Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-11-27
RATIFIED
The Woman suffrage Ratification
MfelfuQ

: lest evening and the slrn1s, urfathom.
D able mud IN many Of thu streets, Yes.
3 ler's Hall was filed 10 liz fullest capacity
by hose VINO had come forth IN order
10 add their voices Of ratification . the
! action of the legislature in eufrarchis-
ing the women of the Terri,ory. The
, promoters Of the meeting. If they had
had any fears for lts 4ar,e-ss. must h ave
: been encouraged when thew looked upon
the crowd that packed the ball. over
spreading it, seating cspacitv and occu-
pying every inch Of available standing
room. he Audience consisted lsrgrls
, Of men. not more than "a fifth II ,hos.-
present being ladie-. Ine stats 90 the
pi ltforfs were occupied by ars, Carrie
Il. Jones, wins presided. Nrs. DanIwav.
3lf-. Orange Jacobs, Nrs. ;. L. Hall,
Yrs. j. II. SAnderzoD. Mrs Irving Bal
lard, Judge J. k. L-HIs, Judge o Jacobs
and ". II. White. k.4q.
After music by tbs = Ieea City Band.
Mrs. Jones introduced Judge Lewis. the
hrst speaker OF the evening Judge
Lewis said
" am glad to see this large andieuc.
here tonight; glad to know III It 40 Inauv
OF the friends of equal suffrage and
equal rights have faced the storm and
the rain TO add their voices TO the cho-
rus OF appreciation bat | am sorry to
See that among 80 many the ladies are so
lew. But the women will take hold of
public affairs and vii exercise the right
OF suffrage newly gwen them. At the
recent school election, aithOa, IN but few
votes We're cast, one -hftu Of those were
] t.fy
that With The added care and duty of
! Guarding ffle State ana ITS purity. the
enfrtnchised women will exercise the
/ right given them. This lax has long
been favored by oar judges. The law
/ yer. Ali favor 1t. and what the lawyers
FAVOR must be right. History shows Us
that wonau IL capable of filling and fill |
Tag we'll any office To which she may be |
called. The list Of England's sovereign !
queens atte5ts this truth the MANY
VINO have served III public stations in |
America attest 1t. Egery lady teacher |
- living monument of the captbiilty |
OF woman To execute and govern. Slow /
ly but surely the women have been ob /
tanning control of our public school |
system, and under their guld tnce that
system has reached its present excel |
ience. Women are better iitte / than
men for teachers, and in ten years all |
oar schools Will be under their control.
No one can BAY that the men have not
made mistakes In the government of |
Washington lerritory-they have made
them. and grave ones. Men unfit and
corrupt have crept into office and have
staid there. We cannot say that our
government Of the Territory has been a
perfect one. Ii has been the custom to
close the saloons on election DAYS
Why In order that men would vote
more lntelligentiy In order that they
wOuld appreciate the full weight OF a
citizens duty III order To Keep cor
ruption AZ far AZ possible from the bal
lot. We propose now u go further.
Instead OF whisky and tobacco at the
DOLLS We shall have music and coffee.
and around that monument of free
mans destiny. that safeguard OF "A free
mans power-the ballot box-we pro-
pose to throw the protection Of woman
and of home. We propose to raise II
from the fifth and rpire aud pollution
INTO which 1t has sunk and place 1t Sc
curely far from corruption and fraud.
! tell you this movement must go on
1t cannot stop. Our State Constitution,
when we adept 1t, must offer equal
rights to every citizen, and must guar
Some years ago. living then IN a
Western State, had the privilege of
voting for negro suffrage. | could not
see then why my fellow citizen. with his
III er.sts 1T stake aud h y life and prop
etty TO be protected. should not have an
equal right with me 10 cast his ballot
and 10 exert his lnila nee III shaping
the policy of the Government. And SO
tonight cannot see. As ! have been un-
able to see for years. why should vote
and my wife should not. BY this new
Jaw the principle that all mon are born
free and equal Ia carried out To its full
lest extent for all lawyers agree that
the word " rsIau, III Its statutory sense,
applies alike To men and women. Now
let ~ give woman suffrage fair trial,
aud give my word that in two years
where 1t now has fifty oppsnents, 1t VIII
not have five.
do not congratulate the women
alone on TINS; | congratulate tue inen.
congratulate those men who stood up
IN our Legislative halls and answered
aye to the llca.l that was To enfran-
chise our women. or To bind more firmly
upon them the bonds which have bound
them; the bonds which have bound
III unrelenlIng. letters the women
of the past since the time when the
first dawn of history throws Its
feeble light on the struggling oivillZa
ton of an infant world. We have bel
CHRISTIANS for almost nineteen hundred
years and yet We now for the first
time fully trust oar mothers ana our
wives. | do no, doubt that the men
who voted against this measure did so
cpnscieutiously. They thought they
were right, but there IL an old Methodist
adage:
" While the lamp of life holds out to
burn,
The vilsst sinner may return
Aud before long We will all unite and
together acknowledge the Justice. the
beauty and the excellence OF th,s crown
ing law of our century a. progress
Judge Lewis WAS warmly appl ,uded,
As he sat down the band strack up
Hail Columbia. and then prrssyer-
ingly caracoiaJ through tue entire list of
our national airs. Judge Jacobs WAS
then introduced and said.
Fellow citizens, u revolution has been |
enacted n moral and a political revo-
| luton. not "A social revolution. The 4
Legislature has extended suffrage to !
women. aud We stand today On the /
threshold If a new era. The buGhear /
of those VIII" have opposed this meas 4
IRE has been that women would become 1
coarse by contact with the coarse grain 4
| of our politics; that the crown of parity I
| which has hegeumed her brov ara set 4
her apart. loved, sacred and divine. 1
would be lost forever IN the filthy t-,oi 4
of political corruption and Ppiit,cal /
/ fraud. There is no foundation tor such /
fear. Woman's purity Is it, own safe I
guard. IL will stand triumph aus and /
| unapproachable when the MIA of pOli
| tics has disappeared forever uader the I
| heat and light of ADLER and parer laws !
| Years ago, amid the storms and dark /
ueas of intolerance aud fauatlci-m. I
| philosopher announced truth that u !
now recognized the world over. RE WAS /
| prosecuted, east into prison. forced hs /
| all the tor,urcs Of the iuqalsition - re- |
can't: but. even ss he recan'ed. he shIs- |
| pered. " The world moves fer ali that.
Since then the world has moved. /, has