Democrats On Civil Rights: Bullet Or Bribe?

In 1857, the Supreme Court, with seven of the nine justices being Democrat, decided that Dred Scott was not a citizen, but property.

Chief Justice Roger Taney, appointed by Democrat President Andrew Jackson, wrote that slaves were “so far inferior … that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for their own benefit.”

After the Civil War, the 13th Amendment was adopted Dec. 6, 1865, abolishing slavery in America. Once Southern Democrats were forced to free their slaves, they attempted to effectively re-enslave them by passing “Black Codes” and “Jim Crow Laws” which required former slaves to be “apprenticed” to “employers” and punished any who left.

On Nov. 22, 1865, Republicans denounced Mississippi’s Democrat legislature for enacting “Black Codes” which institutionalized racial discrimination.

On Feb. 5, 1866, Republican Congressman Thaddeus Stevens introduced legislation to give former slaves “40 acres and a mule,” but Democrats opposed it, led by President Andrew Johnson. On April 9, 1866, Republicans in Congress overrode Democrat President Johnson’s veto and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, conferring rights of citizenship on freed slaves.

To force Southern states to extend state citizenship rights to former slaves, Republicans in the U.S. House passed the 14th Amendment, May 10, 1866, as did the Senate, June 8, 1866. One hundred percent of Democrats voted against it.

The 14th Amendment was adopted by the states on July 28, 1868.

Republican Congressman John Farnsworth of Illinois stated, March 31, 1871: “The reason for the adoption (of the 14th Amendment) … was because of … discriminating … legislation of those States … by which they were punishing one class of men under different laws from another class.”

Once Southern Democrats could no longer re-enslave with “Black Codes” and “Jim Crow Laws,” they attempted to keep former slaves from voting.

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