Page:The general principles of constitutional law in the United States of America.djvu/335

Rh of public order,—is not only inadmissible on reason, but is proved by the consequences which follow to be condemned by the great Author of government. To say that one whose participation in government would bring danger to the State, and probable disaster, has nevertheless a right to participate, is not only folly in itself, but it is to set the individual above the State, and above all the manifold interests which are represented by it and bound up in its destiny. Such a doctrine is idle. Suffrage must come to the individual, not as a right, but as a regulation which the State establishes as a means of perpetuating its own existence, and of insuring to the people the blessings it was intended to secure.

Suffrage a State Privilege.—The Constitution of the United States, except in particulars specified further on in this chapter, does not in any manner intermeddle with State and municipal elections, and they are consequently in most respects left exclusively to State regulation and control. States establish for their own people the rules of suffrage, and it is in State constitutions and laws, and in the decisions of State courts, that the rules and principles are to be looked for which govern such elections. Suffrage is never a necessary accompaniment of State citizenship, and the great majority of citizens are always excluded, and are represented by others at the polls. Sometimes, also, suffrage is given to those who are not citizens; as has been done by a number of the States, in admitting persons to vote who, being aliens, have merely declared their intention to become citizens.

Congressional Elections.—Under the Constitution each State elects such number of representatives as is apportioned to it by the laws of Congress, and the qualifications of electors for such representatives are to be the same as those for the most numerous branch of the State legislature. The State is therefore left to fix those