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The first presidential
election was held. The Electoral
College unanimously elected George
Washington.
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New states quickly
started joining the union, each developing and adopting its own constitution.
Most of these states specified that only white, adult men could vote in
elections. Other states restricted the right to vote to white men who owned
property or who paid taxes. Generally, only a few free northern or southern
blacks could vote. Women could not vote anywhere, even if they owned property.
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Women, such
as Lucretia
Mott and Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, began to form groups that worked to gain greater rights
for women. These groups argued that men and women were created as equals
and they supported many reforms that would advance the status of women
in society. Among the reforms for which they fought was the right to vote.
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A group of
anti-immigrants formed a new political party, the Know-Nothings.
As part of their platform, they supported literacy tests, which required
that one prove he could read and write the English language before he could
vote. Since few immigrants and blacks (whether free or slaves) were literate,
literacy tests were a way to prevent these groups from voting.
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When the Civil
War ended, blacks began demanding political rights, including the right
to vote. Some Radical Republicans, who wanted to punish the confederate
leaders and protect the rights of former slaves, supported their efforts.
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Congress adopted
the 15th
Amendment to the Constitution. This Amendment took the 14th Amendment
one step further by formally granting all men the right to vote, regardless
of their race, color, or previous servitude. By using the word men, women
were specifically excluded from the right to vote.
Also in 1869, the women's
suffrage movement split into two separate groups. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony led the National
Woman Suffrage Association, which opposed the ratification of the 15th
Amendment on the grounds that it didn't grant women the right to vote and
supported the notion of a new amendment that would grant universal suffrage.
Lucy
Stone and Julia
Ward Howe formed the American
Woman Suffrage Association, which proposed that the fight would be
more easily won by getting states to pass individual laws granting suffrage.
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Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and Sojourner
Truth attempted to vote in the presidential election. Stanton was arrested
and tried in court. Truth was turned away at the polls.
Image: Sojourner Truth
Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction number LC-USZ62-119343 DLC]
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An act to
amend the Constitution to grant women the right to vote was introduced
into Congress. It took legislators 42 years to adopt the amendment and
obtain ratification by the states.
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Some Southern
states, still reeling from the Civil War, did not believe that the 15th
Amendment was a guarantee of suffrage. Instead, they believed that it prohibited
them from denying someone the right to vote strictly because of his race
or color. To that end, these states developed creative ways of preventing
blacks from voting, such as complicated ballot boxes that illiterates couldn't
read, poll taxes they couldn't pay, and literacy tests they couldn't pass.
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The National
Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association
banded together to form the National
American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
During the 1890s, in an effort to encourage men to vote freely, many states
adopted the secret ballot, which made it impossible for party bosses to
intimidate voters by monitoring voting habits. The secret ballot also made
it possible for voters to split their tickets, or to select candidates
from different parties on the same ballot.
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Despite the
efforts of early feminists in the 1840s, the women's suffrage movement
just now began to pick up steam. Many groups, such as the National Women's
Party, the National Federation of Women's Clubs, and Theodore Roosevelt's
Progressive/Bull
Moose Party, supported the suffragists' cause. The suffragists, led
by Anna
Howard Shaw, Carrie
Chapman Catt, and Jane
Addams, argued that women deserved the same rights as men and that
a woman's role to others was secondary to her role to society. Opponents
believed that under the natural order of society, women should be subservient
to men, and that allowing them to vote could lead to the neglect of their
children and families.
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On August
18, 1920, the 19th
Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, granting women the right
to vote. The National American Woman Suffrage Association eventually became
the League of Women
Voters, a group that is still active today.
Image: House Joint Resolution 1 Proposing the 19th Amendment to the States
Source: National Archives and Records Administration
Click here or on the image to see a larger version and more related information.
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Throughout
the earlier part of the 20th century, the Jim
Crow laws kept southern blacks from voting, even though blacks had
won the right to vote in 1869. Thus, on January 23, 1964, the 24th
Amendment was ratified, prohibiting states from using poll taxes to
keep minorities from voting.
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President
Lyndon
B. Johnson signed the Voting
Rights Act. This federal law reiterated the rights granted under the
15th Amendment, but went further by protecting blacks and minorities from
any other state-supported obstacles, such as literacy tests and complicated
ballot boxes, that could keep them from voting.
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On July 1,
1971, the 26th
Amendment was ratified, lowering the minimum voting age from 21 to
18. Since this was a Constitutional amendment that was ratified by the
states, this minimum age applied to all federal, state, and local elections
of any kind.
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Want to know more?
Educators, try these lesson plans and activities in class!
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