The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1871-09-15
Women Tax Payers.
BY MATILDA JosLYN GAGE


tion. If women are entitled to property
at all, they are entitled to be consulted
as to its disposal. A person does not
really possess anything, if it is liable
to be taken away by the will of others.
Property representation was for ages
the law of England, both for man and
for woman. The very fact of the colo
nies being deprived of this property
representation was what brought about
the Revolutionary war, and when prop
erty rights were made the foundation OF
the demand for other rights, "they
builded better than they knew"
That taxation without representation
was tyranny, was a fundamental doc
trine of the women of i76. In 1770, six
years before the Declaration of Independ-
ence, the women of New England made
a public combined protest against taxa
tiOn without representation; and as tea
was the article upon which Great Brit
ain was then eXpending her strength,
these women of the American Colonies
united themselves into a league, and
bound themselves, to use no more tea in
their families until the tar upon Il lCdS
repealed. This league was formed by
the married women, but three days af-
forwards the young ladies held an anti
tax meeting. These young ladies pub
licly declared they did not take this step
for themselves alone, but they protested
against this taxation as a matter of
principle, and with Il view TO benefit
their pOsterity. These public protests
against taXatiOnwere made more than fire
years before the Commencement Of the
Revolutionary Var. They, also, were the
real origin of the famous Tea Party in
Boston HarbOr, which did not take
] lnIana until fhrnn of 1.s,
protest of the women. The women of
to-day are the direct pOsterity of the
women of the Revolution, and as our
fore-mOthers protested against "taXa-
ton without representation" so do we,
their descendants, protest against being
I taxed without being
In this corporation of Fayetteville,
land the corporation does not include
/ the whole village), about one-fifth of
the whole taxable property belongs, di-
rectly and individually, to women who
have no voice in regard TO its taxation.
There are more than eighty of these
women taxpayers, and the largest tar
! paid IN the WhOlc corporation is Ddid
by a tCOHldn; yet she has no voice in
saying how her property shall be taxed.
II would be the merest quibble to say
this woman's husband casts a vote for
ANAH ~ AAAetAA NtAAA NttoA AMO NUltNs anu
he votes on his own property. If her
views as TO taxation agree with his,
or differ from his, she is still unreDre-
sented
More than half of these eighty women
taxpayers have no husbands, but their
interest in the use to which their prop
erty Is put, is just as great as though
they were married Many of these
women have earned what they possess
by the sweat of their brow, and one o.
these women taxpayers, whom / well
know, has earned her little home by
working during long years, forless than
fifty cents a day. She has practiced the
strictest economy she has denied her
self everything but the cOmmOnest nee
essaries of life, in order to secure this
home; and now, in steps the taX-asses-
sor closely followed by his brother the
collector, and without allowing her a
voice in the matter, takes her money
for all the ordinary, or all the "extraOr-
binary taXes,n that may be assessed.
As the largest tax in the place is paid
by woman, so does the smallest
amount of taxable property i'm the cor
pOration also belong to a woman, but
neither has she a voice. From each one
is the full pound of flesh demanded by
the ShylOcks of the law.
Gentlemen, if YOU did not allow the
votes of those ten women who offered
them at your Charter Election, because
they Uerc SCOmeR, pray be consistent,
and do not tax them for the same rea-
son. All the authority you get at all
for taxing women, is through the words
"men,n she" "his," and the like. IL
is curious TO see by what sophistry
''men," "he'i and "his," are made to
include women, when men deem IL for
their own interest that they should
have such bearing, and equally curious
to see by what turn they are made to
exclude women, when the executors of
law see fit TO read these words so as not
to mean women.
Let us read the law by which our As
SCISSORS and Collectors get their right to
assess taxes in this State of New York:
Statutes at large, page 36l, Article lsti
paragraph lst, rends thus: EVERY per-
son shall be assessed i'm the town or
ward where 'he' resides when the ASSESS
ment is made, for all lands owned by
him. within such town or ward, and Oc-
cupied by him, or wholly unOccupied." F"
If the words "he'' and "him" i'm this sec
tion do not include she and her, where
do the Assessors of New York get their
/ right to tax women?
Art. l. page ID, reads, "Every Collec-
tor shall call at least once on the per-
son taxed, or at his usual place of resi-
dencei and shall demand payment of
the taxes charged on him. How dare
the collectors of the State of New York,
can upon any woman-single. widow,
or married-for taxes, unless the words
he" and 'himm are deemed To moan
she" and cher -
Then again, paragraph Sd of the same
article, says, sin case any person shall
@Ieluse @ or neglect to pay the tax imposed
upon ,him,' the collector shall levy the
erty.n MS PioP'
notwithstanding this whole Stain,
uses the words "he,n "him'i and ubis y
. to the entire exclusion of she. Ie, an
heTsi yet distress and sale of nroDerf,
;; for tax, has always been levied oGain:,
the property of nOn-paying woneen
, solely by the authority of this Stafnta
Oh, wise men, can you tell why ishef
. means she, when taxes are to be assessed
E and does not mean she when taxes ar
to be voted upon The whole question
D of wOman's demand for n vote alon,
: with taxation is a simple question o
: justice.
Let me use an illustration. Suppos
ing all the taxable property in this cor
: poration, except one house and lot, be
longed TO women; the man tChO OtClic,
: that one house and lot could vote the EN-
] tire tax against those wOmen's property
J He could, under a charter like ours
elect himself president, trustee, CLERK
treasurer, collector, street commissioner
5 &c, &c. He could call an election, an
: alone vote an extraordinary tax"
= bring in water from every point, bull
fountains on every corner fence i