Suffrage means THAT ALL ADULT MEN AND WOMEN HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE.
Initially, only men were allowed to vote. This was because the society in the earlier times were dominated by males as a figure of authority. It was believed that women were naturally inferior to men and that they are subjected under the rule of men. However, in later years, women's civil rights were recognized and they were also given the right to vote and run for electoral office.
The way that the Enlightenment's theories of government viewed the role of government was that government was meant to serve the people, not the other way around.
Some believed that the Constitution did not give the new federal government the ability to restrict inherent rights, so no list of those rights was necessary. Others worried that if the rights were listed, they would invariably forget some and the list would ever be incomplete. Finally, the argument was that the states each had their own constitutions, too, and that rights were best protected at a state level.
The Corrupt Bargain from the year 1824 was about how none of the candidates were able to secure a majority of the electoral vote, because of this problem they had to put this in the hands of the House of Representatives who elected John Quincy Adams instead of Andrew Jackson.
