When the privilege of voting was still a new thing to the Negroes, they knew no greater enjoyment than to cast their votes. They felt equal to their white bosses and were confident, that by exercising their right as voters, they were nearing salvation. Needless to say, that they had no idea what the ballot sheet contained, for 999 out of 1000 plantation Negroes could not read or write. How did it happen that the Negroes from the South, lost the ambition to exercise their right as voting citizens?

Colonel T. W. Higginson, who studied this question, gives us the following reasons:

1. Lack of knowledge and poverty of the Negro render it impossible for him, and quite out of question to organize for elections, as the white race is doing.

2. The discord among themselves, which is to be found even in church organizations of the North.

3. The dependence on their white employers who are largely Democrats, and on whom they depend for their livelihood, a thing which is not confined to the South, only difference being that the employers of the North are mostly Republicans.

4. The treatment of the Negroes.

5. Failure of the whites (Republicans) to extend to the Negroes a helping hand to organize politically.

6. Promises made to the Negroes by the Republicans, but never lived up to.

7. The death of Lincoln and Grant, the only two Republicans of the North, of whom the Plantation Negroes knew anything about.

The Abolitionist Higginson is of the opinion that the Republicans in trying to suppres the Negro franchise have not nearly as much healthy thinking capacity as a sergeant of an old Negro regiment who said. "The Negroes came to the conclusion that it is far better to leave politica alone, until we have acquired some education and also some property." Another Negro said, "It is impossible to put ignorance ahead of knowledge and keep it there."