knowledge of
its use and power is the first step in the work before us. Hence,
the consideration of the question of suffrage is the duty of
every American citizen.

The legal disabilities to the exercise of suffrage (for persons
of sound mind and body) in the several States, are five--age,
color, sex, property and education. As age depends on a fixed
law, beyond the control of fallible man, viz., the revolution of
the earth around the sun, it must be impartial, for, _nolens
volens_, all men must revolve with their native planet; and as no
Republican or Democratic majority can make the earth stand still,
even for a Presidential campaign, they must in time perform that
journey often enough to become legal voters. As the right to the
ballot is not based on intelligence, it matters not that some
boys of eighteen do know more than some men of thirty. Inasmuch
as boys are not bound by any contract--except marriage--can not
sell a horse, or piece of land, or be sued for debt until they
are twenty-one, this qualification of age seems to be in harmony
with the laws of the land, and based on common sense.

As to color and sex, neither time, money or education can make
black white, or woman man; therefore such insurmountable
qualifications, not to be tolerated in a republican government,
are unworthy our serious consideration. "Qualifications," says
Senator Sumner, "can not be in their nature permanent or
insurmountable. Color can not be a qualification any more than
size, or quality of the hair. A permanent or insurmountable
qualification is equivalent to a deprivation of the suffrage. In
other words, it is the tyranny of taxation without
representation; and this tyranny, I insist, is not intrusted to
any State in the Union."

As to property and education, there are some plausible arguments
in favor of such qualifications, but they are all alike
unsatisfactory, illogical and unjust. A limited suffrage creates
a privileged class, and is based on the false idea that
government is the natural arbiter of its citizens, while in fact
it is the creature of their will. In the old days of the colonies
when the property qualification was five pounds--that being just
the price of a jackass--Benjamin Franklin facetiously asked, "If
a man must own a ja