%501. The Fifteenth Amendment.%--To secure the negro the right to vote, and make it no longer dependent on state action, a Fifteenth Amendment was passed by Congress in February, 1869, and, after ratification by the necessary number of states, was put in force in March, 1870. As the Ku Klux were violating this amendment, by preventing the negroes from voting, Congress, in 1871, passed the "Ku Klux" or "Force" Act. It prescribed fine and imprisonment for any man convicted of hindering, or even attempting to hinder, any negro from voting, or the votes, when cast, from being counted. [Illustration: U. S. Grant] %502. Rise of the Liberal Republicans.%--This legislation and the conflicts that grew out of it in Louisiana kept alive the old issue of amnesty, and in Missouri split the Republican party and led to the rise of a new party, which received the name of "Liberal Republicans," because it was in favor of a more liberal treatment of the South. From Missouri, the movement spread into Iowa, into Kansas, into Illinois, and into New Jersey, and by 1872 was serious enough to encourage the leaders to call for a national convention which gathered at Cincinnati (May, 1872), and, after declaring for amnesty, universal suffrage, civil service reform, and no more land grants to railroads, nominated Horace Greeley, of New York, for President, and B. Gratz Brown, the Liberal leader of Missouri, for Vice President. The nomination of Greeley displeased a part of the convention, which went elsewhere, and nominated W. S. Groesbeck and F. L. Olmsted. The Republicans met at Philadelphia in June, and nominated Grant and Henry Wilson. The Democrats pledged their support to Greeley and Brown; but this act displeased so many of the Democratic party, that another convention was held, and Charles O'Conor and John Quincy Adams were placed in the field. %503. The National Labor-Reform Party.%--From about 1829, when the establishment of manufactures, the building of turnpikes and canals, the growth of population, the rise of great cities, and the arrival of emigrants from Europe led to the appearance of a great laboring class, the workingman had been in politics. But it was not till the close of the war that labor questions assumed national importance. In 1865 the first National Labor Congress was held at Louisville in Kentucky. In 1866 a second met at Baltimore; a third at Chicago in 1867; and a fourth at New York in 1868, to which came woman suffragists and labor-reform agitators. The next met at Philadelphia in 1869 and called for a great National Labor Congress which met at Cincinnati in 1870 and demanded 1. Lower interest on government bonds. 2. Repeal of the law establishing the national banks. 3. Withdrawal of national bank notes. 4. Issue of paper money "based on the faith and resources of the nation," to be legal tender for all debts. 5. An eight-hour law. 6. Exclusion of the Chinese. 7. No land grants to corporations.