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“Whenever They Judge it Expedient”: The Politics of Partisanship and Free Black Voting Rights in Early National New York

2011; Routledge; Volume: 12; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14664658.2011.559746

1743-7903

Paul J. Polgar,

American Constitutional Law and Politics

Abstract Abstract During the first three decades of the nineteenth century, several northern states extended suffrage universally to white men at the same time that they deprived black males of the vote. Historians have noted this paradoxical pattern of democratic inclusion and racial exclusion and linked it to the concurrent appearance of "Jacksonian Democracy," an ideology that celebrated the common white man, while marginalizing African Americans in the expanding political process. Black disenfranchisement in New York, however, was not the inevitable corollary of a white racist exclusionary ethos that disqualified African Americans from participation in American democracy, but the contingent product of party politics. Through a case study of black suffrage rights in early national New York, this article seeks to move beyond simply noting the ironies of a rising white man's democracy on the one hand and the exclusion of African Americans on the other by demonstrating the dynamic, political nature of racial constructs. Keywords: African AmericansdisfranchisementEmancipationFederalistsraceRepublicanssuffrage Notes 1. Carter Carter , Nathaniel H. and Stone , William L. Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, Assembled for the Purpose of Amending the Constitution of the State of New York . Albany, NY : E. & E. Hosford , 1821 . [Google Scholar] and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 201. 2. Looking to identify the process by which Jacksonian Democracy came to define antebellum Northern politics, the political scientist Christopher Malone Malone, Christopher. 2007. Between Freedom and Bondage: Race, Party, and Voting Rights in the Antebellum North, New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar] in his study, Between Freedom and Bondage argues that New York Republicans targeted free people of color and exploited them as a racist symbol so as to mobilize white ethnic voters whose prejudice and socioeconomic antagonism towards the free black community was deeply rooted. According to Malone, out of this process Republicans developed a "racial ascriptivist" ideology that, by the time of New York's Constitutional Convention of 1821, presented black persons as innately inferior, subordinate to whites, and therefore unfit for citizenship and suffrage rights. As part of his larger indictment of the Jeffersonian Republicans on issues of slavery and race, Paul Finkelman Finkelman, Paul. 2001. Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson, New York: M.E. Sharpe. [Google Scholar] writes that Republicans in New York pushed for black disenfranchisement out of the "racism and bigotry" the party felt for free people of color. See Finkelman, Slavery and the Founders, 120. Aside from Gellman Gellman, David N. and Quigley, David. 2003. Jim Crow New York: A Documentary History of Race and Citizenship, 1777–1877, New York: New York University Press. [Google Scholar] and Quigley, Jim Crow New York, which excerpts much of the debate over black suffrage rights at the Convention of 1821, the issue of African-American disenfranchisement in New York has received cursory coverage in several articles and monographs. For three of the more detailed of these analyses see Gellman, Emancipating New York, 207–212; Wilentz Wilentz, Sean. 2005. The Rise of American Democracy, Jefferson to Lincoln, New York: W.W. Norton. [Google Scholar], The Rise of American Democracy, 192–94; and Fox "The Negro Vote in Old New York," 252–75. In addition to losing the vote in New York, African Americans were disenfranchised in New Jersey in 1807, Connecticut in 1818, Rhode Island in 1822, and Pennsylvania in 1838, and in a substantial number of southern and midwestern states from 1800–1830. 3. Minutes of the Manumission Society of New-York, 25 January 1785 Minutes of the Manumission Society of New-York , January 25, vol. 1, New York Historical Society , 1785 . [Google Scholar], vol. 1, New York Historical Society. The NYMS also included some highly placed Antifederalists, later turned Republicans, including New York governor George Clinton and Revolutionary War hero, Melancton Smith Smith, Rogers M. 1999. Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History, New Haven: Yale University Press. [Google Scholar]. Yet, on the whole, the NYMS tended to attract persons whose socioeconomic standing fit well with Federalist political imperatives. Even further, the doctrines of the NYMS mirrored the Federalist Party's approach to politics. On the history of the New York Manumission Society see Mosley Mosley , Robert S . A History of the New York Manumission Society, 1785–1849 . PhD diss., New York University , 1963 . [Google Scholar], "A History of the New York Manumission Society"; Gellman, Emancipating New York, 56–77; and White White, Shane. 1991. Somewhat More Independent: The End of Slavery in New York City, 1770–1810, Athens: University of Georgia Press. [Google Scholar], Somewhat More Independent, 81–8. 4. The New York Friendly Society was one these reform societies made up principally of avowed partisan Federalists such as Elihu Hubbert Smith, who also belonged to the NYMS. See Cronin Cronin , James N. Elihu Hubbard Smith and the New York Friendly Club, 1795–1798 . PMLA 64 , no. 3 1949 : 471 479 . [Google Scholar], "Elihu Hubbard Smith and the New York Friendly Club," 471–79. 5. Harris Harris, Leslie M. 2003. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626–1863, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar], In the Shadow of Slavery, 74–5; White, Somewhat More Independent, 153–155. In 1790 the free black population of New York City stood at 1036. The free black population of New York City increased sevenfold between 1790 and 1810. In 1800 there were 3332 free African Americans in New York City and by 1810 the aggregate slave population had dipped to 1167, 20% of the total African-American population there. See White, Somewhat More Independent, 154–6. Free black and slave emigration from Saint Domingue –which underwent a bloody revolution throughout the 1790s – also contributed to the increase in the black population of New York City. 6. White, Somewhat More Independent, 171–4. See White, Somewhat More Independent, 153–163 for population and occupational statistics on New York City's black community. White counted 1014 free black male heads of household in the census of 1810. My own count, provided in the table below, came to 946. 7. Harris, In the Shadow of Slavery, 72–95; White, Somewhat More Independent, 158. 8. Sidney, An Oration Commemorative of the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the United States; Delivered Before the Wilberforce Philanthropic Association of the City of New-York, on the Second of January, 1809. 9, 12–13. 9. Sidney, An Oration Commemorative of the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the United States; Delivered Before the Wilberforce Philanthropic Association of the City of New-York, on the Second of January, 1809. 9, 13–14 10. Spirit of'76, 25 April 1809; New York Herald, April 30, 1808; Commercial Advertiser, November 9, 1813; Evening Post, November 6, 1813; Commercial Advertiser, November 12, 1813; Evening Post, November 11, 1813. 11. Mercantile Advertiser, November 10, 1813; The Columbian, April 26, 1814. See The Columbian, April 26, 1813; Mercantile Advertiser, November 10, 1813; The Columbian, November12, 1814; The Columbian, April 25, 1814; The Columbian, April 26, 1814; The Columbian, April 11, 1816; The National Advocate, April 22, 1816; The Columbian, April 24, 1816; The Columbian, April 16, 1816; The Columbian, April 18, 1816 for additional published reports of free black Republican political meetings. 12. Federalist and Republican editorials frequently referred to free blacks as a Federalist constituency. For examples see the Evening Post, April 24, 1811; Evening Post, April 16, 1811; The Columbian, January 16, 1813; Evening Post, April 24, 1815 and The Public Advertiser, June 11, 1812. 13. My contention that ideology played no determinative role in the black disenfranchisement process in New York draws on two studies of the state's partisan political system which demonstrate the central role of electoral expediency in setting the terms for party coalitions and party stances on such ambiguous concepts as democracy. See Kass Kass, Alan. 1965. Politics in New York State, 1800–1830, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. [Google Scholar], Politics in New York State, 1800–1830 and Strum Strum , Harvey . Property Qualifications and Voting Behavior in New York, 1807–1816 Journal of the Early Republic 4 1981 : 347 71 . [Google Scholar], "Property Qualifications and Voting Behavior in New York, 1807–1816." 14. American Citizen, April 24, 1807; American Citizen, November 16, 1807. Reprinted in the Republican Watchtower, November 17, 1807. For additional examples of Republican outreach to free black New Yorkers see American Citizen, November 17, 1807. Reprinted in the Republican Watchtower, November 20, 1807; Evening Post, April 25, 1807. Public Advertiser, April 9,1807; Evening Post, April 13, 1813. Reprinted in the New York Herald, April 28, 1813; Evening Post, April 24, 1815. See also the Evening Post, April 22, 1813. 15. Evening Post, April 28, 1813. 16. American Citizen, May 2, 1807. Reprinted in the Republican Watchtower, May 5, 1807; A Black Joke!!!, 1808. 17. The Columbian, April 16, 1814; The Columbian April 27, 1815. For additional examples of Republican campaign pieces defaming black New Yorkers see The Columbian, June 9, 1810; American Citizen, April 28, 1808 and the Public Advertiser, April 29, 1808. 18. "A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787–1825,http://elections.lib.tufts.edu/aas_portal/index.xq. The New Nation Votes Project is a digitized collection of election returns from 1787–1825 compiled from newspapers and other printed sources of the early American republic by Philip J. Lampi of the American Antiquarian Society. 19. Federalists won majorities in the State Assembly in the 1809, 1812 and 1813 elections. The 1815 election resulted in a 63-63 Federalist/Republican representative tie. From 1802 to 1808 New York City sent nine representatives to the State Assembly. 20. The at-large system of Assembly elections in New York City made free black voters a valuable political asset. Under a district electoral model the potential influence on the outcome of elections by free blacks, who concentrated in wards five, six, and seven, could have been negated by the reliable white artisan and working-class Republican constituencies that dwelled in these same populous wards. 21. Estimations of the number of free black New York City voters appear in the Evening Post, April 24, 1811 and The Columbian, January 16, 1813. The average margin of victory for the Federalists and Republicans in New York City Assembly elections during these years was calculated from a tabulation taken from city newspapers that reported on the results of these elections, and supplied by Phillip Lampi of the New Nation Votes Project. 22. For the results of these elections see American Citizen, May 1. 1809; The Columbian May 6, 1810; The Columbian May 3, 1813; Mercantile Advertiser, May 3, 1813; Evening Post, April 30, 1814; Commercial Advertiser, May 2, 1814; Evening Post, April 29, 1815; Mercantile Advertiser, May 1, 1815. 23. A transcribed copy of the parts of the bill relating to black suffrage is in Gellman and Quigley, Jim Crow New York, 64–6. New York City newspapers, especially Federalist ones, committed ample ink to reprinting the law. For example see the Evening Post, April 11, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27 and 30. 24. Malone, Between Freedom and Bondage, 44; Commercial Advertiser, April 15, 1815. 25. Commercial Advertiser, April 11, 1816; Evening Post, April 18, 1815. 26. Kass, Politics in New York State, 19–20; Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy, 190–91. The Bucktails did attract some Federalist support, especially those who disagreed with their party's opposition to the War of 1812. Kass shows that New York Federalists formed coalitions with both the Clintonians and the Bucktails during their extended tenure as a fractured minority party. The intra-party Republican split can be traced back to 1807 when Clinton, then serving as a State Senator, refused to support Jefferson's embargo in spite of Governor Tompkins' backing of the measure. Even though Clinton eventually relented and endorsed the embargo, tensions remained. Then in 1812 the crack in Republican unity split wide open when the ever ambitious Clinton, serving as Lieutenant Governor under Tompkins, ran for the Presidency as an anti-war candidate aligned nationally with the Federalists. 27. Forbes Forbes, Robert Pierce. 2007. The Missouri Compromise and its Aftermath: The Meaning of Slavery in America, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. [Google Scholar], The Missouri Compromise and its Aftermath, 56; Gellman and Quigley, Jim Crow New York, 84–5. My overview of the politics of the Missouri crisis comes from Forbes' account. For other treatments of the Missouri crisis see Glover Moore Moore, Glover. 1953. The Missouri Controversy, 1819–1821, Lexington: University of Kentucky Press. [Google Scholar], The Missouri Controversy, 1819–1821; Don E. Fehrenbacher, The South and Three Sectional Crises; and Richard H Brown Brown, Richard H. 1966. The Missouri Crisis, Slavery, and the Politics of Jacksonianism. South Atlantic Quarterly, 65: 55–72. [Google Scholar], "The Missouri Crisis, Slavery, and the Politics of Jacksonianism." 28. Kass, Politics in New York State, 82; Fox Fox , Dixon Ryan . The Negro Vote in Old New York Political Science Quarterly 32 1917 : 252 75 . [Google Scholar], "The Negro Vote in Old New York," 258 fn.1. See Forbes, The Missouri Compromise and its Aftermath, for Clinton's drive to use the Missouri crisis for political gain and the role played by Federalists in stirring up Northern public opposition to slavery extension. 29. Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy, 234. One New York City newspaper accused Tompkins of choosing not to vote on Missouri's admission because of his need to "oblige his Southern friends." See The Columbian April 20, 1820. My suggestion that Tompkins may have lost the 1820 governor's race due to his ambiguity on slavery extension is borrowed from Forbes, The Missouri Compromise and its Aftermath, 73. 30. Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy, 191–2. 31. Gellman and Quigley, Jim Crow New York, 100. 32. In 1820 the African-American population for the state as a whole numbered 37,647. Only 518 slaves resided in New York City in 1820. Thirty-one percent, or 4194 of the 13,458 free black males in the Empire State lived in New York City, and if earlier migration patterns were any indication of future movement, many of those scheduled to gain their freedom could be expected to emigrate to New York City. See, "University of Virginia Library Historical Census Browser", http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/. 33. Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 181 34. Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 190–191. While Young Young, Alfred P. 1967. The Democratic Republicans of New York: The Origins, 1763–1797, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. [Google Scholar] conceded that black improvement might someday necessitate their inclusion in the body politic, he held forth that the current inferior condition of free blacks in New York compelled the convention to "withhold that privilege which they will inevitably abuse." 35. Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 198. 36. A View of the Exertions A View of the Exertions Lately Made for the Purpose of Colonizing The Free People of Colour, in the United States, in Africa, or Elsewhere . Washington, DC : Jonathan Elliott , 1817 . [Google Scholar] Lately Made for the Purpose of Colonizing The Free People of Colour, in the United States, in Africa, or Elsewhere, 5. Prominent members of the ACS included Presidents James Monroe and James Madison, Senator Henry Clay, and Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington. For historical literature on the ACS see Staudernas Staudernas , P.J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816–1865 . New York Columbia University Press , 1961 . [Google Scholar], The African Colonization Movement, 1816–1865 Wesley , Charles W. Negro Suffrage in the Period of Constitution-Making, 1787–1865 Journal of Negro History 32 April 1947 , 143 168 . [Google Scholar] and Burin Burin, Eric. 2005. Slavery and the Peculiar Solution: A History of the American Colonization Society, Gainesville: University Press of Florida. [Google Scholar], Slavery and the Peculiar Solution. 37. Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 186. Proponents of black disenfranchisement also used the federal ban on African-American participation in militia service to defend racialized voting standards. Bucktail delegate Erastus Root intoned that free blacks "cannot complain at being excluded from voting, inasmuch as they are not bound to assist in the defense of the country." See, Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 185. 38. Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 186. Proponents of black disenfranchisement also used the federal ban on African-American participation in militia service to defend racialized voting standards. Bucktail delegate Erastus Root intoned that free blacks "cannot complain at being excluded from voting, inasmuch as they are not bound to assist in the defense of the country." See, Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 183. 39. Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 186. Proponents of black disenfranchisement also used the federal ban on African-American participation in militia service to defend racialized voting standards. Bucktail delegate Erastus Root intoned that free blacks "cannot complain at being excluded from voting, inasmuch as they are not bound to assist in the defense of the country." See, Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 184. 40. Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 186. Proponents of black disenfranchisement also used the federal ban on African-American participation in militia service to defend racialized voting standards. Bucktail delegate Erastus Root intoned that free blacks "cannot complain at being excluded from voting, inasmuch as they are not bound to assist in the defense of the country." See, Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 186. In deriding Erastus Root's argument that African Americans had no claim on the right of suffrage because they were banned from serving in the militia, Clarke reminded the convention that in actuality free blacks had served valiantly during previous military crises. Clarke commended New York's blacks for their militia service in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. He also exposed the makeshift nature of white prejudice, stating that, "when the hour of danger approaches your'white' militia are just as willing that the man of color should be set as a mark to be shot at by the enemy… and to stand'shoulder to shoulder' with them." See Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 187–8. 41. Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 186. Proponents of black disenfranchisement also used the federal ban on African-American participation in militia service to defend racialized voting standards. Bucktail delegate Erastus Root intoned that free blacks "cannot complain at being excluded from voting, inasmuch as they are not bound to assist in the defense of the country." See, Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 186. In deriding Erastus Root's argument that African Americans had no claim on the right of suffrage because they were banned from serving in the militia, Clarke reminded the convention that in actuality free blacks had served valiantly during previous military crises. Clarke commended New York's blacks for their militia service in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. He also exposed the makeshift nature of white prejudice, stating that, "when the hour of danger approaches your'white' militia are just as willing that the man of color should be set as a mark to be shot at by the enemy… and to stand'shoulder to shoulder' with them." See Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821 193; Gellman and Quigley, Jim Crow New York, 142. 42. National Advocate, September 24, 1821; National Advocate, August 3, 1821. 43. Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 215. Ibid., 255–7. It is unclear why Tompkins reversed his stance on African-American civic rights. The press attacks he endured for refusing to publically oppose the westward expansion of slavery as VicePresident during the Missouri crisis and the deleterious effects this had on his unsuccessful run for the governorship in 1820 may have soured Tompkins on issues of antislavery and race. But even before that time there was contradictory evidence about Tompkins' position on black suffrage, further illustrating the larger ambivalence of New York Republicans towards black electors in the early nineteenth century. In 1813, a black Federalist wrote to a New York newspaper to warn African Americans against supporting Tompkins and accusing the then-governor of favoring the certificate law. Yet three years later, a group of black Republicans cited Governor Tompkins' "steady, humane and uniform conduct towards many of us" as the primary reason for endorsing his run for a third term as governor of New York. See the Evening Post, April 27, 1813 and The Columbian, April 24, 1816. Tompkins' negative portrayal of black New Yorkers in the Convention debates in tandem with his valorization of white militiamen is especially noteworthy since he had personally lobbied President James Monroe to permit blacks to form militia units during the War of 1812. 44. Carter and Stone, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of 1821, 215. Ibid., 255–7. It is unclear why Tompkins reversed his stance on African-American civic rights. The press attacks he endured for refusing to publically oppose the westward expansion of slavery as VicePresident during the Missouri crisis and the deleterious effects this had on his unsuccessful run for the governorship in 1820 may have soured Tompkins on issues of antislavery and race. But even before that time there was contradictory evidence about Tompkins' position on black suffrage, further illustrating the larger ambivalence of New York Republicans towards black electors in the early nineteenth century. In 1813, a black Federalist wrote to a New York newspaper to warn African Americans against supporting Tompkins and accusing the then-governor of favoring the certificate law. Yet three years later, a group of black Republicans cited Governor Tompkins' "steady, humane and uniform conduct towards many of us" as the primary reason for endorsing his run for a third term as governor of New York. See the Evening Post, April 27, 1813 and The Columbian, April 24, 1816. Tompkins' negative portrayal of black New Yorkers in the Convention debates in tandem with his valorization of white militiamen is especially noteworthy since he had personally lobbied President James Monroe to permit blacks to form militia units during the War of 1812. 288; Ibid., 375. 45. New York's African Americans celebrated the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment with a massive parade that included over 7000 participants and attracted over 15,000 onlookers. However, with fierce opposition from New York's Democrats, the state's Constitution was not revised to incorporate equal black male voting rights until 1874. Gellman and Quigley, Jim Crow New York, 295–9.