The age-herald., 1898-01-23

said oath, such shall be recognized as the true government of the state" by the Pres ident.
 There was no intimation of negro suf- frage here. Under this plan of reconstruc- tion the people of each Of the eleven se- ceded states who, by the laws of their states, were disqualified to vote at the time those states seeded, excluding all others, were invited to cut all connection with the confederacy, construct state govern ment, and resume their old relations to the union, the question of negro suffrage being left for each state to settle for itself The suffrage issue did, of course, enter Lin eotn's thoughts in that period, for the con ferrng of the ballot on the negro had formed part of the reconstruction plans of Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, and had found some favor from other con greSmen and from some newspapers. Lin coin mentioned it in letter to Michael Hahn, dated March 13 1S64 After con- gra tulating Hahn on having fixed his name in history as the first free state governor of Louisiana, Lincoln remarked: Now you are about to have a convention which, among other things, will probably define the elective franchise. I barely suggest, for your private consideration, whether some of the colored people may not be let in, as, for instance, the very intelligent and thCve who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help. in some trying time to come to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom But this is only suggestion, not to the public, but to you alone.''
 Suffrage by state action on the lines thus cautiously hinted at was widely different from that which was imposed by act of congress on the reconstruction law of 1867. Intelligence and creditable military service, which would be the requirements under the Lincoln plan, would have added only comparatively small number of ex-slaves to the electorate, and this would not have encountered serious opposition in the south. Suffrage for the negroes did not enter into the Davis-Wade bill of 1864, which proposed to take the practical work of reconstruction out of the hands of the president and to place it in those of congress, and which Lincoln killed by the pocket veto. Even in 1865, after the thirteenth amendment, abol- ishing slavery throughout the whole coun- try, had been passed in both branches of congress and submitted to the states, negro suffrage had not been formally proposed. Oliver P. Morton, in a speech at Richmond, Ind, Sept 29, 1865, remarked that to say '.men just emerged from slavery are quail flied for the exercise of political power IS to make the strongest pro-slavery argument I ever heard. It is to pay the highest com pliment to the institution of slavery
 But suffrage sentiment gradually devel- oped. It was melted by the contest between congress and President Johnson, who had adopted Lincoln's views of state restora- ton, and attempted to carry them out, and was extended and intensified by the9"black codes" enacted by the seeding states, and the refusal of almost all those states. at first to ratify the fourteenth amendment Sumner and Stevens, already men tioned, had favored what was called i'm partial suffrage" from the time reconstruc- tion began to be practical issue. and it had advocates among some persons who were considered less radical than these two. For example, James Russell Lowell writ ing, in 1865, and discussing, the negros status, asked: hn sE
 twill it be enough to make the freed men landholders merely?" and added: Must we not make them voters also, that they may have that power of self-protection which no interference of government can so safely cheaply and surely exercise in their behalf? We answer these questions in the affirmative for reasons both of expe- diency and justice" Then, after. present ing the reasons, on both grounds, which suggested themselves to him, he asked; Have we endured and prosecuted this war for the sake of bringing back our old enc mics to legislate forlu stronger than ever, with all the resentment and none of the instruction of defeat?"
 There was a good deal of the vac victis spirit in Lowell's utterance. but it was far more pronounced in the expression of other men. outside as well as inside, of congress at the same time. The partisan reasons
 
 were set forth by several prominent men with considerable candor. Speaking of the south Stevens. early in 1867, remarked that white union men are in minority Tn each of those states. With them the blacks would act in a body form a majority, con- trol the states, and protect themselves. It would insure the ascendency of the union party"
 Negro suffrage having been determined upon the District of Columbia was selected
 
 for unrestricted suffrage in the District passed the senate of Dec. II, 1866. by a vote of 32 Gall repubicans) to 12 Gall dem ocrats, except Van Wrinkle, of West Vir- ginia), and the house on the same day by 12S Gall republicans) to 46 (37 democrats and republicans), was vetoed by Johnson on January ', 1876. was passed over the veto on the same day in the senate by vote of 29 Gall republcans) to 10 6 demo- crats and republicans), and in the house on January by vote of 119 Gall fepuoii- cans) to 38 (33 democrats and republicans). Senator Sherman, discussing the veto Just before his chamber overrode 1t, remarked that the District of Columbia was the right place to try the experiment Of unrestricted suffrage. "because if the negroes here abuse the political privilege we give them we can withdraw it at any moment" The privilege was abused, and the ballot was withdrawn from both whites and negroes in the District in 1874, and since then that locality has been governed by cohInlSSioh- CTS appointed by the President.
 Eight weeks after the bill was passed giving the ballot to negroes in the District of Columbia, or on March 2, 1897, the gen. eral reconstruction bill was passed over Johnsons veto by vote of 13S to 51 in the house and 3S to 10 in the senate, the af- frmative votes in each branch being by republicans and the negatives by demo- crats, except that seven republicans in the house stood with the democrats This act declared that the new governments of the states of the late confederacy (except Ten nessee, which had been fully restored to it's old relations to the union in 1860 were pro- vsional only until loyal and republican state governments can be legally estab- lshed," divided these states into military districts and provided that new constitu- tions should be adopted in each state, framed by delegates "twenty-one years of age and upward, of whatever race, color or previous condition" except certain ex- confederates; that such constitutions should give the "elective franchise" to Tall such persons as have the qualifications herein stated for election of delegates, and stipulated that when these constitu- tions were accepted by congress and when