The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-07-20
A PARALLEL CASE,

In years past, when our fOrefathers
rebelled against England, the causes
were, taxation without representa-
tion," and making laws "to govern
them without their consent" and as all
governments, to insure the liberty and
happiness of their subjects, must be
framed upon the principle that "gov-
ernments derive their powers from the
consent of the governed" we can all see
that the lives of the coIOnists were not
much better than that of slaves. They
plead and petitioned to the king and
Parliament, but it was of no avail. At
last the cry of Liberty or death ~ rang
through the Colonies. They began to
prepare for action and to organize COM
panies of militia. Soon others were
called out, and ere long almost every
man who was not disabled was ready to
fight or die for liberty. The fathers,
husbands, sons, and brothers fought the
battles with the British, while the
mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters
stayed at home and worked, that the
soldiers might be supplied with food
and clothing. Many woman pIoughed
and sowed, reaped and moved, sheared
sheep, spun, wove, and made clothing
for the brave soldiers that were fighting
the battles of their country. They con-
sidered it no hardship, and many a
mother gave her son as an offering on
the altar of liberty; and many a wife
was left widow, with her helpless lit
tie ones to care for and support.
When the great battles were fought.
and the grandest victories the world has
ever known were won, and the inde-
pendenee of the Colonies fully estab-
lished, it then became necessary to
frame and adopt Constitution" ," in or
der to form more perfect union, estab-
lish justice, insure domestic TRANQUIL
lity, and to secure the blessings of lib
erty to ourselves and to our posterity,
But in framing this constitution moth
ing was said, no liberty given to all the
women who had borne their part in the
great struggle; not one word to relieve
them from taxation without represen-
tation," or from being governed with
out consent" and for over one hundred
years they have lived on, bearing their
share in all the battles of life, working
for the country's good in times of peace,
and sharing with men the perils in
times of war; and yet they are unrecog-
nized in the government that claims
freedom as its cornerstone.
Again, after years of peace and pros
perity, the tocsin of war sounded, and
again thousands of lives were sacrificed
for the principle of liberty. Again
woman was ready to do her share, nurs-
ing the sick and wounded, scraping
lint and making bandages, knitting
stockings and making clothing, deny
ing herself and children everything but
the real neeessaries of life, that the war
might be carried on until the negro
should be free, and hoping that if men
could so highly prize the boon of free
dom that they were ready to lay down
might have their liberty, that they
would grant the same boon to their
wives, mothers, and sisters. But they
were again disappointed; no emancipa-
tiOn for them. But they were not dis
couraged, and they never will be. They
have the blood of the Revolutionary
fathers and mothers in their veins; the
same causes for complaint, and the
same disposition to throw off the chains
of slavery that they had, and now in
this first year of the new century they
ask you to break these bonds, to free
them, to class them no longer with
criminals, insane, and idiots, but to
add Sixteenth Amendment to the
Constitution, giving them an equal
right with men to express their opin-
ions at the ballot-box.
JENNIE TANNING.
San Jose, June, 1877.