Richland beacon., 1875-11-01
Female Suffrage.

This Gg;tatlrn has received a set
back from the ini,cd States supreme
court. The full opirion of the court.
which was delivered by ChiefJusllce
Ware, has just been gwen to the
public. The case arose in Missouri.
The thi,EiusIicr da>hrs right into tho
rtcriIS of The matter bv declaring that
women are citizens, and that the real
question is whether all citizens are
m.cessarily voters. Ii they are, the
/ fourteenth ameHdHrnt gives the ballot
/ to women
He then proceeds TO determine
Watcher suffrage is one of the privi-
/ Iryro Of u citizen or not He views
the subject in all its aspects. He
tries it by the constitution, and he
/ tests ii outside of that instrument.
Tie United States has no voters in
the states Of its own creation. The
states have plenty of them. The
power If the STATE in prescribing the
qualifications Of voters is supreme. at
tcrn,h amendment did not add to the
privileges OF Il citizen. 1t operates
through the state, and not directly
upon the citizen 1t is clear that the
constitution has not added the right
Of suffrage to the privileges of %
ciliZen a. thcy existed at the time it
was adopted
: Was suffrage co-cXtenSivc with the
citizenship Of the states at tie time of
lis adoption? If it was, women can
vote; if it was not the opposite may
he assumed. The chief Justice finds
that the original states bad different
provisions on the subject. lie then
shows by various provisions of the
constitution that suffrage was not
considered the absolute right of all
/ citizens. Nor can it he claimed that
government is not republican be,
cause women arc not made voters. In
some Of the states the suffrage was
not conferred upon all men when the
constitution was adopted, and vet the
state governments were accepted as
they stood. The new states have not
given women the ballot, and yet that
has never been considered an ob;ec-
ton to their admission. In New
Jersey women voted before 1907, and
whcl the right was taken from them
no appeal was made to the federal
power. And in several of the states
people of foreign birth who are not
citizens can vote. For instance, in
Georgia
The chief justice concludes by sus-
tainlng the course Of the courts for
near Y ninety years in declaring that
citizenship and suffrage arc two
different things. The tDtire court
was with him. TLis RENTS Miss
Susan b. Anthony to the several
states for relief from the tyranny of
man. Sho must find an entering
wedge in one of the few radical states
or the hope of success is forever lost.
atlanta { Ga Constitution.
And yet We presume that a refusal
on the part of Southern State to
confer the privilege Of suffrage on the
negro man would have been decided
by the same tribunal a violation of
the amendments forced upon these
states, at least we know it would have
been received as an evidence of re-
bellIon and subjected the state to
another dose of reconstruction
1t is one Of the fundamental princi-
pies of the Republic that taxation
without representation is unjust and
oppressive. Women pay taxes, and
thus they have a strong basis for their
argument that they have right To
vote. We believe that each state did
have the exclusive right to confer the
privilege of franchise upon whom it
pleased, but we also believe that il
has been robbed of this, as we'll as
other rights, under the new regime,
aud that such was the intention Of
the fourteenth amendment. We ore
no advocate of female suffrage, and
believe that there always has been
too many voters in the United States;
but we presume none will deny that
the white women Of our country are
better qualified for the exercise of the
privilege than the colored voters OF
the South