of unconstitutional power." The argument gathered tremen-
dous strength South and North; but its very strength was its
weakness. For, argued the plain common-sense of the nation,
if it is unconstitutional, unpractical, and futile for the nation
to stand guardian over its helpless wards, then there is left but
one alternative,--to make those wards their own guardians by
arming them with the ballot. Moreover, the path of the
practical politician pointed the same way; for, argued this
opportunist, if we cannot peacefully reconstruct the South
with white votes, we certainly can with black votes. So
justice and force joined hands.

The alternative thus offered the nation was not between full
and restricted Negro suffrage; else every sensible man, black
and white, would easily have chosen the latter. It was rather a
choice between suffrage and slavery, after endless blood and
gold had flowed to sweep human bondage away. Not a single
Southern legislature stood ready to admit a Negro, under any
conditions, to the polls; not a single Southern legislature
believed free Negro labor was possible without a system of
restrictions that took all its freedom away; there was scarcely
a white man in the South who did not honestly regard Eman-
cipation as a crime, and its practical nullification as a duty. In
such a situation, the granting of the ballot to the black man
was a necessity, the very least a guilty nation could grant a
wronged race, and the only method of compelling the South
to accept the results of the war. Thus Negro suffrage ended a
civil war by beginning a race feud. And some felt gratitude
toward the race thus sacrificed in its swaddling clothes on the
altar of national integrity; and some felt and feel only in-