Smyrna times., 1866-12-26
Women Voting in New Jersey.

Women Voting in New Jersey.
During debate in the Senate, a few days
ago, on CoWan' amendment to strike out the
word male" in the Franchise Bill for the
District of Columbia, inquiry was made OF Mr.
Frelinghuysen whether women ever voted III
New Jersey. His reply admitted that they
once did SO in local elections. y But the fact
is that, for many years, women were recognlZ-
ed there as voters on precisely the same terms
of men. Lucy Stone and III. B. Blackwell,
citizens Of New Jersey, have made an investl-
cation, the result Of which is remarkable, and
proves that previously to l77G only men voted,
but that, in l776, the original State Constitu
ton conferred the franchise on "dU iph0bi-
tdnts" (men or women, white or black posses
sing the prescribed qualifications of $50 clear
estate and twelve months residence, and this
Constitution remained in force until 1874. In
1890 the Legislature, in an act regulating cleo
tions, used the words g he or she' in reference
to voters. In 1897, another act relative to cleo
tiOns repeatedly designates the voters as "he
or she" In the same year, 1897, Is women
voted in Elizabethtown for the Federal candi
date. In 1900 women generally voted through
out the State in the Presidential contest be-
tween Jefferson and Adams In 1902 a mem
Der Of the Legislature from Hunterdon County
was actually elected, in a closely contested cleo
ton, by the votes of two or three women of
color In 1907, at local election in Essex
County for the location of the county seat, men
and women generally participated, and were
jointly implicated in very extensive frauds
In the following Winter Of lS07-8, the Legis-
lature, in violation OF the terms of the COnsti-
tuition, passed an act restricting suffrage to
free, white, male, adult citizens, and in refer.
cnce to these virtually abolished property
qualification of ESQ, thus extending it to all
white male tax payers, while excluding all wo-
men and negroes In 1920, the same provis
ions were repeated-and remained unchanged
until the adoption Of the present Constitution
| in 1914.
| 1t thus appears that women and negroes pos
sessed and exercised the right unquestioned un
| der the Constitution of New Jersey from III
to 1907, 81 years, and that from 1907 unit
| 1874 they possessed the right, but were arbi
trarily deprived OF its exercise 81 years more
This is, we believe, fact unparrelled in tn
political history of the world and was proba
bly, due to the strong Quaker influence in Yves
Jersey.-N. T. Tribune
A NATIONAL LOss.-The Philadelp phia Z
| s. Gdzette Of last week, says: We chronicl
with a regret that will be shared by everybod
the total destruction by fire of the nationa
| irOn-clad frigate NeO IrOnSiieS, built at a cos
of million and a half of dollars, by Messrs
Cramp i Son, Of this city. Her history
known over the entire world. She was mir
acle in her way, and was the instrumentalit
which brought conviction to the minds Of tn
British Admiralty that their wooden wall
were wooden humbugs.
She lay on Wednesday at the pier at Leagu
Island. The back channel is filled with smale
vessels of the iron-clad species. At the pier la
the hOnSideS, the Dictator, ST. Louis and othe
larger vessels About one o'clock Wednesda
morning, from the hatchway of the honSide
arose column of smoke. There was a watch
man in charge and the alarm was soon given
but the employees of the government in tn
vicinity found themselves powerless to chec
the flames that were bursting in solid colum
from the interior of the doomed vessel Th
Dictator and the st. Louis were tOwed ava
from proximity to the burning leviathan, for
was evident that to save her was an imposs
bility
Ensign Standard, who is stationed at Leagu
Island, sent to the city tor assistance, and III
tremen with their apparatus, hastened to th
scene of cOnhagration, but owing to the diff
Guilty i'll obtaining water, their services were
little avail. The vessel was entirely destroyed
AS fast as the wood work burned away I'll
planting fell from it and dropped into the vi
ter.
The wreck was total Nothing is left b.
the iron that may be brought up from the bO
tom of the river. That the IrOnSideS did NJ
sink was because she lay with her keel in tt
mud.