Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/306

 to vote to Negroes. This was amended,[20] however, in 1864, by expressly excluding Negroes and mulattoes from the suffrage. The legislature of Connecticut[21] of 1865 proposed an amendment to the Constitution whereby Negroes would be given the right to vote, the same to be submitted to the people for their ratification Minnesota[22] and Wisconsin,[23] in 1865, submitted constitutional amendments providing for Negro suffrage. According to Representative Hardwick,[24] of Georgia, "Negro suffrage was rejected by decisive majorities." It was after the 1865 Amendment had been defeated at the polls in Wisconsin that the Supreme Court of that State, as has been seen, held that Negroes had been given the right to vote by a law of 1849.

The word "white" was stricken from the Constitution of Iowa[25] by the legislature of 1867-68, and this action was ratified by a vote of 105,384 to 81,384. Minnesota[26] amended its Constitution in 1868 so as to extend suffrage to Negroes. On December 30, 1867, the word "white" was stricken from the election laws of Dakota Territory.[27]

On June 8, 1867, Congress passed, over the President's veto, a bill first introduced in 1865 establishing Negro suffrage in the District of Columbia. Before its passage, provision had been made by Congress to submit the question to a vote of the people. The extension of suffrage to Negroes was rejected by a vote of 6,521 to 35 in Washington City and 812 to 1 in Georgetown. In spite of this vote the Thirty-ninth Congress ordained Negro suffrage for the District. After four years, the government of the District was so changed that suffrage was taken from all