Why all people should not have the right to vote

[dBrong]

I found the following in a 1903 book, by U of Pennsylvina professor John McMaster - "The acquision of political, social, and industrial rights of man in America."

"In the hands of moderate and small farmers liberty is not likely to be lost. In that body will be found honesty, independence, temperance and justice. They are the surest guardians of property, and they constitute the firmest basis of national power."

"It is to protect this important class that the senate should be preserved. It should be the representative of property, of landed interests, and its security against the caprice of the motley crowd of paupers, emigrants, journeymen manufacturers, and those undefind classes of inhabitants a state and city like out is calculated to invite."

This is Minneapolis. In 1977 when we moved here all was reasonable. In 30 years it's been packed with illegals, Hmongs, Somalis, and welfare queens from Gary, Indiana. Naturally these people vote for every freebe, government program, income transfer proposal, that come along.

"Universal suffrage jeopardizes property and puts it into the power of the poor and the profligate to control the affluent. Shall every department of the government be at the disposal of those who are often ignorant of the importance and nature of the right they are authorized to assume? The poor man's interest is always in opposition to his duty."

"That all men are born free and equal, it was said, is a maxim true only in a state of nature. In society this general equality is restrained for the public good."

"The (constitutional convention) proposed to give the ballot to every man who paid a tax in money or in service, who worked one day per annum on the high roads, or served in the milita."

In 1821 they had enough commonsense to restrict voting to responsible, productive people. Not mouth breathers or breeders.

"The right of voting is not a natural right. A natural right is one born with us. No man is born twenty-one years old, therefore all restraint put on the right of voting during the period of nonage is usurpation and tyranny. This confusion arises from mixing natural and acquired rights."

This is the problem - we are turning acquired rights into natural rights.

This is a google book - you can download the pdf for free:

http://books.google.com/books?id=z9W...sty%22&f=false

[Eric]

Outstanding - and absolutely spot on.

This country was never intended to be a democracy (that is, mob rule - something the founders abhorred) but rather a decentralized and limited government republic. The Senate was originally supposed to be composed of men sent by the state legislatures - not voted by the mob. The idea was to put a "check" on the Senate that would impel the senators to represent their states and their state's interests rather than become the greasy demagogues of the mob they have become today.

Jefferson believed a mass society and the free government he envisioned were mortal enemies.

I agree.

The Constitution might have been saved had the franchise been restricted only to property-holding and tax-paying citizens.

Now the horse is out of the barn.

I really would consider leaving - if there was anywhere left to go.