According to the organic law of Wisconsin Territory, enacted by
Congress in erecting the territory in 1836, only citizens of the
United States were eligible to the franchise (section V, proviso).
About the year 1840, immigrants from Germany, the British Isles, and
Norway became an appreciable factor in the population of the
territory; but the naturalization law requiring a five years’
residence disfranchised this large group of settlers. The situation
grew tense by 1843, especially since the question of statehood was
being discussed, and seemed likely to come to a head in 1844.
Moreover, the matter was complicated by the Native-American agitation
throughout the country. Many openly advocated a twenty-one year
provision for naturalization, and Wisconsin’s foreigners grew restive
under this possibility.
It seemed quite certain that the Wisconsin legislature of 1844 would
pass a law providing for a referendum on the subject of statehood. In
December, 1843, a large public meeting of German citizens was called
at Milwaukee who drew up a petition for the right to participate in
this referendum. This was signed by 1,200 persons, and was probably
the largest petition ever presented to the territorial legislature. It
became impossible to ignore the demand of the foreign settlers. The
Whig and Democratic parties were struggling for the control of the
territorial offices. Wisconsin was normally Democratic by an
overwhelming majority, but the Tyler administration had appointed a
Whig governor, and patronage went with the administration. The Whigs
were accused of alliance with nativism; it therefore became them to
prove the falsity of the charge. The Democrats felt certain of the
foreign vote. The legislature, therefore, on January 22, 1844, passed
“An Act in relation to the qualification of voters for state
government and for the election of delegates to form a state
constitution,” which provided that “all free white male inhabitants
above the age of 21 years, who have resided in said territory three
months shall be deemed qualified, and shall be permitted to vote on
said question” and for delegates to a convention to frame a
constitution.
The referendum vote which was taken in September, 1844, proved adverse
to the question of a state government. There is no means of
ascertaining how many foreigners voted upon the question, but the
entire vote was very light, and the alien voters seem not to have
influenced the decision, which was anticipated by all parties in the
territory.
About the same time the territorial legislature passed the act above
referred to, General Henry Dodge, Wisconsin’s territorial delegate in
Congress, presented to that body a petition signed by 300 citizens in
the western part of the territory praying for a repeal of the proviso
in the fifth section of the organic law of Wisconsin, and for the
passage of a law granting suffrage to every free white male inhabitant
of the age of twenty-one years within the territory, foreigners
included. This is the petition referred to by G. F. Franklin in his
_Legislative History of Naturalization_. The names of the signers of
the petition are not available. We conjecture that they were those of
the Cornish miners of that region, rather than of the American
settlers, because in after debates, the southwest section of the state
opposed the law allowing aliens to vote.
The law of 1844 was at once attacked, and was made the basis of an
attempt to defeat several prominent members of the legislature who had
voted for it. This was especially true in the northeast section where
the reëlection of Dr. Mason C. Darling, a prominent Democrat, was
opposed because of his advocacy of the alien voting law. It was
claimed that the law was unconstitutional, violating both the
Constitution of the United States and the organic law of the
territory. Dr. Darling came out with several long addresses on the
subject, basing the right of aliens to vote on the twelfth article of
the Ordinance of 1787, and on the inherent right of a sovereign state
to form its constitution as it thought best.
Dr. Darling was reëlected, but the legislature of 1845 had hardly
begun its session when a determined effort was made to repeal the law
of the previous session. In the course of the debates Dr. Darling
offered a clause on the declaration of intention as an amendment, and
another member amended the three months to six months. Both of these
changes were accepted by the friends of the bill as compromise
measures to mitigate the opposition. Dr. Darling said in his argument
that he considered the intention declaration as of no consequence,
except as an evidence of actual settlement. This compromise saved the
bill, and the amended act, approved February 8, 1845, reads: “No
person shall hereafter vote upon the subject of state government, or
for delegates to form a state constitution, who shall not have resided
six months within the Territory, and as an additional qualification
shall be a citizen of the United States, or shall have declared his
intention to become such; as the law requires.”
Thus the matter rested until the legislature of 1846 arranged again to
submit the question of a state government to the people. An attempt
was made by the Whig party to amend the law of 1845 and allow only
citizens to vote. The suffrage provision was complicated by
differences concerning negro, half-breed, and Indian suffrage. On the
test vote the law of 1845 was maintained by the strong majority of 19
to 7, nearly all the Democrats voting in its favor.
The constitutional convention met in October, 1846, and the question
of alien suffrage was much debated. Upon the ground that the acts of
1844 and 1845 were both unconstitutional, petitions poured in,
especially from the Southwest, to limit the franchise to citizens of
the United States. The foreigners also availed themselves of the right
of petition, and the able German delegates in the convention created a
favorable impression for alien suffrage. As finally adopted, the
article granted suffrage to one-year residents, and “all white persons
not citizens of the United States, who shall have declared their
intention to become such, in conformity with the laws of Congress for
the naturalization of aliens, and shall have taken before any officer
of this state * * * an oath to support the constitution of the United
States and of this state.”
The constitution of 1846 was rejected by the people. In the
discussion, then, of the provision for alien voters it played but a
small part. The friends of the constitution set forth its liberality
to foreigners and the fact that it acknowledged the equal rights
nature bestowed upon foreign and native-born citizens alike. Opponents
of the constitution set forth on the one hand the over-liberality to
the alien element, and on the other hand the requirement of an
additional oath as an illiberal burden to foreign residents.
In the constitutional convention of 1847-48 the subject of the foreign
franchise occupied a large share of the time of the delegates. The
delegates from the western counties came with a deliberate
determination to limit the franchise to citizens of the United States.
The admission of foreigners to suffrage placed the West in a permanent
minority, as the lake-board and middle sections of the territory had
the bulk of the immigrant population.
The original proposition as brought in by the committee restored the
residence requirement to six months, retained the intention of
citizenship clause, and omitted the special oath. The examples of New
York, Ohio, and Illinois were cited. One member urged that the
one-year requirement was necessary in New York to ascertain the
permanent character of the residence, while all who came to Wisconsin
came for permanent homes and six months was long enough to prove
residence. The effect of the shorter period would be to encourage
foreigners to file their intentions sooner. It was admitted that the
six-months provision was carried in committee by a very narrow
majority.
The attack on the article on alien suffrage was begun by an amendment
to limit suffrage to citizens. It was alleged that the article as
reported by the committee was unconstitutional and would cause
Congress to reject the constitution. In reply the similar provisions
in the constitutions of Ohio and Illinois were cited. The new
constitution of Illinois was cited by both parties to the controversy;
one claiming the change had occurred because of dissatisfaction with
the more liberal provision; the other that Illinois’ new constitution
had not yet been acted upon. Charges were freely made of
demagoguery--that the Democrats were toadying to the foreign vote. In
reply, the Democrats appealed to the liberality and progressiveness of
their party policies, and declared that the aliens, being taxed, were
entitled to vote. The citizen amendment was defeated by a vote of 53
to 16; and the suffrage article as originally reported by the
committee was incorporated into the constitution. With the amendments
required by the amendments to the Constitution of the United States,
the provision was part of the organic law of Wisconsin until 1912.