Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/21

 to negro suffrage and who had been gallant officers in the Union army. It was believed that if a Union ticket could be agreed upon by these elements and the entire Democratic vote given to it, that the defection of the Republicans would insure its election. The Soldiers’ Convention, with the approval of the Democratic leaders, organized the “Union Anti-Negro Suffrage party,” and placed in nomination the following ticket: for Governor General Thomas H. Benton; Lieutenant-Governor, Colonel S. G. Van Anda; Supreme Judge, Colonel H. H. Trimble; Superintendent of Public Instruction, Captain J. W. Sennett.

The third resolution of their platform read as follows: “We are opposed to negro suffrage and to striking the word white out of the article on suffrage in our State Constitution, and will support no candidate for office, either State or National, who is in favor of negro suffrage or of the equality of the white and black races.”

The Democrats made no nominations, but decided by a unanimous vote to support the “Soldiers’ Ticket.” They passed the following resolution on the absorbing issue:  “We are radically opposed to negro equality in all of its phases and accept the issue tendered by the late Republican Convention on the 14th of June in making that doctrine the chief plank in its platform by proposing to strike the word ‘white’ out of the article on suffrage in the Constitution of Iowa.”

Other resolutions were adopted by each of the conventions but the campaign of 1865 was fought on the one issue of negro suffrage.

The candidates nominated by the Soldiers’ Convention who were also supported by the solid Democratic party, were excellent men, all of whom had served with distinction in the Union army in the late war. General Benton was originally a Democrat who had been twice elected Superintendent of Public Instruction and had served three times as Secretary of the State Board