In 2012, I wrote about my 3G granduncle Wesley Eppard
(1825-1882) whose right to vote had been denied. How did I know that? He said
so, right there in the Federal census of 1870.
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| Phoebe Breeden and Wesley Eppard |
In the
1870 Federal Census, Columns 19 and 20 concern Constitutional Relations. In column
19, Wesley is confirmed as a male US citizen of age 21 or upwards. In column 20,
there is a mark indicating he was denied the right to vote on “other grounds than
rebellion or other crime.” As a native Virginian, Wesley likely had sided with
the Confederacy during the Civil War, but that should have had no bearing since
the question says “other than rebellion.” He was white. He was not checked off
for being deaf, blind, insane, or idiotic. Why was Wesley denied the right to
vote?
To answer
that question, we need to know why “Constitutional Relations” was included in
the 1870 census.
14th
AMENDMENT
The question on the 1870 census fulfilled the
requirements of Amendment XIV - Section 2, of the US Constitution, passed
by Congress on June 13, 1866 and ratified July 9, 1868. This section
states that “...when the right to vote at any election for the choice of
electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives
in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of
the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such
State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in
any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the
basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the
number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens
twenty-one years of age in such State.”
In other words, the number of male citizens denied would
have an impact on the number of electors for national and state elections. The
decennial census determined the population of a state for the purpose of
representation, thus making it necessary to add the question about whether an
individual had been denied voting rights. The distribution of representative
power in Government depended on accurate answers to the question.
INSTRUCTIONS TO ENUMERATORS
The 1870 Instructions to Enumerators addresses the
question on pages 11 and 12. They were expected to complete column 19 easily
since they needed merely to identify if the person was a male citizen 21 years
of age or older. Column 20 would require some delicacy in obtaining
information. For one thing, those who never even tried to vote would not know
if their rights were being denied. At any rate, the instructions called for the
enumerators to determine whether a man had been denied at the polls for a
disability, lack of qualifications, or any reason that the State had set by law
prohibiting him from voting, other than rebellion and committing a crime.
Since
the basis for denial of voting rights was state law rather than federal law, it was
important for an enumerator to study the laws of his own State in order
to complete column 20 accurately.
MISSOURI LAW
The 15th Amendment, which guaranteed no one would be
denied the right to vote based on race, was ratified in 1870. Nevertheless, some
states continued to try to deny voting rights to certain citizens, not just
former slaves, but to the Irish and Chinese among others. That didn’t apply to
Wesley either. In his county, only 3 other white citizens were denied the right
to vote: a German, an Englishman, and a
Canadian, all of whom were also US citizens.
The Missouri
Constitution which was ratified in 1820 remained the law of the land right
through to the time of the Civil War. In 1863, the Missouri General Assembly
passed a gradual emancipation order. This did not sit well with those who
thought slave owners were trying to maintain some form of slavery. In 1865 a
new Constitution was drafted that not only banned slavery unconditionally, but
also restricted the rights of former “rebels” and Confederate sympathizers.
Article 2
of the new Constitution became known as the Ironclad Oath. It required
teachers, lawyers, clergy, and ALL VOTERS to promise they had not committed a
long list of disloyal acts. The wording was so severe that even many Unionists
opposed it, but the Constitution was ratified anyway by a narrow margin.
CONCLUSION
Wesley Eppard, as a Southern sympathizer, was denied the
right to vote because that was the State law. It would take some time for the
war tensions to heal, for former enemies to enter into business contracts and
political alliances before such stringent voting restrictions would be
eliminated.
Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy
bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story
or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”
Wendy
© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
