ther, were unconstitutional and Arkansas was declared to be a State in the Union with a government republican in form, and consequently entitled to representation in the National Legislature. A new constitution, it was claimed, was not necessary.1

The election for the ratification of the constitution began on the thirteenth of March and continued eighteen days: continuance over so long a time permitting much confusion and many frauds. The Republicans were accused of illegal and fraudulent voting. The final returns showed that the constitution had been adopted by a majority of about thirteen hundred in a total vote of over fifty-four thousand.2 The compulsory measures, known as the reconstruction acts, had borne speedy fruit. They had brought about the adoption of the amendment.

1 Debates, 665-666.

2 For the Constitution, 27,913; against it, 26,597. See Execu tive Document No. 278, House of Representatives, 40th Congress, Second Session, p. 4.

CHAPTER III.

THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT RATIFIED.

In Mississippi the number of blacks greatly exceeded that of the whites in the registration of voters.1 At the election, on the fifth of November, nearly seventy thousand votes were cast in favor of holding a convention, and one assembled at Jackson on the same day with that of Arkansas.3 It is doubtful whether a majority of the delegates believed either in the constitutionality of the convention or of the reconstruction acts of Congress, but they believed that a convention was a sovereign body. They sent a memorial to Congress expressing their loyalty to the General Government, and, on the ground that the Union men of Mississippi would control its policy, they petitioned that the convention might be allowed to declare all the civil offices in the State vacant, and to fill them with loyal men of its own choosing.

The matter of chief interest to the convention was the article on the elective franchise, and efforts, essentialiy like those recently made in Arkansas, were put forth to exclude the African from exercising the suffrage. The article, which was like that in Arkansas, was finally adopted by a vote of nearly two to one. It gave the right to vote to male inhabitants of the State irrespective of race, and disqualified all who were excluded by the reconstruction acts; but the minority, when the vote was made known, went further than their brethren in Arkansas, by

1 60,167 blacks; 46,636 whites.

4

2 For a convention, 69,739; against one, 6,277.

3 For the official record, see its Journal and Ordinances, January 7 to May 18, 1868; 776 pp.; Jackson, 1871.

4 44 to 25.

promptly resigning their seats. Lest the Legislature might at any time undo the work of the convention, the constitution, in its Bill of Rights, was made to forbid any requirement of a property qualification for eligibility to office, or of an educational qualification to become an elector. The preponderance of negro voters in the State compelled a sharper alignment of parties than elsewhere in the South, and before the convention adjourned, the Conservatives began an active campaign against the ratification of its work. They proceeded on the assumption that the convention was without authority and that the constitution which it had framed would disfranchise and degrade the people of the State. So intense was the agitation, the whole State seemed to be one vast mass-meeting. The Radical party lacked organization and was far less active than the Conservative in its canvass. The result, on the twenty-second of June, was the rejection of the constitution by a majority of nearly seven thousand votes.1 This practical refusal to comply with the late acts of Congress continued the military government established by that body, and the State was treated by Congress as if no convention had been held. The Republicans of Mississippi claimed that if it had not been for intimidation and fraud, the constitution would have been ratified, and appealed to Congress to set aside the result of the election and to recognize the Republican candidates who had been chosen to the various civil offices in the State,2 as lawfully elected.

In North Carolina the white outnumbered the black electors. A constitutional convention was chosen in

1 63,860 against ratification; 56,231 for it. .

2 See the resolutions of the Republican Convention at Jackson, November 25, 1868.

3 By the registration completed during August, 1867, there were 106,721 white voters and 72,932 black: Journal, pp. 114-118.

362

A WHITE MAN's government.

November, and among its delegates were thirteen negroes. It met at Raleigh on the twelfth of January2 and the minority immediately recorded their protest against the course of affairs and pronounced the reconstruction measures unconstitutional, unwise and oppressive. The white and black races, they said, were distinct by nature, and it was a crime against God and the civilization of the age to attempt to abolish the distinctions between them, and degrade the white race to the level of the black. White men had instituted the Government of the United States, and of the Southern States, and should control them; at the same time, by just laws, protecting the lives, liberty and the property of the negroes. They appealed to the sense of justice in the people of the North to save the intelligent citizens of the South from the degradation about to be heaped upon them, if the policy of depriving eight millions of whites of the services of statesmen of their own race and transforming the political power to ignorant blacks was to be continued. The minority, however, was powerless, save to protest. The convention refused to discriminate between whites and blacks by requiring a separate organization of white and colored persons in the militia, and by declaring all able-bodied male citizens of the State liable to militia duty, they made the constitution of North Carolina, more equitable in this respect than that of any Northern State. Henry Wilson,

3

1 Of the 93,006 votes cast for a convention, over 60,000 were by negroes; the number of votes against a convention was 32,961.

2 See the Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the State of North Carolina at its session, 1868. Raleigh: Joseph W. Holden, Convention Printer, 1868; 488 pages. Its Ordinances and Resolutions; 129 pages. Among the delegates were General J. C. Abbott, A. W. Tourgee, and George A. Graham.

8 Journal, 33.

4 Rejected by 83 votes to 9. Journal, 175.

in a speech in the United States Senate, pronounced it "the most republican constitution in the land."1

The doctrine of paramount allegiance to the Constitution and Government of the United States was accepted,2 and the right to vote and to hold office was given to all men, irrespective of race. Against this innovation the minority protested. The right to vote, they said, was neither natural nor inherent, but conventional only, and should be regulated in such a way as would best promote the welfare of the whole community. Upon this principle women and minors were excluded, and should the negro be advanced higher than they? While a few individuals of the race might be permitted to express their convictions at the ballot box, the great mass were so ignorant as easily to become the dupes of designing adventurers and demagogues and of their secret associations introduced from the North. Following their instructions they would reflect the views of their political masters. To give the right to vote to persons mentally and morally unfit to exercise it must endanger the safety of republican institutions. But was not the proposed alteration, demanded by Congress, necessary to restore the State to constitutional relations with the federal government? Certainly it was a singular demand that North Carolina should extend the elective franchise to persons so inexperienced and little prepared for the ordinary business of life that the government deemed it necessary, through the Freedmen's Bureau, to exercise supervision and tutelage over them. Moreover, Congress had no power to prescribe to North Carolina who should or who should not vote, as this has always been recognized as one of the great rights reserved to the States. Had not Congress recognized North Caro

1 Globe, May 30, 1868, p. 2691.

2 Declaration of Rights, Section 5.