A History of Suffrage in the United States

t in itself that the need for other limitations is not present. When a man owned property or paid state taxes it was frequently considered quite unnecessary even to limit the term of residence. There was practically no race problem to deal with, for the northern states did not concern themselves greatly about the few free negroes who might dwell in the state, and in the South it was not necessary specifically to exclude negroes. The negro problem, as will be seen later, always assumed most disagreeable proportions in the border states. The foreigner was not yet a problem, although he was soon destined to become one. Any man who identified himself with the newly created government was not called upon to give technical evidence of citizenship. Where sex was not mentioned, and it seldom was except incidentally, the presumption of course was that only men could vote. The word'' freeman'' is frequently used and gives weight to this presumption, if indeed any weight is needed. Such undesirable persons as paupers, idiots, the insane, etc., were practically excluded by the property test, and the need for specifically disqualifying them did not appear until the property test was gone. Exclusion for crime was not a general practice until somewhat later and possibly for the same reason. Relatively few criminals would be found among the property owners and taxpayers. The age of twenty-one was universally prescribed. So it happens that the revolutionary constitutions ...