The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-04-20
Women and Voting.

Church oil the PurtlnS, Unioa Square, on
The tenth proximo. A call for this meeting
is published, signed b. ELI2ADErH CADY
STANTON, President, and SUSAN b AN
THoNY, Secretary, in behalf Of he Womans
Rights Central Committee. We quote the
following passage from it:-
''rhose who tell us the republican idea is
failure, 90 not see the deep gulf between our
broad thcUrY and partial iegi5ia'ion; d o not see
that our .Oyenimeut jOT the last century has
been bit he repetition OF the old experiments
OF class and caste. Hence the 'ailure is not in
the prnc pie, but IN the lack OF virtue on our
pant to Gpply II.
"The question now Is, Have we the wisdom
and conscience, from the present unheavings OF
OUr pOlt cal system. to reconstruct Govern
merit on the one enduring basis that has never
yet been trled-equal rights TO all
From the proposed class legislation in Con.
gress, 1t Is evident we have not yet learned Wis
dom from the experience oil the past; tor while
our representatives at Washington are discuss
ing the right OF suffrage tor the black man, as
the only protection to lite, liberty, aud happi-
Tess, they deuy that DeCess.y Of citizenship
to woman BY proposing to Introduce the word
'maen IN the Federal Constitution. In secur-
.ig suffrage but 10 another shade Of manhood.
hile we di5lranchse dteen million taxpayers,
we come not one line nearer the republican
iJta.'
The ladies above named belong, of course,
W bLub CidSS vi JllNll oCA WliCu
by the title of "hard-minded" and who ina
gine that they have certain 'inherent and in
alienable rights" which they are denied by
The laws and usage of society, and which it is
the religious duty of their wronged and op-
pressed sisterhood to assert and insist upon
until they are recognized and conceded.
1t does seem little hard, we admit that
under political system in which the doctrine
of representation is fundamental, anybody
should be made subject to laws which they
have no direct voice in making. This is par
ticularly oppressive, too, when the laws un-
dertake TO appropriate ones personal and
real estate for the support of the Government
Mrs. or Miss STANTON thinks hat it Is quite
enough to be told that she ought to pay for
the benefits and blessings she enjoys through
the civil institutions and agencies that are
maintained tor the protection OF each and the
general social advantage of all. She
fancies that to be governed, though
never so well, is an imperfect or
questionable felicity, without the privilege
to say who shall govern and how he shall
govern. And in vindication of this idea she
appeals to the fact that our Revolutionary
war sprang from the principle that acts of
Parliament do not or should not bind those
who have no hand in their enactment. Per-
haps it must be confessed that both precept
and precedent in this matter are seemingly on
Mrs. or Miss STANTON's side; that the
theory of republicanism, that no one should
be taxed who is not represented in the taxing
body, is not fully carried out IN our practice;
and that, if the women OF the land, young and
old, married and unmarried, were to persist in
pressing this instance of political inconsistency
before the jury of public feeling and con-
science, we might find that, in the maxim
upon which our fathers protested against
British jurisdiction and resisted its exercise
over us, we caught instructions
which return to plague the inventors"
But is it true that the women are not repre-
sented in our Government? If they are not,
indeed, admitted to the polls, and have no
direct suffrage in the election of those who
make and administer the laws, can it be said
that they do not actually and effectually
participate in the legislation and adninistra-
ton of the Government? A renowned ruler
of ancient Greece once said that his child
governed the state over which he presided,
because his son governed his mother, and the
mother governed him. In the same way we
believe that the women Of this country exert
a greater control in our politics than they or
the men are aware Of And if every mother,
wife, sister, and sweetheart, can influence the
voters, may they not be said to vote in effect,
though they do not personally put in the
ballots?
This sort of special pleading may not suit
such doughty champions OF abstract political
rights as ELIzABETH CADY STANTON and
SUSAN B. ANTHONY, who seem indisposed to
be cheated out of their natural sovereignty
by having the shadow Of franchise substi-
/ tuted for the substance. But what, pray,
would our women gain by being allowed to
/ do directly what they can make the men do
for them? Is it not more comfortable to sit
at home on election day, remote from the
dense crowd, the coarse profanity, the rude
violence, and drunken contention of polling
! booth, and have a vote cast by proxy, than to
cast it directly subject to all the excitement
and periIs of the election groundP
Women govern us now, il they did but
know it, to a very considerable extent; and if
they do not govern us more than they do
already, it is their own fault. We would ad-
wise all the women who are ambitious OF hav-
ing their names on the Assessors list, and
being allowed 10 vote, to get married as soon