Ben Franklin on the Property Ownership Prerequisite for Voting

[HankW501]

I recently read a terrific quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin regarding the practice of allowing only property owners to vote:

"Today a man owns a jackass worth 50 dollars and he is entitled to vote; but before the next election the jackass dies. The man in the mean time has become more experienced, his knowledge of the principles of government, and his acquaintance with mankind, are more extensive, and he is therefore better qualified to make a proper selection of rulers—but the jackass is dead and the man cannot vote. Now gentlemen, pray inform me, in whom is the right of suffrage? In the man or in the jackass?"

[Хahar 🤔]

This is a deeply relevant quote to our present times, in which property-based suffrage is widespread.

[Ban my account ffs!]

That is a good quote.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Ben Franklin was certainly one of the most liberal founding fathers, although he was't quite a modern liberal like Thomas Paine somehow managed to be 200 years ahead of time.

[Antonio the Sixth]

This is a deeply relevant quote to our present times, in which property-based suffrage is widespread.

Yeah, thankfully this battle has been won one and half to two centuries ago.

[Blue3]

This is a deeply relevant quote to our present times, in which property-based suffrage is widespread.

This is the history forum...

it was in US General Discusion...

[pbrower2a]

This is a deeply relevant quote to our present times, in which property-based suffrage is widespread.

I would not be surprised if the Right tried to bring back property qualifications for voting. Remember: the farmhand who milks the cow is as essential to us as is the owner of the cow. Really, the cow is even more important.

[The Mikado]

"For really I think that the poorest hee that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest hee; and therefore truly, Sr, I think itt clear, that every Man that is to live under a Government ought first by his own Consent to put himself under that Government; and I do think that the poorest man in England is not at all bound in a strict sense to that Government that he hath not had a voice to put Himself under."

-Thomas Rainsborough, 1647