"XVth Amendment"
http://harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?
Month=March&Date=12

Harpers Weekly , March 12, 1870
http://www.Blackhistory.harpweek.com




Following the Civil War and abolition, the issue of voting rights for black men became an increasingly controversial political issue. By the spring of 1867, Congress required that former Confederate states include black manhood suffrage as a condition for readmission to the Union. Under this proposal black men would constitute the majority of voters in many Southern states, while in the North, black men could vote in only five of the six New England states. Although Radical Republicans such as Charles Sumner advocated for black voting rights on the basis of legal and political necessity, the issue was defeated in a number of popular referenda throughout 1867. In 1868 the Republican national platform adopted the seemingly contradictory position of endorsing a congressional mandate of black manhood suffrage in the former Confederacy, while stating that the issue should be left up to the rest of the states to decide for themselves.

The election of 1868 however saw the Democratic party gain seats in the House of Representatives, with both Georgia and Louisiana electing Democratic legislatures. In an effort to shore up party support and prevent a retreat from Reconstruction in the South, the outgoing Republican Congress decided to propose and vote upon a constitutional amendment before the new Congress, with its smaller Republican majority in the House, took office. The Fifteenth Amendment, stating that the right to vote could not be denied because of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude" passed Congress in February, 1869.

Quickly ratified by Republican dominated states in New England, the Fifteenth Amendment met with resistance in the Mid-Atlantic states. New Jersey defeated the measure and Delaware would not approve the amendment until 1901. However, on March 30, 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment became part of the U.S Constitution. Ironically, as black men gained the right to vote throughout the United States, they systematically lost it in the South as Reconstruction came to an end. State requirements such as poll taxes and literacy tests, coupled with intimidation and violence, would serve to undermine the impact of the Fifteenth Amendment.

Considered one of the most significant newspapers of its time, this unsigned cartoon appeared in Harper's Weekly on March 12, 1870, two weeks before Fifteenth Amendment was ratified.