The

rights of citizens and the ownership of property are concepts that had
already been associated for hundreds of years when the Constitutional Convention
convened in Philadelphia in 1787 to draft what would become the basis of American
Government. Many nations throughout the world (including England) had always
closely tied the rights of citizens to the amount of property that they had owned. At
the Constitutional Convention, the delegates were charged with deciding whether
the American government would follow that path which other nations had taken.

At the Constitutional Convention, Governor Morris, a delegate from New

York, supported an addition to the Constitution to restrict the right to vote to those
who owned property. He reasoned that the poor man (without property) could be
bribed to vote for an unqualified candidate. This unreasoned voting based on class
would then birth an aristocracy in America. He asserted that in contrast, property
owners would be educated enough to make decisions that would benefit the whole
of the nation.

One of the men who opposed Governor Morris was James Madison. Madison

argued that, In future times a great majority of people will not only be without
landed, but without any sort of property. Madison argued that if they restricted
voting to property owners, that one day very few people would be making the
decisions of the nation. This would leave the country susceptible to injustice and
corruption. Madison won in this instance and his assertions about the future of the
nation impacted the entire constitution not simply the right to vote.

Additionally, Madison asserted in Federalist 10 that he was weary of

property being in any way significant to the Constitution because he concluded that
it would further perpetuate the rise of factions in American politics. He argued that
the sentiments of property owners and non-property owners would be polarized
and would eventually breed hostility. Madison saw government as the way to
combat factions and by making citizens rights depend on property within the
Constitution - the government would be perpetuating the existence of factions.

Madisons attitudes towards rights based on property are definitely

prevalent in the finished Constitution. The word property itself is only used in the
Constitution four times. The Constitution does not attach property requirements to

any of its rights or protections. It does not define the citizen in terms of property
and the only mentions of property are protections from government seizure. The
Constitution did not incorporate the stipulation that voters must be property
owners. The Constitution is not a document based on property rights it is based
upon the rights humanity itself. A man has a right to the freedoms, protections and
responsibilities listed within the constitution without having to own landed
property.

Madison exercised tremendous foresight in essentially predicting the

industrialization of America. Since the Industrial Revolution, vast amounts of

citizens do not own property. If ownership of land was a requirement to exercise the
rights of a citizen, nearly all of Manhattan would now be ineligible to vote and
almost every student of Penn State would be unprotected under the Constitution.
The issue of property ownership was essentially ignored in the Constitution because
the framers realized that it was not relevant or necessary to the document they
were conceiving. The Constitution is a vague document in many ways, but the
adaptability that Madison and the framers built into the document is what has
allowed it to be effective for over two hundred years.