Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1907-06-06
ARTICLE I
RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES.

l. All men are by nature free and inde-
pendent, and haye certain natural and in
alienable rights, among which are ehose Of
enjoying and defending life and liberty !;
acquiring, possessing and protecting prop
erty, and persuing and obtaining safety and
happiness.
2. All polieical power is inherent ia the
people. Governments is instituted for tt
protection, security and benefit of the peo-
pie, and they have the right at all times to
alter or reform the same, whenever the pub
lie good may require it.
IF Article II, which am about to read,
had never been written, the women Of New
Jersey would have full suffrage, according
to these rights and privileges which I have
just read, for it is an undisputed fact shat
the word men, as it is here used, is oollec-
tive, and includes both sexes. Whether the
the composers of Articles / and II were
opposed Ia their opinions on woman suff-
rage, may never be known, but it would
seem that some selfish, self snficient, BIZ
goted, egotistical man or men must have
seen what Article might lead to, and at
once set about to write up Article II in such
manner as to take away entirely the privi-
lege Of suffrage to woman, by using the word
s'male'' instead Of sscitizensn or persons, =
thus completely ignoring even the possible
ity Of the existence OF such thing as a
woman, except as she might exist as pau
per, idiot, lunatic, criminal or briber.
Article II on suffrage reads in part as fol-
lows: Every male citizen of the United
States, Of the age Of 81 years, who shall
have been resident Of the state one year,
and Of the county in which he claims his
vote, five monshs next before the election,
shall be entitled to vote for all officers that
now are, or hereafter may be, elective by
the people and no pauper, idiot, insane
person, or persons convicted Of crime
which now excludes him from being a wit
ness unless pardoned by law to the right Of
suffrage, (you see 2 osrdoned criminal may
vote) shall enjoy .ss light Of an elector.
We will find occasion to refer to Article
II little later on in this paper. just now
/ will give few other points in our Conssi.
tuition.
Our Legislature is composed OF Senators
and Assemblymen. The Senators must not
be less than 80 years Of age, and the Assem-
blymen not less than 81. A Senator must
be an inhabitant Of state years, and an
Assemblyman years and the counties from
which they are chosen year. Both the
Senators and Assemblyman are elected each
year on the first Tuesday after she first
Monday in November, and the legislature
conyenes on the second Tuesday in Janu-
airy following the election.
Each county is entitled TO Senator who
is elected for years. Each county is en-
tibled to one AssemhIyman and can have as
mauy as so but not more than SO. The
number Of inhabitants Of a county deter
mines how many Assemblymen they haye
to represent them.
All bills and joint resolutions shall be
read three times in each house, before Che
final passage thereof land no bill or joint
resolutions shall pass unless there be ma
jority Of all the members Of each body per-
soualIy present. and agreeing thereto and
tbe yeas and nays Of The members voting