The right to vote
In this research paper, I intend to analyze the historical events and public activities that created a ground for politically unprivileged portion of 18th and 19th century United States society to express their dissatisfaction and the desire to have a right to vote. I will study how relevant historical events took place in different states or towns, how did the municipal and state authorities respond to them, how the press illustrated these events and what level of impact the events had on the future of the democratization of the voting process in the United States.
As a result of this study, I aim to explain how politically discriminated portions of the society did obtain a right to vote through the democratic process and what factors assisted to this process. My working hypothesis would argue that obtaining a right to vote in the United States society was the product of constitutional conventions, rapid increase in the number of population that resulted in majority of them having an economic participation but no political participation and the formation of political parties that competed for votes. My research will focus on books that give the account of historic events that unfolded in 18th and 19th century regarding the democratization of the right to vote, such as Alexander Keyssar’s work on the right to vote – the contested history of democracy in United States, and newspaper accounts that illustrated or described the relevant events, informed the society on what different intellectuals think about the issue and raised the mass awareness regarding the problem that should be resolved. For example, Albion Tourgee begins his article “The Right to Vote” by bringing different questions, such as what is the right to vote, how to regulate it, limits of state and national authority, in what manner it should be asserted and to whom does it attach. Also, the monthly law reported on 1853 describes the constitutional convention