Volume II Part 16 (1/2)
In the House, January 28, 1867, Mr. Noell, of Missouri, introduced a bill to amend the suffrage act of the District of Columbia, which, after the second reading, he moved should be referred to a select committee of five, and on that motion demanded the previous question, and called for the yeas and nays, which resulted in 49 yeas,[59] 74 nays--68 not voting.
FOOTNOTES:
[48] FORM OF PEt.i.tION.--_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:--The undersigned women of the United States, respectfully ask an amendment of the Const.i.tution that shall prohibit the several States from disfranchising any of their citizens on the ground of s.e.x.
In making our demand for Suffrage, we would call your attention to the fact that we represent fifteen million people--one-half the entire population of the country--intelligent, virtuous, native-born American citizens; and yet stand outside the pale of political recognition. The Const.i.tution cla.s.ses us as ”free people,” and counts us _whole_ persons in the basis of representation; and yet are we governed without our consent, compelled to pay taxes without appeal, and punished for violations of law without choice of judge or juror. The experience of all ages, the Declarations of the Fathers, the Statute Laws of our own day, and the fearful revolution through which we have just pa.s.sed, all prove the uncertain tenure of life, liberty, and property so long as the ballot--the only weapon of self-protection--is not in the hand of every citizen.
Therefore, as you are now amending the Const.i.tution, and, in harmony with advancing civilization, placing new safeguards round the individual rights of four millions of emanc.i.p.ated slaves, we ask that you extend the right of Suffrage to Woman--the only remaining cla.s.s of disfranchised citizens--and thus fulfill your const.i.tutional obligation ”to guarantee to every State in the Union a Republican form of Government.” As all partial application of Republican principles must ever breed a complicated legislation as well as a discontented people, we would pray your Honorable Body, in order to simplify the machinery of Government and ensure domestic tranquillity, that you legislate hereafter for persons, citizens, tax-payers, and not for cla.s.s or caste. For justice and equality your pet.i.tioners will ever pray.
[49] JOINT RESOLUTIONS BEFORE CONGRESS AFFECTING WOMEN.
_To the Editor of the Standard_--_Sir_:--Mr. Broomall, of Pennsylvania; Mr. Schenck, of Ohio; Mr. Jenckes, of Rhode Island; Mr.
Stevens, of Pennsylvania, have each a resolution before Congress to amend the Const.i.tution.
Article 1st, Section 2d, reads thus: ”Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union according to their respective number.”
Mr. Broomall proposes to amend by saying ”male electors,” Mr. Schenck ”male citizens,” Mr. Jenckes ”male citizens,” Mr. Stevens ”legal voters.” There is no objection to the amendment proposed by Mr.
Stevens, as in process of time women may be made ”legal voters” in the several States, and would then meet that requirement of the Const.i.tution. But those urged by the other gentlemen, neither time, effort, nor State Const.i.tutions could enable us to meet, unless, by a liberal interpretation of the amendment, a coat of mail to be worn at the polls might be judged all-sufficient. Mr. Jenckes and Mr. Schenck, in their bills, have the grace not to say a word about taxes, remembering perhaps that ”taxation without representation is tyranny.”
But Mr. Broomall, though unwilling to share with us the honors of Government, would fain secure us a place in its burdens; for while he apportions representatives to ”male electors” only, he admits ”_all the inhabitants_” into the rights, privileges, and immunities of taxation. Magnanimous M. C.!
I would call the attention of the women of the nation to the fact that under the Federal Const.i.tution, as it now exists, there is not one word that limits the right of suffrage to any privileged cla.s.s. This attempt to turn the wheels of civilization backward, on the part of Republicans claiming to be _the_ Liberal party, should rouse every woman in the nation to a prompt exercise of the only right she has in the Government, the right of pet.i.tion. To this end a committee in New York have sent out thousands of pet.i.tions, which should be circulated in every district and sent to its Representative at Was.h.i.+ngton as soon as possible.
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON.
NEW YORK, _January 2, 1866_.
[50] Leaving Rochester October 11th, she called on Martha Wright, Auburn; Phebe Jones and Lydia Mott, Albany; Mrs. Rose, Gibbons, Davis, Stanton, New York; Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown Blackwell, New Jersey; Stephen and Abby Foster, Worcester; Mrs. Severance, Dall, Nowell, Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, Dr. Zakzyewska, Mr. Phillips and Garrison, in Boston, urging them to join in sending protests to Was.h.i.+ngton against the pending legislation. Mr. Phillips at once consented to vote $500 from the ”Jackson Fund” to commence the work.
Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton spent all their ”Christmas holidays” in writing letters and addressing appeals and pet.i.tions to every part of the country, and before the close of the session of 1865-66 ten thousand signatures were poured into Congress.
[51] ”THIS IS THE NEGRO'S HOUR.”
_To the Editor of the Standard_--_Sir_:--By an amendment of the Const.i.tution, ratified by three-fourths of the loyal States, the black man is declared free. The largest and most influential political party is demanding suffrage for him throughout the Union, which right in many of the States is already conceded. Although this may remain a question for politicians to wrangle over for five or ten years, the black man is still, in a political point of view, far above the educated women of the country. The representative women of the nation have done their uttermost for the last thirty years to secure freedom for the negro, and so long as he was lowest in the scale of being we were willing to press _his_ claims; but now, as the celestial gate to civil rights is slowly moving on its hinges, it becomes a serious question whether we had better stand aside and see ”Sambo” walk into the kingdom first. As self-preservation is the first law of nature, would it not be wiser to keep our lamps trimmed and burning, and when the const.i.tutional door is open, avail ourselves of the strong arm and blue uniform of the black soldier to walk in by his side, and thus make the gap so wide that no privileged cla.s.s could ever again close it against the humblest citizen of the republic?
”This is the negro's hour.” Are we sure that he, once entrenched in all his inalienable rights, may not be an added power to hold us at bay? Have not ”black male citizens” been heard to say they doubted the wisdom of extending the right of suffrage to women? Why should the African prove more just and generous than his Saxon compeers? If the two millions of Southern black women are not to be secured in their rights of person, property, wages, and children, their emanc.i.p.ation is but another form of slavery. In fact, it is better to be the slave of an educated white man, than of a degraded, ignorant black one. We who know what absolute power the statute laws of most of the States give man, in all his civil, political, and social relations, demand that in changing the status of the four millions of Africans, the women as well as the men shall be secured in all the rights, privileges, and immunities of citizens.
It is all very well for the privileged order to look down complacently and tell us, ”This is the negro's hour; do not clog his way; do not embarra.s.s the Republican party with any new issue; be generous and magnanimous; the negro once safe, the woman comes next.” Now, if our prayer involved a new set of measures, or a new train of thought, it would be cruel to tax ”white male citizens” with even two simple questions at a time; but the disfranchised all make the same demand, and the same logic and justice that secures suffrage to one cla.s.s gives it to all. The struggle of the last thirty years has not been merely on the black man as such, but on the broader ground of his humanity. Our Fathers, at the end of the first revolution, in their desire for a speedy readjustment of all their difficulties, and in order to present to Great Britain, their common enemy, an united front, accepted the compromise urged on them by South Carolina, and a century of wrong, ending in another revolution, has been the result of their action. This is our opportunity to retrieve the errors of the past and mould anew the elements of Democracy. The nation is ready for a long step in the right direction; party lines are obliterated, and all men are thinking for themselves. If our rulers have the justice to give the black man suffrage, woman should avail herself of that new-born virtue to secure her rights; if not, she should begin with renewed earnestness to educate the people into the idea of universal suffrage.
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON.
NEW YORK, _December 26, 1865_.
[52] From the _New York Evening Express_.
SCENES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.--_Negroes are to Vote--Why not Coolies in California--Indians everywhere, and First of all, Fifteen Millions of our Countrywomen._
The following occurred in the House, Tuesday, upon Thaddeus Stevens'
resolution, from the Reconstruction Committee, to deprive the South of representation, unless the South lets the negroes vote there....
Mr. CHANDLER, of New York, having the floor for an hour, said: Before proceeding with my remarks, I will yield the floor for ten minutes to my colleague [Mr. Brooks].