Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-23

| of the great instrument it is well to remember
| that women had share in the work. At that
| date women voted in New Jersey at all cleo
tions upon terms of equality with men. They
| voted for members of the constitutional con-
| vention from that state. They voted for the
| ratification of the Constitution when submitted
| They voted for the first second and third
| Presidents OF the United States. The fact
| that women voted in one of the states was well
| known to those who framed the constitution
and we must construe the instrument as
| they left it. As before said, neither nnen nor
women, as such. are alluded to. The clause
establishing suffrage is so worded as to exclude
neither but to include both. SO that whether
you succeed through the courts or through
! Congress it will be due to the fact of your
citizenship. For the purpose you have in view
| that word is to you the most important word in
! the language. In hoe signO rinCes You should
place it on your badges, and adopt it as a
motto"
MISS ANTHONY ON THE LAW OF THE CASE
Before introducing the next speaker Miss
Anthony simply commented upon the amend
ments to the Constitution, and explained the
appearance of the word male in the four
| teenth amendment to the fear on the part of
Congress that black women would be given the
| right to vote She added that Senator Summer
had said that even this amendment did not
abridge the right of women to the ballot, and
the women to-day based their right to this
| privilege upon this amendment. which pro-
hibits the abridging or denying of the rights
of citizens. Ii such rights were not civil rights
| as the courts claimed, then they
| must be political rights But as in
her own case and that of Mrs Minor.
| the Supreme Court had excluded women from
| these privileges. In the Minor case it was de-
clared that the United States had no voters.
| and that this question was one that belonged
| to the states. She thought that in the con-
| struction by the Supreme Court of these amend
ments al affecting negroes and women the
court had been betrayed into glaring inconsis-
| tencies.
TEACHING WOMEN POLITICS.
| Mrs. Eliza Archard Conner, of this city, the
| next speaker. predicted that before many
years there would be women as members of
Congress. She spoke of her experience in New
| York, where she started classes to teach women
, something about politics and public speaking.
| She said she started with sach questions as in
! what congressional districts they lived and
/ what was the name of the Vice-President of the
| United States. As she received no response to
| these questions she told them to 60 home and
| do as the Bible commanded-ask their hus-
bands. But the speaker said that at the next
| meeting of the class the members assured her
| that they had followed her suggestion and
asked their husbands, but they did not know.
THE LADIES LAUGHED
at this expose of masculine ignorance ON the
part of New York husbands, and Mrs. Gamer
went on to tell of the progress made by the
class. She concluded that affairs in this coun-
try were coming to such crisis that women
would be needed In active affairs to avert dam