And  we  hope  that  it  may  not  be  inappropriate,  at  least,  to  make
brief  mention  of  some  of  the  many  reasons  which  actuated  the
majority  of  the  committee  in  its  determination  of  the  questions
involved.  It  has  been  repeatedly  claimed  and  strongly  urged  that
suffrage  is  a  natural  and  inherent  right  of  all  the  citizens.  We  are
compelled  to  dissent  from  that  proposition  as  one  which,  in  our
judgment,  is  wholly  at  variance  with  the  theory  and  history  of  all
political  governments.
We  think  there  can  be  no  question  but  that  the  privilege  or  duty
of  suffrage  (however  it  may  be  termed)  is  not  a  natural  right  of
the  citizen,  but  it  is  conferred  by  the  State,  and  not  for  the  benefit,
or  to  gratify  the  wish,  of  the  recipient,  but  solely  for  the  benefit  of
the  State  in  all  that  the  term  Implies;  we  prefer  to  call  it,  at  least,
a  moral,  if  not  a  legal,  duty,  imposed  upon  the  individual  citizen  for
the  reason  that  its  exercise  by  him  will  make  for  the  best  interests
of  the  whole  community,  a  duty  to  be  exercised  kindred  to  that
which  compels  men,  unwillingly,  to  give  up  their  property,  their
liberty,  their  lives  on  the  battlefield,  if  the  welfare  of  the  State,  the
community,  demands  the  sacrifice.
