1 195. Woman suffrage summed up 1 The doctrine of natural rights, together with a large number of Widening of the other factors, operated to widen the suffrage in the nineteenth century. suffrage. and Nominally, universal manhood suffrage seems to have been attained when in 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution declared that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall The Fifteenth not be denied or abridged on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. Meanwhile the agitation for the extension of the suffrage to women was growing, culminating in 1920 in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which declared that the right of suf- Nineteenth amendments. frage shall not be denied on account of sex. Much has been written for and against woman suffrage, and upon the question of whether the exercise of the ballot by women is beneficial, injurious or neutral in its effects. In 1919, Professor Munro summed up the discussion as follows: for the to women. Various arguments are advanced both for and against the policy Arguments of giving full voting rights to women. Women are citizens; many extension of of them own property; and all are so affected by the workings of full suffrage government as to be directly interested in its efficiency. In some fields of law and regulation, such as those relating to the care of the dependent and delinquent classes, to hours and conditions of female and child labor, women have a particularly vital interest. It is claimed that the extension of the suffrage to women would in some degree offset the political influence of the foreign-born element in large communities since the figures show that far more male than female immigrants come to this country. It is said that women, if given the ballot, would constitute a powerful element in opposition to the vicious influences in American political and social life, the saloon, the gambling den, the brothel, and so on. And finally, it is urged that where women have been given the suffrage the result has been made manifest in the humanizing of the laws and in the improved tone of political life. In opposition to the policy it is argued that women would not use the ballot wisely, being actuated by their sympathies and emotions 1 From William Bennett Munro, The Government of the United States. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1919; pp. 81-82. Arguments against such a step. What experience proves. Conclusion. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments. rather than by their judgment; that they would not develop an active interest in politics or come to the polls in reasonably large numbers; that the extension of the suffrage to women would tend to weaken the family as a social and economic unit; that it would greatly increase the expense of elections without making government more truly representative; and that it would merely widen the area of political activity at the expense of normal domestic life. The results of woman suffrage in the states which have had a sufficient experience with the institution seem to show that neither the merits nor defects of the policy have been as marked as its advocates or opponents respectively would have us believe. Women have used the suffrage much as men have used it, showing no more interest and no less, using the ballot with great intelligence at some times and with little at others, even as men have done for many generations, influenced by their prejudices, whipped into line by party bosses, all as men are, and apparently to the same degree. The granting of voting rights to women in a dozen states of the Union has not demoralized domestic life in any of them, nor, on the other hand, has it had noticeably effective results in the way of securing these states a priority over the others in the humanitarianism of their laws. The chief merit of woman suffrage in these communities has been that of rendering content a large group of citizens without in any perceptible measure impairing the economic, social, or political order. 196. How the Negro is kept from voting1 After the Civil War the suffrage was profoundly affected by the Negro question. In 1865 the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery; in 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment provided that any state denying the vote to any of its male citizens might suffer a reduction in its Congressional representation; and in 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment declared that the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. As a matter of theory, and so far as the 1 From the American Political Science Association, Proceedings of the Second Annual Meeting, 1905. Albert Bushnell Hart, "The Realities of Negro Suffrage." Lancaster, Pa., 1906; pp. 159-162. suffrage is concerned, these amendments placed the Negro on a level with the white citizen. As a matter of fact, a large proportion of our potential Negro voters have been systematically excluded from the polls. Some of the ways in which Negroes may be kept from voting are discussed by Professor Hart in the following selection: Throughout the last thirty years the tendency in the northern Trend of the states has been to abolish all property and tax qualifications. suffrage In the southern states public sentiment has worked the other way. in the South. With a view to cut down Negro suffrage a number of southern states have enacted tax qualifications rather high for the conditions. The disqualifications for crime have also been somewhat enlarged and possibly a penalty involving disfranchisement is sometimes affixed by judges upon a Negro which would not be assigned to a white man. movement hopelessly disfranchised for three decades. The important thing to remember in this process is that as a mat- The Negroes ter of fact the Negro vote has been suppressed. . . . There is hardly room for discussion with our southern brethren as to whether they mean or expect to take away Negro suffrage - they have done so practically. No Negro is a candidate for any state office, or, except in a very few communities, for any county or local office. Some Negroes have always voted, but they have never been allowed to exercise a balance of power between two state parties or between two candidates for Congress. They might safely vote for a man who was certain to be elected, or for a man in a sure minority; but in the essential quality of a vote, that it may go to convert a minority into a majority, the Negroes have for three decades been hopelessly disfranchised. ... [Recently there is a movement] for a new and more sweeping Recently method of hedging in the Negro vote by state constitutional amend ments. The purpose of this new legislation. . there is a movement to restrict the Negro suffrage by constitu tional amendment. [is admittedly] to cut out most of the ignorant Negro voters, while leaving in most of the white voters, [and at the same time to avoid a technical violation of the Fifteenth Amendment.] Six states - Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, and Virginia — have now framed such amendments. . . . Many of these amendments are complicated and limited one part by another, but the main principles of are as follows: The vote may be denied because (1) conviction of crime, (2) lack of property, (3) failure to pay tax receipts, (5) failure to pass an educational test, (6) or fail ure to prove descent from a person entitled to vote prior to January I, 1867. (1) Nearly all the constitutions in terms prohibit persons convicted of certain crimes from ever voting again; for instance in Mississippi, the offences enumerated are "bribery, burglary, theft, arson, obtaining money under false pretense, embezzlement, perjury, or bigamy." ... (2) Two states Alabama and Mississippi have a moderate property qualification as one of several alternatives. (3) All the six states except Louisiana require the prepayment of poll taxes for one, two or three years. (4) In two states, South Carolina and Mississippi, the voter must be able to prove at the polls that he has paid taxes, and since Negroes are notoriously careless about keeping such papers, they are much more likely to lose the necessary papers. (5) All the constitutions have an educational clause; but in two states taxes on property worth $300 may be a substitute for reading and writing; and in Mississippi it is provided that the voter must "be able to read any section of the constitution of this state; or he shall be able to understand the same when read to him, or give a reasonable interpretation thereof." . . . The whole machinery of [such clauses] is in the hands of the white election officers, who are expected to be easily convinced that a white man understands and with difficulty convinced in the case of a Negro. (6) Five of the six constitutions contain the remarkable "grandfather clause," which in somewhat different phraseology sets forth that the descendant of a person who was a voter prior to January 1, 1867, shall vote, notwithstanding his inability to satisfy the intelligence or property qualifications. This is the most doubtful part of the whole system, for it sets up an exemption from the ordinary qualifications which applies only to members of one race and cannot possibly be acquired by members of the Negro race. ... 197. Civic capacity cannot be created by proclamation1 In the whole of American politics there is no more inflammable subject than that of Negro suffrage. Whatever attitude one may 1 From the American Law Review, Vol. XLV. Charles Wallace Collins, "The Fourteenth Amendment and the Negro Race Question"; pp. 853-856. take upon the subject, some faction is certain to be incensed or alienated. No one can deny that the facts of Negro suffrage are substantially as set forth by Professor Hart in the above selection. But why has the Negro been disfranchised? And who is to blame for this condition? Many authorities claim that the Negro was disfranchised chiefly because the exercise of the vote by ignorant, incapable Negroes threatened the South with destruction. And for many of the evil effects of disfranchisement responsibility is placed upon those who insisted upon admitting the freed slaves suddenly and completely to full civil rights. That civic capacity cannot be created by proclamation, but is the result of slow growth, is the underlying theme of the following selection by Charles Wallace Collins, writing in the American Law Review: Inflammable nature of the question of Negro suffrage. version of In conclusion, we may ask what positive gain has the operation The perof the Fourteenth Amendment been to the Negro race? We can point a noble to nothing. All attempts at Federal intervention have been fruit- idealism. less in permanent results. The operation of the Amendment in its relation to the Negro race has in it all of the irony of history. It is the perversion of a noble idealism that the lowest and most benighted element of the African race should in these enlightened days be the ones to rise up and claim the sacred heritage of Anglo-Saxon liberties which, through the fortune of circumstance, have become embodied in the supreme law of the land in the shape of the Fourteenth Amendment. ment is the natural fruit of prolonged toil and sacrifice, The words " 'citizen," "life, liberty and property," "due process Self-governof law," and "the equal protection of the laws," were born through a travail in which the African had no share. They breathe the sacred symbols of a race which paid the price for greatness. They are the fruit of unmeasured sacrifice and suffering, of innumerable and lengthened struggles through defeat and failure to final victory. They are the key words of that race which has, among all of the peoples of the earth, shown the highest genius for law and government. They can never be superimposed from without. The great truths which they embody can come into being only through the birth pangs of the inner life. The Fourteenth Amendment declared the Negro to be a citizen of the United States of America. . . . But it is a serious matter to |