The Republican journal., 1899-01-19
Annexation and Universal Suffrage.


ton of new territories, Inhabited largely
by semi civilized races, harmonic with
the principle of universal sutfrage?' Prof.
j. b. McMaster of the University of Penn
sylvanla answers (Ferum, December) in
substance, first, that unvers Il suffrage is
an Ideal; second, that in territorial do
mains acquired in the past, Congress has
extended suffrage as it saw fit; and third,
that practical government always regu-
lateS suffrage on the principle of eXpedi-
| ency.
Turning to the attitude of the forefathers
who f founded the republic, Professor Nc
| Master says:
"They announced to the world certain
political doctrines often asserted but
never before applied, They declared that
all men were created equal, and were en-
dowed by the Creator with the inalienable
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of
/ happiness; that governments were consti-
tuted among men for the good of the gov
erned; that they derived their Just powers
/ from the consent of the governed, and
/ that when they failed to accomplish the
purposes for which they were established
it was the duty of the people to amend or
Y destroy them. 1t might reasonably be
supposed that, having deliberately pro
claimed these truths, the men of 76 would
/ have instantly made use of them: that
/ being free to create such governments as
| they saw fit, they would have founded
new commonwealth in which the equali-
\ ty of all men was fully recognized. Had
they attempted to apply the new truths
| generally the whole social fabric would
have gone to pieces. Happily they were
not SO applied. They were ideals to be
lived up to and gradually attained; and
the very men whose lips We're constantly
heard demanding the rights of man, the
inalienable rights of man, went carefully
to Work and set up state governments in
which the rights of man were very little
regarded, in which manhood suffrage was
ignored, the ballot given to men who own
ed property, and office holding restricted
to such as owned lands and houses and
We're members of some Christian sect. :.
In but one State, New Jersey, did the suf-
frage approach to being universal; and
there it was SO unintentionally. Her con-
stltution had been hastily made in 1176 in
the space Of ten days, had never been care
| fully revised, and gave the franchise to all
| inhabitants OF the State who were TWEEN
ty years old and owned fifty pounds of
unencumbered property. Nothing was said
! concerning race, sex, or citizenship: and
during thirty-one years women, negroes,
and aliens were free to vote and used the
right
Y ct these men are not to be accused of
Inconsistency with their principles, the
writer holds, for when the chance came
to apply them 'decently and IN order" in
governing the Northwest Territory, they,
in thesOrdinance of 1884, greatly extended
the rights of man. In this first colonial
, experiment, Jefferson, as head of the com
which rannrtpA no ,p1i
not for moment sled astray by the
ideals he had announced to the world as
the true basis of Democratic government
He and his fellow members knew well
that no popular government can stand
| long or accomplish much for the good of
the governed which is not carefully ad-
Justed to the wants, conditions, and intel
llgence of the people who are to live under
it. The plan presented and adopted there
fore did not contain one vestige of self
government till there were five thousand
free white males living in the Territory,
and this in spite of the fact that the great
majority of them would be citizens from
the seaboard States and we'll accustomed
to elf-government.
During this period when the Territory
was in the first grade the rulers were
governor, secretary, and three judges,
afterward appointed by the Resident and
confirmed by the Senate. The laws were
not framed by any legislative body, but
were such as the governor and judges Sc
lected from the statute books of the thir-
teen original States. Till there were five
thousand free white males of full age not a
vote was cast for territorial officer. Then
any free white man who had lived in the
Territory the proper time, and owned fifty
acres, might take part in the election of a
House of Representatives, every member
of which must be possessed of q freehold
of two hundred acres. Once assembled
the House nominated ten men (each hav-
ing freehold of five hundred acres), of
whom the President commissioned five to
be legislative councillors. Together the
Council and the House, by joint ballot,
chose a delegate to represent the Terri
tory in the House of Representatives,
where he was graciously permitted to
speak, but not to vote.''
Professor McMaster continues:
1.-THE territorial government thus set up
by the Continental Congress, and sane
toned by the first Congress under the
Constitution, became the model after
which every other since established has
been closely fashioned. At the foundation
of it lay the broad principle that there
was one kind of government for the States
and another for the Territories; that the
just powers of the latter need not be de-
rived from the consent OF the governed :;
that only such men as owned land were fit
to vote, and that only the select class who
owned great deal of land were fit to
legislate; that the Constitution limited the
power of the Federal Government over
the States; but that the will of Congress
| ba
''The clear distinction between State
and a Territory thus drawn at the very
outset of our career and the principles
then established-tha Congress was free
to govern the dependencies of the United
States in such manner as it saw fit; that
the government it granted need not be re-
publican even in form; that men might be
taxed without any representation in the
taxing body, stripped absolutely of the
franchise, and ruled by officials not of
their own choice-have never been depart
-