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 municipal 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 Constitution 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 sex_. 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.