election, and having therein a freehold of lands and tenements, above the value of one thousand pounds current money, to be the Council to the Governor, whose proceedings shall always be entered on record, to any part whereof any member may enter his dissent; and their advice, if so required by the Governor, or any member of the Council, shall be given in writing, and signed by the members giving the same respectively; which proceedings of the Council shall be laid before the Senate, or House of Delegates, when called for by them or either of them.

32. American Rotten Boroughs*

It is one of the cardinal principles of modern democracies that representatives should be distributed fairly among districts substantially equal in population. This principle has now been widely adopted, although there are still marked exceptions, notably in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire,' but in the beginning of our political history it was not recognized as a controlling theory in the apportionment of representatives among the various state districts. In fact, there were in a number of states conditions very similar to those prevailing in England before the Reform Bill of 1832, and they were the subject of constant criticism on the part of democratic writers like Niles, from whose Weekly Register (1821) this extract is taken:

What hypocrites are we, to censure and rail at England, for her manner of electing members of the house of commons, while several of our states have their legislative power constituted on the same principle, and which, in time, may become the same in practice, by changes in the state of population, without changes in their political constitutions. Old Sarum, which now has not one resident elector, though it sends two members to parliament, once was a place of some consequence - it has gone to decay — a single house remains to point the spot whereon the borough stands. Thus also, certain counties that I could name, in certain parts of the United States, are passing to decay large tracts of

1 Dealey, Our State Constitutions (1907), Chap. XI.

The doctrine of appor

tionment according to population.

Old Sarum

almost duplicated

in the

United

States.

Party

squabbles in Maryland prevent reform.

Conditions worse in Virginia.

country that were cultivated a century ago, are now covered with new growths of stunted timber, the haunt of the deer and other timid animals of the forest. The people have mostly departed for new and better lands yet the power of representation remains; and it may easily happen, if this course of things is continued, that one freeholder may possess the soil of several counties, and, like an English lord, elect 4, 6, 8, or 10 of his creatures to a state legislature, to make laws for freemen.

Three or four of the old states are governed on this outrageous plan - Maryland and Virginia, and especially the latter, stand conspicuous for such violations of everything that is honest, everything that is just. In Maryland, the nice balance of political parties (according to the present manner in which power is derived), and the dirty struggles between the ins and outs, seem to swallow up the reason of the matter, and prevent reformation which every man admits ought to take place: the sense of honor and a love of justice is sacrificed to a possession of party powerto put into or put out of office a few insignificant individuals; for this (say what one can) is the real amount of the present political contests in Maryland: neither party is disposed fairly to bring about a representation of the people, or even a representation of property- a representation of anything else than certain districts of country, no matter whether inhabited by men or opossums. Some, no doubt, will be angry with these rude expressions, but "the mischief is" that they are true, that both parties have had the power and yet suffered the outrage to exist unregarded.

In Virginia, though the principle is the same, the result is much. more objectionable than in Maryland on account of the greater changes that have taken place in the relative population and wealth of counties; and so it now is, that one man in certain of the counties, has as much weight in representation as twenty or thirty, in another; and so also in regard to wealth and extent. The thing was started wrong; and it seems as if the people of Virginia thought there was a merit in continuing in the wrong.

Yet they have taken a lead in our political affairs; are the most strenuous supporters of state rights, and seem most to regard the sovereignty of the people. There is nothing that can be urged in favor of perseverance in a practice so insulting to the dignity of human nature a practice as intolerant as any of the acts passed by the parliament of Great Britain, which united America resisted - "taxation without representation," which should be resisted by every honorable man.

But Maryland and Virginia, though they agree in principle as to the formation of their legislative and executive authorities, are on the opposite extremes as to the way in which that principle shall be brought into action. In the former, every man may vote who has (or says that he has) resided in the state or county such a length of time, if a citizen; and, as in Baltimore, where the places for voting are adjacent, he may vote half a dozen times or more (if he is determined to carry his point), as many have done; for we have nothing that partakes of even the character of a registration of voters not anything to serve as a check upon the unprincipled; and he who can gain the most of such to his side has the best chance of being elected, when a brisk opposition exists and the passions are excited. On the other hand, none but freeholders vote in Virginia, and none but freeholders ought to fight or pay taxes. But, be the requisition to possess the right of suffrage what it may, it should be so guarded that it cannot be abused — and the voter, in one county or district, ought to have the same influence as a voter in another. And even if a regard to population is waived, and respect is had to wealth only, the counties should be represented according to the several amounts which they pay into the state treasury, either by direct or indirect taxation. "Equality is equity, conformity is justice," and there cannot be either equity or justice, when neither population or wealth, severally or jointly, are regarded in a delegation of the power to make laws. All laws so made are repugnant to all the principles that appertain to the rights of man.

General irregularities with regard to the

suffrage.

How nonfreeholders are shut out of all political life.

33. An Appeal for the Right to Vote

Although the Virginia Bill of Rights of 1776 declared that "all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people," the Constitution framed at the same time restricted the suffrage to freeholders, and when a new constitutional convention met in 1829, a lengthy memorial from non-freeholders asking for the ballot was laid before the body. This document illustrates the spirit of the wider democracy that sprang up early in the nineteenth century.

The Memorial of the Non-Freeholders of the City of Richmond respectfully addressed to the Convention, now assembled to deliberate on amendments to the State Constitution, 1829.

Your memorialists, as their designation imports, belong to that class of citizens, who, not having the good fortune to possess a certain portion of land, are, for that cause only, debarred from the enjoyment of the right of suffrage. Experience has but too clearly evinced, what, indeed, reason had always foretold, by how frail a tenure they hold every other right, who are denied this, the highest prerogative of freemen. The want of it has afforded both the pretext and the means of excluding the entire class, to which your memorialists belong, from all participation in the recent election of the body they now respectfully address. Comprising a very large part, probably a majority of male citizens of mature age, they have been passed by, like aliens or slaves, as if destitute of interest, or unworthy of a voice, in measures involving their future political destiny; whilst the freeholders, sole possessors, under the existing Constitution, of the elective franchise, have, upon the strength of that possession alone, asserted and maintained in themselves, the exclusive power of new-modelling the fundamental laws of the State: in other words, have seized upon the sovereign authority. . . .

To that privilege [of the suffrage], they respectfully contend, they are entitled equally with its present possessors. Many are bold enough to deny their title. None can show a better. It

for the

demand

rests upon no subtle or abstruse reasoning; but upon grounds Grounds simple in their character, intelligible to the plainest capacity, and such as appeal to the heart, as well as the understanding, of all for the suffrage. who comprehend and duly appreciate the principles of free Government. Among the doctrines inculcated in the great charter handed down to us, as a declaration of the rights pertaining to the good people of Virginia and their posterity, "as the basis and foundation of Government," we are taught,

from the

Virginia

Bill of

Rights

(1776).

"That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have Extract certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity: namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter or abolish the Government. That no man, nor set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges, but in consideration of public services.

That all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to the community, have a right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed, or deprived of their property, without due consent, or that of their representative, nor bound by any law, to which they have not, in like manner, assented, for the public good."

contrary

to the principles of equality.

How do the principles thus proclaimed, accord with the exist- Restricted suffrage ing regulation of suffrage? A regulation, which, instead of the equality nature ordains, creates an odious distinction between members of the same community; robs of all share, in the enactment of the laws, a large portion of the citizens, bound by them, and whose blood and treasure are pledged to maintain them, and vests in a favored class, not in consideration of their public services, but of their private possessions, the highest of all privileges; one which, as is now in flagrant proof, if it does not constitute, at least is held practically to confer, absolute sovereignty.

34. An Argument against Popular Suffrage (1829) *

When the proposition to establish white male suffrage came before the Virginia convention, Mr. Trezvant opposed the inno