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Winning the Vote: A History of Voting Rights
by Steven Mintz
John and Rebecca Moores Professor of
History, University of Houston |
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The Constitution and Voting Rights
The U.S. Constitution left the issue of voting rights
up to the states. The only thing that the Constitution
said about voting was that those entitled to vote for
the "most numerous Branch of the state legislature" could
vote for members of the House of Representatives.
Political Democratization
During the first half of the nineteenth century, the election
process changed dramatically. Voting by voice was replaced
by voting by written ballot. This was not the same thing
as a secret ballot, which was instituted only in the late
nineteenth century; parties printed ballots on colored
paper, so that it was still possible to determine who
had voted for which candidate.
The most significant political innovation of the early
nineteenth century was the abolition of property qualifications
for voting and officeholding. Hard times resulting from
the panic of 1819 led many people to demand an end to
property restrictions on voting and officeholding. In
1800, just three states (Kentucky, New Hampshire, and
Vermont) had universal white manhood suffrage. By 1830,
ten states permitted white manhood suffrage without qualification.
Eight states restricted the vote to taxpayers, and six
imposed a property qualification for suffrage. In 1860,
just five states limited suffrage to taxpayers and only
two still imposed property qualifications. And after 1840,
a number of states, mainly in the Midwest, allowed immigrants
who intended to become citizens to vote.
Pressure for expansion of voting rights came from propertyless
men; from territories eager to attract settlers; and from
political parties seeking to broaden their base.
Ironically, the period that saw the advent of universal
white manhood suffrage also saw new restrictions imposed
on voting by African-Americans. Every new state that joined
the Union after 1819 explicitly denied blacks the right
to vote. In 1855, only five states -- Maine, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont -- allowed African-Americans
to vote without significant restrictions. In 1826, only
sixteen black New Yorkers were qualified to vote.
The era of universal white manhood suffrage also saw other
restrictions on voting. In New Jersey, the one state that
had allowed women property holders to vote, women lost
the right to vote. Twelve states forbade paupers from
voting and two dozen states excluded felons. After 1830,
interest in voting registration increased. There were
also some attempts to impose literacy tests and prolonged
residence requirements (ranging up to 21 years) in the
1850s.
The Dorr War
The transition from property qualifications to universal
white manhood suffrage occurred gradually, without violence
and with surprisingly little dissension, except in Rhode
Island, where lack of progress toward democratization
provoked an episode known as the Dorr War.
In 1841, Rhode Island, still operating under a Royal Charter
granted in 1663, restricted suffrage to landowners and
their eldest sons. The charter lacked a bill of rights
and grossly underrepresented growing industrial cities,
such as Providence, in the state legislature. As Rhode
Island grew increasingly urban and industrial, the state's
landless population increased and fewer residents were
eligible to vote. By 1841, just 11,239 out of 26,000 adult
males were qualified to vote.
In 1841, Thomas W. Dorr, a Harvard-educated attorney,
organized an extralegal convention to frame a new state
constitution and abolish voting restrictions. The state's
governor declared Dorr and his supporters guilty of insurrection,
proclaimed a state of emergency, and called out the state
militia. Dorr tried unsuccessfully to capture the state
arsenal at Providence. He was arrested, found guilty of
high treason, and sentenced to life imprisonment at hard
labor. To appease popular resentment, the governor pardoned
Dorr the next year, and the state adopted a new constitution
in 1843. This constitution extended the vote to all taxpaying
native-born adult males (including African-Americans).
But it imposed property requirements and lengthy residence
requirements on immigrants.
Rhode Island was unusual in having a large urban, industrial,
and foreign-born working class. It appears that fear of
allowing this group to attain political power explains
the state's strong resistance to voting reform.
The Civil War and Reconstruction
Although Abraham Lincoln had spoken about extending the
vote to black soldiers, opposition to granting suffrage
to African-American men was strong in the North. Between
1863 and 1870, fifteen Northern states and territories
rejected proposals to extend suffrage to African-Americans.
During Reconstruction, for a variety of reasons, a growing
number of Republicans began to favor extending the vote
to African-American men. Many believed that African-Americans
needed the vote to protect their rights. Some felt that
black suffrage would allow the Republican party to build
a base in the South.
The Reconstruction Act of 1867 required the former Confederate
states to approve new constitutions, which were to be
ratified by an electorate that included black as well
as white men. In 1868, the Republican party went further
and called for a Fifteenth Amendment that would prohibit
states from denying the vote based on race or previous
condition of servitude. A proposal for a stronger amendment
that would have prohibited states from denying or abridging
the voting rights of adult males of sound mind (with the
exception of felons and those who had engaged in rebellion
against the United States) was defeated.
A variety of methods -- including violence in which hundreds
of African-Americans were murdered, property qualification
laws, gerrymandering, and fraud -- were used by Southern
whites to reduce the level of black voting. The defeat
in 1891 of the Federal Elections Bill, which would have
strengthened the federal government's power to supervise
elections, prevent suppression of the black vote, and
overturn fraudulent elections, ended congressional efforts
to enforce black voting rights in the South.
The Mississippi Plan
In 1890, Mississippi pioneered new methods to prevent
African-Americans from voting. Through lengthy residence
requirements, poll taxes, literacy tests, property requirements,
cumbersome registration procedures, and laws disenfranchising
voters for minor criminal offenses, Southern states drastically
reduced black voting. In Mississippi, just 9,000 of 147,000
African-Americans of voting age were qualified to vote.
In Louisiana, the number of black registered voters fell
from 130,000 to 1,342.
Meanwhile, grandfather clauses in these states exempted
whites from all residence, poll tax, literacy, and property
requirements if their ancestors had voted prior to enactment
of the Fifteenth Amendment.
The Late Nineteenth Century
Fears of corruption and of fraudulent voting led a number
of Northern and Western states to enact "reforms" similar
to those in the South. Reformers were especially troubled
by big-city machines that paid or promised jobs to voters.
Reforms that were enacted included pre-election registration,
long residence qualifications, revocation of state laws
that permitted non-citizens to vote, disfranchisement
of felons, and adoption of the Australian ballot (which
required voters to place a mark by the name of the candidate
they wished to vote for). By the 1920s, thirteen Northern
and Western states barred illiterate adults from voting
(in 1924, Oregon became the last state to adopt a literacy
test for voting). Many Western states prohibited Asians
from voting.
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