depends upon a certain length of residence, and payment of taxes; in others, upon mere citizenship and residence; in others, upon the possession of a freehold, or some estate of a particular value, or upon the payment of taxes, or performance of some public duty, such as service in the militia, or on the highways.[1] In no two of these state constitutions will it be found, that the qualifications of the voters are settled upon the same uniform basis.[2] So that we have the most abundant proofs, that among a free and enlightened people, convened for the purpose of establishing their own forms of government, and the rights of their own voters, the question, as to the due regulation of the qualifications, has been deemed a matter of mere state policy, and varied to meet the wants, to suit the prejudices, and to foster the interests of the majority. An absolute, indefeasible right to elect or be elected, seems never to have been asserted on one side, or denied on the other; but the subject has been freely canvassed, as one of mere civil polity, to be arranged upon such a basis, as the majority may deem expedient with reference to the moral, physical, and intellectual condition of the particular state.[3]
§ 582. It was under this known diversity of constitutional provisions in regard to state elections, that the convention, which framed the constitution of the Union,- ↑ 2 Wilson's Law Lect. 132 to 138.—Mr. Hume, in his Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth, proposes, that the representatives should be freeholders of 201 a year, and householders worth 500l. 1 Hume's Essays, Essay 16, p. 526.
- ↑ See The Federalist, No. 54; 2 Wilson's Law Lectures, 132 to 138; 2 Pitkin's Hist. 294 to 316.
- ↑ Dr. Lieber's Encyclopædia Americana, art. Constitution of the United States. The Federalist, No. 52 to 54.
