Four hundred eighty-two "citizens and property holders of the town of Nashville” represent that "there is an act of the Legislature now in force within the limits of the Corporation at war with the dearest principles of Republican liberty." They purport that the 1829 act, which states "That no person shall be entitled to vote at any election for Mayor, aldermen, or Town Constable, who shall not produce to the judges of such election satisfactory evidence that he has paid his Corporation taxes for the then current year," runs counter to the constitution of the state of Tennessee, which provides "That every free white man of the age twenty-one years, being a citizen of the United States, and a citizen of the county wherein he may offer his vote ... shall be entitled to vote." The petitioners deplore that some elected offices "may be obtained at a price and the Ballot Box is restricted with a tax-paying qualification." They demand instead "that the ballot box be free -- the elective franchise pure and untrammeled, and that the collection of taxes be left to the law." In an effort "to prevent the rich and the powerful from oppressing the poor and the feeble -- to prevent open corruption from taking part in elections," the citizens request "your Honourable Body to repeal said law."
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
