The Negro in America. 221 



After the Civil War two amendments to the Constitution of the 

 United States were adopted, namely, the 13th and 15th. The 15th 

 amendment reads as follows : — " The right of citizens of the United 

 States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States 

 or by any State on account of race, colour, or previous condition of 

 servitude. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 

 appropriate legislation." 



In all the Southern States the negroes were illiterate, and by 

 degrees laws were passed calling for an educational qualification 

 before the franchise was granted. This law has debarred the vast 

 majority of the ignorant, penniless negroes from the ballot-box. 

 Practically all the Southern States have passed laws qualifying the 

 franchise. Here is an epitome of the legislation :■— In all of the 

 Southern States any negro who possesses a limited amount of taxable 

 property, valued at $300 (^60 about), and can read and write the 

 English language, is allowed to vote; in three of the Southern States 

 any negro who can read and write the English language, and has paid 

 his poll-tax can vote, although he own no taxable property ; and in 

 three States he can vote if he owns taxable property, even though 

 he cannot read or write. In none of the Southern States is a negro 

 legally disqualified from voting because he is a negro ; in none of the 

 Southern States is he disqualified if he possesses $300 worth of 

 property and gives evidence of his ability to use intelligently the 

 English language. It was simple enough for the Southern States 

 to adopt these laws, but they had to pass before the searchlight of 

 the highest tribunal in the land, to decide whether they infringed 

 the constitution of the United States. When the Supreme Court of 

 the United States decided that these laws of the Southern States 

 did not conflict with the Constitution of the United States, there was 

 a feeling of relief in the political life of the South. 



The contention of the South all along has been that each State 

 has the right to decide who shall vote, and who shall not vote. It is 

 not a question for the National Government to decide. 



What an extraordinary page of history is this experience of 

 negro suffrage in the South ! The conquerors declared that the 

 freed slaves should become full-fledged citizens at once. The former 

 masters quietly made up their minds to die rather than lose their 

 ascendency. Their ingenuity saved a situation which could never 

 have been won by force. It was one of the critical situations of 

 modern times. Had the Southern people been of a less heroic mould, 

 the future race might have been negroid, for you cannot acknowledge 

 the absolute political equality of a race for ever, without acknow- 

 ledging the social equality as well. Instead of the future of the 

 South being worthy of the records and ideals of the Anglo-Saxon 

 race, it would probably have sunk to the low level of a South 

 American Republic. Now in the South laws of restriction have been 

 passed to keep out the vast bulk of illiterate, indigent negroes, to take 

 from them what they never had a right to, the vote given by a power 

 Avhich had no right to give it. 



