the Democratic party. The hostility
of that party to the Fifteenth Amendment was as rancorous as it had
been to the Fourteenth. Not a single Democrat voted to ratify it in
either branch of Congress, and the Democratic opposition in the State
Legislatures throughout the Union was almost equally pronounced.(1)

This radical change in the Organic Law of the Republic was regarded
by President Grant as so important, that he notified Congress of its
official promulgation, by special message. He dwelt upon the character
of the Amendment, and addressed words of counsel to both races. "I
call the attention of the newly enfranchised race," said he, "to the
importance of striving in every honorable manner to make themselves
worthy of their new privilege. To the race more favored heretofore by
our laws, I would say, Withhold no legal privilege of advancement to
the new citizens." He called upon Congress to promote popular
education throughout the country by all the means within their
Constitutional power, in order that universal suffrage might be
based on universal intelligence.

In the same spirit that led to the message of the President, Congress
proceeded to enact laws protecting the rights that were guaranteed
under the new Constitutional Amendment. On the 31st of May (1870), two
months after the Amendment was promulgated, an Act was passed "to
enforce the right of citizens of the United States to vote in the
several States in this Union." Eight months later, on the 28th of
February, 1871, an additional Act on the same subject was passed.
These statutes were designed to protect, as far as human law can
protect, the right of every man in the United States to vote, and they
were enacted with special care to arrest the dangers already developing
in the South against free suffrage, and to prevent the dangers more
ominously though more remotely menacing it. The Republican party was
unanimous in support of these measures, while the Democratic party had
nearly consolidated their votes against them. It was not often that
the line of party was so strictly drawn as at this period and on issues
of this character.

As the Reconstruction of each State was completed, the Military
Government that was instituted in 1867 was withdrawn. The Southern
people--at first proclaiming a sense of outrage at the presence of
soldiers in time of peace--soon became content with the orderly, just,
and fair administration which the commanding ge