Growth of Equal Suffrage Sentiment. 
95 
“When I first came to this territory, seven years ago, a cor¬ 
poral’s guard could not be found to favor colored suffrage. Since 
then the public mind has been progressing. Last spring the 
County of Walworth gave about 400 majority in favor of it. 
Racine gave a majority for it. Rock and Milwaukee gave a 
large vote for it; and Waukesha gave a majority for it.” 1 
The article on suffrage originally submitted by the committee 
on general provisions in the second constitutional convention 
restricted the elective franchise to “ free white male persons, of 
the age of twenty-one years or upwards, ” and conferred upon 
the Legislature only the regulating authority embraced in the 
following provision: 
“ Laws shall be made for ascertaining by proper proofs the 
persons who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage hereby 
established. ” 
George Scagel, a delegate from Waukesha County, moved to 
strike out the word “white,” which was disagreed to. Horace 
Chase, of Milwaukee, later in the proceedings made a motion 
to the same effect, which was defeated by a vote of 45 to 22. 
Mr. Estabrook moved to substitute a new section, granting 
“universal suffrage to those now in the territory, and provid¬ 
ing for the further regulation of the right of suffrage by law. ” 
This motion failing, he afterward moved an amendment pro¬ 
viding that the Legislature should at any time have the power 
to admit colored persons to the right of suffrage. There was at 
first a majority of one in favor of his motion, but after a long 
and spirited debate the plan lost ground, and upon the question 
coming up a second time the amendment was defeated by a vote 
of 35 to 34. 
The friends of colored suffrage in the convention took the 
stand that it had been advocated in a resolution passed by the 
Whig Convention in Walworth County, and that many Demo¬ 
crats were in favor of it, as it was in harmony with Democratic 
principles. It was further argued that so far from being an 
Abolitionist measure, it would take from under the Abolitionists 
1 Winnebago, Marquette, Fond du Lac, Dodge and Jefferson Counties 
also gave majorities for it. The largest majority for it was in Wauke¬ 
sha County, where the vote was: Yes, 1,107; no, 617. 
