[Web4lib] WIKIPEDIA continues to be politically correct, as amended daily.

[Tim Spalding]

This is off-topic, I admit, but in reply to something off-topic that I
disagree with :)

> This is ahistorical.  The Founders were, by and large, either aristocrats or men of property for whom governance  was to be confined to the right sort of people, i.e., aristocrats and men of property.  They had no more idea that the mass of farmhands, working men, and other males in the general public would ever be permitted to govern than that women and slaves would ever be freed from legal and political restrictions on participation in society.

While there were property qualifications is many states both to vote
and to serve as a legislator, your phrase "they had no more idea" is
an exaggeration.

First, not all states had property requirements. The Pennsylvania
Constitution had none and its principle author, Franklin, opposed them
in the Constitutional Convention which, of course, had none, leaving
up to the states to have them or not. Pennsylvania did have a tax, but
there were no requirements at all to vote in New Hampshire, Vermont
and (later) Kentucky. Further, most requirements, while there, went
far below the "aristocrats" you mention, and they were dismantled
gradually, starting with the Jacksonian period.

More importantly, contra your description, the topic was very much on
people's minds. Google around a bit and you'll many copies John Adam's
1776 letter to James Sullivan, arguing for property qualifications.
Yes, Adams wasn't the democrat we might like him to be, but the issue
was raised. It had to be argued.

Adam's point was that, if you extend voting to all white males,
eventually "the logic" of that will extend it to women, young people
and all white people generally. He was right. That's how the logic
worked—and it went even farther than he foresaw.

Best,
Tim