Volume II Part 31 (1/2)
[87] See Appendix.
[88] Mrs. Gov. Charles Robinson, Mrs. Lieut-Gov. J. P. Root, Mrs. R.
B. Taylor, Mrs. Mary T. Gray--whose husbands were also active workers--Mrs. Lucy B. Armstrong, Mrs. Judge Humphrey, Mrs. Starrett, Mrs. Archibald, Mrs. Elsie Stewart, ”Mother Bickerdike,” and many others.
[89] Nov. 6, 1867.--The a.s.sociated press item in _The Evening Journal_ said: ”Leavenworth, Kansas, Nov. 5th. Out of about 3,500 registered voters, only 2,600 voted here to-day. Negro suffrage received only about 700. Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony, who have been canva.s.sing the State, visited the polls in each ward and addressed the voters, probably the first occurrence of the kind in this country. They were accompanied by the Hutchinson family, and were received with hearty cheers for woman suffrage.”
[90] This trip cost Mr. Train $2,500, as he paid all the expenses, advertising largely.
[91] The first number was published January 6, 1868, and ten thousand copies, under the frank of the Hon. James Brooks, were scattered throughout the country.
CHAPTER XX.
NEW YORK CONSt.i.tUTIONAL CONVENTION.
Const.i.tution Amended once in Twenty Years--Mrs. Stanton Before the Legislature Claiming Woman's Right to Vote for Members to the Convention--An Immense Audience in the Capitol--The Convention a.s.sembled June 4th, 1867. Twenty Thousand Pet.i.tions Presented for Striking the Word ”Male” from the Const.i.tution--”Committee on the Right of Suffrage, and the Qualifications for Holding Office.”
Horace Greeley, Chairman--Mr. Graves, of Herkimer, Leads the Debate in favor of Woman Suffrage--Horace Greeley's Adverse Report--Leading Advocates Heard before the Convention--Speech of George William Curtis on Striking the Word ”Man” from Section 1, Article 11--Final Vote, 19 For, 125 Against--Equal Rights Anniversary of 1868.
This was the first time in the history of the woman suffrage movement that the Const.i.tution of New York was to be amended, and the general interest felt by women in the coming convention was intensified by the fact that such an opportunity for their enfranchis.e.m.e.nt would not come again in twenty years. The proposition of the republican party to strike the word ”white” from the Const.i.tution and thus extend the right of suffrage to all cla.s.ses of male citizens, placing the men of the State, black and white, foreign and native, ignorant and educated, vicious and virtuous, all alike, above woman's head, gave her a keener sense of her abas.e.m.e.nt than she had ever felt before. But having neither press nor pulpit to advocate her cause, and fully believing this amendment would pa.s.s as a party measure, she used every means within her power to arouse and strengthen the agitation, in the face of the most determined opposition of friends and foes. Meetings were held in all the chief towns and cities in the State, and appeals and pet.i.tions scattered in every school district; these were so many reminders to the women everywhere that they too had some interest in the Const.i.tution under which they lived, some duties to perform in deciding the future policy of the Government.
This campaign cost us the friends.h.i.+p of Horace Greeley and the support of the _New York Tribune_, heretofore our most powerful and faithful allies. In an earnest conversation with Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony, Mr. Greeley said: ”This is a critical period for the Republican party and the life of the Nation. The word ”white” in our Const.i.tution at this hour has a significance which ”male” has not. It would be wise and magnanimous in you to hold your claims, though just and imperative, I grant, in abeyance until the negro is safe beyond peradventure, and your turn will come next. I conjure you to remember that this is ”the negro's hour,” and your first duty now is to go through the State and plead his claims.” ”Suppose,” we replied, ”Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond and James Gordon Bennett were disfranchised; what would be thought of them, if before audiences and in leading editorials they pressed the claims of Sambo, Patrick, Hans and Yung Fung to the ballot, to be lifted above their own heads? With their intelligence, education, knowledge of the science of government, and keen appreciation of the dangers of the hour, would it not be treasonable, rather than magnanimous, for them, leaders of the metropolitan press, to give the ignorant and unskilled a power in government they did not possess themselves? To do this would be to place on board the s.h.i.+p of State officers and crew who knew nothing of chart or compa.s.s, of the safe pathway across the sea, and bid those who understand the laws of navigation to stand aside. No, no, this is the hour to press woman's claims; we have stood with the black man in the Const.i.tution over half a century, and it is fitting now that the const.i.tutional door is open that we should enter with him into the political kingdom of equality. Through all these years he has been the only decent compeer we have had. Enfranchise him, and we are left outside with lunatics, idiots and criminals for another twenty years.”
”Well,” said Mr. Greeley, ”if you persevere in your present plan, you need depend on no further help from me or the _Tribune_.” And he kept his word. We have seen the negro enfranchised, and twenty long years pa.s.s away since the war, and still woman's turn has not yet come; her rights as a citizen of the United States are still unrecognized, the oft-repeated pledges of leading Republicans and Abolitionists have not been redeemed.
As soon as the Const.i.tutional Convention was called by the Legislature of New York, Mrs. Stanton appeared before that body asking not only that the word ”male” be stricken from Sec. 1, Art. 2, but that women be permitted to vote for members to that Convention, giving many precedents and learned opinions in favor of her demand. In the a.s.sembly Chamber on the afternoon of Jan. 23, 1867, an immense audience of judges, lawyers, members of the Legislature, and ladies of fas.h.i.+on greeted her. On being introduced by the Hon. Chas. J.
Folger,[92] Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, MRS. STANTON said:
_Gentlemen of the Judiciary Committee and Members of the Legislature_:
I appear before you at this time, to urge on you the justice of securing to all the people of the State the right to vote for delegates to the coming Const.i.tutional Convention. The discussion of this right involves the consideration of the whole question of suffrage; and especially those sections of your Const.i.tution which interpose insurmountable qualifications to its exercise. As representatives of the people, your right to regulate all that pertains to the coming Const.i.tutional Convention is absolute. It is for you to say when and where this convention shall be held; how many delegates shall be chosen, and what cla.s.ses shall be represented. This is your right. It is the opinion of many of the ablest men of the country that, in a revision of a const.i.tution, the State is, for the time being, resolved into its original elements, and that all disfranchised cla.s.ses should have a voice in such revision and be represented in such convention. To secure this to the people of the State, is clearly your duty.
Says Judge Beach Lawrence, in a letter to Hon. Charles Sumner: ”A State Const.i.tution must originate with and be a.s.sented to by a majority of the people, including as well those whom it disfranchises as those whom it invests with the suffrage.” And as there is nothing in the present Const.i.tution of the State of New York to prevent women, or black men from voting for, or being elected as delegates to a Const.i.tutional Convention, there is no reason why the Legislature should not enact that the people elect their delegates to said Convention irrespective of s.e.x or color.
The Legislatures of 1801 and 1821 furnish you a precedent for extending to disfranchised cla.s.ses the right to vote for delegates to a Const.i.tutional Convention. Though the Const.i.tution of the State restricted the right of suffrage to every male inhabitant who possessed a freehold to the value of 20, or rented a tenement at the yearly value of forty s.h.i.+llings, and had been rated and actually paid taxes to the State, the Legislatures of those years pa.s.sed laws setting aside all property limitations, and providing that all men--black and white, rich and poor--should vote for delegates to said Conventions. The act recommending a convention for the purpose of considering the parts of the Const.i.tution of this State, respecting the number of Senators and Members of a.s.sembly--and also for the consideration of the 23d article of said Const.i.tution, relative to the right of nomination to office--”but with no other power or authority whatsoever,” pa.s.sed April 6, 1801. Session Laws 1801, chap. 69, page 190, sec. 2, says:
And be it further enacted, that the number of delegates chosen shall be the same as the number of Members of a.s.sembly from the respective cities and counties of the State, and that all free male citizens of this State, of the age of twenty-one years and upward, shall be admitted to vote for such delegates, and that any person of that description shall be eligible.
The above law was pa.s.sed by the Legislature of 1801, which derived its authority from the first Const.i.tution of the State.
The act recommending a convention of the people of this State, pa.s.sed March 13, 1821. Session Laws of 1821, act 90, page 83, sec. 1. ”Persons ent.i.tled to vote”:
All free male citizens, of the age of twenty-one years or upward, who shall possess a freehold in this State, or who shall have been actually rated and paid taxes to this State, or who shall have been actually enrolled in the militia of this State, or in a legal, volunteer, or uniform corps, and shall have served therein either as an officer or private, or who shall have been or now are, by law, exempt from taxation or militia duty, or who shall have been a.s.sessed to work on the public roads and highways, and shall have worked thereon, or shall have paid a commutation therefor according to law, shall be allowed during the three days of such election to vote by ballot as aforesaid in the town or ward in which they shall actually reside.
Extract from Sec. 6th, Act 90:
And be it further enacted, that the number of delegates to be chosen shall be the same as the number of Members of a.s.sembly from the respective cities and counties of this State, and that the same qualification for voters shall be required on the election for delegates, as is prescribed in the first section of this act, and none other.... And that all persons ent.i.tled to vote by this law for delegates, shall be eligible to be elected.
Extracts from the first Const.i.tution of the State of New York, under and by virtue of which the Legislatures sat, which pa.s.sed the acts of 1801 and 1821, from which the extracts above are taken. Sec. 7. Qualification of electors:
That every male inhabitant of full age, who shall have personally resided for six months within one of the counties of this State, immediately preceding the day of election, shall at such election be ent.i.tled to vote for representatives of the said county in a.s.sembly, if during the time aforesaid, he shall have been a freeholder possessing a freehold of the value of 20, within the said county, or have rented a tenement therein of a yearly value of forty s.h.i.+llings, and been rated and actually paid taxes to this State.
SEC. 10. And this Convention doth further, in the name and by the authority of the good people of this State, ordain, determine, and declare that the Senate of the State of New York shall consist of twenty-four freeholders, to be chosen out of the body of the freeholders, and they be chosen by the freeholders of this State, possessed of freeholds of the value of 100 over and above all debts charged thereon.