824
Opinion of the Court
State, Virginia, placed similar restrictions on Members of Congress, requiring that a representative be, inter alia, a "freeholder." See 1788 Va. Acts, ch. 2, § 2.34 Just 15 years after imposing a property qualification, Virginia replaced that requirement with a provision requiring that representatives be only "qualified according to the constitution of the United States." 1813 Va. Acts, ch. 23, § 2. Moreover, several States, including New Hampshire, Georgia, Delaware, and South Carolina, revised their Constitutions at around the time of the Federal Constitution. In the revised Constitutions, each State retained property qualifications for its own
estate of 200 pounds for state senators; estate of 100 pounds, at least half of which is freehold, for state representatives); 3 id., at 1691, 1694 (Maryland) (real and personal property of over 500 pounds for House of Delegates; real and personal property of 1,000 pounds for Senate); id., at 1897, 1898 (freehold estate of 300 pounds or personal estate of 600 pounds for state senators; freehold estate of 100 pounds or ratable estate of 200 pounds for state representatives); 1 id., at 562 (Delaware) (state legislators must be freeholders); 5 id., at 2595 (New Jersey) (members of Legislative Council must be freeholders and must have real and personal property of 1,000 pounds; members of Assembly must have real and personal property of 500 pounds); id., at 2631 (New York) (state senators must be freeholders); id., at 2790 (North Carolina) (100 acres of land for House; 300 acres of land in Senate); 2 id., at 779 (Georgia) (150 acres of land or property of 250 pounds); 6 id., at 3251 (South Carolina) (freehold estate of 2,000 pounds for state senate).
34 Judge Tucker expressed doubt about the constitutionality of the provisions of the Virginia statute, noting that "these provisions, as they require qualifications which the constitution does not, may possibly be found to be nugatory." 1 W. Blackstone, Commentaries Appendix 213 (S. Tucker ed. 1803). Judge Tucker noted the two primary arguments against the power to add such a qualification:
"First, that in a representative government, the people have an un-doubted right to judge for themselves of the qualification of their delegate, and if their opinion of the integrity of their representative will supply the want of estate, there can be no reason for the government to interfere, by saying, that the latter must and shall overbalance the former.
"Secondly; by requiring a qualification in estate it may often happen, that men the best qualified in other respects might be incapacitated from serving their country." Ibid.
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