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DID JEFFERSON BELIEVE IN UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE?
> Did Jefferson near the end of his > life believe in universal manhood sufferage? I thought he did,but I wasn't > sure. Jefferson seemed to have believed in universal suffrage from the beginning. "I [am] for extending the right of suffrage (or in other words the rights of a citizen) to all who [have] a permanent intention of living in the country. Take what circumstances you please as evidence of this: either the having resided a certain time, or having a family, or having property--any or all of them. Whoever intends to live in a country must wish that country well, and has a natural right of assisting in the preservation of it." --Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Pendleton, 1776. Papers 1:504 "Every male citizen of the commonwealth liable to taxes or to militia duty in any county, shall have a right to vote for representatives for that county to the legislature." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes for a Constitution, 1794. FE 6:520 "My opinion has always been in favor of [a general suffrage]. Still, I find some very honest men who, thinking the possession of some property necessary to give due independence of mind, are for restraining the elective franchise to property." --Thomas Jefferson to Jeremiah Moor, 1800. FE 7:454