The First Constitution of New York. 



cellor described the rapid growth of New York city, dwelt upon the 

 ignorance, vice and pauperism which flourish in great cities, and pre- 

 dicted that in less than a century, with universal suffrage and under 

 skillful management, the metropolis would govern the State. The con- 

 vention paid no heed to his warning. It put all departments of the 

 government on the same footing with respect to the suffrage, and 

 practically abolished all property qualification. 



Within less than the Chancellor's one hundred years, his prophecy 

 has come true. The naturalized vote of the metropolis controls the 

 voice of the State. Universal suffrage made the Tammany ring pos- 

 sible. Under the Constitution of 1777, Tweed would have been in- 

 eligible to the State senate. Under the Constitutions of 1821 and 

 1846, he was re-elected to that body after the exposure of his crimes. 

 The philosophy of the report of the municipal commission appointed 

 by Governor Tilden is, that the evils of which the tax-payers of New 

 York complain are born of universal suffrage. The logic of this con- 

 clusion is its recommendation of a constitutional amendment restrict- 

 ing the suffrage in the election of municipal officers of finance to the 

 tax and rent-payers. Thus after a century of departure, New York 

 longs for a return to the methods of the fathers. In the memorable 

 speech from which we have quoted, Kent declared that " however mis- 

 chievous the precedent may be, however fatal in its effects, universal 

 suffrage can never be checked or recalled, save by the bayonet." 



The convention of 1821 did not misrepresent the people of that era. 

 The freeholders subsequently ratified the changes proposed in the 

 Constitution, thus voluntarily resigning the exclusive control of the 

 government they had enjoyed from its inception. Just then they 

 were inflated with the success of their experiment of self-government, 

 and filled with unbounded confidence in the elasticity of the principle 

 upon which it was founded. But they left one blot upon the sin- 

 cerity of their democracy, which grows blacker with time. The con- 

 vention which abolished all freehold qualifications for white men, de- 

 creed that colored men should have no vote, unless possessed of $250 

 property qualification. The distinction proves that the furor for 

 universal suffrage was the furor of the politician, learned in the arts 

 of popularity, not that of the philosopher-statesman, bent upon 

 breaking down all distinctions of law in human society. The Consti- 

 tution of 1777 was tolerant of all races as well as of all religions. 

 But New York waited for an amendment of the Federal Constitution 

 to sweep away a distinction of race which the founders of the State 

 would have scorned to make. 



