User talk:24.3.23.36

This document -- the 1850 Michigan Constitution is incorrect. Someone has edited out the word "white" in this document -- it appears in 5 places in the 1850 Constitution, limiting office holding and voting to white men. Here, for example, is the PDF of the Article VII of the Constitution from the Michigan statutes of 1850-51. I hope someone at Wikipedia will fix this. I am curious where Wikipedia obtained this "sanitized" and historically inaccurate document.

ARTICLE VII. ELECTIONS. § 1. In all elections every white male citizen, every white male inhabitant residing in the State on the twenty-fourth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five; every white male inhabitant residing in this State on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty, who has declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, pursuant to the laws thereof, six months preceding an election, or who has resided in this State two years and six months, and declared his intention as aforesaid, and every civilized male inhabitant of Indian descent, a native of the United States and not a member of any tribe, shall be an elector and entitled to vote; but no citizen or inhabitant shall be an elector, or entitled to vote at any election, unless lie shall be above the age of twenty-one years, and has resided in this State three months, and in the township or ward in which he offers to vote, ten days next preceding such election.

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By contrast, here is the incorrect Wikipedia version: you will note that the Wikipedia version has removed the word "white" in this provision. This was done in other provisions as well.

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Sec. 1. In all elections, every male inhabitant of this State, being a citizen of the United States, every male inhabitant residing in this State on the twenty-fourth day of June, eighteen hundred and thirty-five, every male inhabitant residing in this State on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and fifty, every male inhabitant of foreign birth who, having resided in the State two years and six months prior to the eighth day of November, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and having declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States two years and six months prior to said last named day, and every civilized male inhabitant of Indian descent, a native of the United States and not a member of any tribe, shall be an elector and entitled to vote; but no one shall be an elector or entitled to vote at any election unless he shall be above the age of twenty-one years, and has resided in this State six month, and in the township or ward in which he offers to vote, twenty days next preceding such election: Provided, That in time of war, insurrection or rebellion, no qualified elector in the actual military service of the United States, or of this State, or in the army or navy thereof shall be deprived of his vote by reason of his absence from the township, ward or State in which he resides, and the Legislature shall have the power, and shall provide the manner in which, and the time and place at which, such absent electors may vote, and for the canvass and return of their vote to the township or ward election district in which they respectively reside or otherwise.

Paul Finkelman, Ph.D. John E. Murray Visiting Professor of Law University of Pittsburgh I am happy to talk to someone at Wikipedia about this. paul.finkelman@pitt.edu


 * If you would like to talk to someone at Wikipedia, you would need to go to Wikipedia and inquire there. This is not Wikipedia. --EncycloPetey (talk) 23:20, 15 January 2017 (UTC)