The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-04-04
STATE COMMITTEE,
Woman Suffrage Party,
New York, March 20, 1856.
Hon. George r. EdmuRds,
Senate OF the United States.
STATE Committee,
New York.


Hon. George r. EdmURds,
Senate OT the United States.
Washington, d. {.
SRA letter from you COPIED above)
to a member of our party, which would
have been sooner answered but for the
recipients absence, seeks to excuse
your latest assault on American liberty;
but your attempt is a failure. You are
already guilty, with your confederates,
of a peculiarly unjust and wicked crime
against the first wives of tolygamous
men in Utah. These women are not
responsible for their husbands taking
additional wives; in most cases they
we're practically powerless 10 prevent
this; yet you have DISTINGUISHED them,
and thus punished them for the acts OF
their husbands, to which. as a rule. they
are at heart opposed. You have not
only inflicted this odious penalty of dis
reimbursement. which is commonly pre-
scribed as a punishment for the foulest
crimes on many thousands of innocent
women; but you have unconstitution-
ally deprived them of that trial by court
and jury, and that opportunity to prove
their innocence, which the Constitution !
and natural justice both secure to the |
worst fe ion; you have inflicted this de- /
testable penalty on these blameless
thousands by one sweeping and arbi- /
trary exercise of legislative power /
without even the semblance of a trial, |
and without giving them a chance to |
defend themselves. Not content with
your guilt herein, you now seek to
treble II by depressing two other classes
of the sex you pretend TO respect.
When you and those who follow you
misled Congress into DISTINGUISHING the
polygamists of Utah, true friends OF
freedom protested: not because they
either in its Utah form or IN the faE
worse form wherein 1t exists among
public men at Washington-but be
cause they knew that one successful at
tempt to invade the sacred and vested |
right Of suffrage, on whatever pretext. |
would surely be followed bv fresh at
tempt at disIranchisement and because |
they knew in the continued exercise of |
suffrage by the women lay the true hope |
Of the latter's uplifting TO the mental /
and moral level of monogamy. Their /
in making this most dangerous proceed /
ent-thOugh as a lawyer you well know /
the wrong and peril of enacting penal
ties for acts already done and the in
Justice and iiiegalIty of taking away /
vested rightS-you now seek to use this 4
precedent as ground for committing /
two new violations of vested and ma
tural rights. You seek 10 disfranchise /
the Mormon women who are not en-
Il ~
who are not Aormons. Whatever may /
be said in defense of the law you have |
already procured, which infiicts this
heavy penalty on thousands of men
and women without that Jury trial 4
which is their constitutional right, your
present effort TO infiict this odious pun
ishment on thousands Of unQuesiion-
ably innocent women is objectionable. /
The right of suffrage belongs TO those
women as a God-given right Of their
nature; and as legal right it has vest
ed in them by sixteen years possession
and use. Ii cannot be disturbed with
out fragrant breach of settled princi-
pies of Law. Ii you sre the lawyer you
claim 10 be, you well know that this is
true; If you do not know il. you are
too ignorant of law and justice to be 81
for a Senator. Either way, your action
shows that your constituents will do
very wisely TO remove YOU from the /
Senatorial seat wherein you have shown
yourself ariStocratic, tyrannical and re-
dictionary. Your course in this matter 1
has destroyed your prospects of the I
Presidency; your party's leaders well !
know that you cannot carry New York
and that. though disfranchised. the
wOmanhOod of America would manage 4
TO tHrn other States against you.
The preteKt Whereon you seek 10 en- !
act this new wrong deserves no serious /
consideration. The nou-polygamous I
Mormon men are largely in the major /
ity; and so long as they are not dis 1
tsnchised-so long as the issue Is MADE /
against them at the polls because OF 4
religion-so long they viii stand to
gether and control the elections. To 4
disiranchIse their wives and daughters I
viii not change the situation Nour
effort to ACHE. this wrong has not this
excuse. Ii is q sheer attack on woman
hood. an attempt TO stigmatIZe and 4
punish thousands OF pure women for .
the crime of being women. " here / !
your "chiyairy ?" Your attempt Is OF a !
piece with your stubborn efforts in the
Senate to prevent women from earning
an honest living at the bar. ana Is an
outgrOwth. not of q desire 70 promote 7
virtue, but of 3 disposition which you
hayeOn all occasions shown, TO prolons
the oppression of the weaker Se1 alld
keep women subject and dependent.
Your intimation that the woman sui
fragist- So e. understand the STATE; &
things In Utah Is IS fmpertinent, a.
-.