Evolution of Voting Rights in Early American Democracy

One basis of political democracy during this time period was the debate about property requirements to be able to vote. After the Revolution, no new state required property ownership to be able to vote. Also, constitutional conventions during the 1820s and 1830s got rid of property requirements within older states, mostly because the expanding amount of wage earners who did not have much property insisted on the right to vote. However, by 1860, in the South, where large slave owners controlled politics and did not trust mass democracy, property requisites were extinguished gradually and went away later than the rest of the nation. The personal independence necessary to the citizen was now found in owning one’s self, instead of owning property.

By that time, the U.S. had a vivacious democratic system that involved an elephantine amount of citizens. Democratic political organizations, lacking a tralatitious foundation of nationality such as religion or ethnicity, contributed a feeling of personal identity to Americans. A French writer who traveled the U.S. in the early 1830s, named Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote about this political culture in his book, Democracy in America. He did not like democracy, but his main perception of democracy was that it was much more than just voting or political organizations. To him, democracy was a culture that promoted an individual drive, supported equality, and a public domain loaded with willing institutions that wanted to advance our society. In the U.S., having the right to vote and being able to participate in politics gave a sense of national identity to many

Democracy absorbed white men and white immigrants, but created boundaries against women’s and non-white men’s part in politics. The grounds for political exclusion went from economic reliance to natural incapabilities, as democracy prevailed. Racial and gender differences were seen as part of an individual, natural hierarchy of natural abilities. A natural line was not exclusive, many debated, and women and non-whites were seen as if they lacked many qualities that were needed for a successful democracy and self-government. A white man 's freedom included a process of personal transformation, of improving their potential to the highest degree, while democracy’s limits resided on the idea that the characteristics and capabilities of women and non-whites were determined by natural