96 
Gregory—Negro Suffrage in Wisconsin. 
the ground on which they stood, as it would leave them no cause 
of complaint. The opponents of the principle argued that the 
people had decided against it, and that if embodied in the con¬ 
stitution it would result in the rejection of that instrument by 
the voters at the polls; or, if not that, then its rejection by 
Congress. To the objection last enumerated, the retort was 
made that Congress could not refuse to accept a state constitu¬ 
tion for the reason that it guaranteed a republican form of 
government. 
Finally a compromise was arrived at. The article on suffrage 
in the constitution adopted by the convention and ratified by the 
people on the second Monday of March, 1848, conferred the right 
of suffrage not only upon the whites, but also upon “persons of 
Indian blood who have once been declared by law of Congress to 
be citizens of the United States, any subsequent law of Congress 
to the contrary notwithstanding,” and upon “civilized persons 
of Indian descent not members of any tribe.” It furthermore 
provided “ that the Legislature may at any time extend by law 
the right of suffrage to persons not herein enumerated;” stipu¬ 
lating, however, that “no such law shall be in force until the 
same shall have been submitted to a vote of the people at a gen¬ 
eral election, and approved by a majority of all the votes cast 
at such election. ” 
It is a fact not popularly known that since 1849 members of 
the African race have been clothed by the law of Wisconsin with 
the right to vote. There is an element of romantic interest in 
the circumstance that the law which took down the color-bar to 
citizenship remained in abeyance for nearly seventeen years. 
The state had been organized for less than twelve months 
when the Legislature provided for the submission to the people 
of a law extending the elective franchise to persons of African 
blood. Sentiment on the subject was not confined within party 
lines. In the constitutional convention, as we have seen, Horace 
Chase, who was a sterling old-school Democrat, was one of the 
foremost advocates of a liberal provision regarding negro suf¬ 
frage. The same Legislature that submitted this law to the 
people had elected a Democrat, Isaac P. Walker, to the United 
.States Senate. Within three months after Walker’s election it 
