ABSTRACT
To radical revolutionists, in those few states where they quickly obtained political ascendency, the property qualification was portrayed as a vestige from the former regime and a support for conservative interests. Repeal was celebrated both as a symbol of emergent populism and as a means of reducing the probability that opposition forces might consolidate. In Pennsylvania (1776), property qualification removal was part of the movement that stole governing power from the provincial assembly. In Georgia (1789), it was a consequence of militant upcountry mobilization, useful for tainting plantation elites with the brush of Toryism. In New Hampshire (1783), property qualification removal was demanded by the incorporated townships as fundamental to their defense of local power, implemented in response to an abortive attempt to institute a far more restrictive standard.
