Editor, Gazette-Journal:
Thomas Jefferson described the Constitution as imperfect and as should be reviewed by each generation. Jefferson’s prognostication may have been because so few were eligible to vote. The population of America was approximately 2.5 million (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022); however, less than 20 percent had the “privilege” of voting. Voting was considered a privilege not a “right,” exclusive to property-owning, Gentry men; the majority who also owned human beings. The debate continued.
In May 1776, John Adams wrote a letter defending his position on who should vote: “by attempting to alter the Qualifications of Voters. There will be no End of it. New Claims will arise. Women will demand a Vote … and every Man, who has not a Farthing, will demand an equal Voice … It tends to confound and destroy all Distinctions, and prostrate all Ranks, to one common Levell … Men, who have no Property, have any Judgment of their own. They talk and vote as they are directed by Some Man ...