp's Const. History of the United States, Vol. III., p. 227.

7 This statement ignores negro suffrage clauses in State Constitutions adopted since the existence of the Fifteenth Amendment, which left the people no choice in the matter. 8 Thorp's Const. History of the U. S., Vol. III., p. 227.

9 Even, of the

Abolition Party," in 1840, the "Liberty Abolitionists," in 1844; the Free Soilers," the Abolitionists" and the "Liberty League," in 1848; the Free Soil Democrats," in 1852 (whose National Convention elected Fred Douglas himself as secretary), and the " Radical Republicans," in 1864; not one of them advocated negro suffrage in their National Platforms. See McKee's National Platforms and the New York Tribune of August 12th, 1852.

the decade immediately preceding 1867 no less than twentyseven of the thirty-seven States then in the Union had amended their constitutions (many of them in respect of suffrage),10 yet, in no single instance was the franchise extended to negroes; but, in every case where political equality for negroes had been suggested, it had been voted down by decisive majorities. It must, therefore, never be supposed that the sentiment against negro slavery was, by any means, a sentiment in favor of negro suffrage. Even in some of the strongest anti-slavery States, so decided was the sentiment against negro suffrage that no greater reproach, nor more damaging charge, could be brought against a public man than that he favored political equality for negroes. As far back as 1836, Abraham Lincoln was on record as opposed to negro suffrage; and, in his memorable series of debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, in order that his strong anti-slavery views might not expose him to the charge of favoring the heresy of negro suffrage, he repeatedly emphasized his condemnation of it. In his first "pitched battle," as he called it, with Judge Douglas, at Ottawa, Ohio, he said:

"I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two which, in my judgment, will probably forbid their ever living together upon the footing of perfect equality; and, inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary; but I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence-the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man.'

Again, and upon a subsequent occasion, referring to the same subject in a public speech, he said:

10

11

Poore's Constitutions.

In a letter to the editor of the New Salem Journal, in 1836, Lincoln declared himself in favor of female suffrage, but restricted his advocacy to the "white" race. See Lincoln's works, Vol. I., p. 7.

"I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about, in any way, the social and political equality of the white and black races; I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office or intermarry with the white people; and I will say, in addition, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality."

Notwithstanding these repeated denials, it seems that the editor of an Ohio paper, in September, 1859, charged that Mr. Lincoln was really "in favor of negro suffrage." But, in a speech shortly afterwards, at Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Lincoln indignantly denied the charge; he quoted from his former speeches on the subject; and, in conclusion, said:

* *

"I did not say that I was in favor of negro suffrage; but * twice--once substantially and once expressly--I declared against it. * * * I presume the editor of that paper is an honest and truth-loving man, and that he will be greatly obliged to me for furnishing him, thus early, an opportunity to correct the misrepresentation he has made, before it has run so long that malicious people can call him a liar."12

These repeated declarations of Mr. Lincoln against negro suffrage were not only made in public speeches, but were published at the time in the newspapers far and wide; and, in the light of those views, of which he had never then indicated the slightest modification, he was nominated and elected President by the Republican party the next year. It was even claimed by the Republicans, at that time, that advocates of negro suffrage practically did not exist; and that the alleged favoring of it by their party was a baseless charge a kind of bugaboo gotten up by the Democrats to scare off Republican voters. In fact, Mr. Lincoln declared in one of his speeches about that period, that he had never seen any one who was in favor of political equality for negroes.1

13

12 Lincoln and Douglas Debates, p. 364, et seq.

13 Idem., p. 365.

Such was the sentiment of the country when the Civil War broke out in 1861; and, with the possible exception of New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts, there can be no doubt that the advocates of impartial negro suffrage could not then have mustered a corporal's guard in a single State of the Union. In the course, however, of the next decade, covering the period of the war and the Reconstruction, events transpired and conditions arose which made negro suffrage possible of accomplishment. The principal agencies which contributed to this result were: First, gratitude to the negro soldiers who had served in the Federal armies-to "save the Union," as it was said; second, apprehension lest the so-called "rebel element" regain control of the Federal Government; and, third, the desire to perpetuate the Republican party in power. Thus we have, as the inspiration for negro suffrage, gratitude, apprehension and politics-these three; but the greatest of these was politics.

In tracing the progress of negro suffrage in the United States, from the beginning of the Civil War up to the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment, little notice will be taken of the acts of the Confederate States. That the white people of those States were always unanimous in their opposition to negro suffrage, and that their final submission to it was in invitum, are facts too well known to bear contradiction, or even rehearsal. The Union States alone being free, from the close of the war till the proclamation of the Amendment, their acts only are worth considering, as expressive of public sentiment during that period.

The first opportunity after January 1st, 1861, which a negro suffrage sentiment may be said to have had for expression, was in the "Loyal" Convention which met at Jefferson City, Mo., on February 28th, 1861. This convention was composed of Unionists, and remained in session, off and on, till July 1st, 1863. It adopted numerous amendments to the State Constitution, but none looking to negro suffrage. On November 26th, 1861, at Wheeling, another "Loyal" Convention assembled to form the first constitution for the proposed new State of West

14

14 Poore's Constitutions.

Virginia, and to give expression to the anti-Confederate, antislavery, sentiments of the people. This convention adopted provisions abolishing negro slavery, as did the one in Missouri; but it, also, failed to suggest negro suffrage. During the next year, 1862, only Michigan amended its constitution, but no indication developed therein of the existence of any negro suffrage sentiment in that State either.

In the meantime, the valiant conduct and valuable services of the negroes in the Union Army, during the trying campaign of 1862, entirely removed the prejudices which many northern men had entertained against their employment as soldiers, and fully reconciled them to the propriety and expediency of the military measure of emancipation on January 1st, 1863. But when, in December, 1863, President Lincoln, by proclamation, unfolded his plan of reconstruction for the South, he expressly excluded negroes from participation in the elections for the proposed reconstruction conventions,15 and expressly declared that the Federal Government would require nothing for the freed negroes except a recognition of their freedom, and a provision for their education-not a hint, nor suggestion, of their being, even ultimately, admitted to the franchise, is contained either in this proclamation or in his message to Congress on the same day, in which he reports, explains and defends it.16

While negro suffrage, at this time, was advocated by no party, and almost by no leading man outside of Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, yet it was now beginning, for the first time, to gather advocates here and there through the country, some of whom felt it was due, as a reward, to the negroes for their patriotic service in the army, and others, that it should be meted out, as a punishment, to the rebellious white men of the South, whom they denounced as traitors and hated with a fanatical venom, difficult now to appreciate.

A speech delivered by Mr. Sumner about two years later, at Worcester, Mass., fairly illustrates the sentiments of some

15 Messages and papers of the Presidents, Vol. VI., p. 214.

16 Idem., p. 189.