Section B: American option Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–77 Read the sources and then answer both parts of the question. Source A While a great step forward, the 15th Amendment is more remarkable for what it does not do than what it does do. It fails to guarantee the right of blacks to hold office as that might harm the prospect of ratification in the North. It makes no mention of suffrage provisions covering the white man, as Southern Republicans and Northern Radicals feared that this would return the franchise to the rebels. Many Northern states wished to retain their own individual suffrage qualifications, insisting on owning property for example. In the West there is opposition to the Chinese immigrants getting the vote; some argue that it will destroy the Republican Party there. It is feared that enfranchising the poor, the illiterate and the foreign-born will lead to victory for the Democratic Party. This Amendment will exclude as many as it enfranchises. Henry Adams, an American historian, in a newspaper article, April 1869. Source B You have been presented for consideration the question whether Negroes shall be permitted to vote and hold office in Connecticut. Over and over again the freemen of this Commonwealth have, on their deliberate judgement, refused to enfranchise this separate and inferior race. This measure strikes at the foundation of our system of government. It is a gross perversion of the authority of Congress to propose amendments. It is a long stride toward a deprivation of the States of their essential character, and the consolidation of all power at Washington. This would make this a Kingdom instead of a Republic. Congress might as well propose an amendment setting up a King or an Emperor over us and wiping out at a single stroke of the pen all our rights of citizenship. This sweeping measure is being hurried through before the people at large can have an opportunity to pass judgement upon it. President Washington, with his dying breath, warned his countrymen to beware of sudden changes in their form of government. The injunction should now be heeded. From a political leaflet published in Connecticut, 1869. Source C While supporting a franchise extension to all men in principle, this 15th Amendment is another in a long line of humiliations for women that Republicans have inflicted on our great cause. We reject the idea that the Constitution should prohibit racial discrimination in voting while also supporting discrimination on grounds of sex. Why should black men get the vote while women of culture and wealth remain excluded? Think of those Irish, Blacks, Germans and Chinese, who do not know the difference between a Monarchy and a Republic, having the right to vote. They will not have read the Declaration of Independence and will be making laws for educated and cultured women. Susan B Anthony, a leading supporter of the emancipation of women, to Charles Sumner, 8 February 1870. Source D [Figure D] XVth AMENDMENT. — 'Shoo Fly, don't Bodder see!' A cartoon from 'Harper's Weekly', published March 1870. The black voter shoos away the irritating ‘flies' of states which voted against ratification of the 15th Amendment.