seven dollars from a freehold estate, or real estate rated on the tax list as worth $134.00. New York required a freehold estate of thirty pounds, or a house rent of forty shillings. New Jersey permitted any person, male or female, black or white, native or alien, to vote who owned real estate worth fifty pounds. In Maryland the voter must have in the county in which he wished to vote a freehold of fifty pounds, or personal property of thirty pounds. Virginia limited the franchise to such as owned twenty-five acres of land, properly planted and with a house thereon at least twelve feet square on the foundation, or such as were possessed of fifty acres of wild land or a freehold or estate interest in a lot in some of the towns established by law. North Carolina required the payment of a tax. In South Carolina the voter must be a free white man, acknowledging the being of a God and believing in a future state of reward and punishment, and must have lived one year in the state, have a freehold of fifty acres or own a town lot, or have paid a tax equal to the tax on fifty acres of land. In Georgia any mechanic, any white male inhabitant owning ten pounds of property and paying a tax, not only might but must vote under a penalty of five pounds.

In many cases these restrictions were mild and probably kept but few men from the polls permanently. But the right to vote when acquired, did not carry with it by any means the right to

hold office. To be eligible to the lower house of the legislature the voter must be a Protestant and have an estate worth one hundred pounds in New Hampshire; a freehold of one hundred pounds or personal estate of two hundred pounds, and must swear that he believed in the Old and New Testament and in a divine inspiration in order to be a member of the lower house in Massachusetts. A freehold of one hundred pounds above all debts was required in New York; a belief in some Protestant creed and a personal estate was required in New Jersey; while in Delaware he must not only have the proper qualifications, but he must subscribe to this oath: "I, A. B., do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost, one God blessed evermore, and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, to be given by divine inspiration." Maryland required each member of her assembly to own a freehold of five hundred pounds and subscribe his belief in the Christian religion. In North Carolina a member of the house of commons must be possessed and continue to be possessed in fee simple or for life, of a freehold of one hundred acres of land and profess belief in the being of God and the truth of the Protestant religion. In South Carolina a representative must own five hundred acres and ten negro slaves, or real estate worth one hundred and fifty pounds sterling clear of all debt. In Georgia he must own two hundred and fifty acres of land, or

property worth two hundred and fifty pounds and be a believer in the Protestant religion, before he could be eligible to the legislature.

For membership in the upper house the qualifications were the same in kind as for membership in the lower house, but twice as great in quantity. The basis of office holding was property. The man of small means might vote, but none save well-to-do Christians could legislate, and in many states none but a rich Christian could be a gover. nor. No Hebrew, no atheist, no Roman Catholic could be a governor of New Hampshire, nor of New Jersey, nor of South Carolina, and none but a Christian in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and South Carolina. Nor were religious qualifications deemed enough. Heavy property qualifications were added, for the governor must not only be pious but rich. In one state he must own property worth one hundred pounds, in another five hundred pounds, in another five thousand pounds, and in South Carolina ten thousand pounds. It was indeed true that all governments derived their just powers from the consent of the governed; yet under these early state constitutions, none but taxpaying, property-owning men could give, that consent from which government derives its just powers. It was indeed true that everywhere the utmost liberty of conscience prevailed; but the man who did not exercise that liberty of conscience in such way as to become a Christian or, in some instances a Protestant,

could hold no office of profit or trust under government.

What was true of the voter and the office holder was equally true of the system of representation. In but one state did it rest on population. In New England members of the upper house were chosen in districts or counties, and were in proportion to the amount of public taxes paid in each; in New York the senators from each of the four senatorial districts were in proportion to the number of freeholders owning estates above one hundred pounds in value. In Pennsylvania and Georgia there was no senate. In Maryland the senate was chosen by an electoral college; in every other state each county was the basis of representation. For the Lower House in every state it was the number of taxable polls, or the number of duly qualified voters, or the amount of taxable property, or the county that determined the number of representatives, and in no case population. The poor man counted for nothing. He was governed, but not with his consent, by his property-owning Christian neighbors. He was one of the people, but he did not count as such in the apportionment of representation. In short, the broad doctrine that governments derived their just powers from the consent of the governed, was not accepted by the Fathers." The most they were ready to admit was that all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the taxpayer.

While the states were thus forming and adopting their constitutions, a plan for a government for the United States was under discussion in Congress. To provide such a government as would be acceptable to thirteen independent republics, differing so widely in climate, in soil, in occupation, in everything which makes up the social and economic life of a people was no easy matter. Some were agricultural, others were commercial, a few were both. Some were great states abounding in population; some were small states. Some had their limits clearly defined; others laid claim to vast stretches of territory which extended across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. In many cases these claims conflicted. Elements so discordant produce a conflict of interests and opinion, and sixteen months passed before the Articles of Confederation went to the states for approval. Three great questions which arose in the course of the debate:

What shall be the vote cast by each state in Congress?

How much shall each state contribute to the support of the Confederacy?

What shall be done with the western lands? concern us as bearing directly on the political ideas of the time.

In the discussion of the first question, Virginia proposed that population should be the basis of representation, and suggested that in determining