In 1789, George Washington became the first President of the United State under an electoral process set down by our founding fathers to separate us from the monarchical traditions of Britain. Under this system the people of America had the responsibility or power to select a leader for the country. At the time only white men that owned property could vote in the elections. Later, the 15th, 19th, and 26th amendments expanded the rights of suffrage to anyone over 18 years of age. (Mintz, 3) Each election can demonstrate the changes of the era they happened in, whether it be at a time of war, depression, great prosperity, there is a story to be seen of the triumphs of those that come before us to gain us the rights we have today.
On 9 April 1866 congress approved the first United States Federal Law that defining citizenship and affirmed that all people are equally protected by the law. The primary purpose of this law was to protect the African Americans civil rights. President Andrew Johnson originally vetoed the law in 1865 but congress was able to pass it in 1866 by a two thirds vote. Each decade has made great strides to change civil liberties granting equality to all. We have gone from a white man dominated country to the land of the free even though it was already granted in the constitution.
1865 and 1866 all through the Southern states, ex-slaves and free men held meetings and rallies to plea for their rights. Rally after rally, each they would argue that suffrage was “an essential and inseparable element of self- government,” (Foner, 114) in the spirit of the declaration of Independence to make their point and further their cause.
In 1865 a group of free blacks in Nashville sent a petition to the delegates trying to end slavery and gain some form of freedom and liberties in particular, the right to vote. (Mussey, 1) In this petition they noted what a high honor it is to serve as a Solider in the U. S. Army, that there is no higher calling. They were called and they served, so why should they be denied the right to vote.
Shortly after the Civil War, the African Americans got their citizenship rights through many different legislative bills and laws, primarily the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 which gave African Americans the right to vote and prohibited racial discrimination in the voting process. Even with these protections in place, a lot of southern states restricted racial equality by circumventing the law. They would administer tests designed to prevent African Americans from registering to vote, therefore keeping them from participating in the elections process. They called these the Jim Crows Laws which mandated segregation of public schools, public places, public transportation, public restrooms, and drinking fountains. (Foner, 386)
In 1890, Mississippi pioneered new methods to prevent African Americans from voting. Through lengthy residence requirements, poll taxes, literacy tests, property requirements, cumbersome registration procedures, and laws excluding voters for minor criminal offenses. Southern states drastically reduced black voting, in Mississippi, just 9,000 of 147,000 African Americans of voting age were qualified to vote. In Louisiana, the number of black registered voters fell from 130,000 to 1,342. (McDonald, 970) Meanwhile, the grandfather clauses in these states exempted the whites from all of these requirements if their ancestors had voted prior to Fifteenth Amendment.
Even as late as the 1940s and 1950s, the blacks had encountered difficulties in the voting booths. There was still a lot of segregation throughout the South primarily, but the North was no stranger. President Rosevelt’s Four Freedoms were a great idea, but the problem was getting the ideology behind it enforced and widespread. It’s possible that many whites saw blacks gaining their equal rights as a threat to their livelihoods or family values. With the blacks gaining equal rights we double the workforce limiting the available jobs making all jobs that much more competitive.
At the same time the blacks were slowly gaining on their civil rights, women in the United Sates remained underclass or second rate citizens because, in spite of legislative changes closing the gap between the social classes and minorities, the gender discrimination in voting continued with no real end in sight. Women just did not have voting rights and, they, were generally considered mans subordinate or lesser in stature, as they were totally excluded from the voting process. As a result, women were under-represented on the political stage of the country. Women activists saw reconstruction as an opportunity, an opportunity to gain their own emancipation. Blacks were granted freedom with the 14th amendment and the right to vote with the 15th amendment, so now they demanded their rights be addressed. (Home Life, 2)
In 1848, at Seneca Falls, NY, the first women’s rights convention, politicians approved a resolution calling for the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, delegates adopted a resolution calling for women’s suffrage as part of the woman’s rights movement. See, the Constitution mentions or uses the word “persons” and “people”; only rarely does the document use the word “he.” The Constitution never actually excludes women from congress or the presidency or most importantly, voting. The Fourteenth Amendment included a clause that stated, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” (US Constitution)
Supporters of the women’s movement to include Susan B. Anthony showed up at the election polls in the 1872 election of Ulysses S Grant. There they made the comparison that if all citizens had the right to vote then so they. In a court case Mionor vs. Happersett in 1875 the Supreme Court ruled that women could only vote through specific legislation and amendment to the constitution and not mere interpretation of the constitution. The courts decided in a unanimous vote that suffrage was a matter for the states, not federal government. They were trying to keep it contained at the state level to avoid the attention it brought. Some of the women such as Susan Anthony sought for an amendment to the constitution others were happy with individual state level decisions.
All through this time, women were seeing the blacks, Indians, Chinese all fighting for their civil liberties and gaining them while they were being left behind. In a way, women of the time were slaves to their households. They were relegated to their husbands needs and desires. The women now sought to gain their own independence from the chains of wife and homemaker. Though women were working, they primarily held menial jobs that paid in the lower end of the pay scale like clerical or phone operators. Women sought to be equal partners and equally eligible to lobby for the country’s leaders and be a part of the democratic process. Women finally gained their voting rights in 1920 from the approval of the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. The Nineteenth amendment to the US Constitution granted women with the right to vote which was an extremely important step toward a truly democratic voting system.
Voting rights play a major role in American democracy, it is the foundation of our political system. For most of our history we see that voting rights have been biased against minorities making them very disadvantaged compared to the privileged white. But, as we have seen, over the years, legislation expanded and evolved granting rights to everyone equally, but with a lot of struggle and pain.
Presidential elections today are one of the most publicized and by far the most expensive events in America. The presidential candidates, their donors, and many volunteers spend countless hours around the clock gathering money, pledges, and general support for their campaign. From George Washington in an unopposed election to the first contested election with John Adams, to today where the candidates sling insults back and forth, spout continuous proposals of improvement for America. (McDonald, 966)
In 1986, Uniformed and Overseas American Absentee Voting Act granted voting right to the military and all American overseas. This was another big legislative advancement that made it possible for Americans, mainly the military, to vote while overseas. So those that went overseas did not miss their opportunity to exercise their rights to choose the nation’s leaders.
So well over 100 years of struggle to gain our individual rights, that of freedom, employment, housing, and most importantly, voting. Many had fought their entire lives only to die without seeing their life’s work amount to anything.