Thomas Babington Macaulay Quotes
We do not pretend to show that universal suffrage is an evil. Let its advocates show it to be a good.
1st Baron Macaulay. Macaulay was opposed to universal suffrage, and when John Stuart Mill and others started a movement for allowing all males to vote, this was one of the tactics to stave off allowing the lower classes to vote.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1800-1859, British Historian & Secretary of War (Liberal), Member of Parliament, June, 1829
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Hunt gave as an example Mary Smith of Stanmore. This quotation is very interesting in the history of women’s suffrage. Hunt was a strong advocate for Universal Suffrage (See {616653}.) At the time, even men had to be a taxpayer and own a sufficient amount of property to vote. Less than 20% of the population of Britain were allowed to vote. The argument at the time was that the husband would represent the family’s interest at the ballot box and there was no need for women to vote. But by facing parliament with the logical inconsistency of its position, he was able to make his point, although there were very few women like Mary Smith who were single and had the economic resources to qualify. Most widows remarried so even if they had economic resources, there was a man who could assume the then perceived role of head of the household.
This was a classic debate over universal male suffrage. Rainborough had made a forceful argument for equality as a spokesperson for the Levellers in this famous debate. Ireton (See {619711}) eloquently gave the classic counter-argument that property owners had much more at stake and therefore should have much more of a say on governmental affairs. Early America actually sided with Ireton but modern America holds with Rainborough.
The issue was the voting franchise for Negroes in the aftermath of the Civil War.
This was a classic debate over universal male suffrage. Rainborough had made a forceful argument for equality as a spokesperson for the Levellers in this famous debate. See {619710}. Ireton eloquently gave the classic counter-argument that property owners had much more at stake and therefore should have much more of a say on governmental affairs. Early America actually sided with Ireton, but modern America holds with Rainborough.
Even after the South was defeated in the Civil War, most Southern politicians strove to keep the newly freed Blacks from voting. The vehicle they chose to attain that purpose was the concept of States’ Rights where the states were the sole determiners of who could and could not vote. The majority of the country rejected that view and the Constitution was amended to allow Black men to vote. After reconstruction Black voting in the South was curtailed substantiality by devices such as poll taxes and literacy requirements and terror and intimidation. It was not until the latter part of the 20th century that most Blacks could vote in the Southern States.
He was stating the major objections that were given by many of the royalty and the upper class who opposed universal suffrage. Milton however supported the right of all men to vote. See {632509}. Even in the 21st century, there are right wingers who oppose universal suffrage on the grounds that the lower classes vote only concerned by what they materially will obtain, as if many people of all classes do not do that and that all poor do. For additional reasons see {632533}.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, FRS FRSE PC was a British historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist, on contemporary and historical sociopolitical subjects, and as a reviewer. His The History of England was a seminal and paradigmatic example of Whig historiography, and its literary style has remained an object of praise since its publication, including subsequent to the widespread condemnation of its historical contentions which became popular in the 20th century.
