The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-03-14
Legal Inconsistency.


Some of the lawyers of this city
twenty-six, indeed-have signed a docu
ment, published last week in the Salt
Lake Herald, which is at once an aceu-
sation against the Territory and a
memorial TO Congress, setting forth
some of the usual charges against the
neople of Utah which ought to be too
stale now to be rewarued and served up
again for the thousandth time, by these
gentlemen. The Herald has been
handling the document without gloves
and showing in plain terms its unfair
ness. weakness, unjust statements ana
hitter partisanship; but one portion oil
IL demands notice by the Exponent. IL
covertly attacks the right of the women
of T-tah to the elective franchise, by at
lacking the law comforting the franchlse
unon them: We say covertly, ana
might add that the entire document Is
gotten up in such style, is not straight-
forward. nor honorable, but reads more
like the plea of a pettifogger in one oil
the lower courts than n composition
such as would be expected from twenty
six individuals who are entitled by law
and usage to be styled 'learned gentle
men.U The document submits "that
the act of February 18th, 1870, prosti-
tutes the right of suffrage by conferrlng
IL upon an alien woman without even
qualification of time of residence" The
simplest and most complete way OF re-
futing this is by quoting the act itself,
which being short, we here append III
full:
An ACT
Conferring upon women the elective
franchise.
approved February u, lSTO.)
SEC. !. BE it enacted by the Governor
and Legislative Assembly of the Terri
| tory of Utah: That every woman of the
/ age of twenty-one years who has resided
/ i'm this Territory six months next pre-
ceding any general election, born or
naturaliZed in the United States, or who
is the wife, widow or daughter of q
native-born or naturalized citizen of
/ the United States, shall be entitled to
vote at any election in this Territory.
SEC. ,. All laws or parts of laws con-
fiicting with this Act are hereby re-
pealed.
The act is so plain that ii seems i'm
possible that any one would attempt to
dispute the fact that it cOnvicts these
gentlemen of willful and deliberate
misstatements, with intent to deceive.
In looking over the names We note
some who were at one time very anxious
that the women of Utah should possess
the elective franchise. They were then,
a they are now, aspirants for notoriety
and power; and they imagined that
women were weak, pliable beings, who
could not Withstand their wonderfully
+ eloquent sophistries, but would rush to
, the polls enthusiastically determined To
give these wordy champions the desired
elevation to office and emOluments.
But when the women of Utah received
the elective franchise, it was speedily
apparent that they could think and act
for themselves, and that they would
; vote for the candidates whom they be-
lieved most suitable; and they actually
did vote for the men who had conferred
. upon them the legal right to vote
Then came n change with these before
! time elf-prOclaimed champions of the
"down-trOdden women of Utah" They
found they had made a mistake, anC
reckOned without sufficient acquaint
! ance with independent woman nature
and they have since been more loudly
urgent that Congress should step for
ward and annul the Territorial statute
than they ever were that the women o
Utah should receive the elective fran
chise.
, As it is always we'll to know ou
friends, and as some of our readers o
/ their husbands, fathers, or sons may
! unfortunately, have occasion to fequir
: the services of Il lawyer, we append tn
: names of the twenty-siX who urge upOl
: Congress legislation inimical TO Utah
: and the taking from the women of Utal
the right of suffrage. They are J
! b. Rcsborough, ID. Cooper, VIM. Hay
I don, Frank Tilford, ID. J. ToOhy, Il
. p. Johnson, VIM. Hyndman, James NJ
i Carter, Thomas Marshall, Jonathan {
/ ROyle, VIM. G. Hall, Jas. G. Spratt, w
r w. Gee, II. II. Robertson, C.. w. Ben
: nett, c. X. Gilchrist, c. II. Morgan
: Sol. p. McCurdy, J. y. IL. Patrick, Wm
p. Appleby, NJ. kirkpatrick, Jno. X
n Mcbride, Warren EARL, George L
n Whitney, Wells Spicer, r. \. Baskin.-
! WOmd's Exponent.