If one of Thaddeus Stevens’s original proposals for the 14th Amendment to the Constitution had been approved, women may have received the vote 50 years before they did. In the early stages of hammering out the amendment in 1866, Stevens proposed to base representation in the House of Representatives and in the Electoral College on the number of eligible voters rather than the number of people.
With basically only white males allowed to vote at that time, states could significantly increase their number of representatives in Congress by simply giving Blacks and women the vote. Once that started, more conservative states would be under pressure to expand their voting lest they lose political power.
But then the House went in the opposite direction and inserted the word “male” into the proposed amendment, the first time in the history of the Constitution. This angered Stevens, who threatened to vote against his own amendment.
Despite his protest, “male” remained in the amendment and Stevens backed down on his threat. “Believing, then, that this is the best proposition that can be made effectual, I accept it.”
Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens’s important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society’s website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/
Ross Hetrick is president and founder of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. Hetrick was a business reporter for 18 years in Baltimore and owned Ross's Coffeehouse & Eatery in Gettysburg from 1996 to 2004.