2723. EQUAL RIGHTS, Political.—[continued].
Even among our citizens
who participate in the representative privilege,
the equality of political rights is entirely
prostrated by our [Virginia] Constitution.
Upon which principle of right or
reason can any one justify the giving to
every citizen of Warwick as much weight
in the government as to twenty-two equal
citizens in London, and similar inequalities
among the other counties? If these fundamental
principles are of no importance in
actual government, then no principles are
important, and it is as well to rely on the
dispositions of administration, good or evil,
as on the provisions of a constitution.—
To John Hambden Pleasants. Washington ed. vii, 344.
Ford ed., x, 303.
(M.
1821)
See Rights.
