JOHN ADAMS ADVOCATES TRADITIONAL VOTING RIGHTS LIMITATIONS
Philadelphia (JFK+50) On May 26, 1776, John Adams, a Massachusetts delegate of the Second Continental Congress, wrote a letter to James Sullivan** defending "the traditional limitations on voting rights."
Judge Sullivan, recently appointed to the highest court in the Bay Colony, had made the suggestion that property qualifications for voting be reduced.
While Mr. Adams brought up the possibility of extending suffrage to women and other groups, he clearly is an advocate of the traditional voting rights limitations. He writes...
"I would not advise to make any alteration in the laws...regarding the qualifications of voters. It is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation."
Adams suggests attempting to alter voter qualifications would lead to women demanding the right to vote, teenagers demanding their rights and impoverished men wanting an equal voice with the wealthy.
*James Sullivan (1744-1808) was born in Berwick, Massachusetts (Maine) & was involved in drafting the Massachusetts State Constitution & the Massachusetts Ratification Convention for the U.S. Constitution. JS was AG of MA 1790-1807 & governor 1807-1808. He wrote one of the 1st histories of Maine.
SOURCE
"Ch. 1.2. Primary Source: There Will be No End of It," John Adams, 1776, University of Wisconsin Madison, American Legal History to the 1860s, www.wisc.pb.unizin.org/
