William LeFew's letter to the Editor

Mr. LeFew got most of what he said in his Letter to the Editor dated January 29, 09 to the Northwest Herald correct. The peaceful transference of power noted on Inauguration Day is to be commended.

However if one reads the papers and records of the Founding Fathers their idea of who would have the right and privilege to vote for their representatives in the envisioned new republican form of government was not what we today enjoy and take for granted. Not everyone was included in this group of "voters"; they the Founding Fathers feared a take over by what was called then the uneducated rabble or at times referred to as the "mob". To them the voter would be a stakeholder in this new country; someone who was a land owner, business owner, educated to some degree so he could read and understand issues and not on the receiving end of government money. They feared that if all were to be allowed to be voters that they would vote for the candidate that would would promise them more and more until the government would find itself bankrupt and unable to fulfill its promises. In other words they felt that voters should be males who had something to loose if they voted unwisely and not individuals who only had something to gain....sound familiar? Women were not even considered in the argument at that time.