The conception of political equality from the Declaration of Independence, to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, to the Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Nineteenth Amendments could mean only one thing - one person, one vote.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The evolution of political equality in America culminates in the principle that every individual's vote counts equally.
- In plain terms
- Democracy means everyone gets one equal vote.
- What can you take from it?
- Ensure every citizen has an equal say in elections.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do we protect one person, one vote today?
- What threatens equal voting power?
Another view
Some argue that electoral systems like the Electoral College dilute this principle.
More from William O. Douglas
The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected.
Permalink to quote #16 Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred. It is an association that promotes a way…
Permalink to quote #18 The Constitution favors no racial group, no political or social group.
Permalink to quote #15
Related quotes
At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Con…
Lyndon JohnsonLyndon Johnson quote #3 The united vote of those who toil and have not will vanquish those who have and toil not, and solve forever the problems of democracy.
Eugene V. DebsEugene V. Debs quote #25 The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.
Alexis de TocquevilleAlexis de Tocqueville quote #91