Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1915-01-22
Comment On An Editorial Of The
Sentinel.

Mr.. Editor May be permitted to make
some comments on your editorial of Janu.
airy 18th, entitled Prohibition and Suffrage
not Federal Questions" in so far, that is
as it relates to the suffrage amendment
! ask this privilege in behalf of an organi-
cation comprising several hundred citizens
of this county. which, while not actively
working for the federal amendment, have
endorsed its principle.
In discussing this amendment you speak
of federal control of the suffrage as dan
gerOus in its consequences, and cite the
Thirteenth Amendment as an instance of
such interference which has had bad re-
suits. Consulting the Constitution of the
United States, | find that the Thirteenth
Amendment. passed in 1865, did not en-
franchise anybody, but simply forbad
slavery except in punishment for crime.
In 1857, two years after the ratification
of this amendment. the negroes were en-
franchised in most of the Southern States
by direct federal interference, forcing upon
the States the adoption of State Constitu-
tons which granted manhood suffrage as
a condition of the re-admission of their
representatives to Congress. No one now
defends this policy or proposes its repeti-
ton. 1t was the result OF war and the bad
feelings engendered by war.
H. II Al r
teenth. which forbids the denial of the
right to vote on account of race, color or
previous condition of servitude, was pro-
posed and ratified in 1870, after negroes
had been voting in the South for three
years. 1t clinched the principle that race
in itself does not render person incapable
of f-government. but it has not prevented
the States from putting restrictions on the
franchise which have deprived most ne
eroes of the vote. No objection would be
made to such restrictions if applied fairly
to all races alike.
In the same way the proposed federal
amendment just voted down by the House
of Representatives forbids the denial of
the right to vote on account of sex. but
leaves the States free to set up any other
qualifications they wish. There can be no
parallel between its voluntary ratification
by three-fourths of the States and the
forced Acknowledgement of the negroes in
1867. Not single condition is the same.
There has been no war all the States are
free from federal control; 1t is not sec
tiOnal issue; the persons to be enfranchised
are not of alien race, but the sisters, wives
and mothers Of the present voters.
The one question at issue is whether or
not female sex in itself renders person
incapable of self-government, no matter
how intelligent, upright or industrious she
may be. II it does, then no woman ought
to be given the vote. by State constitutions
or in any other way. If 1t does not, then
those women citizens who are capable of
self-government are entitled to be safe
guarded in that right by the federal con-
just as all citizens are safe
guarded in the right OF free assembly or
jury trial by that constitution. This is the
whole point at issue. We wish our oppo-
nents would stick to it and not bring in
historic instances which have no real bear
ing on the question.
Most suffragists, however, are neither
surprised at the result of last Tuesdays
vote nor discouraged by it. Nor are they
ceasing to try to persuade the voters Of
their States to amend the State constitu-
tons in their favor. 1t is now in order for
the gentlemen who object to the federal
amendment on the ground of State S rights
alone to prove their sincerity by coming
forward to help them.
MARGARET L. SEWALL,
Press Chairman, Montgomery County
Just Government League.
Forest Glen, Nd. Jan. 10, 1915.