Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1857-02-18
SENATOR FERRY,S

Legislature to grant them the privileges OF
the Elective Franchise.
The committee on State Affairs, to whom
was referred the petitions of Betsey p. Par
ker and 81 others, Ii. K. Parker, j. G.. Dex-
ter, and numerous other ladies, praying for
such an amendment of the Constitution as
will secure to women an equal right, with
men, to the exercise Of the privileges of the
Elective Franchise, have had the Subject I'M
der consideration, and instructed their chair
man to submit herewith report:
An innovation upon the right OF suffrage,
heretofore exercised exclusively by the male
portion of our population, and by which the
same privilege may be extended to, and enjoy
ed by the female portion thereof is one that
demands at the hand of your committee a
candid and careful consideration. In the out
set we find ourselves impressed with the same
diffidence, and laboring under an equal en-
banasment to that, which the policy Of gen
erations of men has refused to acknowledge.
For us to interpose our opinion against that
which the wisdom and usage of nations, and
the common sense Of the people, have so long
declared and confirmed, we readily see will
involve us with the tendency of precedence
and custom, which leads a people to endure
evil rather than encroach upon, and change a
long settled principle. While it is not our
purpose to 90 into an elaborate examination
of this subject which its interest demands,
but our time forbids; neither to enter into
a disquisition upon the design of the great
AUTHOR of being and SUPREME LEG
ISLATOR of the Universe, who declared
without disabling qualification, that, in
the likeness of GoD made he him, male and
female created he them and called their name
ADAM" Nor to descend down through the
history of early ages, and point out when,
and by what authority man presumed upon,
and exercised the exclusive right of govern
ment and dictation to his associate sex; and
in such capacity incumbered himself with the
barbarism of the dark ages; but emerging
from that dismal period of civilization, we
narrow ourselves down to our own time and
let charity Gf we may be allowed the term),
spring from our own National threshold. 1t
was a noble principle, uttered with all the
nobility of imperishable truth, by the i'm
mortal FOUNDERS of our REPUBLIC, when
cutting themselves loose from usurpation and
tyranny, they declared in their great INsTRu-
MENT of INDEPENDENCE from the British
Grown, that Governments are instituted,
deriving their just powers from the consent of
the governed" Who, then, are the governed?
The prayer of the petitioners that woman,
equally citizen with man, is entitled to the
privilege of the elective franchise by virtue
of her citizenship and indisputable identity
as a subject of government has thus far, by
the lapse of ages, been practically Ignored.
That she is citizen is not more clearly
established than is the authority unquestion
ed whose author affixes as the qualifications
of citizen, " an inhabitant, dweller in any
city, town or place." neither can any doubt
dispossess her of the title of "subject," SO
long as it is equally authoritative that she is
zone who owes, allegiance to a SOVEREIGN
and is governed by his laws" that "natives
of the United States and naturalized foreign
ers are subjects Of the Federal Government"
No question, therefore, will be raised that
females are in any way excluded beyond the
pale of citizenship, nor without the jurisdic-
ton of the laws of the land. If it has be-
come, and is necessary that laws should be in
stituted, whose immunities and restrictions
are applicable to both sexes, there can be no
valid reason offered, why an invidous discrim
nation should be made whereby part of
the subjects of government should arrogate
to themselves the right and exercise the pow
er of restriction to dependency of one class
of citizenship upon another. If then the
principle announced in the declaration of our
national rights, was not in its origin conciev-
ed to be but "glittering generalities," sent
abroad to arrest the world by its metallic
sound rather than by its intonations of truth,
then must we claim that the consent of the
governed should be secured, as well of wo-
man as of man, ingiving tone and legislative
dignity to the institutions and laws OF our
land. IF taxation and representation was an
indivisable problem which required too great
national powers to solve, then must the tri-
umph of the American Revolution come to
our rescue in the defence of the indissoluble
rights which politically connect the governed
with those who govern. Woman, then, in
the possession of her citizenship, acknowl-
edgeing her allegiance, and subiecting herself
to the. Legislation of the land, clearly and un-
deniably acquires the right of participation
in the structure of all legislative authority.
We scarcely declare this position, ere we hear
ringing from the Lords of creation" the
" self-evincing" but hackneyed inference
n