itled to vote, holders
of and taxpayers on a fixed amount of real estate--this act allowed
_all_ freeholders, however small the value of their holdings, all
actual taxpayers, all officers and privates, ex-officers and
ex-privates, in militia or in volunteer or uniform corps, all
persons exempt by law from taxation or militia duty, all workers on
public roads and highways, or payers of commutation for such work;
to vote on the question whether the convention should be held, to
vote in the choice of delegates thereto--_again for the highest
officers of the State_--and to vote on the question of adoption of
the new constitution--_to exercise a voice in framing the State's
fundamental law_. The council of revision, including the governor,
which opposed and defeated part of this act, made no objection to
this feature (Session Laws 1821, ch. 90, p. 83).

The vote for governor, 1820, was 93,437--the largest ever cast in
the State. That on the question of calling the convention in 1821
was 144,247. One act of the legislature thus enfranchised _fifty
thousand persons_. The vote on the new constitution stood: For,
74,732; against, 41,402; majority for, 33,330. Thus the votes of
fifty thousand persons--enfranchised, not by the constitution but
by the legislature--carried the adoption of a new constitution,
which further secured to them the freedom which the legislature had
opened to them. The vote for governor in 1824--the next
hotly-contested election--was 190,545; so that the immediate effect
of the legislature's act was to add 97,108 persons to the
constituency--to make a mass of new voters who outnumbered those
specified by the constitution.

(_c_). ALIENS VOTING.--The constitution specifies none but
"citizens" as entitled to vote; yet the legislature, by a school
law of many years' standing, allowed _aliens_ to vote for school
functionaries, on filing with the secretary of state notice of
intention to become naturalized (1 R. S., art. 2, Sec. 1, p. 65; 2 R.
S., 63, Sec. 12; 2 R. S., 1,096, Sec. 31).

(_d_). NORTHFIELD.--The proprietors of swamp-lands in the town of
Northfield, Richmond county, were authorized to elect directors of
drainage, without any restriction or qualification but ownership
(Session Laws 1862, ch. 80, Sec. 2, p. 233).

(_e_). The taxpayers of Newport, Herkimer county, were authorized
to vote on the question of issuing bonds to raise money for a
town-house. Under this law women who were taxpayers vot