The Negro and the elective franchise. A series of papers and a sermon

by Archibald Henry Grimké; Charles C. Cook; Francis J. Grimké; John Hope; John L. Love; Kelly Miller

The potential voting strength of the Negro population in the United States is, according to the last census, three times as great as was that of the white population in 1775 when the Declaration of Independence published to the world the modern, though sound, practical and eminently safe political creed that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. The number of Negro males of voting age is approximately three millions, a number equal to the entire white population at the beginning of the war for Independence. The total Negro population in the United States in 1900 was three times larger than was the total white population which battled against King George and the British Parliament for the purpose of securing a voice in the choice of those who levy taxes and enact the laws whose weight and obligation fall equally upon the whole body of citizens.

In the North Atlantic, the North Central, and the Western census divisions of the United States, the potential voting strength of the Negroes is more than a quarter million. It is larger than was the combined prohibition and socialist vote in 1900 and exceeds by nearly a hundred thousand the total combined vote cast for the present governors of the four states of Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and Alabama. In many sections of the North and West the Negro population is sparse and scattering, varying all the way from one in Scott County in Indiana to 63,000 in Philadelphia. Yet in many localities where there is almost an even balance of the two chief parties, the Negro vote is competent to decide the results of election. In the states of Delaware Indiana, Ohio, Connecticut, New Jersey, and several districts in New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois, a united, coherent Negro vote may frequently determine both local and national elections. This is shown by the returns in 1902 for Congressional election in four districts in Indiana, two in New Jersey, four in Ohio, and two in Massachusetts and Connecticut, where the Negro vote was of sufficient size to have thrown the election to either party. In state and local elections where party fealty is not always so strong as in national elections, owing to dissatisfaction with both men and measures, the potentiality of the Negro vote can be made very real and effective as well as respectable. The municipal wards and legislative districts in the large commercial and manufacturing centers of the North and West furnish undoubted opportunities for the Negro vote to make itself felt and to win regard and respect as far away as the United States Senate.

The foregoing facts and considerations suggest interesting possibilities and, in view of the conditions affecting the political, civil, and economic well being of the people of color in the United States, they create a demand and an obligation with reference to the use of which the Negro voter should make of his right of the franchise.

The chief tenet of modern political philosophy is that the participation of the people in the government is the only way by which their liberties can be guaranteed and their economic and industrial happiness safeguarded. Out of this conviction which has taken hold of men almost everywhere has resulted in the universal movement towards democracy. The democratic triumph which has marked the past hundred years and has been accompanied by marvelous achievements of human endeavor—achievements which could not have been accomplished except under conditions of freedom—has not been won without stupendous struggle and temporary defeats and disappointments. At every forward step, the movement has encountered unrelenting and seemingly irresistible opposition of privilege. Even here in the United States where, barring absurd contradictions, the spirit of democracy began so conspicuously to assert itself under the fostering genius of Jefferson, skillful and powerful resistance has been constant and implacable. Aristocratic privilege, intrenched in power, has grudgingly given way to the demands of manhood rights, and manhood suffrage, and even to-day, in the attempt to rehabilitate itself, it is bold enough to make the ridiculous assertion that the right of suffrage, even in a republican form of government, is not a natural and inherent right of citizenship, but merely a privilege to be granted or withheld at pleasure by a select few for whose assumed authority no power on earth or in heaven is responsible.

Whatever opinions may be entertained contrary to the doctrine and increasing practice of government by the consent of the governed, the fact is undeniable that as man has gained and exercised the right of participation in government, special privilege for the few has had to give way to the condition of equal opportunity for all. Abuses have been swept away and the door of opportunity has been opened for all. Thus has the ballot proven to be man's sure and effective weapon of defense against tyranny and proscriptive government.

All classes of our varied population, with possibly one exception, have recognized this truth and have acted in accordance with it. German, Irish, Jew; artisan, farmer and merchant—all have found the ballot a remedy for social, economic, and political ills that have had their origin in unjust laws or the partial administration of law. All have used it with wonderful effect towards the betterment of their condition. Grievances of one group have been allied with those of another group; industrial discontent growing out of capitalistic wrongs, political distempers due to governmental abuses or the enforcement of discriminatory laws; the deep seated consciousness of ethnic injustice in the industrial or political scheme—all have combined and arrayed themselves for redress which every branch of the political machinery has in the end endeavored to grant. The demands of the Slavonic yeomanry of the Northwest that a check be placed upon railroad combinations are not less effective in securing compliance than those of the merchants and shippers of our commercial centers that just and equal rates of transportation shall be enforced. The underground toilers of the mining regions of Pennsylvania and Illinois know that their grievances will receive the same respectful attention and consideration as the mandates of the coal barons, and they systematically scrutinize the attitude and the actions of public servants and hold them to a strict performance of promise and duty in so far as their rights and interests are concerned. Thus it is that in the United States as in all representative governments the ballot is the surest means of securing a "square deal;" and it is incumbent upon the three hundred thousand Negro voters of the north and west to recognize its value and to make the same use of it as is made by all other aggrieved elements of the body politic.

A catalogue of the wrongs and injuries suffered by the Negro citizens of the United States, first on account of discriminatory and proscriptive legislation; secondly, on account of the failure to enforce the laws designed to uphold and protect their citizenship; and thirdly, on account of the most palpable and outrageous violation of the sacred rights of life, liberty and property, make the "long train of abuses and usurpations" committed, according to the Declaration of Independence, by the King of Great Britain against his colonies in America appear as the gentle chastisements of a benificent ruler. Of all the complex elements of American citizenship, the Negro is the solitary victim of legal, social, industrial, and political discrimination. He alone is singled out by the law for disparagement which fact encourages and enforces the multitude of civil and industrial discriminations and injuries that tend to deprive him of the respectability due not only to a citizen but to man. To the tax levy, to the obligation to bear arms for the common defense as well as to all other mandates of the government, he is equally amenable with other citizens; but he is excepted from a full share of the benefits of citizenship. In all stations of society and in all departments of government, his protests fall upon deaf or indifferent ears, and the very sufferings and wrongs which he suffers are frequently made the text for sermonizings on his short-comings. If the homilies published from the pulpits, in the press, and even sometimes from the higher branches of the government are to be believed, the Negro is the most unsaintly citizen of the republic, in spite of the fact that he seldom commits "the robust crimes of the whites" or has the chance to defraud the government, to wreck financial institutions, or rob widows and orphans.

The burden of these outrages lies heavily upon the hearts and minds of the black men of America, yet the remedy, if they could but realize it, lies largely within their power. Throughout the republic, every man identified with the Negro race, though he may not be personally or locally subjected directly to the humiliations and wrongs which oppress and degrade the great mass of his kind, feels their bitter sting and resents them. In public assemblies, upon the public highways and common carriers, in the drawing room and around the secrecy of the fireside, the fact of injustice is the one inevitable and irrepressible theme of conversation and reflection; and the perennial and ever present question in the minds of all, whether of low or high degree, is By what means can the situation be altered? Men of different opinions are endeavoring more or less honestly to answer the question, but one of the surest and quickest means is at the command of the three hundred thousand Negro voters of the north and west, who have it in their power by an intelligent, united, and courageous exercise of their high privilege and right to demand the same respect and consideration for their interest and well being as any other class of men who register their wills at the ballot-box.

Thaddeus Stevens once said that control of republics depends upon numbers and not upon the quality of the citizens. In the last analysis this is true, but in all governments by parties the smaller number is often more important than the larger. The strength of the Negro vote in the North and West in times of party crises consists not so much in the number of that vote as in the use which is made of it. In thirty northern and western cities, it can very effectively contribute to the improvement of existing conditions. It is wonderfully powerful, if intelligently directed, in the cities of Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and New York.

The effectiveness of this vote depends more upon the use which is made of it in local and state elections than in national elections. The bonds which unite the interests of the local, state and national officials and politicians are very real and subtle—the weakest point being always the local politician. His election and success often turns upon less than a score of votes and consequently he is not inclined to disdain a single voter. His interests are inseparably connected with the interests and ambitions of the men who occupy luxurious berths in Congress and in the national or state government. In all matters concerning the interests of the Negro, the local politician's position can be known and his actions are open to close view. When his acts do not accord or square with the interest of the colored voter, he can be left to find other friends and supporters.