![Another in a series of racist posters attacking Radical Republican exponents of black suffrage, issued during the 1866 Pennsylvania gubernatorial race. (See "The Constitutional Amendment," no. 1866-5.) The poster specifically characterizes Democratic candidate Hiester Clymer's platform as "for the White Man," represented here by the idealized head of a young man. (Clymer ran on a white-supremacy platform.) In contrast a stereotyped black head represents Clymer's opponent James White Geary's platform, "for the Negro." Below the portraits are the words, "Read the platforms. Congress says, The Negro must be allowed to vote, or the states be punished." Above is an explanation: "Every Radical in Congress Voted for Negro Suffrage. Every Radical in the Pennsylvania Senate Voted for Negro Suffrage. Stevens [Pennsylvania Representative Thaddeus Stevens], Forney [John W. Forney, editor of the " Philadelphia Press":], and Cameron [Pennsylvania Republican boss Simon Cameron] are for Negro Suffrage; they are all Candidates for the United States Senate. No Radical Newspaper Opposes Negro Suffrage. "Geary" said in a Speech at Harrisburg, 11th of August, 1866–"There Can Be No Possible Objection to Negro Suffrage."](http://explorepahistory.com/kora/files/1/2/1-2-1890-25-ExplorePAHistory-a0l9i6-a_349.jpg "Another in a series of racist posters attacking Radical Republican exponents of black suffrage, issued during the 1866 Pennsylvania gubernatorial race. (See \"The Constitutional Amendment,\" no. 1866-5.) The poster specifically characterizes Democratic candidate Hiester Clymer's platform as \"for the White Man,\" represented here by the idealized head of a young man. (Clymer ran on a white-supremacy platform.) In contrast a stereotyped black head represents Clymer's opponent James White Geary's platform, \"for the Negro.\" Below the portraits are the words, \"Read the platforms. Congress says, The Negro must be allowed to vote, or the states be punished.\" Above is an explanation: \"Every Radical in Congress Voted for Negro Suffrage. Every Radical in the Pennsylvania Senate Voted for Negro Suffrage. Stevens [Pennsylvania Representative Thaddeus Stevens], Forney [John W. Forney, editor of the \" Philadelphia Press\":], and Cameron [Pennsylvania Republican boss Simon Cameron] are for Negro Suffrage; they are all Candidates for the United States Senate. No Radical Newspaper Opposes Negro Suffrage. \"Geary\" said in a Speech at Harrisburg, 11th of August, 1866–\"There Can Be No Possible Objection to Negro Suffrage.\"")
Credit: Library of Congress
In the aftermath of the Civil War, Pennsylvania Democrats and Republicans battled, at times violently, for control of the state and local governments. In the bitterly contested 1866 gubernatorial election Republican candidate John Geary, a two-star general twice wounded during the Civil War, beat Democratic state senator Hiester Clymer who warned white Pennsylvanians against voting for the Republican Geary and other 'radical' Republicans because of their support of African-American suffrage.
