Suffrage

As discussed in Perspective 11.1, one of the most significant political gains for workers was the broadening of suffrage, the right to vote. In the first decades of U. S. history, a

GAINS IN THE RIGHT TO VOTE

When Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s Prime Minister, was invited to Paris in 1989 to speak in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, her opening remarks shocked many of the revelers. She reminded the French that it was the North American British colonies that initiated and led the war along the path to freedom and equality.

Nevertheless, France was the first democracy to grant the secret ballot for men and the first to realize 100 percent male suffrage (as shown in Table 11.8). In this regard, France led Germany and the United States by a couple of decades. With respect to women, France trailed the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany by two and half decades.

*Special thanks to Elyce Rotella's student, Rachel Reed, for correcting an error in the 10th edition.

Person had to own a minimum amount of real property or pay a certain amount in taxes to have a voice in political affairs. The struggle for voting privileges took place in the original 13 states; only four of the new states entering the Union placed no property or tax payment qualifications on the right for an adult male to vote. By the late 1820s, suffrage had been extended sufficiently to enable working men to participate in the elections of the populous states. First to disappear was the property-owning requirement; by 1821, only five states retained it. Five states still set a tax-paying restriction 30 years later, but it was purely nominal.52 Generally speaking, by 1860, white male citizens of the United States could vote, black males could vote in New York and New England, and alien males could vote in the agricultural Northwest.