The great power of suffrage was suddenly conferred upon the ignorant and emotional black man. His immediate ancestors were untamed savages in Africa, and he had known nothing but a life of willing servitude. He was least fitted of all races of mankind to participate in the government of a highly civilized society. And yet being a majority in many sections he found himself unexpectedly possessed of the power to make laws and to govern. He was unprepared for it. He could not use it intelligently. It became a curse to him and to the State. An experience of thirty years has taught them nothing in this respect. All men now realize the folly of the fifteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States. —Locke Craig.