The new constitution gave suffrage to freedmen (ex-slaves) while disenfranchising former Confederates.
They chose to simply boycott the elections on the grounds that the new constitution was illegal, because it disenfranchised them while giving suffrage to the Freedmen, whom they perceived as an inferior race.
And while a woman's right to vote is a given today, suffrage was a highly divisive issue just a century ago.
It was all but inconceivable that the people, even given limited suffrage, would elect the President directly.
Yoichi Funabashi, editor-in-chief of the Asahi Shimbun, a national newspaper, who supports giving Koreans suffrage rights, says the biggest fear among Japanese may not be the Koreans.
Such a result makes sense of Rousseau's famous passage: "Each citizen, in giving his suffrage, states his mind on that question [concerning what the general will is]; and the general will is found by counting the votes.
Opponents called the result the "Underwood Constitution" or the "Negro Constitution", as it gave freedmen suffrage.
She and Field gave pro-suffrage speeches in smaller Oregon cities, and Bryant rode on the suffrage float in Portland's annual Flag Day parade.
On October 10, 1893, the government introduced a suffrage bill that would have given the vote to virtually every literate adult male (while preserving the traditional system of voting in curiae).
Universal suffrage gave Indians a vote but not, at least for much of the time, a voice.
