Moving Forward
“Should things go wrong at any time, the people will set them right by the peaceable exercise of their elective rights.”
- Thomas Jefferson, 1806
TIMELINE: The right and responsibility to vote through American history.
Thomas Jefferson advocated for extending the right to vote beyond just a few members of society.
“It has been thought that corruption is restrained by confining the suffrage to a few of the wealthier of the people: but it would be more effectually restrained by an extension of that to such numbers as would bid defiance to the means of corruption.”
– Thomas Jefferson, 1785
“The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations.”
- U.S. Constitution, Article I Section 4
Individual state voting laws in early U.S. history varied widely and generally restricted suffrage to those who were white males over 21 with some states imposing such requirements as owning property or passing religious qualifications. Universal white, male suffrage, which Jefferson supported, was a first step in the struggle to broaden the right to vote to all Americans.
A Civic Engagement Initiative sponsored by and in collaboration with The New York Community Trust – The Peter G. Peterson Fund. 