The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-01-24

rlgnt OF suffrage all persons VINO nave Oeen or
may be convicted OF bribery, or larceny, or Of
any infamous crime and for depriving every
person who shall make or become directly or in
directly interested in any bet or wager depending
upon theresult OF any election, from the right to
vote at such election" How humil atng for
respectable law-abidiDg women and linen of
COLOR to be thrust outside the pale of political
consideration with those convicted OF bribery,
l8rcenV, and infamous crimes, and worse than
all, with those who bet on elections; for how
lost to all sense of honor must that "white male
citizen be who publicly violates a wise law to
which he has himself given an intelligent con-
senW We are ashamed, honored sirs, of our
company. The Mahommedan tOrbids tool, a
madman, or a woman to call the hour for
prayers. If it were not for the individual classi
hc cation we might hope it was tenderness rather
than contempt that moved the Mahommedan TO
excuse woman from so severe a duty. But for
the ballot which falls like flake of snow upon
the sod we can find no such excuse for
8, should be lead and considered by the
women of the State, as it gives them a
glimpse of the modes OF life and surroundings
of some OF the privileged classes of white
male citizensn who may go to the polls. 'FOr
the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed
TO have gained or lost residence by reason of
his presence or absence while employed in the
service OF the United States, nor while engaged
in navigating the waters of the State. or OF the
United States, or OF the high seas; nor while
student OF any seminary OF learning; nor while
kept az any almshOuse or other asylum, at
public PRISON. What an unspeakable privi-
lege to have that precious jewel-the human
soul-in a setting of white manhood, that thus
it can pass through the prison, the asylum, the
almshouse, the muddy waters of the Erie Canal,
and come forth undimmed to appear at the
ballot-boT at the earliest opportunity, there to
bury its crimes, Its poverty, its moral and ply
scal deformties, all beneath the rights, privi-
leges, and immunlties OF citizen Of the State.
Just imagine the motley crew from the 10000
dens of poverty and vice in our large cities,
limping. raying, cringing,, staggering up
TO the polls. while the loyal mo-
theirs of a million soldiers, whose bones
lay bleaching on every Southern PLAIN, stand
outside sad and silent witnesses of this whole.
sale desecration of republican institutions.
When You say 1t would degrade woman to go to
the polls, do you not made sad confession of
your irreligiops mode of observing that most
sacred right Of citizenship? In asking you,
honorable gentlemen, to extend suffrage to
woman. we do not press on you the RISK and
Responsibility of new step, but simply TO try
measure that has already proved wise and safe
the world over. So long as political power was
| absolute and hereditary, woman shared it with
man by BIRTH In Hungary, and some provinces
OF France and Germany, women, holding this
inherited right, confer their right OF franchise
on their husbands. In 1858, in the old town of
Upsal, the authorities granted suffrage to fifty
women holding real estate, and to thirty-one
doing business in their own name. The repre-
sentative their votes elected was to sit in the
House OF Bureessps.
In Ireland the Court of Queens Bench, Dub.
lin, restored to women in 1864 the old right Of
voting for Town Commissioners. In 1864, too.
the Government of Moravia decided that all
women who are taxpayers had the right to
vote. In Canada, in 1850, an electoral privilege
was conferred on women, in the hope that the
Protestant might balance the Roman Catholic
power in the school system. 81 lived" says a
friend of mine, "where / saw this right eXer-
cised tor four years by female property-holders,
| ard never heard the most cultivated man, even
Lord Elgln, object to ITS results" Women vote
~, hncf A1cf froli mn lon on
! property qualifications. There is a bill before
| the British Parliament, presented by John
! Stuart Mill. asking for household suffrage,
| accompanied by u petition from ll,0O0 of the
| best educated women in Eueland Would you
| he wiling to admit, gentlemen, that women
! know less, have less virtue, less pride and dig
nifty of character, under republican institutions,
/ than in the despotisms and monarchles OF the
I Old World? Your codes and Constitutions savoI
| of such an opinion. Fortunately, history fur.
! nishes a few saving facts even under our repub
! lican institutions. From recent examination
, by Lucy Stone OF the archives of the State o
[ New Jersey, we learn that, owing to liberia
Quaker influence, women and neeroes exercised
! the right Of suffrage in that State thlrty'ont
, years-frOm 1775 to lS07-when "White males
anenoed the Constitution, and arbitrarily
! assumed the reins OF government. This act o
| injustice is sufficient to account Tor the mora
darkness that seems 10 have settled down upor
of women and negroes, does histor.
record any social revolution peculiar t.
that period? Because women voted ther
was the institution of marriage annulled
the sanctity of home invaded, cradles anniEl
lated and the stockings. like Governor Marcy
Uantaloons, mended by the State Dld the mel
OF that period become mere satellites OF th
dinncrpot, the wash-tub, or the spin2lne
| wheel? No! Life went on as smoothly in NeV
Jersey as in any other State in the Union. An'
the fact that women did not vote there creates
so slight ripple on the. popular wave, ant
made so ordinary page in history that pre-
| baby nine-tenths of the people of this countr
never heard of its existence until recent discus
sions in the United States Senates brought ou
| the facts Of the case. In Kansas, women Yot
for school officers, and are themselves eligiol
! to the office of trustee. There Is resou
! ton now before the Legislature OF Obi
| to strike the words " white male' iron
the Conttit of that State. The Hon. MI
| Noell, of Missouri, has presented a bill i
the House of Representatives TO extend sutfrag
to the women OF the District of Columbia
= AS TO the property and education, ther
are some plausible arguments in favor OF sue
qualifications, bat they are all alike unsatlsfat
tory illOg1cal, and Unjust. limited sufrag
creates privileged class, and is based on tn
, false IDEA that Government Is the naturG
arbiter of its citizens, while in fact 1t is tn
creature of their will. In the old days OF th
| Colonies, when the property qualification wa
f5 that being just the price OF iaekass, Benji
5 min Franklin facetiously asked, "If a man mus
: own a donkey in order to vote, who does tn
| | voting, the man or The donkeyW If readin
a and money-making were a sure guage of chal
5 acter, If intelligence and virtue were twin su
a tiers, these qualifications might do; bl
y such is not the case. In our late wa
. black men were loyal, generous and hero
J. without the alphabet or multiplication tab
d while men of wealth, educated by the natIol
- graduates of est Point. were false to the
'r country and traitors to their nag There was
Is time in England's history when the House
= Lords even could neither read or write. BefoI
10 the art Of printing were all men fools? We
Is the apostles and martyrs worth S250Y If ma