imposed in countries that have adopted the system of jurispru dence founded on the civil law, which is less liberal than the common law to youth. Some debate took place upon the question as to the length of citizenship which should be requisite. In the report of the committee of detail, a citizenship of four years for the Senate and three years for the House was all that was required. Subsequent changes were made after some debate, a minority fearing lest the enlarged restriction might discourage immigration. Before the reference of the original resolutions to the committee of detail, attempts were made to disqualify pensioners and "persons having unsettled accounts with, or being indebted to, the United States;" but Gouverneur Morris showed that this clause would empower the officers of the treasury, by delaying settlements, to disqualify all who had previously been in office, and that all importing merchants were continually in debt to the United States. defeated by large majorities.10

7 "Col. Mason moved to insert 'twenty-five years of age as a qualification for the members of the first branch.' He thought it absurd that a man to-day should not be permitted by the law to make a bargain for himself, and to-morrow should be authorized to manage the affairs of a great nation. It was the more extraordinary, as every man carried with him, in his own experience, a scale for measuring the deficiency of young politicians; since he would, if interrogated, be obliged to declare that his political opinions at the age of twenty-one were too crude and erroneous to merit an influence on public measures. It had been said, that Congress had proved a good school for our young men. It might be so, for anything he knew; but if it were, he chose that they should bear the expense of their own education." "Mr. Wilson was against abridging the rights of election in any shape. It was the same thing whether this

So the propositions were

were done by disqualifying the objects of choice, or the persons choosing. The motion tended to damp the efforts of genius and of laudable ambition. There was no more reason for incapacitating youth than age, where the requisite qualifications were found. Many instances might be mentioned of signal services, rendered in high stations to the public, before the age of twenty-five. The present Mr. Pitt and Lord Bolingbroke were striking instances. On the question for inserting twenty-five years of age,' Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, ay, 7; Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Georgia, no, 3; New York, divided." (Madison Papers. Elliot's Debates, 2d ed., vol. v, pp. 228-229.)

8 Madison Papers, Elliot's Debates, 2d ed., vol. v, p. 377.

9 Ibid., pp. 389, 398-401.

10 Ibid., pp. 370–374.

In the report by the committee of detail, it was required that a member of each house should be a resident of the State which he represented. The change from resident to inhabitant was made by unanimous consent at the motion of Roger Sherman, seconded by Madison, upon the ground that inhabitancy was more easily determined than residence.12 The last resolution referred to this committee of detail was:

"Resolved, That it be an instruction to the committee to whom were referred the proceedings of the Convention for the establishment of a national government, to receive a clause, or clauses, requiring certain qualifications of property and citizenship in the United States for executive, the judiciary, and the members of both branches of the legislature of the United States."

The report of this committee provided that "the legislature of the United States shall have authority to establish such uniform qualifications of the members of each House, with regard to property, as to the legislature shall seem expedient." 13 The explanation of this part of the report, as given by a member of the committee, is the best statement of the objections to such a qualification:

"The committee had reported no qualifications, because they could not agree among themselves, being embarrassed by the danger, on one side, of displeasing the people by making them too high, and on the other of rendering them nugatory by making them too low." 14

Upon the consideration of the report, Pinckney moved that the Constitution should contain a provision requiring a property qualification for the President, judges and members of Congress.

"Were he to fix the quantity of property which should be required, he should not think of less than one hundred thousand dollars for the President, half of that sum for each of the judges, and in like proportion for the members of the national legislature. He would, however, leave the sums in blank." 15

“Dr. Franklin expressed his dislike to everything that tended to debase the spirit of the common people. If honesty was often the companion of wealth, and if poverty was exposed to peculiar temptation, it was not less true that the possession of property increased the desire for more property. Some of the greatest rogues he was ever acquainted with were the richest rogues. We should remember the character which the Scripture requires in rulers, that they should be men hating covetousness. This Constitution will be much read and attended to in Europe; and if it should betray a great partiality to the rich, will not only hurt us in the esteem of the most liberal and enlightened men there, but discourage the common people from removing to this country. The motion of Mr. Pinckney was rejected by so general a no that the States were not called." 16

"Mr. Madison was opposed to the section, as vesting an improper and dangerous power in the legislature. The qualifications of electors and elected were fundamental articles in a republican government, and ought to be fixed by the Constitution. If the legislature could regulate those of either, it can by degrees pervert the Constitution." He referred also to the abuses in the acts of Parliament regulating the qualifications of members. "They had made the changes, in both cases, subservient to their own views or to the views of political and religious parties." 17

The whole section was thrown out by the vote of seven States to three,18 and the Convention proceeded to fix the length of citizenship as previously stated.

Time has proved the wisdom of this proceeding. It has been found that the people can protect themselves, and that there is no benefit in imposing obstacles to their choice. Property qualifications for membership in their legislatures have now been abolished in all the United States, and usually residence for a specified

15 Madison Papers, Elliot's Debates, 2d ed., vol. v, p. 403.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid., p. 404.

18 The question was whether they should agree to the section: New

Hampshire, Massachusetts, Georgia, ay, 3; Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, no, 7. (Ibid., p. 404.)

time within the State or district, and the age of twenty-one years, are the sole qualifications required for membership in either House. In one State a member of the upper house must be thirty,19 and in two twenty-five years of age.20 In Delaware a representative must be twenty-four years of age.21 Some States make officers of the United States and judicial or municipal officers ineligible,22 but in most the people have wisely allowed the voters of each district to choose their representatives in the legislature with few restrictions. It is the constant practice in Great Britain and France for the constituents to choose representatives irrespective of their places of residence. In the United States local prejudice rarely permits this in the case of members of Congress where it is allowed, and it is usual in State constitutions to forbid it in the election of members of the State legislature. The former practice, by the broader choice which it affords, is apt to secure the election of abler men; but by the latter the representative is more apt to be acquainted with the wishes of his constituents and to obey them.23

19 New Jersey Constitution, Article IV, Section 2.

20 Illinois Constitution, Article V, Section 3, and North Dakota Constitution, Article II, Section 28.

21 Delaware Constitution, Article II. 22 New York, Article III, Section 8; Florida, Article III, Section 7; Illinois, Article V, Section 3; Iowa, Article III, Section 6. In the Republic of Hawaii, "In order to be eligible to election as a senator, a person shall be a male citizen of the Republic; have attained the age of thirty years; be able understandingly to speak, read, and write the English or the Hawaiian language; have resided in the Hawaiian Islands not less than three years; be the owner, in his own right, of property in the Republic of the value of not less than three thousand dollars over and above

all incumbrances; or have been in the receipt of a money income of not less than twelve hundred dollars during the year immediately preceding the date of the election, for the proof of which he may be required to produce original accounts of the receipt of such income" (Article 56).

Similiar qualifications as to citizenship, previous residence and education are required of representatives. The requisite age for a representative is twenty-five years; and the property qualification, one thousand dollars net of principal, or an income for the past twelve months of six hundred dollars (Article 58).

23 It is hard to believe that a speech like that of Burke to the electors of Bristol could have been made by a candidate for Congress in the United States.

$62. Congressional Decisions on Qualifications of Senators and Representatives.

The word "inhabitant" has a different meaning from "resident." Residence implies permanency, or at least an intention to remain. Habitancy may be temporary. A man's residence is often a legal conclusion from statements showing his intention. Habitancy is a physical fact which may be proved by eye-witnesses.1 It was held by the Senate that an army officer stationed in Mississippi might be elected senator from that State if he had announced his intention to permanently reside there, although he was originally appointed from another State. It was held by the House of Representatives that a citizen of Massachusetts who was a clerk in the Department of State at Washington, was not an inhabitant of any State, and was consequently ineligible to a seat in Congress;3 but that a minister of the United States, while discharging his official functions at a foreign court, did not cease to be an inhabitant of the State from which he was appointed, and might be elected to Congress. In the cases of Albert Gallatin, afterward Secretary of the Treasury,5 and James Shields, of Illinois, the Senate refused admission to the persons elected, upon the ground that

§ 62. 1 See the remarks of Madison in the Federal Convention, supra, § 61, note 12. McCrary says, in McCrary on Elections (3rd ed.), § 289: "It would seem that the framers of the Constitution were impressed with a deep sense of the importance of an actual bona fide residence of the representative among the constituency, a residence in the sense of actual living among them and commingling with them, and therefore employed the term inhabitant in the sense of living or abiding, and not in the sense of technical residence."

2 Case of Adelbert Ames, Taft's Senate Election Cases, continued by Furber, p. 279.

3 Electors v. Bailey, Cl. & Hall, 411. 4 Case of John Forsyth of Georgia, Cl. & Hall, 497. McCrary says of this case, in McCrary on Elections (3d ed.),

§ 290: The foreign representative carries with him the sovereignty of the government to which he belongs; his rights as a citizen are not impaired by his absence; children born in the house he occupies are considered as born within the territory and jurisdiction of the government in whose service he is; he does not possess the capacity, by residence in the foreign country, to become one of its citizens, or to lose his allegiance to the country from which he comes. None of these things attach to those persons who are employed in the home service of the government."

5 Taft's Senate Election Cases, continued by Furber, p. 61; see also Life of Albert Gallatin, by Henry Adams, pp. 119, 120.

6 Taft's Senate Election Cases, continued by Furber, p. 122.