called the general suffrage. I have already observed that it is not just, and therefore can not be beneficial for society. On this very ground the representative system has taken the place of the pure democracy in the United States. However, in a republic most important questions, as the adoption or amending of constitutions and charters, must necessarily pass the popular ordeal. The citizens of Brooklyn and Williamsburgh had to vote on consolidation, a purely monarchical measure, in the end detrimental for both cities, each being already too large for a good local administration. They voted affirmatively. No true republican statesman will approve of such a vote. How important, therefore, is this subject for society.

But let us see what our constitution ordains about it.

ARTICLE II.

The Elective Franchise.

"1. Every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been a citizen for ten days, and an inhabitant of this state one year next preceding any election, and for the last four months a resident of the county where he may offer his vote, shall be entitled to vote at such election in the election district of which he shall at the time be a resident, and not elsewhere, for all officers that now are or hereafter may be elected by the people; but such citizen shall have been for thirty days next preceding the election, a resident of the district from which the officer is to be chosen for which he offers his vote. But no man of color, unless he shall have been for three years a citizen of this state, and for one year next preceding any election shall have been seized and possessed of a freehold estate of the value of two hundred and fifty dollars, over and above all debts and encumbrances charged thereon, and shall have been actually rated and paid a tax thereon, shall be entitled to vote at such election. And no person of color shall be subject to direct taxation unless he shall be seized and possessed of such real estate as aforesaid.

Accordingly the right of voting belongs, in this state, exclusively to male persons. This is not right. The political organization is not a personal but a social necessity; not made exclusively for the male persons of age, and, if of color, in the possession of a freehold estate worth two hundred and fifty dollars, but for the people, that is, men, women, children, and all their interests. Human society is not, like armies, clubs, and partnerships, composed of persons, but of families. If this is true, and I think it is manifest enough, then to the families, as the constituents of society, belongs exclusively the suffrage right. But this criterion is not all that,

in our modern free states, a voting law requires. These are organized by written or printed constitutions, hence a necessity that the voter, who represents the family, when the family voting-right is legal, should, besides be able to read the language in public use, and to write it too, because he has to vote with the help of printed or written tickets. The working of the machinery of the state depends upon publicity, or upon writing, reading, speaking, and printing. The public business must, in a great measure, remain chaotic for a man who can not read. How will such a man be able to vote with due circumspection? If they were, for the time being, excluded from the polls, it would induce the indolent to learn how to read and write, and have his children instructed, without being forced to it by truant laws and policemen; or by school boards and state laws. Connecticut had the courage to make the knowledge of language a voting law. Give, then, each family a vote, to be cast by its head, retain the term of twenty-one years of age, add the just-mentioned conditions, harmonize the state and Congressional legislation, and you will not only comply with the equitable laws of society, but also reconcile woman with the state institutions. They have a greater influence upon their success than is usually believed.

It is an act of sincere chivalry to make woman a silent partner of the citizenship right. The pernicious aberrations about wo man's rights, require, urgently, such a law as a corrective.

"2. Laws may be passed excluding from the right of suffrage all persons who have been, or may be convicted of bribery, larceny, or of any infamous crime, and for depriving every person who shall make, or become directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager depending upon the result of any election, from the right to vote at such election.

This is matter for a criminal law-code, or statute-book, but generally right. Such men should also be excluded from the jury.

"3. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence, by reason of his presence or absence, while employed in the service of the United States; nor while engaged in the navigation of the waters of this state, or of the United States, or of the high seas; nor while a student of any seminary of learning, nor while kept at any almshouse, or other asylum, at public expense; nor while confined in any public prison." Belonging to the statute book.

"4. Laws shall be made for ascertaining by proper proofs the citizens who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage hereby established.

"5. All elections by the citizens shall be by ballot, except for such town officers as may by law be directed to be otherwise chosen."

Partly objects of special laws.

I venture a few lines more upon this subject.

Such a judicious suffrage law as that of families, resting upon a just social basis, must exercise a highly beneficial influence upon the governments, public virtue, and the morals in general.

Christianity has sanctified the family state, the best men of all ages, our Franklin included, have advised its establishment. Why then should the civil law hesitate to support it? By giving to the families exclusively the suffrage right, the state would act in the spirit of Christianity and humanity, and bestow upon woman so much social equality, as naturally belongs to her, while the usual general suffrage law ignores her entirely, and brings men upon the political stage who are not entitled to it. I speak only of the family suffrage right, not of offices, those may be occupied by any qualified person, whether married or not.

There good statesmanship is in request. It should begin with the territories.

It would have prevented polygamy in Utah or elsewhere in the United States, either sanctioned by law, or connived at, especially in large cities; it would prevent Kansas-voting scandal; it would exclude not only the votaries of celibacy from the polls, but also all mobs. It promises better quiet voting than anything which has been devised at present. Why not try it?

What I miss in this article is, that the Congressional legislation on the citizenship rights of emigrants has not been noticed at all, although this constitutes in this regard the supreme law of the land. It would be well to act in such things systematically. The people in New York state must cheerfully respect the laws made by the agency of their own representatives in Congress. By doing so their own proper state laws will be, in turn, more cheerfully respected.

What may we reasonably expect from frequent elections and rotation in office? This is an appropriate question here, which you can only answer if you abstract entirely from persons and parties, and argue merely upon "business, population, and size,” as I have often observed. If those three material items are not well adjusted, no election, no change of party, no rotation will im

prove the public affairs, because no men, however experienced, skillful, and honest, can manage a business well, which, by itself, is unmanageable. A hundred Washingtons can not make of France a good republic, unless the size, population, and public business, are previously republicanized, the standing army disbanded, the state clergy abolished, etc., etc. All our disproportionate cities and states will only, by too much office-rotation and too frequent party shifts, be ruined faster than under a more steady form of government. The history of the last twenty-five years must convince every sensible man that the evil is not personal but material. To have then the least faith in party-shifts is absurd. All parties will make the most of the bad state of things, will with alacrity promise reforms, and the honest men among them will try to the utmost of their abilities to realize them, but not to much real purpose. The mayors of New York since twenty-five years were all able men. In what condition is the city? Every day's paper tells it. I conclude this epistle with a common-sense question: what voyage do you think a first rate sea-captain would make with a vessel whose rudder and sails are not adequate to the size of the craft?

Legislature. Senate. bly Districts.

LETTER V.

- Districts.

ficers. Election Time.

- Census. - Apportionment. - AssemCompensation. — Civil Appointment. —- Congressional OfQuorum.-Journal. — Originating of Bills. Enacting Clause. — Majority. — Private Bills. —Legislative Powers of the Supervisors. County Election District. — Family Census. — France. Connecticut. Aristotle. Greeks.

We have now to examine seventeen provisoes on the legislative powers. You will remember that in regard to the national political affairs all legislative powers are committed to the care of one body- the Congress. But a mere glance at a state map or the working of our state institutions, as I have endeavored to describe it in a separate letter in the First Part, will convince you that, in a municipal state, the legislative powers are not so much centralized as in Congress, but divided into three channels or districts, called state, county, and town (cities and villages), an ar

rangement which is of the highest importance for the good dispatch of the municipal business, and the preservation of order and civil liberty. Interference with the legislative, judicial, and executive rights of these districts are called encroachments or rebellions. Let us see what the constitution contains about the lawmaking powers of those districts.

ARTICLE III.

"1. The legislative power of this state shall be vested in a senate and assembly."

We meet here the double chamber system again.

"2. The senate shall consist of thirty-two members, and the senators shall be chosen for two years. The assembly shall consist of one hundred and twenty-eight members, who shall be annually elected."

This proviso creates annual sessions, while biennial would promise to prevent too much legislation, a great evil in our times.

"3. The state shall be divided into thirty-two districts, to be called senate districts, each of which shall choose one senator. The districts shall be numbered from one to thirty-two inclusive. District No. 1, shall consist of the counties of Suffolk, Richmond, and Queens. District No. 2 shall consist of the county of Kings. Districts No. 3, 4, 5, and 6 shall consist of the city and county of New York. And the board of supervisors of said city and county shall, on or before the first day of May, 1847, divide the said city and county into the number of senate districts to which it is entitled, as near as may be of an equal number of inhabitants excluding aliens and persons of color not taxed, and consisting of convenient and contiguous territory, and no assembly district shall be divided in the formation of a senate district. The board of supervisors, when they shall have completed such division, shall cause certificates thereof, stating the number and boundaries of each district and the population thereof, to be filed in the office of the secretary of state and of the clerk of the said city and county. District No. 7 shall consist of the counties of Westchester, Putnam, and Rockland. District No. 8 shall consist of the counties of Dutchess and Columbia. District No. 9 shall consist of the counties of Orange and Sullivan. District No. 10 shall consist of the counties of Ulster and Greene. District No. 11 shall consist of the counties of Albany and Schenectady. District No. 12 shall consist of the county of Rensselear. shall consist of the counties of Washington and Saratoga. District No. 14 shall consist of the counties of Warren, Essex, and Clinton. District No. 15 shall consist of the counties of St. Lawrence and Franklin.. District No. 16 shall consist of the counties of Herkimer, Hamilton, Fulton, and Montgomery. District No. 17 shall consist of the counties of Schoharie and Delaware. District

District No. 13

No. 18 shall consist of the counties of Otsego and Chenango. District No. 19 shall consist of the county of Oneida. District No. 20 shall consist of