The Short Constitution Part 40

111 In colonial times in America there was nothing like universal manhood suffrage. One-half of all the colonies required church membership for a suffrage right. By about 1700 all colonies required ownership of property for voting. This was not entirely abolished until about 1850. The State of Rhode Island still requires property to the extent of $134 for voting in munic.i.p.al elections.

The colony of Virginia required the holding of a freehold of fifty acres of land without a house, or twenty-five seres of land with a house at least twelve feet square. Pennsylvania required a freehold of fifty acres with twelve acres improved.

In most colonies a greater property qualification was required for voting for members of the upper house of the legislature than for members of the lower house.

Several colonies and early States limited office holding to Protestants.

The Const.i.tution of the United States now declares that no State shall deny to any person the right to vote because of _race_, _color_, or _previous condition of servitude_, or _because of s.e.x_.

The Nineteenth Amendment enables women to vote on an equality with men.

A State may add further qualifications for voting, but no State may deny the right to vote for any of the above reasons. Several States have added literacy tests for voting, and others have denied the right to vote to such as are insane or who have been convicted of crime, unless pardoned by the Governor. A few States deny suffrage to those whose taxes are delinquent.

112 The following countries of the world have equal suffrage: New Zealand, 1893; South Australia, 1895; West Australia, 1900; The Australian Federation, 1902; New South Wales, 1902; Tasmania, 1904; Queensland, 1905; Finland, 1906; Victoria, 1908; Alaska, 1913; Norway, 1913; Manitoba, 1916; Alberta, 1916; Iceland, 1913; Denmark, 1915; England, Scotland, Ireland, 1917; Sweden, 1918; Holland, 1919; Luxemburg, 1919; Germany, 1919; Austria, 1919. In no other country in the world is the right of suffrage more fully granted than in the United States since the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment.

113 "Any government is free to the people under it (whatever be the frame) where the laws rule and the people are a party to those laws."-William Penn.

114 "It is, Sir, the people's Const.i.tution, the people's government, made for the people, made by the people and answerable to the people."-Daniel Webster.

115 "In truth success cannot be expected from any system of government unless the individuals who compose the State entertain the respect for the personal rights and liberties of all."-David Jayne Hill.

116 "We cannot, we must not, we dare not, omit to do that which, in our judgment, the safety of the Union requires."-Daniel Webster.

117 "Americanization always implies obligation; free choice determines its acceptance, and its extension must come through avenues of intelligent comprehension rather than through physical or governmental domination."-Winthrop Talbot.

118 "The fundamental evil in this country is the lack of sufficiently general appreciation of the responsibility of citizenship."-Theodore Roosevelt.

Teachers of children may well place greater emphasis on _ideals_, _character_, and _personality_ as factors in the making of a Nation.

Teachers ought to lay greater stress on biography in the teaching of history, civics, and citizenship. Teach children both to know and to love Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. Teach older pupils and students to realize that the aims, ideals, and achievements of a Nation can never be higher than the aims, ideals, and achievements of the individuals comprising that Nation. To know the lives and characters of America's great men and women is to know American history, for they made American history what it is. Young people enjoy the study of great characters. We all retain a love for heroes and heroines however old we grow. Such study adds color and life to history and government and humanizes the entire subject. Teach lives and inst.i.tutions rather than mere facts. Inculcate into the lives of boys and girls, and of men and women, a love for our country, for the men and women who made it, and for the inst.i.tutions in which they have a part. Teach them that patriotism and loyalty are not duties only, but are rather the highest privileges given to the people of a republic.