The National tribune., 1888-11-29
PROPERTY QUALIFICATIONS FOR voT-


abolishing the property qualification for
voters. This ends a long and frequently
bitter struggle. 1t also sweeps away, we
believe, the last vestige of this restriction
of suffrage in this country, unless the poll
taxes, which several States require to have
paid before a vote can be cast, can be so re-
garded.
Universal suffrage. without any restriction
except Acknowledgement for unpardoned
felony, has come to be such an everyday
affair that few people stop to think that it
has not always been so, and that the progress
toward this condition was slow and tedious,
and marked by as fierce opposition as this
generation saw made to the enfranchisement
of the negroes.
Though the early coIonists had very adj
vanced ideas on the "Rights of Man." as
the banner of freedom was inscribed in those
days, they were very far from believing in
or advocating universal suffrage In the
New England Colonies the possession of
certain amount of property and orthodox
Calvinism were necessary to make an eligi-
BILE voter. In Virginia negroes, indentured
servants, transported felons, and redemp-
TONERS were specifically excluded from the
very first. Then the attempt of men " who
had served their time" to vote, produced
rioting at the polls, and it was decided to
"grant voyce in such elections only to
such as by their estates, real or personal, have
interest enough to tye them to the endeavour
of the publique good"
An attempt was made in the Carolinas to
limit the suffrage to "those possessed of
hereditary wealth." but the men who had
but recently acquired property were success
full in defeating this.
South Carolina required every voter to
acknowledge the being of a God, and be-
lieve in future state of rewards and pun
ishments"
AS late as the adoption of the Federal
Constitution Connecticut required of voters
"maturity in years, quiet and peaceful be-
hayior, civil conversation and 40 shillings
freehold, or GAO personal estate, so certified
by the selectmen."
AT the same time New Jersey prescribed
that voters should be "worth ESQ proc
lamation money!; Virginia, that they
should have 900 acres of unimproved
land, or % acres of improved land, or a
house and lot in a town.; Maryland, so
acres, or property worth ESQ; North Caro-
lima and South Carolina, so acres of land,
or town lot; Rhode Island, that they
should be freeholders of an estate of the
value of $134, or the eldest son of such free
holders.
Pennsylvania's attempt to continue a
property-qualifcation was laughed away
by the sturdy common sense of Benjamin
Franklin
Suppose" said he, "a man has this
amount of personal property invested in q
jackass. This year he can vote. Before the
next election the jackass dies, and the man
loses his vote. Which really voted-the
man or the jackass?"
The French Revolution exercised pow
erful influence in widening the limits of suf
frage in this country. The new Gospel Of
Manhood, SO theoretically preached by the
French agitators, found a ready acceptance
among the freemen this side of the At
lantic. Georgia abolished the property-test
for voters in 1898, Maryland in 1901 and
1909, Massachusetts, and New York in 1921
Delaware in 1881, New Jersey in 1914, Con
necticut in 1916, and Virginia in 1850
North and South Carolina chung to thu
property-qualifcatio until they were recon
structed after the war.
The new States, which were admitted /,
the Union after the adoption of the Consti
tuition, generally modelled their COnstitu
tions and laws upon those of the olde
States, from which most of their people haC
migrated. In those which were formet
from the territory north of the Ohio Rive
and west of the Allegany Mountains, Their
was much greater iberality of provision
than those south of the Ohio, and Their
was never any property qualification re
CURED.
Such as had tax-tests abolished them il
the course of few years, for they becam
empty forms. Parties always stood read,
to pay the poll or other delinquent taxes G
their voters.
Some of the older States, however-Mas
sachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania
Delaware, Tennessee and Georgia-still re
quire the payment of some form of tax be
fore allowing the exercise of suffrage Main,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New JeI
sey, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texa
and West Virginia, expressly prohibit pau
; pers from voting.