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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Politics - 20. Underlying Factors - 3. The North and the South
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438 An American Dilemma
taking away the Negroes’ vote is, in itself, a most important, and even
startling, element in the political situation which seems difficult to explain
satisfactorily. Negroes are discriminated against in many other respects in
the North. Most Northerners seem also to be convinced of the mental and
moral inferiority of Negroes, even if their racial beliefs are not so certain,
so extreme and so intense as the Southerners’. But the Negroes’ right to
political participation as voters is actually seldom questioned.
This problem is, indeed, wider, as it can be raised also with respect to
many of the immigrant minority groups. They may be despised by the
older Americans and discriminated against in various ways. The ^^Amer-
icans” may—often with considerable right—accuse them of being unas-
similated and clannish, of not identifying themselves with the community
and the nation, and of lacking both the interest in and knowledge of
American society prerequisite for a judicious opinion on public matters.
It is commonly held—also with much right—that these groups, and the
Negroes, form an important part of the basis for the corrupt machine
politics which is the disgrace of most big cities and many states. The
average Northerner is usually outspoken on these points. But he will
generally not draw the conclusion that hence the franchise should be
restricted in any measure. The North is apparently sold and settled on the
principle of unqualified franchise.
The problem is not even much discussed. A Northern author may
incidentally give vent to the remark that ‘^the vote should be a privilege
to be earned by evidence of ability and willingness to use it with discretion”
and even point to the Southern legislation restricting suffrage as a model
also for the North.*^ But such a remark will be made in passing and ap-
parently without hope of public attention. Occasionally the present author
has also heard Northerners in various walks of life, when discussing the cul-
tural isolation of Negroes and ^foreigners’’ in the cities, make the observa-
tion that ightly, they shouldn’t have the vote.” But nobody seems to
expect this opinion to be taken as a serious practical proposal.®
It is the observation of the author that unrestricted suffrage has become
so unquestioned in the North that the ordinary Northerner believes that
it has always existed and that, in particular, the free Negroes in the North
have always, or at least even prior to the Civil War, enjoyed the privilege
of the franchise. The truth is, as we have already pointed out, that the
Negroes were disfranchised in almost the whole North and West at the
time of the Civil War. During and immediately after the War, attempts
were made in some of these states to introduce amendments to the state
constitutions for striking out the word ‘Vhite” in order to enfranchise the
Negroes. But, although the Republicans were in absolute control every-
where, these proposals were defeated in one after another.® The
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution later
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