2722. EQUAL RIGHTS, Political.—
The
basis of our [Virginia] Constitution is in opposition
to the principle of equal political
rights, refusing to all but freeholders any
participation in the natural right of self-government.
* * * However nature May
by mental or physical disqualifications have
marked infants and the weaker sex for the
protection rather than the direction of government,
yet among the men who either pay
or fight for their country, no line of right
can be drawn.—
To John Hambden Pleasants. Washington ed. vii, 345.
Ford ed., x, 303.
(M.
1824)