The Constitution of North Carolina[[669]] of 1835, as amended, provided that no free Negro, free mulatto, or free person of mixed blood, descended from Negro ancestors to the fourth generation inclusive, though one ancestor in each generation might have been a white person, should vote for members of the “senate or house of commons” of the State. Negroes who paid a certain poll tax were allowed to vote until this Amendment went into effect. Governor W. W. Kitchin,[[670]] of that State, says: “There were 21,000 free Negroes in North Carolina in 1835, 4,000 of whom were entitled then to vote.” After 1835 Negroes were not allowed to vote there again until after the War.
The Constitution of Tennessee[[671]] of 1834 provided that no person should be disqualified from voting in any election who was then by the laws of the State a competent witness in a court of justice against a white person. One cannot tell how many Negroes were qualified to vote under this provision. The Constitution of Wisconsin[[672]] of 1848 limited the privilege of voting to white persons, but the Supreme Court[[673]] of that State held in 1866 that suffrage had been extended to Negroes by a vote of the people at the general election on November 6, 1849.
Several States which at first allowed Negro freemen to vote later withdrew the privilege. Until the Revolution, they were allowed to vote in every State except Georgia and South Carolina. Between 1792 and 1834, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky denied the suffrage to Negroes. As has been seen, North Carolina permitted a restricted Negro suffrage until 1835. New Jersey took the suffrage from the Negro in 1807, Connecticut in 1814, and Pennsylvania in 1838; and Tennessee, in 1834, limited the right to those Negroes who were competent as witnesses against white persons. New York, in 1821, required a very high property qualification not required of white persons.[[674]] Wisconsin alone changed its law so as to allow Negroes to vote on equality with white persons. New York tried twice to do so, but failed each time.
In each of the acts of territorial government drawn up by Congress, suffrage was restricted to free white persons. This fact, together with the fact that the West Virginia Constitution of 1861–63 also restricted the suffrage to white persons, tends to show the attitude of the National Government in the early days toward Negro suffrage.
SUFFRAGE BETWEEN 1865 AND 1870
In 1865, the only States that permitted Negroes to vote on the same footing as white persons were Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. New York and Tennessee permitted a restricted Negro suffrage.
The changes in the suffrage laws between 1865 and 1870 indicate what might have taken place had not the United States interfered with the Fifteenth Amendment. The Reconstruction Constitutions[[675]] of the Southern States in 1868 and 1869 extended the suffrage to Negroes. These Constitutions, however, did not express the will of the Southern white people at the time in regard to suffrage. The Constitution of Maryland,[[676]] of 1867, permitted only white persons to vote; and that of Nebraska,[[677]] of 1866–67, under which it sought admission to the Union, did not give the suffrage to Negroes.
Negro suffrage was voted down in New York[[678]] in 1868, as it had been in 1846 and 1860, by a vote of 282,403 to 249,802. By the act of territorial government of Colorado, of 1861, suffrage was restricted to white persons. But an act of the legislature[[679]] of that Territory, enacted in November, 1861, seemed to extend the right to vote to Negroes. This was amended,[[680]] however, in 1864, by expressly excluding Negroes and mulattoes from the suffrage. The legislature of Connecticut[[681]] of 1865 proposed an amendment to the Constitution whereby Negroes would be given the right to vote, the same to be submitted to the people for their ratification. Minnesota[[682]] and Wisconsin,[[683]] in 1865, submitted constitutional amendments providing for Negro suffrage. According to Representative Hardwick,[[684]] of Georgia, “Negro suffrage was rejected by decisive majorities.” It was after the 1865 Amendment had been defeated at the polls in Wisconsin that the Supreme Court of that State, as has been seen, held that Negroes had been given the right to vote by a law of 1849.
The word “white” was stricken from the Constitution of Iowa[[685]] by the legislature of 1867–68, and this action was ratified by a vote of 105,384 to 81,384. Minnesota[[686]] amended its Constitution in 1868 so as to extend suffrage to Negroes. On December 30, 1867, the word “white” was stricken from the election laws of Dakota Territory.[[687]]
On June 8, 1867, Congress passed, over the President’s veto, a bill first introduced in 1865 establishing Negro suffrage in the District of Columbia. Before its passage, provision had been made by Congress to submit the question to a vote of the people. The extension of suffrage to Negroes was rejected by a vote of 6,521 to 35 in Washington City and 812 to 1 in Georgetown. In spite of this vote the Thirty-ninth Congress ordained Negro suffrage for the District. After four years, the government of the District was so changed that suffrage was taken from all the residents. In 1866, Congress established Negro suffrage in all the Territories of the United States.[[688]]