While spending a few months in prison after the collapse of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens devoted some thought to the problem of the status of the newly freed African Americans. He still believed, just as in the days of the "Cornerstone Speech", in their inferiority to whites. But unlike many of his fellow white Southerners, he acknowledged that to deprive this large population of any "direct or indirect" voice in the government "would not only be an anomaly in Representative Government but would be manifestly wrong upon the principles of wisdom and justice." Without some representation, "their condition," he thought, "will be worse than that of the Astects [a spelling I have never seen before--DT] in Mexico and not much better than that of the Gipsies in all countries of Europe. Ultimate extinction would probably be their doom."
Stephens envisioned a rather curious basis for the participation of African Americans in the government. Writing to his brother Linton in June 1865, while Georgia considered its new state constitution, Stephens proposed a novel system of representation. The population would be "divided into classes according to professions, pursuits, interests, and conditions." Blacks would be one of these classes but could choose their representative from any other class. It might be necessary at first to restrict their franchise or limit their choice to white men only or delay putting the plan into effect for a few years, but Stephens believed political rights ought to be given the freedmen for the South's own good. Under such a system, he thought the blacks "for years to come" would probably choose white men to protect their interests.
Anyone see any possibility of any Southern state actually adopting something like Stephens' proposal? The only way I could envision it is if (a) enough white Southerners saw it as the only alternative to the Radicals imposing full black suffrage on the South, and (b) Andew Johnson was more skillful and flexible than in OTL, and used such a proposal to divide Radical from Conservative Republicans, instead of adamantly saying that suffrage was for the states to decide. Even then it would probably not last long, being equally unsatisfactory to African Americans, Radicals, and die-hard white Southerners. (And even if some sort of compromise on African American suffrage was possible in 1865, Stephens' proposal was a little too complex. It has an odd resemblance to various plans for "functional representation" that were seen in some fascist countries in the twentieth century, and even in some democracies, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seanad_Éireann)
(My source for all Stephens quotes is Thomas E. Schott, *Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia: A Biography* [Baton Rouge and London: LSU Press 1988], pp. 455-457. https://books.google.com/books?id=MmWOIC6J9dcC&pg=PA456)
Stephens envisioned a rather curious basis for the participation of African Americans in the government. Writing to his brother Linton in June 1865, while Georgia considered its new state constitution, Stephens proposed a novel system of representation. The population would be "divided into classes according to professions, pursuits, interests, and conditions." Blacks would be one of these classes but could choose their representative from any other class. It might be necessary at first to restrict their franchise or limit their choice to white men only or delay putting the plan into effect for a few years, but Stephens believed political rights ought to be given the freedmen for the South's own good. Under such a system, he thought the blacks "for years to come" would probably choose white men to protect their interests.
Anyone see any possibility of any Southern state actually adopting something like Stephens' proposal? The only way I could envision it is if (a) enough white Southerners saw it as the only alternative to the Radicals imposing full black suffrage on the South, and (b) Andew Johnson was more skillful and flexible than in OTL, and used such a proposal to divide Radical from Conservative Republicans, instead of adamantly saying that suffrage was for the states to decide. Even then it would probably not last long, being equally unsatisfactory to African Americans, Radicals, and die-hard white Southerners. (And even if some sort of compromise on African American suffrage was possible in 1865, Stephens' proposal was a little too complex. It has an odd resemblance to various plans for "functional representation" that were seen in some fascist countries in the twentieth century, and even in some democracies, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seanad_Éireann)
(My source for all Stephens quotes is Thomas E. Schott, *Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia: A Biography* [Baton Rouge and London: LSU Press 1988], pp. 455-457. https://books.google.com/books?id=MmWOIC6J9dcC&pg=PA456)