SUFFRAGE

the right to vote, and more especially, the right of persons to vote in elections for political representatives. The universal extension of this right has long been advocated but in most European countries it is limited by certain qualifications. In the United States, since the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, suffrage is universal for all male and female citizens of 21 years of age and upward. During the colonial period of American history suffrage was restricted to free men and those with certain religious qualifications. Quakers were not permitted to become freemen. As a result of the Revolution the power of the people was greatly increased, yet in several of the original thirteen States there were property restrictions on the right to vote. By the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment, the right to vote was extended to colored citizens. The movement toward the extension of the right to women, carried on aggre ively for many years, finally resulted in the adoption of a Constitutional Amendment ) providing for it. See Woman SuFFracs.