The 14th Amendment meant to protect black rights but they still could not vote. Stevens always believed in universal voting rights. He refused to sign the 1837 Pennsylvania Constitution because it excluded black voters.
“So far as I took any position with regard to Negro suffrage, it was and is that universal suffrage is an inalienable right.” (Thaddeus Stevens 1868) Thirty years later, he drafted a bill leading to the 15th Amendment. "We propose to go to universal and impartial suffrage as the only foundation upon which the Government can stand." (Thaddeus Stevens 1868) |
In 1866, Stevens presented a petition to Congress for universal suffrage signed by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ernestine Rose, Lucy Stone, and Antoinette Brown Blackwell.
"Why make a crusade against women in the Constitution of the nation?... I certainly shall never vote to insert the “male” or the word “white” in the national Constitution." (Thaddeus Stevens 1867) Stevens wanted universal suffrage but believed black voting should not begin immediately. "I do not, therefore, want to grant them this privilege at least for some years. I want, in the meantime, that our Christian men shall go among the freedmen and teach them what their duties are as citizens … I do not want them to have the right of suffrage before this Congress has done the great work of regenerating the Constitution and laws of this country according to the principles of the Declaration of Independence." (Thaddeus Stevens 1867) |
The 15th amendment guaranteed, “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on the account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
Stevens believed freed slaves earned this right. "We have imposed on them the privilege of fighting our battles, of dying in defense of freedom, and of bearing their equal portion of taxes; but where have we given them the privilege of ever participating in the formation of the laws for the government of their native land?” (Thaddeus Stevens 1867) |
Stevens died before the amendment passed. Thomas Peterson cast the first black vote under the 15th Amendment. Stevens had known the amendment would not have an immediate effect. “…true it will take two, three, possibly five years before they [white people] conquer their prejudices sufficiently to allow their late slaves to become their equal at the polls…” (Thaddeus Stevens 1866) It would take much longer. “Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote." (Library of Congress 2009) |