Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1809-04-07
Mr.. SNowDEN,
SIR,


che county Of Fairfax and state of Virginia,
who reside in the district of Columbia, are
doubling whether they will attend the next
election to Be, held in that county for mem
Der of congress, asenator, and delegates OF
the state legislature, in consequence OF a.
law passed in January, 1908, by the gene
raj assembly of Virginia, which declares,
that 20 person inhabiting within the dts
S sv1ct of Columbia, or elsewhere, not within
the jurisdiction of the commonwealth, shall
s be entitled to exercise the right Of Suffrage
tberein. 1t is hoped that the inhabitants OF
8 Columbia who are freeholders in the state OF
Virginia will, before they tamely yield up
the right of suffrage, examine into the pow
h er of the Legislature of Virginia to pass so
ubiquitous law; and if upon that exainlrla-
sioni it shall appear to their satisfaction the
law is Unconstitutional, that they will N a
proper and legal manner insist upon their
right to vote. A few remarks will suffice
TO convince every man whose intellect and
candot are not destroyed by the poison OF
party spirit:
BY an act of the general assembly of Nir-
ginia, passed in the year 1905, 1t is enacted,
80 that the freehodefs of eVery county that
Anows is, or hereafter shall be in this domi-
lsniorl, now have, and foreper hereafter shoA
laUe, the privilege of electing and choosing
szs0s Of The most fit and able men OF their
county, to be present at, and act and vote
Ia all general assemblies which from time to
s. time, and at any time, shall be held In this
+ dominion, &c.p
& Under this law free negroes, mulattoes
8 and Indians, If they were freeholders, could
vote it was therefore necessary to alter the
XIV IN this respect; and the assembly did,
in the year 723, alter the law so as to take
away the right of voting from free negroes,
iaulattoes and Indians. Thus stood the
risfa of suffrage in the yeal 1875. Bythese
-Eawsit VIII be seen that residence in the state
was not any part of the qualification of a
voter. On the 9th of May, 1875, the ge-
neral convention of delegates and represen-
tatiles from the several counties and corpo-
rations ofthe state of Virginia agreed upon
a bill Of rights, in which they set forth GER
tain Fundamental principles, which are not to
be touched BY the legislature, or in any man
eringaded, but to be held as sacred. In
this bill of rights tits declared, that the.
elections of members to serve as reprrsen-
81 taiives of the people In assembly ought to-
be free; and that oil men, having sufficient
evidence Of permanent common interest
with and attachment to the community, haze
rhs RIGHT Of saBfaSe, and cannot be taxed,
or deprived of their property for public us.
I ss, without their own consent. or that of
their representatives SO elected, nor bound
by any law to which they have not in like
manner assented for the public good.
Cana man give stronger evidence cs
his permanent common interest with and
attachment to the state, than by becoming a
partsnSsner of the very soil of the state? Or
can the state legislature justly tax the land
of anon-resident freebooter if he is denied
the right of voting9 Surely not.
AT the time the bill of rights was agreed
on By the convention, that same convention
formed the constitution Of the state.
Blythe 9TH section of this constitution II
is declared " that the right fsufrage in the
election Of members Of both houses, shGU re-
main as exercised at present" That is, as it
was exercised on the 9th day of May 1875.
It then it be established thas-non-resldent
freeholders did possess, and had exercised
the right of suffrage in Virginia, antecedent
to, and at that period, there can be no ques-
ton but that such right was secured to them
by the constitution of the state which now
= still exists, and that any law made by the le-
sislature TO curtaii or destroy that right is
$ aull and void. Many citizens of Maryland
might be named 10 establish the exercise of
: abr right OF sufragein nonresident freehold
IA ess, at the period aforementioned. when
the constitution was formed. The records
of Prince William, as well as Fairfax, and