Example research essay topic: 14 Th And 15 Poll Taxes - 1,146 words

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Just how broad should suffrage be in a Republic? That questions resonated throughout the history of the United States. America is not a Democracy and never has been. Nowhere in the original Constitution is there a reference to voting. The Constitution left it to the states to determine voting procedures and qualifications. Only making broad statements about them maintaining Republican governments.

For more than 10 years before the Constitution was written, the states had been writing theyre own suffrage laws. Colonial precedents and English traditions almost universally shaped these laws, and the cornerstone of both Colonial and British suffrage regulations was the restriction of voting to male property owners. There were essentially two rationales for the propertied vote: those who possessed property had a personal stake in society, especially taxation, and that property owners were relatively independent from the support of others. Thus voting was considered to be a social privilege and not a natural right. Those without property were not considered entirely independent and were thought to be easily controllable by interested parties.

Likewise, women were excluded from the vote, as were freedmen. In most states Catholics and Jews were also prohibited from voting (Keyssar 5 - 6). Colonial property qualifications began to erode after 1790. Though many states retained archaic economic qualification, the enforceable link between property, money, and suffrage had been worn down.

Between 1830 and 1955, six states gave up requiring voters to be taxpayers, leaving only six states with tax paying clauses, all of which were nominal. In 1802, Congress declared that any foreign born white male who met a five year residency requirement could become a US citizen three years after formally announcing his intention to become one. Following this precedent, the states shortened their residency requirements, and often permitted aliens to vote in state elections. In the War of 1812, the Federal government had trouble raising a large enough army and had to call on the state militias, reinvigorating the Revolutionary argument that all soldiers must be enfranchised. In the South, large state militias were required in order to put down possible slave revolts, also encouraging the call for universal white male suffrage. By the time the Civil War began, nearly all white males had the vote (Keyssar 29 - 38).

At the onset of the Civil War, only five states, all in New England, permitted Blacks to vote on the same grounds as Whites. The Civil War brought up the same soldier-voter argument, this time that Black men who had fought in the Union Army should be permitted to vote. With this idea pervading parts of the North, Congressional Republicans passed the 14 th and 15 th Amendments. Both are landmarks in US democracy, and they introduced the words right to vote for the first time into the Constitution, effectively ending the state monopoly over voting.

For a time, Congress tried to forcibly implement the words the 14 th and 15 th Amendments, however eventually the country and its political leaders became tired of civil rights rhetoric and backed away from the issue. In 1890, Mississippi led the way in reclaiming State authority over elections. Other Southern states followed, implementing poll taxes, cumulative poll taxes, lengthy residency requirements, literacy tests, secret ballot laws, elaborate registration procedures, multiple voting arrangements, and so on (Keyssar 87 - 111). By the turn of the century, all American men over twenty-one, not on public assistance were Constitutionally eligible to vote. Women did not posses a national right to vote. Women were viewed as intelligent independent adults and citizens, but were perceived to have skills that were different from mens and not suited to politics.

Voting was seen as a masculine endeavor and the prospect of women votes alarmed many state legislatures. By 1910, the womens suffrage movement had gained serious ground across the nations. Washington extended the vote to women that year, California in 1911, Arizona, Kansas and Oregon in 1912, Illinois in 1913, Montana and Nevada in 1914. The First World War interrupted the movement, however after the Armistice the public began to feel that womens role on the home front was fundamentally important, and that they too should be enfranchised. Consequently the 19 th Amendment was ratified in 1920, extending Constitutional suffrage to all American women (Keyssar 174 - 217).

The 1930 s saw the end of the Nations poor-restrictions. Since the Revolution, Those receiving public aid and those considered unable to take care of themselves were restricted from voting. After the Great Depression, many came to see poor restrictions as partisan ploys, and under Roosevelt's New Deal, they were eliminated (Keyssar 238). The first Constitutional ebbing at the South came in 1927, when the Supreme Court overturned the White-only primary law in Texas on the grounds that it violated the Equal Protection Clause. Texas responded by refraining from legislating, but officially sanctioned, a Democratic Party rule restricting primaries to Whites. This was struck down in 1932.

The Democratic Party of Texas then opted to bar Blacks from the party entirely. The Supreme Court accepted this in Grove v. Townsend in 1935, stating that private organizations are not subject to Federal oversight. In 1944 the Court reversed its position and overturned its earlier decision in the case of Smith v. Allwright and decided that exclusion was indeed unconstitutional (Keyssar 247). Prior World War II, most Asians in the US were not citizens and were prevented from becoming ones.

As the war progressed this fact became a diplomatic issue with China and between 1943 and 1946, the Federal Government reversed nearly all Asiatic bans. Native Americans were given citizenship in 1924, however states with large Indian populations balked. By the mid- 50, due to court decisions, Federal agencies, and large numbers of veterans, American-Indians were finally fully enfranchised (Keyssar 250 - 255). Though the Federal Government increased its advocacy for the voting rights of Southern Blacks throughout the 50 s, the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 were political compromises and required the Justice Department to file suits for noncompliance.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 gave the Justice Department much more proactive authority. The 65 Voting Act suspended literacy tests and other devices, and authorized the Attorney General to send Federal examiners to observe elections. It also prohibited states from changing their voting laws without approval of the Civil Rights division of the Justice Department (Keyssar 262 - 264). The 24 th Amendment, ratified in 1964, forbade the use of poll taxes in Federal elections.

With the passing of the 26 th Amendment in 1971, all 18 -year-old citizens were permitted to vote, finalizing the push for the expansion of Suffrage that began at the beginning of the century. Works Cited: Keyssar, Alexander. The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2000.

Research essay sample on 14 Th And 15 Poll Taxes