, 1889-07-11
FEMALE SUFFRAGE.
Ardent Workers Compile n Set OF
Resolutions.

OLYMPIA July 8, Special. The woman
suliragists and their friends now in
Olympia for the purpose of furthering
the measure nearest their hearts, met
and adopted the following hearing upon
the constitution to be framed for the
new state of Washington:
The friends and advocates of the cause
of equal suffrage and human rights, as.
semblcd to consider what action should
he taken in view of the convention of
delegates to form constitution for the
new state of Washington, respectfully
invite the attention of the people of this
territory, and our Countrymen every
whore, to the following resolutions
adopted at II meeting of delegates and rep
rcscntatiVcS from various parts of the ter
rtory, held in olympia, July 3, $780,
Whereas, Three successive legislative
assemblies of the territory of Washing
ton have enacted laws comforting the
right of suffrage upon women, which
laws have received the approval of three
successive governors, and have been
sanctioned and endorsed by all political
parties, Us well as by the people gener-
ally ofthe territory.
Therefore. Resolved, That it is the SEN
timont of, this meeting. and, as we be.
lieve, of the people of this territory that
the elective franchise should not be de-
niod to any citizen ON account of sex;
that liberty, justice and equal rights
should be accorded alike to all citizens,
male and female, and that provision to
that effect should bC embodied in the
constitution of the state of Washington;
Resolved, That so long as more than
20, 900 of American citizens in the terri
tory of Washington are disfranChised by
a single judicial decision in defiance of
the legislative will and organic act of the
territory, we enter our emphatic protest
against any proposition to submit the
Z IL. - -t..l.t
| of the qualified electors of the terri
tory, composed in part of patrons of the
prize-ring, wiie-beatcrs, tramps, burg
| lars and drunkards. We regard such a
proposition as only adding insult to in
| jury, and shall at all times treat it with
the contempt which it deserves.
\ Resolved, That tht elective franchise
is a fundamental and essential right oi
citizenship, and is a right prcservative
/ of all other rights. Such Is the defini-
ton of the elective franchise as given
by the supreme court of the United
States.
Resolved, That the decision rendered
| by three of our territorial judges deClar-
| ing the woman suffrage act null and void
is without n precedent in the history OF
! judicial decisions, and is a wanton out
rage upon the rights of American cti-
zens. That said decision is in direct
conflict with the opinion of the supreme
| court Ot the united states, III the case OF
| Pratt vs.. Ramsey et al decided in 1854,
Whereas, The recent act of congress,
providing for the admission of four ter
ritores into the union, declares that the
constitution to he formed 'shall be re-
publican in form" and mot repugnant
to the principles of the Declaration of In
dependence. And
Whereas, II is one of the principles OF
the Declaration of Independence that all
governments derive their just powers
from the consent of the governed"
Resolved, That any constitution which
does not recognize and en,body that fun
damental principle is not republican in
form" and is "repugnant to the prin-
| Ciples of the Declaration of lndepend-
ence" and in contravention of the afore-
said act of congress.
Resolved, That the object and pur-
poses of the authors of the thirteenth and
fourteenth amendments to the constitu-
tion of the United States will not be ac-
complishcd until every American citi-
zen has entered into the inheritance Oi
equal liberty, equal justice and equal
rights.
Resolved, That we respectfully insist
and demand that the existing law regu
lating the property rights of husbanC
and wife, commonly known as the
community law" be allowed to remair
upon the statutes of the territory where II
has been since 1869, until the same shal
he repealed or amended by the legisla
ture of the state of Washington.