The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-09-06
TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESEN
TATION.

is taxation without representation any less
tyrannfcal and humiliating to women under
our DemOcrRtic-Re Republican Government to-
DAY than 1t was to men under their aristocratic
1nonarehial government one hundred and
twenty years ago? There is not an utterance
OF old John Adams, John Hancock or Patrick
Henry but finds living response in the soul
OF every intelligent, patriotic woman of the
Nation. Bring TO me a common-sense woman
property-holder and will show you one whose
soul is fired with all the indignation of I776
every time the taxgatherer presents himself at
her door. She feels her condition of servitude
as CALLING as did James Otis when he said:
THE very act of taxing exercised over those
VINO are not represented appears to me to be
depriving them of one of their essential rights,
and, II continued, seems to be in effect an en-
tire Acknowledgement of every civil right. For
what one civil right is worth a rush after a
mans property is subject TO be taken from
him at pleasure without his consent? If a
man is not his own assessor in person. or by
deputy, his liberty is gone or he is wholly at
the mercy of Others"
What was the three-penny tax on tea or the
paltry tax on paper and sugar to which our
revolutionary fathers were subjected when
compared with the taxation of the women of
this State? To show that Acknowledgement is
precisely the slavery of which the fathers COM
planned will cite old Ben Franklin, who in
authority, not merely in domestic economy,
but in political as well:
"They who have no voice or vote in the cleo
ton of representatives do not enjoy liberty
but are absolutely enslaved to those who have
votes and their representatives; for TO be en-
shaved is to have governors which other men
have set over us, and to be subject to laws
maze by the representatives Of Others without
having lad representatives of our own to give
consent on our behRff.n
Is there man who will not agree with me-
that to talk of freedom without the ballot is
mockery-is slavery-to the women of this
State?
In the most celebrated document which has
been put forth on this side of the Atlantic, our
ancestors declared that governments "derive
their just powers from the consent OF the gov.
erned." Blackstone says:
"The lawfulness of Furnishing such criminals
Ii. e., persons offending merely against the
laws of society is founded upon this princi-
pie; that the laws by which they suffer were
made by their own consent; it is part of the
original contract into which they entered
when first they ngaged in society; i. was cal
culated for and as long contributed to their
own security"
Eminent writers on government, both Eug-
lisn and Americ an, have promulgated similar
doctrines from the time of John Locke 20 the
pr esent day. claim that in this doctrine of
the consent OF the governed there is implied
the narrower and unassailable principle that
all citizens of State, who are bound bv its
laws are entitled to an equal voice in the
making and execution of such laws. The
doc trlne is well stated by Goodwin in his
treatise on Political Justice" He says:
1.-THE first and most important principle
that can be imagined relative to the form and
structure OF government seems to be this.
that as government Ia transaction in the
name and for the benefit of the whole every
member OF the community ought to have some
snare IN It's administration. To give each man
voice IN the public concerns comes nearest
TO that admirable idea of which we should
never lose sight, the uncontrolled exercise OF
Prlvste judgment. Each man would thus be
inspired with consciousness of his own Inn
portance, and the slavish feelings that shrink
up the soul In the presence of an imagined
superior would be unknown"
This doctrine has produced as a natural re-
suit the extension of the right of suffrage to
All tne Sdult male pop ulation; result which
was Wen expressed by Lincoln in the phrase,
government by the people for the people"
1nere Is no ground consistent with the prin-