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Domestic News
August 23, 1871
Democratic Enquirer
Mcarthur, Vinton County, Ohio
What is this article about?
Commentary on Black voting in Kentucky's recent election, highlighting illiteracy among voters who used red tickets to identify Radical candidates, often unaware of names beyond the gubernatorial candidate.
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How the Negroes Voted.
The beauties of negro suffrage were conspicuously exhibited in the late election in Kentucky. It is there the law that the voter shall cast his ballot "viva voce"—that is read from his ticket the names of the persons for whom he casts his suffrage. The election clerks then and there record it. Few of the negroes in Kentucky and the other Southern States can read at all. How then did the negroes vote?—The editor of the Evansville (Ind.) Courier, who was present in Henderson on the day of the election says:
"In the city there were two voting-places. At each of them a temporary partition was erected, separating the white and black voters, and we observed that the negroes, without a single exception walked up to the officers of the election with a printed ticket, published on a reddish or wine-colored paper, and by its peculiar color only did they know that it contained the names of the Radical candidates. In long lines they pressed up to the polls, and drawing forth their badge of Radicalism, called out: 'Boss I votes dot 'Publican ticket.' About one o'clock one of the Democratic candidates produced the law which we have quoted, and insisted that it should be observed. The officer concluded to try it, and of the next five negroes who came to the polls only one of them knew more than a single candidate whom they proposed supporting. They seemed very generally to understand that General Harlan was running for Governor, but beyond that the great mass of them knew not a single candidate on the ticket; and the names of the candidates might just as well have been published in Hebrew as in Roman characters. so far as the printed tickets served to enlighten the dusky sovereigns. Not one in twenty could read a word, and, beyond the fact that they had been instructed to support the candidates whose names were on the red ticket they were as ignorant of what they were doing as if they had been a pack of mules."
What a valuable contribution to the sum total of American citizenship! How strongly it will tend to the preservation of our republican institutions.
The beauties of negro suffrage were conspicuously exhibited in the late election in Kentucky. It is there the law that the voter shall cast his ballot "viva voce"—that is read from his ticket the names of the persons for whom he casts his suffrage. The election clerks then and there record it. Few of the negroes in Kentucky and the other Southern States can read at all. How then did the negroes vote?—The editor of the Evansville (Ind.) Courier, who was present in Henderson on the day of the election says:
"In the city there were two voting-places. At each of them a temporary partition was erected, separating the white and black voters, and we observed that the negroes, without a single exception walked up to the officers of the election with a printed ticket, published on a reddish or wine-colored paper, and by its peculiar color only did they know that it contained the names of the Radical candidates. In long lines they pressed up to the polls, and drawing forth their badge of Radicalism, called out: 'Boss I votes dot 'Publican ticket.' About one o'clock one of the Democratic candidates produced the law which we have quoted, and insisted that it should be observed. The officer concluded to try it, and of the next five negroes who came to the polls only one of them knew more than a single candidate whom they proposed supporting. They seemed very generally to understand that General Harlan was running for Governor, but beyond that the great mass of them knew not a single candidate on the ticket; and the names of the candidates might just as well have been published in Hebrew as in Roman characters. so far as the printed tickets served to enlighten the dusky sovereigns. Not one in twenty could read a word, and, beyond the fact that they had been instructed to support the candidates whose names were on the red ticket they were as ignorant of what they were doing as if they had been a pack of mules."
What a valuable contribution to the sum total of American citizenship! How strongly it will tend to the preservation of our republican institutions.
What sub-type of article is it?
Politics
What keywords are associated?
Negro Suffrage
Kentucky Election
Viva Voce Voting
Radical Ticket
Illiterate Voters
What entities or persons were involved?
General Harlan
Where did it happen?
Henderson, Kentucky
Domestic News Details
Primary Location
Henderson, Kentucky
Event Date
Late Election
Key Persons
General Harlan
Event Details
In Kentucky's election, Black voters, mostly illiterate, used red-colored tickets to identify and vote for Radical (Republican) candidates viva voce, often knowing only the gubernatorial candidate's name; enforcement of reading names aloud revealed widespread ignorance.