One feature of the settlement was to be some form of Negro suffrage, either by local action or by constitutional amendment.

Those behind this scheme were mainly of the former governing class.

Negro suffrage, they thought, would take the wind out of the radical sails, the Southern whites would soon be able to control the blacks, representation in Congress would be increased, and the Black Belt would perhaps regain its former political hegemony.

It is hardly necessary to say that the majority of the whites were solidly opposed to such a measure.

But it was hoped to carry it under pressure through the legislature or to bring it about indirectly through rulings of the Freedmen's Bureau.
Coincident with this scheme of partial Negro suffrage an attempt was made by the conservative leaders in Washington, working with the Southerners, to propose a revised Fourteenth Amendment which would give the vote to competent Negroes and not disfranchise the whites.