stances, in which if there is union, the same voice would still be uttered at the polls, but in which, if there should be independent and differing thought and action, the house would become inevitably and forever divided against itself. (Applause.) pre Conditions under which Should the time ever come when woman herself, by a fair ponderance in number, demands the ballot, and public opinion the suffrage supports the demand with an unmistakeable voice and emphasis, might be granted. and should the time also come when party politics shall be so pure that the presence of woman at the polls would not be incongruous, and party feeling so subdued that opposition from those we love could be freely tolerated by our better natures, the experiment of female suffrage might possibly be safely tried; but until then let woman be content with her present exalted and advancing sphere; developing to the fullest degree, within the lines and limits of her sexuality, all her capabilities for the good of humanity; rendering her share to the sum of civic happiness in the practice of domestic virtues; freed from the burdens of State which she is unfitted to endure, either in its defense in war or in its police in peace; not directly shaping its policy or framing and enforcing its government, but exercising an influence both powerful and benign in the education, the nurture and training of its youth; depending for her advancement on the strength of her innate womanly power, and for her protection on a manhood which has as yet never failed her. This argument in favor of granting votes to women is taken from the long and eloquent address delivered by Mr. George William Curtis before the New York constitutional convention of 1867. I wish to know, sir, and I ask in the name of the political justice and consistency of this State, why it is that half of the adult population, as vitally interested in good government as the other half, who own property, manage estates, and pay taxes, who discharge all the duties of good citizens and are perfectly intelligent and capable, are absolutely deprived of political power, and classed with lunatics and felons. The boy will become a man and a voter; the On what does exclu grounds sion rest? The political influence of women at present. Does woman's work interfere with voting? lunatic may emerge from the cloud and resume his rights; the idiot, plastic under the tender hand of modern science, may be moulded into a full citizen; the criminal whose hand still drips with the blood of his country and of liberty may be pardoned and restored. But no age, no wisdom, no peculiar fitness, no public service, no effort, no desire can remove from women this enormous and extraordinary disability. Upon what reasonable grounds does it rest? Upon none whatever. It is contrary to natural justice, to the acknowledged and traditional principles of the American government, and to the most enlightened political philosophy. . Or shall I be told that women, if not numerically counted at the polls, do yet exert an immense influence upon politics, and do not really need the ballot? If this argument were seriously urged, I should suffer my eyes to rove through this chamber and they would show the many honorable gentlemen of reputed political influence. May they, therefore, be properly and justly disfranchised? I ask the honorable chairman of the committee whether he thinks that a citizen should have no vote because he has influence? What gives influence? Ability, intelligence, honesty. Are these to be excluded from the polls? Is it only stupidity, ignorance, and rascality which ought to possess political power? . . . But I shall be told, in the language of the report of the committee, that the proposition is openly at war with the distribution of functions and duties between the sexes. Translated into English, Mr. Chairman, this means that it is unwomanly to vote. Well, sir, I know that at the very mention of the political rights of women there arises in many minds a dreadful vision of a mighty exodus of the whole female world, in bloomers and spectacles, from the nursery and kitchen to the polls. It seems to be thought that if women practically took part in politics, the home would instantly be left a howling wilderness of cradles and a chaos of undarned stockings and buttonless shirts. But how is it with men? Do they desert their workshops, their plows and offices, to pass their time at the polls? Is it a credit to a man to be called a professional politician? The pursuits of men in the world, to which they are directed by the natural aptitude of sex and to which they must devote their lives, are as foreign from political functions as those of women. To take an extreme case. There is nothing more incompatible with political duties in cooking and taking care of children than there is in digging ditches or making shoes or in any other necessary employment, while in every superior interest of society growing out of the family the stake of women is not less than men, and their knowledge is greater. Has woman in good less at stake Has government? When the committee declare that voting is at war with the distribution of functions between the sexes, what do they mean? Are not women as much interested in good government as men? the mother less at stake in equal laws honestly administered than the father? There is fraud in the legislature; there is corruption in the courts; there are hospitals and tenement-houses and prisons; there are gambling houses and billiard-rooms and brothels; there are grog-shops at every corner, and I know not what enormous proportion of crime in the State proceeds from them; there are forty thousand drunkards in the State and their hundreds of thousands of children. All these things are subjects of legislation, and under the exclusive legislation of men; the crime associated with all these things becomes vast and complicated; have the wives and mothers and sisters of New York less vital interest in them, less practical knowledge of them and their proper treatment, than the husbands and fathers? No man is so insane as to pretend it. Is there then any natural incapacity in women to understand politics? It is not asserted. Are they lacking in the necessary intelligence? But the moment that you erect a standard of intelligence which is sufficient to exclude women as a sex, that moment most of their amiable fellow-citizens in trousers would be disfranchised. Is it that they ought not to go to public political meetings? But we earnestly invite them. Or that they should not go to the polls? Some polls, I allow, in the larger cities, are dirty and dangerous places, and those it is the duty of the police to reform. But no decent man wishes to vote in a grog-shop, or to have his head broken while he is doing it; while the mere act of dropping a ballot in a box is about the simplest, shortest, and cleanest that can be done. Last winter Senator Frelinghuysen, repeating, I am sure thoughtlessly, the common rhetoric of the question, spoke of the high and holy mission of women. But if people with a high and holy mission may innocently sit bare-necked in hot theatres to be studied through pocket telescopes until midnight by anyone who chooses, how can their high and holy mission be harmed by their quietly dropping a ballot in a box? But if women vote, they must sit on juries. Why not? Nothing is plainer than that thousands of women who are tried every year as criminals are not tried by their peers. And if a woman is bad enough to commit a heinous crime, must we absurdly assume that women are too good to know that there is such a crime? If they may not sit on juries, certainly they ought not to be witnesses. CHAPTER XXIII POPULAR CONTROL IN STATE GOVERNMENTS 165. The New York Amendment System EVERY well-planned state constitution should provide a definite process by which the voters may amend or reconstruct their fundamental institutions. The system created by Article XIV of the New York constitution is regarded by many publicists as one of the most complete and satisfactory to be found anywhere in the United States.1 Section 1. Any amendment or amendments to this constitution may be proposed in the Senate and Assembly; and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each of the two houses, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on their journals, and the yeas and nays taken thereon, and referred to the Legislature to be chosen at the next general election of senators, and shall be published for three months previous to the time of making such choice; and if in the Legislature so next chosen, as aforesaid, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to each house, then it shall be the duty of the Legislature to submit such proposed amendment or amendments to the people for approval in such manner and at such times as the Legislature shall prescribe; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments by a majority of the electors voting thereon, such amendment or amendments shall become a part of the Constitution from and after the first day of January next after such approval. § 2. At the general election to be held in the year one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, and every twentieth year thereafter, and 1 See the valuable article by Professor J. W. Garner in The American Political Science Review for February, 1907. The ordinary method of amend ment. |