

	America 1865: a country divided a country that is recovering from a war that nearly destroyed a great democratic government. But was America really a democratic government? In the election of 1864, 4,010,725 people voted out of the total population of 31,183, 582, now this includes children but still there are not 27 million children in America (http://www.civil-war.net/census.asp?census=Total ). After Lincoln's death, the country was being run by a man that was not elected by the people. He was not an elected reprehensive of the people he was just the guy that was in the right place at the right time. At the beginning of this time period blacks and women were being completely ignored by the government. It is hard to believe that with a sixty- year period this would all change.  
	
	In a democracy majority rules, but the minority is at least considered. In America at this time period the minorities we being ignored. The minority that was most overlooked was women. Women were screaming to for help to stop the abuse for them and their children, no one listened. Women worked to gain equality but were simply not heard by the government. Women began to unite to gain so respect and change things. Women banded together to create a movement groups like the Women's Christian Temperance Movement (WCTU). These groups gave women a united voice, but still couldn't break into the male dominated government system. What the WCTU did though form a generation of politically active women that would work to gain the civil rights and protection. When women were unable to gain support from the male driven society, they turned to each other. Women like Jane Addams, the founder of Hull House, worked to create a support system for women that had been mistreated by the male dominated society. Hull house offered classes, lectures, art exhibits, museums, and college extension courses (American Promise p. 747). Hull produced women that would contribute to the betterment of the United States as a whole. These women were working for a social purity, which would be a life without alcohol and prostitution. Women were worked from the end of Civil War to gain equality and were not recognized until the end of World War I.  Women gained the right to vote on August 18th 1920, this was over two decades of fighting for acknowledgement. President Wilson was forced to show his gratitude to the women who played a huge role in the winning of the war, so Wilson granted them their right to vote.
	
	Right after the Civil War, America was completely a man's world where women were seen but not heard. At the turn of the nineteenth century America woke up and began to recognize the women of the nation. Thanks to the struggles of women like Frances Willard, Annie Wittenmyer, and Jane Addams, minorities are now acknowledged and protected by the government.  Women caused America to take notice of the little people, which made our country become more democratic. 

	In a true democracy all adults are give the right to vote, America in the late 1865 didn't exactly fulfill this requirement. They did begin rectify this problem in the 1869, when congress passed the fifteenth amendment. The fifteenth amendment gave blacks the right to vote. Even though blacks had on paper gained the right to vote on paper didn't mean that all blacks were able to vote in the real world. In the south state governments did everything in there power to silence the black vote.  The southern governments had a huge fear that blacks would takeover and become the majority. When in fact blacks were only 6% of the voting population and whites were 93% (cite) Fig. 1. This fear of blacks having rights quickly turned into violence. Many groups formed to try and stop blacks from voting. Groups like that Ku Klux Klan tried to use fear to squash the blacks' spirit and will to vote. The Klan used scare tactics like lynching, vandalism (burnings), and beating to try and stop blacks from realizing the full rights as citizens. Even though these tactics worked on many blacks, still some went to the polls to vote. This is when the state government stepped into shutout the blacks. Many state governments would create unconstitutional but legal taxes. Governments would create taxes that made it nearly impossible for blacks and even poor whites to vote. Poll taxes could be ten dollars to over one hundred dollars (cite). Now being a hard working sharecropper, who is already in debt to his boss and is barely making enough money to put food on the table, sparing even a penny, was too much. Now that they have gotten rid of the scared and poor blacks, but there is still the moderately successful black population that seems like they can not be stopped. That is when theses racist government got creative; by create laws like the grandfather clause. The grandfather clause was a clause in the constitutions of several southern states before the year 1915, intended to disfranchise African Americans by exempting from stringent voting requirements all lineal descendants of persons who were registered voters before 1867 (www.answer.com). This completed excluded blacks because almost all the blacks were descendants of slaves who never voted ever. America was no where close to being a democracy at this time. Not until the Supreme Court trial of Guinn and Beal v. United States (1915), where the Supreme Court deemed that the grandfather directed towards the blacks citizens and was unconstitutional by a unanimous vote. (www.jimcrowhistory.org).

	In 1915 African Americans were given back their constitutional right to vote freely, but still adults were not being allowed to vote. Women were still not being recognized when it came to voting. Women formally started there battle for their voting rights in 1848 at that Seneca Falls convention (American Promise p. 803). At this convention they created a plan of state by state conversion. Their first success came in the west; by 1910 four western states have adopted women's suffrage. Women's suffrage was met with opposition when it tried to move to the east. In 1910, the women's suffrage movement took up a federal campaign to get the constitution amend. Women were working not to be ignored, and many would picket the white house to show their disapproval of the current problems in the government system. One suffragist, Alice Paul, said it best, "America Is Not a Democracy. Twenty Million Women Are Denied the Right to Vote (American Promise p. 803)." With all the protesting and the growing support President Wilson was forced to back a suffrage amendment. Wilson was unable to ignore the suffrage movement anymore. In 1918, twenty-eight of the forty-nine states already had either full or partial voting rights for women (American Promise p. 803). Also Wilson was rewarding the women for all their help "holding the fort" during the war. With Wilson support the women's seventy-two year long battle was realized in the ratifying of the ninetieth amendment (August, 8, 1920). The ninetieth amendment gave women the constitutional right to vote.

	After the civil war, blacks and women were unable to vote, but by the early 1920's both were given their constitutional rights. For all the Blacks that were beaten and tormented this was a great accomplishment. For like women like Charlotte Woodward, the only member still living from the convention of 1848 to see women given the right to vote, (http://womenshistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa081700a.htm) who had spent their entire lives fighting for rights that were entitled too. This was a great and amazing feeling seeing America finely as a democratic nation it was meant to be. By 1930, for the majority of the nation all that were of age were able to vote, which created a democratic government system.

	After the assassination of President Abe Lincoln, democracy in the office of president died also. The executive branch of government became extremely corrupt. When Andrew Johnson came into office, he brought governed with his own opinion not the opinion of the nation. While congress was trying to civil rights bill to give the freedmen rights and security, Johnson was busy helping out the south. Without consideration or even conferring with congress Johnson returned the land (the land was land left unclaimed after the war) that the Freedmen Bureau and Gen. Sherman had reserved for the freedmen, back to the south. Johnson was completely out of control he vetoed every civil rights bill that crossed his desk. Johnson's reasoning for the vetoes was "that it was an unconstitutional invasion of state rights (American Promise p. 575)." Which sound oddly just like the ideas of the confederacy. President Johnson was finally stopped by congress when threaten him with impeachment (the removal from office). To take more power away from Johnson congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867, which required Senate approval for removal of any official appointed by the Senate (American Promise p. 575). Johnson's hands were tied, congress was to stop his narrow minded politics and preserve the public's opinion.

	The Civil War nearly destroyed the United States of America, but it also created a lot of good. The Civil War forced America to take a hard look at it self. America was pretty much living a lie calling itself a democratic nation, when millions of Americans were living without many of the rights of democratic government. In the time period of 1865- 1930, a lot of the long awaited wrongs were set right. In this stretch of time all those of voting age were given the right to vote, our elected official should that they would fight for policy in favor of the public, and the minority was recognized. In this sixty-five year period, America was able to the lay down the groundwork for our modern democratic government system. America 1930: a country re-united a place where civil liberties are restored and strong government system.




  
