jeffersondem: "By some accounts, the 15th amendment was passed by Congress in 1869 and ratified in 1870."
Some people claim I'm too long winded, so I look for ways to reduce words, as in this case.
By John Wilkes Booth's own account he was "triggered" on hearing Lincoln call for African American suffrage,
And this is interesting because he had previously said he was completely against this.
Why then, when it suddenly became politically advantageous for Lincoln and his Party, did he suddenly decide that giving slaves the right to vote was a good idea?
I dare say, if he could have been persuaded to believe that all freed slaves would vote for the Democrats, he would have been absolutely against the idea of enfranchising the former slaves, as he was in prior years.
Again, how is Lincoln different in this regard from Modern Day liberal Democrats who fully support both illegal immigration, and shipping in millions of third world socialism supporters simply because they know they will vote for the Democrats?
Lincoln was tampering with the existing electorate not because it was the right and moral thing to do, but he and his party did so strictly as a means of gaining further political power.
It was always about power, even when it had the side effect of doing something morally right.