Volume II Part 65 (1/2)

Amendments. The act of May, 1870, the very t.i.tle of which, ”An Act to enforce the rights of citizens of the United States to vote,” is a concession of all that we claim, provides that the officers of elections throughout the United States shall give an equal opportunity to all citizens of the United States to become qualified to vote by the registry of their names or other prerequisite; and that where upon the application of any citizen such prerequisite is refused, such citizen may vote without performing such prerequisite; and imposes a penalty upon the officers refusing either the application of the citizen to be qualified or his subsequent application to vote. The Const.i.tution also provides that ”each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members.” When, therefore, the election of any candidate for the lower House is effected or defeated by the admission or rejection of the votes of women, the question is brought directly before the House, and it is compelled to pa.s.s at once upon the question of the right of women to vote under the Const.i.tution. All this may be accomplished without the necessity of bringing suits for the penalty imposed upon public officers by the act referred to; but should it be thought best to inst.i.tute prosecutions where the application of women to register and to vote is refused, the question would thereby at once be brought into the courts. If it be thought expedient to adopt the latter course, it is best that some test case be brought upon full consultation with the National Committee, that the ablest counsel may be employed and the expenses paid out of the public fund. Whatever mode of testing the question shall be adopted, we must not be in the slightest degree discouraged by adverse decisions, for the final result in our favor is certain, and we have, besides, great reason to hope that Congress, at an early day, will pa.s.s a declaratory act affirming the interpretation of the Const.i.tution which we claim.

The present time is specially favorable for the earnest presentation before the public mind of the question of the political rights of women. There are very positive indications of the approaching disintegration and reformation of political parties, and new and vital issues are needed by both the great parties of the country. As soon as the conviction possesses the public mind that women are to be voters at an early day, as they certainly are to be, the principles and the action of public parties will be shaping themselves with reference to the demands of this new const.i.tuency. Particularly in nominations for office will the moral character of candidates become a matter of greater importance.

To carry on this great work a Board of six women has been established, called ”The National Woman Suffrage and Educational Committee,” whose office at Was.h.i.+ngton it is proposed to make the center of all action upon Congress and the country, and with whom their Secretary, resident there, it is desired that all a.s.sociations and individuals interested in the cause of woman suffrage should place themselves in communication. The Committee propose to circulate the very able and exhaustive Minority Report of the House Judiciary Committee on the const.i.tutional right of woman to the suffrage, and other tracts on the general subject of woman suffrage. They also propose ultimately, and as a part of their educational work, to issue a series of tracts on subjects vitally affecting the welfare of the country, that women may become intelligent and thoughtful on such subjects, and the intelligent educators of the next generation of citizens.

The Committee are already receiving urgent appeals from women all over the United States to send them our publications. The little light they have already received concerning their rights under the Const.i.tution, and the present threatening political aspect of the country, make them impatient of ignorance on these vital points. A single tract has often gone the rounds in a neighborhood until worn out, and the call is for thousands and thousands more.

A large printing fund will therefore be needed by the Committee, and we appeal first to the men of this country, who control so large a part of its wealth, to make liberal donations towards this great educational work. We also ask every thoughtful woman to send her name to the Secretary to be inserted in the Pledge-Book, and if she is able, one dollar. But as many workingwomen will have nothing to send but their names, we welcome these as a precious gift, and urge those who are able, to send us their fifties and hundreds, which we promise faithfully to use and account for. Where convenient, it is better that many names should be sent upon the same paper, and the smallest contributions in money can be put together and sent with them. Every signature and every remittance will be at once acknowledged by the Secretary, and one or more tracts enclosed with a circular as to the work to be done by individuals.

ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER, _President_. PAULINA WRIGHT DAVIS, JOSEPHINE S. GRIFFING, _Secretary_. RUTH CARR DENNISON, MARY B. BOWEN, _Treasurer_. SUSAN B. ANTHONY.

_Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., April 19, 1871._

[144] The National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation will hold its annual convention at Lincoln Hall, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., January 10th, 11th and 12th, 1872. All those interested in woman's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt are invited there to consider the ”new departure”--women already citizens, and their rights as such, secured by the XIV. and XV. Amendments of the Federal Const.i.tution.

LUCRETIA MOTT. ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER.

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. SUSAN B. ANTHONY.

JOSEPHINE S. GRIFFING.

[145] RESOLUTIONS.

Whereas, in the adjustment of the question of suffrage now before the people of this country for settlement, it is of the highest importance that the organic law of the land should be so framed and constructed as to work injustice to none, but secure, as far as possible, perfect political equality among all cla.s.ses of citizens; and whereas, all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside; be it

_Resolved_, That the privileges and immunities of American citizens.h.i.+p, however defined, are National in character and paramount to all State authority.

That while the Const.i.tution of the United States leaves the qualifications of electors to the several States, it nowhere gives them the right to deprive any citizen of the elective franchise which is possessed by any other citizen--the right to regulate, not including the right to prohibit the franchise.

That, as the Const.i.tution of the United States expressly declares that ”no State shall make or enforce any law that shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States,” those provisions of the several State Const.i.tutions that exclude women from the franchise on account of s.e.x, are violative alike of the spirit and letter of the Federal Const.i.tution.

That, as the subject of naturalization is expressly withheld from the States, and as the States clearly would have no right to deprive of the franchise naturalized citizens, among whom women are expressly included, still more clearly have they no right to deprive native-born women citizens of this right.

That justice and equity can only be attained by having the same laws for men and women alike.

That having full faith and confidence in the truth and justice of these principles, we will never cease to urge the claims of women to a partic.i.p.ation in the affairs of government equally with men.

_Resolved_, That as the XIV. and XV. Amendments to the Const.i.tution of the United States have established the right of woman to the elective franchise, we demand of the present Congress a declaratory act which shall secure us at once in the exercise of this right.

As the recognition of woman suffrage involves immediate political action, and as numbers as well as principles control parties,

_Resolved_, That we rejoice in the rapidly organizing millions of Spiritualists, labor reformers, temperance, and educational forces, now simultaneously waking to their need of woman's help in the cause of reform.

_Resolved_, That the movement for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of woman is the movement of universal humanity; that the great questions now looming upon the political horizon can only find their peaceful solution by the infusion of the feminine element in the councils of the nation.

Man, representing force, would continue in the future, as in the past, in the New World as in the Old, to settle all questions by war, but woman, representing affection, would, in her true development, harmonize intellect and action, and weld together all the interests of the human family--in other words, help to organize the science of social, religious, and political life.

_Resolved_, That our thanks are due to Governor Campbell, of Wyoming, for his veto, and to the Republican members of the Legislature of Wyoming, for their votes against the bill disfranchising the women of that Territory.

_Resolved_, That the thanks of the women of America are due to Hon.

Benjamin F. Butler for introducing so early in the present session of Congress, a bill to enfranchise woman under the Const.i.tution, and also to Hon. Wm. Loughridge and to the Hon. Benjamin F. Butler for their admirable minority report, at the last session, sustaining the Woodhull memorial.