Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 4B

26. Albion W. Tourgée, “The Right to Vote,” Forum (March 1890): 78-92.

Argument in support of universal male suffrage, beginning with an analysis of the states’ right to secede. The author endorses the legal concept of national citizenship but questions whether the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments are sufficient to accomplish that goal. “The power to deprive an individual voter of the right to vote, either by direct or indirect means, was, therefore, a dangerous one to be left in the hands of constituent States, since they might by its exercise seriously impair the relative power of individual voters in other States, in the control of the national government; or establish, as has been seen, an oligarchy within their own borders.”