“As a preliminary essential to these and other requisite changes, as means by which alone the interests of the people can be effectually vindicated and secured, we demand that those interests be confided to the keeping of the people.
“When the state calls for defenders, when it calls for money, no consideration of poverty or ignorance can be pleaded in refusal or delay of the call.
“Required as we are, universally, to support and to obey the laws, nature and reason entitle us to demand, that in making the laws, the universal voice shall be implicitly listened to.
“We perform the duties of freemen; we must have the privileges of freedom.
“We demand Universal Suffrage.
“The suffrage, to be exempt from the corruption of the wealthy and the violence of the powerful, must be secret.
“The assertion of our right necessarily involves the power of its uncontrolled exercise.
“We ask for the reality of a good, not for its semblance.
“We demand the Ballot.
“The connexion between the representatives and the people, to be beneficial, must be intimate. The legislative and constituent powers for correction and for instruction ought to be brought into frequent contact. Errors, which are comparatively light when susceptible of a speedy popular remedy, may produce the most disastrous effects when permitted to grow inveterate through years of compulsory endurance. To public safety, as well as public confidence, frequent elections are essential.