Page:Disunion and restoration in Tennessee (IA disunionrestorat00neal).pdf/86

 the negro. In the discussion of this suffrage question, the Convention was divided into three factions. The Union delegates, who were greatly in the minority, favored universal suffrage. The extreme opposite opinion was expressed in the minority report of the Suffrage Committee: "We hold that the negro race is the lowest order of human beings, incapable in themselves of a virtuous intelligence, or free government; and for the truth, we appeal to history, and challenge the world to show a single exception. We hold that the inferiority of the negro to the white man, in race, color, and capacity for permanent, well-ordered government has been fixed by Him who 'doeth all things well,' and whose natural or revealed law has never been violated by any human government without disaster and confusion."

In the abstract, the above statement undoubtedly represented the view of a majority of the delegates. But the conservative men of the Convention recognized that the rejection of negro suffrage would strengthen the Radicals in their efforts to obtain Federal intervention. Considerations of political expediency led, therefore, to the adoption of the following provision in regard to suffrage: "Every male person of the age of twenty-one years, being a citizen of the United States, and a resident of this State for twelve months, and of the county wherein he may offer his vote, for six months next preceding the day of election, shall be entitled to vote for members of the General Assembly, and all civil officers of the county or district in which he resides, and there shall be no qualification attached to the right of suffrage, except that each voter shall give to the judge of the election, where he offers to vote, satisfactory evidence that he has paid the poll taxes assessed against him for such preceding period as the Legislature shall prescribe, and at such time as may be prescribed by law, without which his vote cannot be received."