Volume III Part 39 (1/2)

MR. WHITE, from the Select Committee on Woman Suffrage, submitted the following:

_The Select Committee on Woman Suffrage, to whom was referred House Resolution No. 255, proposing an amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States to secure the right of suffrage to citizens of the United States without regard to s.e.x, having considered the same, respectfully report:_

In attempting to comprehend the vast results that could and would be attained by the adoption of the proposed article to the const.i.tution, a few considerations are presented that are claimed by the friends of woman suffrage to be worthy of the most serious attention, among which are the following:

I. There are vast interests in property vested in women, which property is affected by taxation and legislation, without the owners having voice or representation in regard to it. The adoption of the proposed amendment would remove a manifest injustice.

II. Consider the unjust discriminations made against women in industrial and educational pursuits, and against those who are compelled to earn a livelihood by work of hand or brain. By conferring upon such the right of suffrage, their condition, it is claimed, would be greatly improved by the enlargement of their influence.

III. The questions of social and family relations are of equal importance to and affect as many women as men. Giving to women a voice in the enactment of laws pertaining to divorce and the custody of children and division of property would be merely recognizing an undeniable right.

IV. Munic.i.p.al regulations in regard to houses of prost.i.tution, of gambling, of retail liquor traffic, and of all other abominations of modern society, might be shaped very differently and more perfectly were women allowed the ballot.

V. If women had a voice in legislation, the momentous question of peace and war, which may act with such fearful intensity upon women, might be settled with less bloodshed.

VI. Finally, there is no condition, status in life, of rich or poor; no question, moral or political; no interest, present or future; no ties, foreign or domestic; no issues, local or national; no phase of human life, in which the mother is not equally interested with the father, the daughter with the son, the sister with the brother.

Therefore the one should have equal voice with the other in molding the destiny of this nation.

Believing these considerations to be so important as to challenge the attention of all patriotic citizens, and that the people have a right to be heard in the only authoritative manner recognized by the const.i.tution, we report the accompanying resolution with a favorable recommendation in order that the people, through the legislatures of their respective States, may express their views:

JOINT RESOLUTION _proposing an amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States_:

_Resolved_ by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in congress a.s.sembled, (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of the said legislatures, shall be valid as part of said const.i.tution, namely:

SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of s.e.x.

SEC. 2. The congress shall have power, by appropriate legislation, to enforce the provisions of this article.

Thus closed the forty-seventh congress, and although with so little promise of any substantial good for women, yet this slight recognition in legislation was encouraging to those who had so long appealed in vain for the attention of their representatives. A committee to even consider the wrongs of woman was more than had ever been secured before, and one to propose some measures of justice, sustained by the votes of a few statesmen awake to the degradation of disfranchis.e.m.e.nt, gave some faint hope of more generous action in the near future. The tone of the debates[103] in these later years even, on the nature and rights of women, is wholly unworthy the present type of developed womanhood and the age in which we live.

FOOTNOTES:

[81] During the autumn Miss Anthony, Mrs. Jones, Miss Snow and Miss Couzins, spending some weeks in Was.h.i.+ngton, asked for an audience with President Chester A. Arthur, and urged him to recommend in his first message to congress the appointment of a standing committee and the submission of a sixteenth amendment.

[82] _Yeas_--Aldrich, Allison, Anthony, Blair, Cameron of Pa., Cameron of Wis., Conger, Davis of Ill., Dawes, Edmunds, Ferry, Frye, Harrison, Hawley, Hill of Col., h.o.a.r, Jones of Fla., Jones of Nev., Kellogg, Lapham, Logan, McDill, McMillan, Miller of Cal., Mitch.e.l.l, Morrill, Platt, Plumb, Ransom, Rollins, Saunders, Sawyer, Sewell, Sherman, Windom--35.

_Nays_--Bayard, Beck, Brown, Butler, Camden, c.o.c.krell, c.o.ke, Davis of W. Va., Fair, Farley, Garland, Hampton, Hill of Ga., Jackson, Jonas, McPherson, Maxey, Saulsbury, Slater, Vance, Vest, Walker, Williams--23.

_Absent_--Call, George, Gorman, Groome, Grover, Hale, Harris, Ingalls, Johnston, Lamar, Mahone, Miller of N. Y., Morgan, Pendleton, Pugh, Teller, Van Wyck, Voorhees--18.

The members of the committee were Senators Lapham of New York, Anthony of Rhode Island, Blair of New Hamps.h.i.+re, Jackson of Tennessee, George of Mississippi, Ferry of Michigan and Fair of Nevada.

[83] _Yeas_--Aldrich, Anderson, Bayne, Beach, Belford, Bingham, Black, Bliss, Brewer, Briggs, Browne, Brumm, Buck, Burrows, Julius C., b.u.t.terworth, Calkins, Camp, Campbell, Candler, Cannon, Carpenter, Caswell, Converse, c.r.a.po, Davis, George R., Dawes, Deering, De Motte, Dezendorf, Dingley, Dwight, Farwell, Sewall S., Finley, Flower, Geddes, Grout, Hardenburgh, Harris, Henry, S., Haseltine, Haskell, Hawk, Hazelton, Heilman, Henderson, Hepburn, Hill, Hisc.o.c.k, Horr, Houk, Hubbell, Humphrey, Hutchinson, Jacobs, Jadwin, Jones, Phineas, Ka.s.son, Kelley, Ladd, Lord, Marsh, Mason, McClure, McCoid, McCook, McKinley, Miles, Miller, Moulton, Murch, Nolan, Norcross, O'Neill, Orth, Page, Parker, Paul, Payson, Poole, Pierce, Pettibone, Pound, Prescott, Ranney, Ray, Reed, Rice. Theron M., Richardson, D. P., Ritchie, Robeson, Robinson, Geo. D., Robinson, James S., Ryan, Scranton, Shallenberger, Sherwin, Skinner, Smith, A. Herr, Smith, Dietrich C., Spaulding, Spooner, Steele, Stephens, Stone, Strait, Taylor, Updegraff, J. T., Updegraff, Thomas, Valentine, Van Aernam, Walker, Watson, West, White, Williams, Chas. G., Willits--115.

_Nays_--Aiken, Atkins, Berry, Blackburn, Bland, Blount, Bragg, Buchanan, Buckner, Cabell, Caldwell, Ca.s.siday, Chapman, Clark, Clements, Cobb, Colerick, c.o.x, William R., Covington, Cravens, Culberson, Curtin, Deuster, Dibrell, Dowd, Evins, Forney, Frost, Fulkerson, Garrison, Guenther, Gunter, Hammond, N. J., Hatch, Herbert, Hewitt, G. W. Hoge, Holman, House, Jones, George W., Jones, James K., Joyce, Kenna, Klotz, Knott, Latham, Leedom, Manning, Martin, Matson, McMillin, Mills, Money, Morrison, Mutchler, Oates, Phister, Reagan, Rosecrans, Ross, Schackleford, Sh.e.l.ley, Simonton, Singleton, Jas. W., Singleton, Otho R., Sparks, Speer, Springer, Stockslager, Thompson, P. B., Thompson, Wm. G., Tillman, Tucker, Turner, Henry G., Turner, Oscar, Upson, Vance, Warner, Whittih.o.r.e, Williams, Thomas, Willis, Wilson, Wise, George D., Young--84.

[84] _Connecticut_, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Frances Ellen Burr.

_Colorado_, Mrs. Elizabeth G. Campbell, _District of Columbia_, Ellen H. Sheldon, Jane H. Spofford, Dr. Caroline B. Winslow, Ellen M. O'Conner, Eliza t.i.tus Ward, Belva A. Lockwood, Mrs. H. L.

Shephard, Martha Johnson. _Indiana_, Helen M. Gongar, May Wright Sewall, Laura Kregelo, Alexiana S. Maxwell. _Maine_, Sophronia C.

Snow. _Ma.s.sachusetts_, Mrs. Harriet H. Robinson, Harriette R.

Shattuck, Laura E. Brooks, Mary R. Brown, Emma F. Clary.

_Nebraska_, Clara B. Colby. _New Jersey_, Mrs. Stanton, Mrs.