AP Success - AP US History: Against Property Restrictions on Voting

We have arrived at the conclusion that government was designed for the protection and perpetuation of rights—not derived from itself, but natural and inherent—in such a way as to promote the greatest good of the whole; and that the question now before us is, not what right of suffrage the government ought to grant as a gift, but with what restrictions, required by this greatest good, suffrage may be claimed as a right by the people of this State...whatever course a true patriot might feel himself to adopt in one of the corrupt monarchies of the old world, no such reason can e given for a postponement of political rights in our own country...The true American doctrine is, that the majority have not only a right to govern, but that they are sufficiently intelligent and honest to govern; and that, if there be any doubt about this sufficiency, we ought immediately to set to work and build more schools...The existing restriction on suffrage is, then, we think, clearly in opposition to the real intention of our ancestors, and to the spirit of democracy which they established… If it were unjust for our forefathers to be taxes without representation, it is equally unjust for our their descendants to be so taxed by their brethren, as long as they have not vote in determining either the quantity or appropriation…