Although this was not attended
with bad effects, yet the qualifications of the electors gave rise to
various arguments, and, among others, that as taxation and representation
ought to go together, so the right of electing shall be in proportion to
the value of each man's estate. To exemplify this, a man of L100 estate
had one vote; a man of L1000 should have ten, and a man of ten thousand
pounds a hundred, and so on in the same ratio. Others on the contrary
supposed that there ought to be no other criterion than the age of
twenty-one, a citizen born and resident in this country; out of the two
extremes was produced the present system of election and qualification,
both admitted to be as secure and consistent rights as any that have been
contrived.

It is apprehended, from the duplicity in the wording of 1st art., 4th
sec., that seemingly to leave in the power of the respective legislatures
to regulate the elections, and still, that Congress may at any time by law
make or alter such regulations; and the undesigned wording of the sixth
article, that the constitution and laws of the United States which shall
be made in pursuance thereof shall be the law of the land, anything in the
constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding, will
render the whole system ineffectual, if not nugatory, and a new system as
destructive to the liberties of the citizens as that of the ratio of
voices to the ratio of property introduced. Besides being liable to have
the whole State erected into one district, and consequently may give rise
to the inconveniences I mentioned before.

VII, SEC. 6; VIII, SEC. 6; IX, SEC. 6; X, SECTION 6; XI, SEC. 6; XII, SEC.
2, 6; XVI, SEC. 6; XIII, XXXV, XLI.

By the 13th paragraph "no member of this State shall be disfranchised, or
deprived of any of the rights or privileges secured to the subjects of the
State by this constitution, unless by the law of the land, or judgment of
its peers."

The 35th adopts, under certain exceptions and modifications, the common
law of England, the statute law of England and Great Britain, and the acts
of the legislature of the colony, which together formed the law on the
19th of April, 1775.

The 41st provides that the trial by jury remain inviolate forever; that no
acts of attainder shall be passed by the legislature of this State for
crimes other than those committed before the termination of the present
war. And that the legislature shall at no time he