The constitutional amendment!. Book illustration from Library of Congress

One of a number of highly racist posters issued as part of a smear campaign against Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee John White Geary by supporters of Democratic candidate Hiester Clymer. (See also nos. 1866-6, 1866-7, and 1866-8.) Indicative of Clymer's white-supremacy platform, the posters attack postwar Republican efforts to pass a constitutional amendment enfranchising blacks. In "The Constitutional Amendment" a group of black men are shown crowding ahead of two white veterans and other whites toward a door marked "Polls." One veterans complains, "Surely, we did not fight for this." Another remarks, "I thought we fought for the Union." A straggly bearded man encourages the blacks, "Come on, my brave boys, you saved the Nation." The black response is, "Dat's so Brudder Yank, and you need our votes now. De poor White Trash must stand back." At right two more white men complain, "Negroes rule us now," and "We have no chance here." On the left is a column of text: "Geary Is for Negro Suffrage. Stevens [Pennsylvania representative Thaddeus Stevens] Advocates it. Forney [Pennsylvania senator John W. Forney] Howls for it, McClure [Alexander K. McClure, Pennsylvania Republican chairman] Speaks for it. Cameron [Pennsylvania Republican boss Simon Cameron] Wants it. The League Sustains it. They are rich, and want to make The Negro the Equal of the Poor White Man, and then rule them both." At right are the names of candidates for Congress that supported black voting rights. Below is the commentary: "The Radical Platform--Ǹegro Suffrage the only Issue!' Every man who votes for Geary or for a Radical Candidate for Congress, votes as surely for Negro Suffrage and Negro Equality, as if they were printed on his ballot."
Block signed: Reynolds N.Y.
Title appears as it is written on the item.
Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1866-5.