To the Editor:
We have seen several letters regarding the Constitution of the United States on these pages in the last few weeks. I would like to address what I feel are some important inaccuracies in the July 1 edition that were repeated in the Editorial and in Timm Gormley’s letter.
From the Editorial: “The Constitution, when written applied only to white, male landowners. Women only got the right to vote in 1920;” and from Timm’s letter “this original, ‘sacred’ document also only guarantees rights to white, adult, land owning men who were born in the United States.”
While it is true that slaves had no enumerated rights in the Constitution until 1865 in the 13th and in 1868, the 14th amendments, all citizens; black, female, non-landowning and naturalized had many rights from the document: the right of freedom of religion, to assemble, to free speech, to be secure in their person and property, etc. Naturalized males could run for congress after some years of citizenship. Free black citizens, and there were many in the North, could vote and were regarded as normal members of society. Voting rights were mainly decided by the States and not the Federal Government. Women could vote in 1776 in New Jersey for example.
I have a lot of respect for the editors of this paper and especially for Timm. I just feel that it is important to keep the record straight regarding these narrow and negative representations of the early years of our country that keep cropping up. Could it be that the last couple of generations have learned this in school?
George Apgar, Bremen
