The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-05-05
Protest,
NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE Assoc1AT1o,

! NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.
To the Men Of the United States in Cele-
brdtiOa Of the NdtiOR's Centennial
Birttddy Philadelphia, July 4th,
l876:-
One century ago the walls of Inde-
pendence Hall echoed to that famous
'DeclaratiOu" of our fathers that
startled the world from its old dreams of
authority, and proclaimed the individ-
ual above all principalities and powers.
! The Revolutionary heroes of '76 as
! serted and re-asserted thesegreat truths:
"All men are created free and equal,
with certain inalienable rights to life,
! liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;''
taxation without representation is
! tyranny" "nO just government can be
| framed without the consent of the gov
erned."
Such were the fundamental principles
of the experiment of government they
proposed to try in the New World.
Such are the grand doctrines taught
their sons and daughters through the
century; the texts for our Fourth of
July orations; the notices for our ban
ners; the songs for our national music.
Individual rights, individual conscience
and judgment are our great American
! ideas, the cardinal points of our faith in
church and state, and the soul of our Re-
publican government.
Through prolonged discussion, hot
debate, and bloody conflict on the bal
tle-field, the men of this generation
have secured for their sex, white and
black, rich and poor, native and for
eign born, the liberty of self-govern-
ment, and it well BELTS them to cele-
brate the Centennial birthday of such
sacred rights.
But the mothers, wives, and daugh-
ters of this Republic have no lot nor part
in this grand jubilee. They stand to-
day where their fathers did when
subjects of King George Slaves"
according to the definition of Ben
Ijamin Franklin, "having no voice
in the laws and rulers that govern
them"
Women are denied the right of self
government; the most ignorant and de-
graded classes of men are their rulers.
! Women are denied the right of trial
by jury of their peers; men, foreign
and native, are their judges and jurors.
Women are taxed without repre-
sentatiOn, governed without their con-
sent, and now Kings, Emperors, and
Cars from the despOtisms of the Old
World are invited here to behold the
worst form of aristOcracy the sun ever
shOne upOn-an "aristOcracy of SEX"
Our rulers may learn lesson of JUS
tice from the very government they re-
pudiated century ago. In England,
women may occupy the highest pOlit-
ical position, fill many offices, and vote
on a property qualification at all munic-
ipal elections, while here the political
status of the daughters of the pilgrims
J is lower than that of the paupers from
the Old World who land on our shores
to vote our taxes and governors.
In view of such degradation of one
) half our people, citizens of a Repub-
lie, JOe protest before the assent bled ma
tiOns of the world against the Centen-
nial celebration as an occasion for ma
tjOHdL rejoicing, as only through equal,
, impartial suffrage can a genuine Re-
publican form of government be re-
allied.
With pride we may point the world
to our magnificent domain, our num-
berless railroads, our bOundless lakes
and rivers, our vast forests and exhaust
less mines, our progress in the arts and
sciences, our inventions in mechanical
, and agricultural implements, but in
human rights, how false to our theory
of government we still remain.
The enfranchisement of 100000 900 of
women is the only act of justice that,
in its magnanimIty and magnitude, is
worthy of the occasion you propose to
celebrate-the crOwning glory of the
great events of the century.