and terrible struggle with the spirit of slavery, at once restricted
suffrage to the white man; while Nevada, whose admission to the Union
was after the Thirteenth Amendment had been passed by Congress, denied
suffrage to "any negro, Chinaman or mulatto." A still more recent test
was applied. The question of admitting the negro to suffrage was
submitted to popular vote in Connecticut, Wisconsin and Minnesota in
the autumn of 1865, and at the same time in Colorado, when she was
forming her constitution preparatory to seeking admission to the Union.
In all four, under the control of the Republican party at the time, the
proposition was defeated.

With these indisputable evidences of the unpopularity of negro suffrage
in the great majority of the Northern States, there was ample excuse
for the reluctance of leading statesmen to adopt it as a condition of
reconstruction, and force it upon the South by law before it had been
adopted by the moral sense of the North. The period, however, was one
calculated to bring about very rapid changes in public opinion; and
there had undoubtedly been great advance in the popular judgment
concerning this question since the elections of the preceding year.
The question was really in the position where it would be materially
influenced by the course of events in the South. The violence and
murder at New Orleans in July had changed the views of many men; and,
while the more considerate and conservative tried to regard that
outbreak as an exceptional occurrence, the mass of the Northern people
feared that it indicated a dangerous sentiment among a people not yet
fitted to be entrusted with the administration of a State Government.

While these views were rapidly taking form throughout the North, they
were strongly tempered and restrained by the better hope that the
people of the South would be able to restore such a feeling of
confidence as would prevent the exaction of other conditions of
reconstruction and the consequent postponement of the re-admission of
the Southern States to representation. The average Republican
sentiment of the North was well expressed by the Republican State
Convention of New York, which, after reciting the provisions of the
Fourteenth Amendment, and declaring that "That amendment commends
itself, by its justice, humanity, and moderation, to every patriotic
heart," made this important declaration: "_That when any of the late
insurgent States shall adopt that ame