Question

In January 1866,soon after the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery,

radical Republicans in Congress began arguing that freedmen should be
allowed to vote on equal terms with whites. A bill was introduced to give
the vote to the freedmen of the District of Columbia. Most Democrats and
many moderate Republicans opposed this bill, though most radical
Republicans supported it (even though only five Northern states allowed
African-American men to vote at this time). The following excerpts come
from the speech of Pennsylvania Congressman Benjamin Boyer, a
Democrat who opposed the bill to enfranchise the African Americans of
the District of Columbia. It is common for the advocates of negro suffrage
to assume that the color of the negro is the main obstacle to his
admission to political equality.... But it is not the complexion of then negro
that degradeş him ... [the Negro is) a race by nature inferior in mental
caliber ... the negroes are not the equals of white Americans, and are not
entitled ... to participate in the Government of this country ... Why,
according to Congressman Boyer, should African Americans be denied the
right to vote? Explain.

Answer 1

Congressman Boyer opposed granting African Americans the right to vote because he believed they were mentally inferior and not entitled to participate in the U.S. government. His views were in line with the racist ideologies of the time, despite the efforts of the Reconstruction era's Fifteenth Amendment to prevent voting discrimination based on race, color, or previous servitude.

Step-by-step explanation:

According to Congressman Boyer, African Americans should be denied the right to vote because he believed they were an inferior race in mental capability and were therefore not entitled to participate in the government of the United States.

This view was reflective of the prevalent racist attitudes of the time, where many held the belief that racial differences equated to differences in inherent capabilities and rights.

Reconstruction era politics was highly contested, with varying opinions on the rights of African Americans. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, but it did not automatically bestow the right to vote to African Americans.

This led to the introduction of the Fourteenth Amendment, which addressed citizenship rights and equal protections, and the Fifteenth Amendment, aimed at ensuring the right to vote could not be denied based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude, although it left room for states to impose other restrictions such as literacy tests and poll taxes.

Nonetheless, during Reconstruction, African Americans began to win elections and hold positions of power, especially in southern states. Still, the opposition to black suffrage remained strong among many, including Democrats like Boyer who voiced arguments against the granting of voting rights based on perceived racial inferiority.