St. Paul daily globe., 1892-06-08
FOR UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.
Lengthy and Exhaustive Appeal
to Republicans.

Lengthy and Exhaustive Appeal
to Republicans.
No convention is complete in these
enlightened days without the wOman's
suffrage movement coming to the front
for agitation, and the tenth Republican
national convention is no exception to
the rule. The following memorial has
been presented to the convention, and
delegation has asked for p hearing be-
fore the committee on resolutions:
Respected Members of the Republican Con-
vention:
We come representing the Federal Suf-
1rage association, society composed OF in
fuential men and earnest women, organized
10 secure for every citizen Of the United
States full, complete and perfect repre-
sentation-" We ask the great Republican
party, with its political machinery. its grand
leaders and its inspiring history, to put itself
oil record as willing to maintain the dignity
of United States citizenship and to establish
the right of equal representations for all.
We need not remind you that this cannot
be accomplished while more than half the
citizens are disfranchised, nor yet while citi-
zens. both natiye-born ana naturalized. are
outvOted and governed by aliens men who
as vet have nothing at stake in the country.
who do not speak our language, whose
names are neither on our tax rolls nor on our
census lists, and whose only claim TO rule is
based on a residence OF SIX months or one
year in some frontier district
You know better than we the deplorable
condition resulting from our indiscriminate
and unjust suffrage laws, and no one has
more fifty characterized it than your own
great representative. Mr.. ingalls,. when in the
senate OF the United States he described our
republic as in immediate and terrible danger
from Ignorant, debased, degraded and
spurious suffrage-sutfrage contaminated by
the sewage of decayed nations; suffrage i'm
or1nf fhorf iydi ant
in the great cities of the North" But it is
not spurious suffrage alone that threatens US.
1t is legal suffrage; it is the diverse, incon-
sistent, absurd and unrepubllcan Quallfica-
tiOnS for the voter prescribed by the differ
ent states that is depriving citizens of their
sovereignty and putting in peril republican
institutions.
If the suffrage is corrupt. what have we
that is secure: The vote is the germ-celI out
of which, by development, combination and
extension, all our legislative bodies and the
varied and compleXed departments of our
government are formed. When the purity of
the ballot or the security of the voter in its
use is threatened. our representative govern
ment is attacked in It's most vital point. If
the suffrage is corrupt, nation life is corrupt
and rotten TO the core: If 1t is debased our
freedom is lost. for 1t is by votes that freemen
rule No other rights can be protected if the
right of suffrage is lost and upon maintain
ing the suffrage inviolate depends the liber-
ties of the individual citizen aud the per
manency of the government
You may not have considered that by draw
ing the voting line at sex you give the bal
ance of power to the lower classes, WEil3 the
state is deprived of some of the best thought
and most disinterested patriotism OF our age.
The inconsistency, the injustice, the folly
and the danger of enfranchislng the poor
house, the jail and the liquor saloon, while
you disfranchise the church, the school and
the home, is too apparent to need argument.
No government can long survive that pre-
ff0nr- -fOTr 70
the intelligent and conscientious Our rep
Jesentative government IS IN peril, and the
Republican party is asked to save the nation.
Will you do it? Already your party has in
part committed itself to suffrage reform, for
at your last national convention you adopted
platform which affirmed 1.-THE supreme and
sovereign right of every lawful citizen to cast
one free ballot in public elections, and to
have that ballot duly counted
Viii you not now so define the word citizen
that the whole world shall understand that
you advocate the right of all lawful citizens
of the Unitad States regardless Of sex and
nationality to protect themselves, their
homes and their country by the ballot?
When suffrage is made one of the inalien-
able rights of the citizen, citizenship will be
crowned with honor, for it will mean the
right to life, liberty and the pursuit of bap-
pineSS," ana the power TO protect these at
the Roman citizen. Il was free BORN will
be the proud endowment of the person who
can say: am citizen of the United States,
and as such l rise above all superficial and
accidental distinctions OF BIRTH condition,
nationality or sex. am child of God en-
dowed with all the liberty Of the human
being.
Will the Republican party today announce
Itself as the standard-bearer of equal repre-
sentation for all United States citizens, and
taking as your own the motto of Wallace,
"God arms the patriot" make way for the
establishment Of true republic? By taking
your stand for justice to all, you will plant
yourselves upon principles that are eyerlast-
1ngly true aud abiding. You will take your
position as the advance guard of progress
and reform, ana you will prepare for victory
at the polls in November, 1892. In proof OF
this we can bring you certified Endorsement