Litchfield enquirer., 1870-07-28
WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
REPORTS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE.


 REPORTS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE.
 The following are, the majority and minority reports of the committed on Wo- man Suffrage submitted to the House on Thursday "H '5
 MAJORITY REPORT.
 The joint special committee, to whom was referred the petition asking for an amendment to the constitution so as 10 ex- tend suffrage to women on the same terms with men, appointed public hearing in the Senate Chamber on the seventh day of June, 1870, from which place, on account oi the large number who attended an ad- l journment was taken to the Hall of Repre- sentatives, which was also filled by lalg ge, intelligent, and deeply interested audience, and later meetings of the committee,at the same place, were equally we'll attended, and excited the same interest.
 | Your committee are satisfied that few subjects at the present time are interesting g the public mind so largely. At all these meetings the friends of suffrage were fully heard, being represented by advocates of ability and character, of both sexes, and from all parts of the State, and they being | themselves desirOus, as were also the com mittee, that the opponents of the reform should be heard, gentleman of ability, re- siding in the State, appeared before the committee and made forcible argument against thetproposed alteration of the con- stitution. - .F .n1 Your committee, have thus heard both the advocates and the opponents of the measure, would respectfully present the following report:-
 The duty of the State to enlarge the suff,
 rage by admitting all citizens of adult
 age to the franchise, has been agreed be
 fore us on the following grounds:
 l. That all moral government is based upon the principle of personal responsible lity. God himself has imposed upon each individual not only the care of his own be- ing and welfare, but has made the welfare of society and the state to depend upoL such conduct of man as proceeds from this sense of individual responsibility. The Decalogue itself, the greatest of moral and civil codes. recognizes no delegated re- sponsibility, but stands ever pointing to each individual of the race, saying, Thou, shalt worship od;-THou shalt do thy nelghbor no harm; and between these two great commandments, reaching both ways with its eternal sanctions of temporal and spiritual prosperity, utters these words concerning flial obedience. ''Thou shalt honor thy father and My mothey that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee" And this word of promise concerning obedience to parents, the mother as we'll as the father. which, by repetition in Leviticus, reads thus ''Ye shall fear every man lis anotter and his father is given in perpetuity, and grows out of divine and natural ordering of things, and is legitimate working out of cause and effect co-existence with the race, and necessary to its perfect develope- ment. -z
 But the laws of society and the State, to- day. permit young man not only to de- cline public allegiance to his mother, but to assume authority over her; inso- much that he may legislate concerning property and person, without asking con- sent. The child of to-day whether fil- ial and obedient, or unflial and disobedi- ent, is. tomorrow, entitled to rule the mother who bore him; not only this. he has by long course of unconscious train Ing been imbued with the idea that it is in the order of nature, that capacity for nor al government departs from a woman by the time that her children arrive at their majority, and is by some mysterious pro- cess transferred to her sons alone, and continues with them, to the exclusion of their sisters, so long as their lives shall last
 This theory and this practice, which may well enoughsbo excused in the past. on the ground of the hitherto imperfect develope- ment of society and the imperfect compre- hension of the great principles which lie at the foundation of social progress, are nev- ertheless radically wrong-and must be so felt and acknowledged before the last great step toward perfect christian civilization can be taken. Every thinking man knows that his true manhood is dependent upon his government of himself; and that the welfare of the state is dependent. upon this aggregate of self-governing citizens; and 1t is but step farther in the same di- rection when we argue that true woman hood stands upon the same foundation and bears the same relation to the ideal State. Hence the demand, that women shall no longer be held ill special subjection to the law, nor be especially protected by law, but shall be made responsible for the laws of the state and for their impartial admins, tration, equally with men. And all propo- sitions for an improvement of our statute law, as it affects the rights of women, are looked upon with distrust until women, with their deep interest in the matter, and their own peculiar wisdom and experience shall, with the increased intelligence that will come from responsibility, sit down ] with the men to the consideration of the subject, and to a joint legislation upon l it. . .s* .raJ .5a rsF -.-a ss.a 2. Political consistency requires the en- franchisement of women. 5 The basis of our democratic republic, Is the rights and corresponding responsibili- ties of the individual citizen-founded up- on this basis, it is founded upon rock it only remains that the superstructure be made worthy the foundation. By common consent, women are not acknowledged as citizens-(a recent attorney general has given an elaborate opinion that they are legally sol; it only remains that, like men, they shall become responsible citizens This is necessary for two reasons: .a4x l, The power that they already exercise in the State is an irresponsible power, and is thus dangerous one to the state. This idea lies at the bottom of the whole suff- rage movement. and was admirably expres- ed in the very beginning of the struggle, nearly twenty years ago, in the following resolution, adopted at Worcester, Mass, by large body of reformers there assem- bled in convention: ts@4 Nj. 6. Resotred, That, so far from denying the overwhelming social and civil influence 9.-11-