Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-10-04
w. C. T. U. SELECTIONS.
CONDUCTED BY EMELINE STEWART.
Mrs. Chace at Suffrage Hearing.

At the recent hearing before the
Committee on Special Legislation Of
the General Assembly of 1895, Mrs
Elizabeth B. Chace, President of the
r. l. Woman Suffrage Association
sent the following earnest and touch
ing appeal:
GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: Be-
ginning in the year 1868, the petit
TONERS for woman suffrage in Rhode
Island have appeared almost annually
before Committee OF this Assembly,
in behalf OF a principle which they be-
lieve to be inviolable-equality of
rights, regardless of sex; until, in the
year 1887, the necessary legislation
sent to the male people to be voted Oh
an amendment to our State Constitu-
ton which struck the word male"
therefrom. 1t secured a large vote,
but was defeated; and has been fol-
lowed by suspension of all effort in
this direction for several years, during
which time we have been unremitting
in our endeavors to educate the voting
citizens OF the State in the principles
Of equality and justice. To-day we
come to you again, hoping for more
favorable result.
Frustrated as l am by severe i'll
ness and my advancing years. with a
heart full of the warmest love for my
native State, / send you herewith
from my chamber. my earnest appeal
that you will give to our petition your
rational, conscientious consideration,
looking at the beneficial results OF
full woman suffrage in Wyoming and
Colorado, municipal suffrage for wo.
men in Kansas, and OF school suffrage
in other States. Women are sitting
in the Colorado Legislature, and on
juries; are holding Office there and in
Wyoming and in Kansas, and every
where filling honorably the new
places into which suffrage has brought
them, and the results everywhere are
pronounced good.
Iwant to tell you, moreover, that
apart from and beyond onr conviction
that women have the same right to
self-government that men have, and
which lies at the foundation of all
republicanism for men, is the fact that
intelligent, conscientious women feel a
deep and ineradicable sense of duty to
assist in the management of govern
mental affairs. 1 want to tell you
that as wives, mothers sisters and
daughters, we can never perform our
whole duty to our families and our
, homes, until we share in the making
OF the laws under which these institu-
tons are organized and exist; until
women have choice in the selection
of the officers by whom these laws are
administered; until women apply
their housewifely skill in helping to
purify the bodies polite and civil,
from the cancerous sores which cor
rupt our towns, our cities, and our
States. For myself, at Lightweight
years OF age, obliged to relinquish all
active participation in public labor for
human welfare, it is grief to me TO
feel that have been prevented from
fulfilling my share. of the power to
which I was entitled. to help make
our life here in Rhode Island better
and wholesomer for our children and
our children's children to grow up in.
1t is a grief to me to feel that I shall
probably pass away from this life be-
fore justice is done to the women OF
Rhode Island, whereby better condi-
tons would be secured to those who
will come after US.
Therefore my last word to you, gen.
tlemen, is, give the ballot to women.
Respectfully,
ELIZABETH B. CHACE.
| VAIIrv Fairs RI