Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1870-06-24
Before and incr.

The It0mc1's Journal opened the woman
suffrage camraisn 10 this State, last Jlnu-
airy. with an article highly Mandatory Of Yer
mont. We reproduce a portion Of it. 1t
said
1t probable tha: nowhere in the United States
can community be found, so well prepared 10
Jake this great GROWING step q political progress
I As - the state Of Vermont More than fIur-ffths
Of her people are Of native birth They have
been trained IN al Efficient school system Of free
schools where boys sut girls have been educated
! together Churches AMI sunday schools exist 81
over the State. There are fewer iilers and stray
/ glers ihsn elsewhere. There are no large man
utsctu7Dg towns and cities, nc extremes Of wealth
and poverty. The people az mostly intelligent
4 farmers and their families, filling their own and
and calling no man master Probably no equal
number of people in the world read more and
think more than they. During the long, frosty
winter nights. by the Cheerful light Of Their
great wood fires, BOOKS and newspapers are
among the ueco sssries Of life. Moreover her
people have been reared in the traditions of lber-
IS. No slave ever bresthel the elastic air Of her
hills Nleu and women have learned the iuval-
liable Lesson OF sell help. They know how to re-
spect the rights of others and maintain their
own.
We ventured, on the appearance Of this
truthful eulogy, to suggest that So intelli
gent a people would probably have discover
ed the feet, if It were true. that one half,
aud the letter halt, of their number, had
been rhu- far held in awect bondage; and
We added the OPINION that tie J0nnars good
opinion OF Vermont would not last through
June. /, i, with the deepest sadness that
we find our apprehension proved true. The
Woman's journal does not think Or much Of |
Vermont as it did Its leader of June 18th |
is as follows
The Vermont Constitutional Convention has |
rejected proposition to give the ballot to wo- |
III Al, by a vote Of 23l 10 l. They f5uted all /
discussion Of the question, and voted it down /
- ID the utmost alscrity. No one cognizant Of /
the bigotry, Uarrowness and genera ignor- /
5uce thai prevail in Vermont viii be surprised /
II this result. l. Is not progressive State, but
the contrary. Great stress mas been laid on the
fact that g Vermont never owned slave, -
and from TINS it has been argued inst the
Granite State Is and has been especially liberty
loving. But during the two brief visits we
made to the State last winter. we were told
again ard again, by Vermont men, that the
only reason for the non-iutroduction Of slavery
was the mpracticability Of that form of labor
among the Green Mountains-that slavery could
never have been made profitable there, and that
this, aud not principle and heroic love of free
dom. prevented Vermont from becoming a slave
State.
Nowhere, not even in the toughest and re-
hottest West, have we met with such vulgar
ruleness, ll-nanners AMI heroic lying, as We
encountered in Vermont. The lecturers who were
invited into the State by the Vermont Woman
Suffrage Association, composed lrtoYy Of men,
were IN many instances left unsupported by
them, allowed to meet she frequently rough
audiences as best they could, to pay their own
bill. and TO manage the campaign A. they
might At the very first iutimation Of opposi-
;ou on the part Of the Montnelier .4ryus and
y atchmaq and the Burlington Free Pres
au unworthy trio Of papers that appear to con-
M. the msjority-msny members Of the State
Association showed the - white feather" and
either apOogetically backei out Of the canvass.
or ANONYMOUSLY kept silent in the background
There was therefore nothing ike a thorough
discussion Of the question, no far meeting Of
truth and error, not even an attempt to canvass !
the Cttle- Tor. NOT AMBITIOUS 10 waste their !
efforts on such fnty soil, the men and women
who were invited to labor there shook off the
dust Snow of Vermont from their feet, and I
turned to more hopeful fields Of labor.
Let it not be supposed, however, that this
vote of the male delegates 20 the Constitutional
Convention Is any indication Of the sentiment
# Vermont women on this question The
act thsi between TWO and three hundred Yer 7
mont women subscribed for the Womsn's Journal '
turing the few meetings in the interest of Woman
Suffrage held in the winter and spring-th that
81 women Of lawful age, residents of Brattle- a
,or', snd Sc of Newfane. sent petition for Wo- =
nan Suffrage, with their reasons for asking it, 4
0 Chas X Field, delegate from that town to the !
Constitutional Convention, with the request that
lie would present the same TO the Convention, !.
nd lend his influence so far as he could consist +.
ntly with his duty to the State, to procure the
dopiion of the amendment, Woman Suffrage, u
eferred to in the petition-that petitions from '
ther hundreds Of Vermont women have been t