is instituted for the
protection, security, and benefit of the people, and they
have the right at all times to alter or reform the same,
whenever the public good may require it." Throughout the
entire article the words "people" and "person" are used, as
if to apply to all the inhabitants of the State. In direct
contradiction to this broad and just affirmation, section 1,
article 2, begins with the restrictive and unjust sentence:
"Every white male citizen of the United States, at the age
of twenty-one years * * * shall be entitled to vote," etc.,
and the section ends with the specification that "no pauper,
idiot, insane person, or person convicted of a crime * * *
shall enjoy the right of an elector."

Of the word "white" in this article your memorialists need
not speak, as it is made a dead letter by the limitations of
the fifteenth amendment to the United States constitution.
To the second restriction, indicated by the word "male" we
beg leave to call the attention of the legislature, as we
deem it unjust and arbitrary, as well as contradictory to
the spirit of the constitution, as expressed in the first
article. It is also contrary to the precedent established by
the founders of political liberty in New Jersey. On the
second of July, 1776, the provincial congress of New Jersey,
at Burlington, adopted a constitution which remained in
force until 1844; in which section 4 specified as voters,
"all the inhabitants of this Colony, of full age," etc. In
1790, a committee of the legislature reported a bill
regulating elections, in which the words "he and she" are
applied to voters, thus giving legislative endorsement to
the alleged meaning of the constitution.

The legislature of 1807 departed from this wise and just
precedent, and passed an arbitrary act, in direct violation
of the constitutional provision, restricting the suffrage to
white male adult citizens, and this despotic ordinance was
deliberately endorsed by the framers of the State
constitution which was adopted in 1844. This was plainly an
act of usurpation and injustice, as thereby a large
propo