The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-16
WOMAN SUFFRAGE ADVOCATES.
Letters From Two Females Who Want
to Be Permitted to Vote.


Letters From Two Females who Want
to Be Permitted to Vote.
SEATTLE. July 80, 1891.
To TIE EDITOR: In reply TO the editorial en-.
titled .'woman suffrage in your issue Of the
10th inst, would say that no cause has ever
grown so steadily and so fast as that OF woman
suffrage. Read the Wonlan's Journal or the
Wo1zGns Column, papers that keep track of the
movement Send for sample copies to No. 8
Park street. Boston.
"Twenty-thrse states have conceded the princi-
pie OF woman suffrage bymaking women voters in
school elections: three states have given wo men
the right to vote on liquor licenses; Kansas has
given women suffrage in municipal elections;
and Wyomin", after twenty-one years exper-
fence as woman suffrage territory, has given
women full suffrage aud political equality" The
most OF this has been accomplished within the
last ten years.
Where the injustice lies In taxing women Is
illustrated just now In the city of Toledo
"The residents of the newly paved portion Of
Superior street, between Cherry and Elm, are in
peculiar position. According TO law, the street
Is to be cared for by two male commissioners,
who must be property-owners on the street
When the owners began seeking candidates for
this position, but one man could be found who
was eligible, that man being Postmaster Brown.
All the other property on the street is owned by
the escond commissioner should be male than
that he should be property holder and party
interested, so man was selected from another
place to spend the money of the women who
owned the property between Cherry and Elm
streets. The taxes, of course, had been levied
ana collected from these property-owning
women by men. Now men are to dispense thiR
money of the women for keeping the street
clean How long viii the women bear such in
justice without protest?'
1t seems to me that male suffrage to the exclu-
sion of female suffrage is a right seldshly as
sumed. When our ancestors rebelled against
King George and fought for their liberty and in
dependence the women were a. rebellious, a.
earnest and as liberty loving as the men. But
when the war was over and Independence
gained and they came together to frame for
themselves q government, the men virtually
said 70 the wives, mothers and sisters, who had
helped In every way they could to gain this IN
dependence, "You are not to be in this: we will
form the government and make the laws; you
need only TO obsy them" All this after having
written in the Declaration of Independence that
"Au governments derive their just powers
from the consent of the governed" Our
foremothers ought then to have rebelled
and had another revolutionary war, with pre-
cisely the same notices, namely, Taxation
without representation is tyranny" and "Give
me liberty or give me death" But IL is absurd
to talk of war with those whom we love better
than ourselves, and so the women "put up with
IT," though Abigail Adams, mother of Jonn
Quincy, felt the injustice and wrote about it.
consciousness OF the injustice did not die out
with her, and at last gave expression in q formal
demand for the ballot at the first womsn's
rights convention, held at Seneca Falls. N. Y,
In 1S40 All of the legal changes for the better
in the status of wives, mothers and widows
have been conceded in compliance to the de-
mands of woman suffragists.
Another writer in the PosT-INTELLIGENCER
says: "Those who are born women have not the
right to vote till it is given them" prefer to
believe that the right already belongs to women,
only that they are hindered in its exercise. For
the same reason that men assumed the right to
vote when this government was formed, the
women should have assumed il. Ii IL is right
for men to have q voice in the formation of the
laws under which they live, Ii Is also right for
women The caste based upon sex il without
reason, an insult to the Intelligence of women,
tyrannical and selfish. ] cannot rid myself of
the feeling that he who would withhold what to
meis part Of my liberty and Independence is
my enemy.
But fully expect with Henry B. Blackwell
that "the twentieth century win see women and
men equal partners in government and in the
home, with peace, temperance and purity as ma
honal political issues"
GILRoY, CAL, July o.
To THE EDITOR: An editorial of the PosT-IN-
TELLIGENcER makes some remarkable state
ments; the writer either thinks that common
sense is OF on q vacation, or he is slyly setting
up some targets for the woman suffragists to
fire at. He declares that "the mass of inte.l IL
gent women think themselves unit to share in
the government" and cites remons rants In
England, Massachusetts, and Illinois a. proof
The defeat of Methodist women on the question
n nd m IN ufora ha all So 81,
expression OF indifference or hostility on the
part of women" He says "that women in the
church are anxious to remain what they have
always been, the governed"
That there was time when the s'matriarchate
prevailed as there was q time when canrAbalis
prevailed" and he implies that "civiiixation
has sent both to the rear" He claims that when
women have had the substance OF power they
have ABUSED il more horribly than the average
man." and says that women have risen a5svs
the so-ealled Pauline position, and stand about
a. under Roman law, aud adds, "Ths Romans
OWNED the limitations Of women, and modern
civilization has finally gone back to that stand
ard of justice and common sense" "woman
suffrage L. fad the only male forces back of
IL are prohibitionists," written with little D.
Let the editor talk with the women of Seattle
and he viii q rule find that 1t is the inteIli-
gent, philanthropic women who wish to VOTE
and that the ignorant, the fashionable, or the
who face the world first hand, and best CON-
prehend the causes of suffering, are Just the
ones who wish to vote. Several days spent
about Puget sound FIVE years ago, revealed to
the writer, who inquired ot all she could, but
three women who did not wish 10 Vote-One a
young school ma am who did not ike the terri
tory aud was anxious 10 find employment in
California, her present home;-One a hotel
boarder from Oakland, Cal, who thought the
territory lawful, no society, no re.ources;"
the third, the wife OF drummer who returned
after a short residence to her home in Baltimore
Seattle Is good place to measure the women
who do and who do not want to vote
English women have pstitio1ed by thousands
for suffrage, the remonstrants by hundreds
Mary Someryille, Harriet Martineau, Annie
Jameson, and Elizabeth Browning, the four
most prominent women of England at that
time, signed the first petition sent TO parlis-
ment, as did the women of the Bright, Golden.
Faweett, Quincy, and OF er famous families
Lady Amberly, Of the Russell family, did VAL
liant service, while the remonstrants' petition
had the names OF Lady Churchill, and other
titled women who knew nothing OF real life.
with Mrs. Humphrey Ward, about the only
ma ne that represents the individual; most
were simply known for title or
husband, women whose own property is secured
TO them who know nothing of real life
Massachusetts, has sent more than q quarter of a
million names 10 legislatures asking for suf-
frsge, never but q few hundred against The
remonstrsnts send out anonymous petitions
hire agents, and are represented at Legislative
hearings by paid lawyers; in fact, men and
money are back OF their petitions while on the
other side women Ike Mary Lvermore Julfs