Up to 1865 nearly all the states of the Union had restricted the right to vote to white men. After the Negro was freed some Northern states voluntarily removed this restriction. The friends of freedom hoped that the Fourteenth Amendment would induce others to do so, by making it to the advantage of their national representative power. But from the ratification of the Amendment in 1868 to 1870 not a single state, with the sole exception of Minnesota, heeded the warning or yielded to the inducement of the suffrage clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. And it might be noted in passing that there were not enough Negroes in Minnesota to make any difference either way. Up to 1870 fourteen states still restricted the suffrage to white men. This obstinacy on the part of the reactionaries caused the friends of freedom in 1870 to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment, which substituted _must_ for persuasion and virtually penalized discriminations against any race in the matter of the suffrage. What evidence is there that any of these steps were taken in a spirit of revenge? Revenge usually acts in haste and without waiting on the development of other sufficient causes. The persuasion of the Fourteenth Amendment was not resorted to till three years after the close of the war, and when there had risen the plainest need for even more than persuasion in the interests of justice and humanity. And the Fifteenth Amendment did not appear till five years after the war, when even the Fourteenth Amendment had failed to persuade. Why should revenge wait so long and advance so reluctantly? It seems that the friends of freedom, who had the political power in their hands, were slow to anger and plenteous in hope. This suffrage amendment was to be a bulwark to the liberties not only of black men but of all men in America; it was directed not only against the "Black Laws" of the South but against political and civil slavery everywhere in the nation. It is interesting to note that of the states who were members of the Union up to 1865, only five can be listed in the honor roll of those who have never discriminated against the Negro voter: Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.