In 1776, at the threshold of the United States of America’s independence, John Adams got involved in a debate through a series of letters exchanged with James Sullivan, a politician from Massachusetts, who proposed that the right to vote should be extended to “every individual of the community, old and young, male and female, as well as rich and poor”. Contrary to such proposition, Adams advocated the existing criterion at the time, i.e., censitary, male and age. He argued that such debate should not even occur, for there would “be no end of it. New claims would arise. Women would demand the right to vote. Lads from 12 to 21 would think their rights not enough attended to…”, and, he goes on to mention that “every man who has not a dime would demand an equal voice with any other in all acts of State”
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