The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-04-05
ARGUMENT
OF Mrs. Stanton before the Senate Judi
ciary Committee,


ing for a "declaratory act'' that shall
protect women in the exercise of the
right of suffrage. Benjamin T. Butler.
early in the session, presented a bill in
the House to this effect that may soon
in the order of legislation, come before
you for consideration in the Senate of
the United States. AS you well know.
women are demanding their rights as
citizens to-day under the original Con-
stitution, believing that its letter and
spirit, fairly interpreted, guarantee the
blessings of liberty to every citizen under
our flag. But more especially do we
claim that our title deed to the elective
franchise is clearly given in the four
teenth and fifteenth amendments
Therein for the first time the Constitu-
tion defines the term citizen, and, in
harmony with our best photographers,
declares a citizen TO be a person possessed
of the right to vote. In the last wear
the question of woman's political status
has been raised from one of vague gen
eralities to one of constitutional law.
The Woodruff memorial, and the able
arguments sustaining it made by Mr.
Riddle and Mrs. Woodruff herself, and
the exhaustive minority Of Messrs. But
Ter and Loughridge, have been before
the nation for one year, and yet remain
unanswered; in fact, the opinions of
many Of our most learned Judges and
lawyers multiplying on all sides, sus-
tam the positions taken in the "WOOd-
huH memorial" As our demands are
based on the same principles of constitu-
uonal Interpretation, / will not detain
you with the re-statement of arguments
Already furnished, but will present a few
lacts and general principles showing the
need of Soma CFaaad dtra fnra d 70 I,nIo
question.
Gentlemen hold seats in Congress to-
day by the votes of women. The legal
lty of the election of Mr.. Garfielde of
washington Territory, and Mr.. Jones
oi wyoming, involves the question
whether or not their constituents are
legal voters. Ultimately this question,
involving the fundamental rights of cit
izeps, must be considered in the Senate
as well as the House. Women have
voted in the general elections in several
oi the States, and if Legislators chosen
by women choose Senators, their right
10 their seats cannot be decided until it
Is first decided whether women are legal
voters. Some speedy action on this
question is inevitable, 10 preserve law
and order.
In some States women have already
voted in others they are contesting their
rights IN the courts, and the decisions of
Judges differ as widely as the capacities
OF men to see first principles.
Judge Howe, Judge Cartier, and Judge
Underwood, have given their written
opinions in favor of woman's citizenship
under the fourteenth and fifteenth
amendments. Even the majority report
OF the Judiciary Committee, presented
by John A. Bingham, though adverse
s.frr~ -s.fN
mlts the citizenship of woman. In the
late cases of Sarah Spencer against the
Board OF Registration, and Sarah +.
webster against the superintendent of
election, the judge decided that under
the fourteenth amendment women are
citizens.
Now, we do not ask to vote outside of
law, or in open violation of it, nor TO /
avail ourselves of any strained interpre- |
tations of constitutional provisions, but /
in harmony with the Federal COnstitu-
tion, the Declaration of Independence,
and our American theory of just govern
ment.
The women of this country and a
handful of foreign citizens in Rhode Is
land, the only disfranchised classes, ask
you to-day to secure TO them a republic
can form of government to protect them
against the oppression of State authori-
ties, who, in violation of your amend
ments, assume the right not merely to
regulate the suffrage, but to abridge and
deny it to these two classes of citizens.
The Federal Constitution, in its four
teenth amendment, clearly defines, for
the first time, who are citizens:
All persons born or naturalized in
the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State wherein
they reside"
No one denies that GALL persons" in
the fourteenth amendment, is used with
out Limitation of sex, or in other words.
that not men only, but women also are
citizens. Whether in theory the citi-
zenship Of women is generally admitted |
or not, il certainly sin practice. Wom- /
en- pre-empt land; women register shins:
women obtain passports; women paw 1
the penalty of their own crimes; women |
pay taxes, sometimes work out the road |
tax.
In some States even married women
can make contracts, sue and be sued, |
and do business in their own names; i'm |
fact, the old Blackstone idea, that hus-
band and wife are one, and that one, the |
husband, received its death blow twenty
years ago, when-the States of New York |
and Massachusetts, passed their first laws |
seeurlnSto married women the property |
they inherited in their own right.
You may consider me presumptuous, |
gentlemen, but ! claim to be a citizen of /
the United States with all the quail |
ifications of voter. | can read the /
Constitution, 1 am possessed of two hun |
dred and fifty dollars, and the last time /
/ looked in the old family Bible found |
l was over twenty-one years of age.
individual rights" individual con-
science and Judgment" are great Amer |
lean ideas, underlying our whole politi- /
cal and religious life. We are here to- |
day to ask a Congress of Republicans for |
that crOwning act that shall secure to /
100000 women the right to protect 4
their persons, property, and opinions by |
law. The fourteenth amendment, hav- /
ing told us who are citizens of the re-
public, further declares that "nO State /
shall make or enforce any law which |
shall abridge the privileges or immu-
mites of citizens of the United States"
some say that privileges and immuni-
Iles' do not include the right of suffrage.
we answer that any person under Gov
eInIheht who has no voice in the laws
.es vi 1ile rulers has his privileges and i'm
iiiiI.l Liull'les abridged at every turn, and
:, iIeiI ,eI q oIate denies the rightof suffrage
~ e I93s the citizen Of his CITIZENSHIP and
erty by law. peiSOH OF prop
Disfranchised classes ara o,.,. ID
and degraded classes. One osI, 81 nelpiess aieI
judge of the political stains - Ies.a.uiIy
by the tone of the press. 60 49, eiSeIl zen
years and you find the Irishman tIa . te teM
get Tor all the gibes and ieers of tbo .s.i al
tiOn. You could scarce fal-o - nv ~ ha-