I really do understand why only male land owners were allowed to vote. I used to think it was about ownership and having skin in the game. That is only a part of it I think.
Those who cannot think for themselves should NEVER be allowed to decide for others.
There were no land owners who were male and white who did not also understand the need for comity, unity, rule of law, etc. All of them we also essentially Protestant (Calvinists, Puritans, etc.) who believed that hard work was how we got something done, and an able-bodied (able to work) person asking for a handout was a waste of oxygen and not worth the time or the pennies.
All of these were educated men, or at least "men of letters" who had educated themselves. And the bar back then for "educated" was on a relative basis much higher than now.
No person who is educated in how the world really works, and who has signed the front of checks and dealt with magistrates and tax collectors would vote away the treasury. None of them would think that money falls from the sky. None of them would believe that the polity was responsible to pay for the caretaking of a large population of human locusts.
The American Mind was based upon Rule of Law with Equal Justice for All, and securing the Blessings of Liberty for Ourselves and Our Posterity. Anything else was not a part of the scope of government. What we have now is Big Government, which is antithetical to what the Founders built.
I really do understand why only male land owners were allowed to vote. I used to think it was about ownership and having skin in the game. That is only a part of it I think.
Those who cannot think for themselves should NEVER be allowed to decide for others.
There were no land owners who were male and white who did not also understand the need for comity, unity, rule of law, etc. All of them we also essentially Protestant (Calvinists, Puritans, etc.) who believed that hard work was how we got something done, and an able-bodied (able to work) person asking for a handout was a waste of oxygen and not worth the time or the pennies.
All of these were educated men, or at least "men of letters" who had educated themselves. And the bar back then for "educated" was on a relative basis much higher than now.
No person who is educated in how the world really works, and who has signed the front of checks and dealt with magistrates and tax collectors would vote away the treasury. None of them would think that money falls from the sky. None of them would believe that the polity was responsible to pay for the caretaking of a large population of human locusts.
The American Mind was based upon Rule of Law with Equal Justice for All, and securing the Blessings of Liberty for Ourselves and Our Posterity. Anything else was not a part of the scope of government. What we have now is Big Government, which is antithetical to what the Founders built.