Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-11-20
|SAYS WOMEN
| CANNOT VOTE
Court Of Errors Settles Mat
tor in New Jersey,
(From the NEWS Correspondent.)

Trenton, Nov. 20.-The Court o.
Errors and Appeals has affirmed the
judgment of the Supreme Courf
denying the right of women of thi:
state to vote, the decision being upor
the appeal of Miss Harriet F. Carpen.
ter, of Stirling, Morris county, in hel
suit against Charles A. Cornish, and
the other members of the Election
Board of the Southern District OF
Passaic township, Morris county
This decision of the court of last re-
sort is the final determination Of the
question and the only hope now OF
women getting the ballot in New Jer-
sey is through an amendment to the
State Constitution or the adoption OF
a new constitution through a consti-
tutional convention. Both of these
steps are now being considered and
one or the other, or both, will come
before the Legislature, which will
met January IA.
The opinion in the Court of Errors
is by Justice SwayZe while the opin-
ion In the Supreme Court was writ
ten by Justice Kalisch. Justice
Swayze begins his opinion with the
statement that the main contention
of the plaintiff in error miss Car
penter) was untenab1e because wo-
men had not been authorized to vote
under the Constitution Of 1776.
without expressing u opinion
upon this point" says Justice Swayze
Eve prefer to decide the case by q
ing"
Justice Swayze bases his opinion
on these propositions:
The courts do not undertake to
determine so fundamental a political
question as the existence of the gov
eminent they serve.
The several states have the power
to change the qualifications for cleo
tors Of Representatives in Congress
by changing the qualifications for
electors of the most numerous
branch Of the State Legislature.
Article ", sections 2 and 8, of the
State Constitution provides that Sen
ators and Members of the Assembly
shall be elected by the legal voters;
legal voters are the male citizens
who by Article II are given a vote
for officers elected by the people.
The right to vote is not a natural
inherent right, but is the creation
of constitutions and statutes.
Women under our existing law are
not entitled to vote for officers dele
gates, presidential electors or upon
questions referred to the people.
at must be conceded" Justice
swayze writes, that the Constitu-
ton of 1914 limited the right to
l,,o4o So, - pEooua a1ony;1yo 1, +Ia rnp
pie to male citizens of the United
States. The contention is that this
limitation must be disregarded be-
cause the Constitution of 1914 was
improperly adopted for the reason
that only male citizens were allowed
to vote thereon.
This contention has the distinc-
ton of being as courageous as it is
novel. This court exists only under
the Constitution of 1914 and If that
Constitution is not the law of the
State, we and III predecessors for
nearly seventy years have been
usurping powers hat do not belong
to us. The very writ of error issued
by the plaintiff out of this court
would, If her contention is correct,
be entirely nugatory since her right
of appeal from the decision of the
Supreme Court would be to the gov
ernor and council under the Consti-
tuition of 1875; and inasmuch as no
council has been in existence since
1914, the plaintiff would be unable
to correct any error that the Su-
preme Court might have made"
The Justice contends that If Miss
Carpenter is right now the State has
been without legally constituted tri-
bunals since 1874, and that this sug-
gests results so startling as to indi-
cate that the argument of the plain
tiff is defective. He suggests that as
the constitution of 1914 was adopted
by a majority of the people, the suff-
rage clause was adopted by the same
vote, and if a majority of the people
chose to deprive people Of their for
mer constitutional rights the court
cannot alter that now.
The concluding declaration of the
opinion is that women have no right
to vote unless they can show a
statute or constitutional provision
giving it to them. There is no such
statute and the implication, If not
the express language, of the Constitu-
ton, is adverse to the right claimed;
the contention of the plaintiff must
fail.