tical right, or a civil right that I
know of, unless he is appointed the guardian of somebody. Of
course, of that the Senator has not any experience; certainly not
on the side of being a ward.

Mr. STEWART: Then what right has society, the body of men, to
govern an individual? Is it a natural right or an acquired right?

Mr. EDMUNDS: Suppose I should answer the Senator and say I do not
know?

Mr. STEWART: What right have they to take from him his freedom in
his savage state to do as he pleases? And if they have a right to
take it from him, what right have they to say he shall not
participate with them equally in the regulations that shall be
made for his government? If they have a right to govern him, he
has a right, whether it be natural or not, to have a voice in it,
if the principle of equality and fair play is one of the
fundamental principles that should govern mankind.

Mr. EDMUNDS: I see the Senator's point. The substance of it is,
if I correctly understand him, that if society has a right to
govern him, he has a right to govern society, and that makes
equality; and if the majority has a right to control him, he has
a right to control the majority, and there is equality! Very
well. I leave the Senator, with his point, to enjoy it.

Now, let us return to the subject. It is perfectly plain that the
right to vote is one which society, as it is organized, is to
determine by its fundamental laws. Society does determine, in the
State of Vermont, if you please, that voting must only be
exercised by males above the age of twenty-one years, those who
are not in the penitentiary, those who are not in the lunatic
asylums, those who are not idiots, and so on. The laws of Indiana
may provide the same thing, or may declare that the age shall be
twenty, or may declare as the Roman law used to do, that it shall
be twenty-five, and so on; or it may declare as the Constitution
of the United States does as to the age of Senators and as to the
age of the President of the United States. On the argument of
Senators in favor of this amendment to this bill, there would
exist no right whatever in constituted society to make any
limitation upon the free exercise of political rights to vote and
hold office in respect to age. Why say a man can not be a m