Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
Perhaps not on a national level. I'm afraid we disagree as to the degree to which the British government c. 1776 could be considered a republic. Considering that only landed white males could vote in the new U.S.A., it was closer to an "evolving oligarchy" than most would like to admit. On a local level, the FF had plenty of experience with republican government. Nearly all of the colonies had elected law-making bodies, for example, the Virginia House of Burgesses, in which many of the FF served. They had direct, personal experience in "state-level" republican government, and models in empires both ancient and contemporary. My point is that they were not creating a radically new system of government in a vacuum.
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Now I may be wrong on this but as I understand it you could also look at from a different way, that being only landed white males had to pay taxes. My understanding is that at the start the only (federal) tax was property tax and if you did not pay it, you did not vote.