Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-04-07
FEMALE SUFFRAGE.

taOn OF tSch0Ot superintendent. at the
annual March Meeting IN Crqfsba,y.
Gentlemen:
Last year the question was raised
whether women were eligible to the
Office of School Superintendent, under
the State Constitution. The State Su-
perintendent, Mr.. Conant, decided that
they were eligible, and forwarded to such
as had been chosen to this office in this
State. the proper papers, blanks, &c., so
that they could transact the business of
that office. Why. we may ask. did the
State Superintendent consider women
eligible to this Office, if the State Consti-
tuition and laws are against it? All
State constitutions and enactments that
-ouuflioU with the UnISod eUoeos' o~-.-.;
tuition are null and void. | state, with
out argument at this time, that, in my
opinion, the late amendments to the U.
S. Constitution grant women the right
of suffrage.
But some men say that women would
not vote if they had an opportunity;
that the proper place for them is at home
attending to the duties of the household.
True, but have not women the same right
to adjudge what are the various duties
of men, and to declare that they should
quietly attend to the duties of the house,
the barn, the farm, the shop, &C.. while
honest women do the voting and make
the laws? Suppose, IN their high pre-
negatives, as voters, they should reverse
the laws and put the lords of creation in
the position and conditions before the
law, that women now hold. How should
We enjoy the change? Suppose it could
so happen, for score of years, that
women should do all the voting, make
all the laws, hold all the offices, commit
all the political mischief, hold nearly all
the property and run things to their
liking generally would we not then be
In condition to realize the injustice
that has been done to the weaker sex
during the whole period of our national
existence? 1t might be an advantage
to US. as we'll as to them, to imagine
ourselves in their places.
Widows and other ladies holding
property in Massachusetts are taxed
$2,OOO,O0O annually, and yet they have
no voice or vote 10 that State, and what
is true of Massachusetts is true of every
other State. Can any man say that to
withhold from women the right to vote
and dictate in regard to her own proper
ty is either unjust or unconstitutional I?
The fourteenth article of the U. S.
Constitution says: "All persons born or
naturalized in the United States and
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are
citizens of the United States and the
State wherein they reside. No State
shall make or enforce any law which
shall abridge the privileges or immuni-
ties of the citizens of the United States, !"
&C. This article of the constitution
makes all persons born or naturalized
citizens, and prevents all States from in
terfering with the rights of citizens.
Unless it can be proved that the word
''citizen" means only male citizens, then
certainly women are citizens, and if
citizens, they are entitled to every right
and privilege guaranteed by the consti-
tuition. Most sacred is the right of suf-
frage in this land of boasted liberty and
equality. But by the late articles of the
constitution the right of citizenship and
the right to vote "shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States, or by any
State, on account of race, color, or pre-
vious condition of servitude. This
provision of the constitution has gener-
ously bestowed the right of citizenship,
with the power to vote and hold Office,
upon millions who have just emerged
from the blackness of ignorance and
slavery; and yet, shameful as it may
seem, there are those who to-day will
vote that the right of suffrage shall be
withheld from women, and that they are
unfit to hold offices.
Lafayette, in an address to the Amer.
ican people, said: s.Let this monument
of liberty be warning to the oppressor, -
and say, let this monument to liberty
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth articles
to the Constitution, be warning to the
oppressor and the oppressed. When
Franklin presented to the British Parli-
ament and to King George the petitions
of the people of the Colonies, asking for
voice in making the laws they had to
obey, the petitions were scorned with
contempt. Parliament decreed that the
Colonies should be taxed without their
consent. and governed without their
voice. But it was not ordained that an
intelligent people should remain forever
under the heel of the oppressor, and the
yoke was broken by the revolution.
Petitions signed by hundreds of intel.
ligent men and women have gone up to
the Vermont Legislature, asking the
right of suffrage for the women of oul
State, but they have been of no avail
The wisdom and virtue" of this extol
led Commonwealth have said to women