The Politics of Race in New York: The Struggle for Black Suffrage in the Civil War Era (review)

BOOK REVIEWS93 delineation ofhis reelection to the Senate in 1885, whenhe confronted an evenly balanced state legislature. The deaths of three members resulted in the chance of producing a pro-Logan majority, and caused several months of byzantine maneuvering. This climaxed in the triumph of Logan's partisans in organizing one special election, work that was kept secret from the Democrats until it was too late for them to elect a member with the decisive vote. The book's strength lies in simply detailing an unknown story; its weakness is a lack of interpretation. Logan figured in all the great debates of the 1870s and 1880s and in the internal divisions of the GOP between Stalwarts and Half-Breeds, yet itis difficulttoascertainhis real views, if any, on many of these matters. He did take a strong stand in favor of Negro rights, which somewhat softened the fact that he had been a Democrat before the war, but that also cost him some support both in Washington and Illinois. Just what groups supported him and why in Illinois is also unclear. Professor Jones alludes frequently to Logan's business activities, but does not delineate them. He did undertake many business speculations, all of which apparently failed. As the author notes on several occasions, Logan was typical of the second-level figure who was so prominent in his time but whom history has forgotten, and whose career illuminated the era's confused but fascinating development. His story also shows how much we still need to know about the 1870s and 1880s, which if properly studied—whether through biographies or other vehicles—may turn out to be more of a "watershed" than their better-known successor, the 1890s. H. Wayne Morgan University of Oklahoma The Politics of Race in New York: The Strugglefor Black Suffrage in the Civil War Era. By Phyllis F. Field. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982. Pp. 264. $19.50.) This is a fine book. The movement in behalf of equal suffrage has been the subject of keen controversy among scholars during the last generation . Meticulous studies of politics at the state level represent our best hope of resolving the disagreements among historians who have differed bothas to themotivation of the Republicans in advocating thevote for Black Americans during the years 1840-70 and as to its importance as a political issue generally. We are indebted to Professor Field for a study that in many ways is a very model of the genus, research monograph. Field argues that the struggle for black suffrage in New York passed through three stages. The Constitution of 1821 provided thatblack New Yorkers must meet a restrictive property qualification and "opposition to equal suffrage was overwhelming" (p. 220) during the years that culminated in a referendum on the subject in 1846. Sentiment in behalf 94CIVIL WAR HISTORY of the reform centered in areas of Yankee, abolitionist, and temperance strength and was rooted in the cultural heritage and values of the proponents . During this period the major parties were not aligned solidly against each other on the issue. After the referendum of 1846 an extended period of transition occurred that extended into the early 1860s. Particularly important in this phase of the issue was the party realignment of the mid-1850s. Now, "Yankees, the principal group whose egalitarian values rejected the notion of discrimination based solely on race, moved into the Republican party in droves" (p. 221). When another vote on suffrage occurred in 1860, however, substantial numbers of Republicans still opposed equality for blacks or abstained from voting. A final referendum on the subject occurred in 1869 while the ratification process of the Fifteenth Amendment was under way. The cause of equal suffrage failed again, although by a narrow margin, and in this voting party lines were drawn sharply because the Civil War and the first years of Reconstruction had intensified partisan divisions on racial issues. Racial attitudes by this time had been incorporated into party images and the Republican espousal of black suffrage in the South made it a party issue everywhere, irrespective of the number of votes at issue in particular northern states. Field's story is a complex one and she has...