An incorporation of black suffrage into the federal Constitution. The Amendment was passed in congress in 1869 and was ratified by the required number of states in 1870. Before ratification, Northern states withheld the ballot from the black minorities. The South felt that the Republicans were hypocritical in insisting that blacks in the South should vote. The moderates wanted the southern states back in the Union, and thus free the federal government from direct responsibility for the protection of black rights. The Republicans were afraid that once the states were re-admitted they would amend their constitutions and withdraw the ballot from blacks. The only ironclad safeguard to cease the tension was the Fifteenth Amendment.