al," and bills of rights
might assert that government rested upon the consent of the governed;
but these constitutions carefully provided that such consent should
come from property owners, and, in many of the States, from religious
believers and even followers of the Christian faith. "The man of small
means might vote, but none save well-to-do Christians could legislate,
and in many states none but a rich Christian could be a governor."** In
South Carolina, for example, a freehold of 10,000 pounds currency was
required of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and members of A he
Council; 2,000 pounds of the members of the Senate; and, while every
elector was eligible to the House of Representatives, he had to
acknowledge the being of a God and to believe in a future state of
rewards and punishments, as well as to hold "a freehold at least of
fifty acres of land, or a town lot."

* George Combe, "Tour of the United States," vol. I, p. 205.

** McMaster, "Acquisition of Industrial, Popular, and Political
Rights of Man in America," p. 20.

It was government by a property-owning class, but in comparison with
other countries this class represented a fairly large and increasing
proportion of the population. In America the opportunity of becoming a
property-owner was open to every one, or, as that phrase would then
have been understood, to most white men. This system of class control is
illustrated by the fact that, with the exception of Massachusetts, the
new State Constitutions were never submitted to the people for approval.

The democratic sympathizer of today is inclined to point to those
first State Governments as a continuance of the old order. But to the
conservative of that time it seemed as if radical and revolutionary
changes were taking place. The bills of rights declared, "That no men,
or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or
privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services."
Property qualifications and other restrictions on officeholding and the
exercise of the suffrage were lessened. Four States declared in their
constitutions against the entailment of estates, and primogeniture
was abolished in aristocratic Virginia. There was a fairly complete
abolition of all vestiges of feudal tenure in the holding of land, so
that it may be said that in this period full ownership of property was
established. The further separation of church and state was also