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same, or higher qualifications, as to property, in the elected than in the electors, and some of them have required a re

federated congress in 1787. The state of Michigan adopted it; so has Wisconsin, by her constitution in 1846; but in Ohio, by the act of 1831, the right of suffrage is restricted to natural born and naturalized citizens, and so I think it ought to be in all sound policy; and the view taken of the subject in the above case, by one of the counsel who argued the cause, is a masterly argument. In the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Georgia, (the words of the constitution of Georgia are, that the electors shall "have paid all taxes which may have been required of them, and which they may have had an opportunity of paying, agreeably to law, for the year preceding the election,") Ohio and Louisiana, the elector is required, in addition to age and residence, to have been assessed and paid, or, in Ohio, charged with a state or county tax, or, in Connecticut, to have served in the militia. The revised constitution of Pennsylvania, in 1838, requires the elector to have resided one year in the state, and ten days in the district, immediately preceding the election, and having within two years, if of 22 years of age, paid a tax, assessed ten days before the election. And in the amended constitution of Louisiana, in 1845, the qualification of having paid a tax is dropped, and the elector is only required to have been two years a citizen of the United States, or resident in the state for two consecutive years next preceding the election, and the last year in the parish where he proposes to vote, and no person shall vote except in his own parish or election precinct. In Rhode Island, NewHampshire, Virginia and North Carolina, a qualification as to property is still requisite. The Rhode Island charter of 1663 prescribed no regulation as to the right of suffrage. The power of admitting freemen was exercised by the general assembly, until they authorized the towns to admit freemen. In 1724 an act was passed by the general assembly, providing that no person should be admitted a freeman, unless he owned a freehold estate of a certain value, or was the eldest son of such a freeholder. Such has been the law ever since, and the requisite value of the estate is said to be $134. But the new constitution of Rhode Island, which went into operation in May, 1843, has established and defined the property qualification of electors, being native citizens, as to real estate, to be of the value of $134, over and above all incumbrances, and together with a previous residence and home in the state for one year, and of six months in the city or town in which he votes; or, without it, the elector must have had his residence and home in the state two years, and in the town or city in which he votes six months, next preceding the election, and his name must be registered in the city or town before the end of December preceding the election, and he must have paid a tax of $1, or been enrolled in the militia, and done military service or duty therein. No pauper shall be permitted to be registered or to vote. Naturalized citizens are required to have a freehold estate of the value before required; and no person can vote to impose a tax or to expend money in any town or city, unless he shall have paid a tax within the year preceding, upon property valued at least at $134. These provisions, together with that relating to the judicial tenure and compensation, mentioned infra at p. 295, render the aspect of the constitution of that state more wise and conservative than any other state constitutiou recently formed or amended. Indeed, that constitution seems to stand pre-eminently valuable in the guards it introduces against one of the most alarming evils incident in large towns and cities

ligious test. But the Constitution of the United States requires no evidence of property in the representatives, nor any decla

to our democratical establishments. I mean the fraudulent abuse of the right of suffrage. The previous residence of the elector in the town or ward where he offers his vote, and his ascertained qualifications, ought to be defined and registered, as absolutely essential to the order and purity of elections. The legal provision on this subject in Massachusetts is valuable. Every citizen must have resided within the state one year, and within the town in which he may claim a right to vote, six months preceding the election. The selectmen of each town, ten days before the first Monday in March, and before the second Monday in November, annually, are to make out a correct list of all qualified voters for officers to be elected at those periods, and ten days before the election to cause their lists to be posted up in two public places in each town. The selectmen are also to meet in session within forty-eight hours next preceding the election, to receive evidence of the qualification of persons claiming to vote, and to correct the lists, and to meet for the like purpose for one hour on the day of election, and before the opening of it. The moderator at town meetings refuses, of course, to receive the votes of persons not on the list. Mass. R. S. pp. 63, 64. The constitution of the state of Florida, of 1839, contains a wholesome provision on this subject, in declaring that the legislature should, at its first session, provide for the registration of all the qualified electors in each county, and thereafter, from time to time, of all who may become such qualified electors, and that every free white male qualified elector, when he offers to vote, must be a citizen, and have had his home, domicil or permanent abode in the state for two years next preceding, and for the last six months in the county in which he offers to vote. The constitution of the state of Texas, of 1845, is quite latitudinary on the subject, and all white male citizens who have resided in the state one year, and six months in the district, county, city or town, are entitled to vote. The constitution of Iowa, in 1846, goes much further, and gives the right of suffrage to every citizen who has resided in the state six months, and in the county thirty days. In Virginia, the elector must be either a freeholder or owner of a leasehold estate, or a householder, and have been assessed and paid taxes. In North Carolina, the electors of the senate must be freeholders, as was the case formerly in New-York, and the electors of the house of commons must have paid public taxes, and none but freeholders can be members of either house of the legislature. In Georgia, the constitution of 1789 required a property qualification in the members of the legislature, over and above the amount requisite to discharge their debts; but this qualification was dropped in the amended constitution of 1798. In New-Hampshire a state senator must be seized of a freehold estate, in the state, in his own right, of the value of £200, and a state assemblyman must have an an estate within his district of the value of £100, one half thereof to be a freehold. Rhode Island and New-Jersey were the only states in the Union that brought down their constitutions from 1776 triumphantly against every assault; but the former of those states changed its constitution in 1842, and the latter in 1844. The progress and impulse of popular opinion is rapidly destroying every constitutional check, every conservative element, intended by the sages who framed the earliest American constitutions, as safeguards against the abuses of popular suffrage. Thus, in Massachusetts, by the constitution of 1780, a defined portion of real or personal property was requisite in an elector, and that

ration of religious belief. He is only required to be a citizen of the competent age, and free from any undue bias or

qualification was dispensed with by the amended constitution of 1821. By the practice, under the charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut, a property qualification was requisite to constitute freemen and voters. This test is still continued in Rhode Island, but done away with in Connecticut by their constitution of 1818. The New-York constitution of 1777, required the electors of the senate to be freeholders, and of the assembly to be either freeholders, or to have rented a tenement of the yearly value of forty shillings. The amended constitution of 1821 reduced this qualification down to payment of a tax, or performance of militia duty, or assessment and work on the highways. But the constitution, as again amended in 1826, swept away all these impediments to universal suffrage. In the further Revised Constitution of New-York, in 1846, art. 3. sec. 3. 5, the senate is divided into 32 senator districts, and each district to choose one senator. So the members of assembly are to be divided into 128 assembly districts, and each district to choose one member. This appears to be a valuable improvement on the election of members of the legislature. To entitle a person to vote in the election districts, he must have been a citizen for ten days, and an inhabitant of the state one year next preceding the election, and for the last four months a resident of the county where he may offer to vote, and he must vote in the election district of which he shall be a resident at the time, and for thirty days next preceding the election. The constitution further provides, that for the purpose of voting, no person should be deemed to have gained or lost a residence by reason of his presence or absence while employed in the service of the United States, nor while engaged in the navigation of the waters of the state, or of the United States, or of the high seas, nor while a student in any seminary of learning, nor while kept at any alms-house or other asylum at public expense, or while confined in any public prison. Art. 2. sec. 1. 3. These provisions are very good, if duly and faithfully construed and observed. The constitution further adds, sec. 4, that laws shall be made for ascertaining, by proper proofs, the citizens who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage. There was the same as this last provision in the constitution of 1821, and the legislature, in the year 1840, carried the constitutional provision into effect, according to its spirit and meaning, by the act entitled, "an act to prevent illegal voting in the city of New-York, and to promote the convenience of legal voters," 63 sess. c. 78, by dividing the city into election districts, and providing for a registry of the legal voters in each district, to be made in each year, and the registry was made conclusive evidence of the right of persons so registered to vote. This act worked well, and was admirably calculated to prevent illegal voting and frauds in election, by which the right of suffrage in the city had been grossly perverted and abused. But the registry provision was repealed on the 28th February, 1842, (65th sess. c. 56,) and the abuses, impositions and frauds attending the city elections left to re-assume their wonted mischiefs. The constitutional provision of 1846, as it stands, is therefore, a delusive provision, unless wiser councils prevail in future legislatures. In Maryland, by their constitution of 1776, electors were to be freeholders, or possessing property to £30; but by legislative amendments in 1801 and 1809, (and amendments are allowed to be made in that state by an ordinary statute, if confirmed by the next succeeding legislature,) all property qualifications was disregarded. The constitution of Virginia, in 1776, required electors to be free

dependence, by not holding any office under the United States.a

The term for which a representative is to serve, ought not to be so short as to prevent him from obtaining a comprehensive acquaintance with the business to which he is deputed; nor so long as to make him forget the transitory nature of his seat, and his state of dependence on the approbation of his constituents. It ought also to be considered as a fact deeply interesting to the character and utility of representative republics, that very frequent elections have a tendency to render the office less important than it ought to be deemed, and the people inattentive in the exercise of their rights, or else to nourish restlessness, instability and factions; whilst, on the other hand, long intervals between the elections are apt to make them produce too much excitement, and consequently, to render the periods of their *return a time *230 of too much competition and conflict for the public tranquillity. The constitution has certainly not deviated in this respect to the latter extreme, in the establishment of biennial elections. It has probably selected a medium, which, considering the situation and extent of our country, combines

holders; but the constitution of 1830 reduced down the property qualifications to that of being the owner of a leasehold estate, or a householder. In Mississippi, by the constitution of 1817, electors were to have been enrolled in the militia, or paid taxes; but those impediments to universal suffrage were removed by the new constitution of 1833. So the freehold qualification, requisite, in certain cases, by the constitution of Tennessee of 1796, is entirely discontinued by the constitution of 1835. All the states and constitutions, formed since 1800, have omitted to require any property qualifications in an elector, except what may be implied in the requisition of having paid a state or county tax; and even that is not in the constitutions more recently formed or amended, except in the Rhode Island constitution of 1843. In some of the states, as in New-Hampshire, for instance, a property qualification is still required in the elected, as governor or as members of the two houses of the legislature. Such a rapid course of destruction of the former constitutional checks (and of which further examples are hereafter noticed, see infra, p. 295, note) is matter for grave reflection; and to counteract the dangerous tendency of such combined forces as universal suffrage, frequent elections, all offices for short periods, all officers elective, and an unchecked press; and to prevent them from racking and destroying our political machines, the people must have a larger share than usual of that wisdom which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated.

Art. 1. sec. 6.

as many advantages, and as many inconveniences, as any other term which might have been inserted.

The representatives are directed to be apportioned among the states, according to numbers, which is determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and exclusive of Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The number of representatives cannot exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state is entitled to have at least one representative. The actual enumeration or census of the inhabitants of the United States is to be made every ten years, and the representatives newly apportioned upon the same, under a new ratio, according to the relative increase of the population of the states. The number fixed by the constitution in the first instance, and until a census was taken, was sixty-five members. The apportionment under the fourth census, by the act of congress of 7th March, 1822, was to a ratio of one representative for every forty thousand persons in each state, and it made the whole number of representatives amount to two hundred and thirteen members. Under the fifth census, completed in 1831, and which made the population of the United States amount to twelve millions eight hundred and fifty-six thousand persons, the ratio of representation was enlarged to one representative for every forty-seven thousand and seven hundred persons, making in the whole, two hundred and forty members.c The rule of apportionment of the

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• Act of Congress, May 22d, 1832, c. 9. In 1836 the territories of Michigan and Arkansas were admitted as states into the Union. See infra, p. 384. And in 1845 the territories of Iowa and Florida were also admitted as states. See infra, p. 384. And in 1846 the territory of Wisconsin, and in 1845 the republic of Texas.-Id. By the 6th census, completed in 1841, the number of persons in the United States was 17,069,453, making an increase over the census of 1830, of 4,202,646 inhabitants, and showing a gain in a ratio exceeding 324 per cent. for the last ten years; and by the act of Congress of June 25, 1842, c. 47, the ratio of representation was enlarged to one representative for every 70,680 persons in each state, and one additional representative for each state having a greater fraction than one moiety of the said ratio. This ratio reduced the number of the members of the House of Representatives, after the 3d March, 1843, to 223 members, besides a delegate from the three territories then existing. By this reduction, and with the addition of members from the new states, the House of Representatives consisted, on the 1st January, 1847, of 230 members, and representation by delegates

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