Tag Archives: voting rights

good question

Way back in its October 24, 1868 issue Harper’s Weekly seemed a bit miffed by a letter from Georgia, which asked a question: if universal suffrage for black men is such a good thing, why doesn’t the North adopt it? … Continue reading

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pre-dawn queues

150 years ago today recently enfranchised black men in the District of Columbia once again took advantage of their new right to vote in large numbers at a local election. The presumably more progressive Republicans won  all the city-wide races … Continue reading

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poll watchers

Men vote today as women watch Only going back 100 years for this one. On Election Day in 1915 women’s suffrage was on the ballot in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York. It was voted down in all three states. ________________________________________________________________ … Continue reading

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don’t make ’em bite off too at once

150 years ago this week abolitionist George L. Stearns met with President Andrew Johnson to discuss Reconstruction in the South. Mr. Stearns wrote up his recollection of the meeting, had the president fact-check the summary, and then sent the document … Continue reading

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“We must accept our own ideas”

No man is fit to be an American statesman who is afraid of American ideas. Liberty is the boon of every man, and it carries with it civil rights and citizenship…. We must accept our own ideas. I believe in … Continue reading

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It’s up to Uncle Sam

For, disguise it as we may, the United States government really holds and exercises the power which gives vitality to the preliminaries of reconstruction, and it is therefore responsible for all evils in the future which shall spring from its … Continue reading

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elective*

This Thomas Nast cartoon was published in the August 5, 1865 issue of Harper’s Weekly. You can read more about it at the Library of Congress: “Centerfold prints show Columbia considering why she should pardon Confederate troops who are begging … Continue reading

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Southern roadblock?

If delegations from the rebel states are re-admitted to the Congress without conditions, could they stifle the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery? From The New-York Times July 9, 1865: Letter from Wendell Phillips. THE RESTORATION OF THE SOUTHERN … Continue reading

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my only friend …

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in June 1865: The Papers. The war is over! and yet we hardly appreciate the fact. We have become so accustomed to look for and read attentively the details of battles, that the … Continue reading

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“in the twinkling of an eye”

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in June 1865: Negro Suffrage. The radical element is very much excited over the President’s North Carolina proclamation, and an open rupture is threatened. The exclusion of the negro from the right of … Continue reading

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