The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-04-03
CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY.
Rx MARY o. RRowN.

Bx MARY o. BROWN.
CAs large number of persons desire
copies of the paper containing the fol-
lowing article, and as we have none on
hand, we re-publish it. 1t first appeared
in the issue of August lst, 1873, before
the trial of Miss Anthony came off.-ED.l
The present position of the Woman
Suffrage question is one of no small inn
portanee. 1t has passed through the
several phases which all great reforms,
both in science and government, are
obliged to pass to come up to their final
recognition and adoption by those in
power, as well as by the masses of the
people. 1 could cite as examples the
reforms that, at different periods of the
worlds history, have brought not only
scorn, contempt and persecution upon
their promulgators, but even death it
self. shall, however, merely refer to
Gallileo's system of the movements of
the Heavenly Bodies, the now pending
reform in medicine, and the agitation of
the Labor Reform question, which is at
this time assuming almost gigantic pro-
portions.
The Woman Suffrage question, as 1
said, having come up through the diff
ferent diseouraging phases, to which
all reforms are subject, including the
sneering phase, the phase of ridicule,
the phase of weak and silly objec-
tions, the phase of real alarm and anx-
ious solicitude by ignorant, honest peo-
pie and prejudiced bigots, has slowly
worked its way into the understanding
of the people until it has become the
leading question of the civilized world.
In our own country it has at last worked
its way into the Supreme Court, the
highest court in the land, from whose
decision neither the President nor Con-
gress can dissent, and there seeks its fl
nal solution. Final, did 1 say? No!
there is still q higher power than the
Supreme Court of the United States.
That power is the will of the people.
And when the people say that all citi-
zens, irrespective of sex, shall be be al
lowed to vote, and shall be protected in
the exercise of their right to the ballot,
} then will the strife between the Op-
pressor and the oppressed cease, and our
Government become, as it should be, a
Government of the people, by the whole
people, and derive its just powers from
the consent of the governed. The
friends of Human Progress are watching
with anxious hearts the progress of this
question as it fiuctuates back and forth
before our highest tribunals; and
prayers continually ascend that justice
and equality may prevail. The refusal
of the five Chief Justices, who cOnsti-
tuted the majority in the New Orleans
and Bradwell cases, to define what are
the privileges and immunities which
accrue to all citizens, and which no
State has the power to deny or abridge,
shows conclusively that even they are
ready and willing to concede to women
, the exercise of their right to the ballot
just so soon as a case involving this
question directly shall be brought be-
T fore them for their decision. 1t is the
pleasure to, as well as the pride of,
every friend of Woman Suffrage that
the honor of presenting such a case be-
fore the Supreme Court of the United
! States has fallen upon our renowned
and able champion, Susan B. Anthony.
! May God speed her suit and put it in the
hearts of our Chief Justices to break the
political yoke that is CALLING the necks
of half our citizens. May they learn
} that oppression will in time work its own
overthrow.
, How strenuously our Government ex-
erted all its powers to prevent the over
r throw of negro slavery, throwing around
it every protection in its power, even to
: the crushing out of the rights of the free
States by forcing upon them the odious
= Fugitive Slave law; even the Supreme
. Court deciding in its famous Dred Scott
decision that the negro had no rights
t that white people are bound to respect.
But the leaven of liberty, which our an
cesters had infused into the Declaration
of Independence, was working in the
l minds of the people, and all the powers
! of Congress, the President and the Su-
preme Court combined could not stay
| the overthrow of negro slavery. Will
+ our rulers learn nothing from the past
5 by which to be guided in their present
duties 1t is gratifying to see that four
: out of nine Chief Justices admit that the
a Constitution of the United States recog-
? nizes the right of suffrage in women;
one of them Justice Bradley declaring
"that citizen of the United States has
: a perfect Constitutional right to go to or
reside in any State, and to claim citizen
5 ship therein; and the whole power of
T the nation is pledged to sustain that
citizen in the exercise of that right;
4 that citizen is not bound to cringe tc
$ any superior, or to party, for any
n act Of grace as a means of enjoying al
e the rights and privileges enjoyed by any
y other citizen" Let us ask why this i,
q so, and We will see that, according to ouI