15

Equality

CHAPTER 15|Document 21

Rejected Constitution for Massachusetts

V.--Every male inhabitant of any town in this State, being free and twenty one years of age, excepting negroes, Indians and mulattoes, shall be entitled to vote for a Representative or Representatives, as the case may be, in the [Volume 1, Page 526] town, where he is resident; provided he has paid taxes in said town (unless by law excused from taxes) and been resident therein one full year, immediately preceding such voting, or that such town has been his known and usual place of abode for that time, or that he is considered as an inhabitant thereof; and every such inhabitant qualified as above, and worth sixty pounds, clear of all charges thereon, shall be entitled to put in his vote for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Senators or Representatives, shall be by ballot, and not otherwise.

The Founders' Constitution
Volume 1, Chapter 15, Document 21
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch15s21.html
The University of Chicago Press

Handlin, Oscar, and Handlin, Mary, eds. The Popular Sources of Political Authority: Documents on the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1966.