52 Ancestors - VOTING: Denied

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.

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.

14^th 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 15^th 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

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