Votes for Women

“ The evils of woman suffrage lie, first, in the fact that to give the vote to women is to give it to voters who as a class are quite incompetent to adjudicate upon political issues; secondly, in the fact that women are a class of voters who cannot effectively back up their votes by force; and, thirdly, in the fact that it may seriously embroil man and woman. ”

“ The reasoner who relies on any of these current maxims of popular government may readily be driven to admit that the principles or formulas dear to all English Liberals sanction, in words at least, the demand of votes for women. ”

“ Women's votes aid in furthering social legislation and contribute to the passing of acts which have their good side, and, no doubt, like everything else, their bad side. As Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who devoted her life to the political enfranchisement of women, declared, the ballot is, at most, only the vestibule to women's emancipation. Man's suffrage has not introduced the millennium, and it is foolish to suppose that woman's suffrage can. ”

“ We all know hundreds of women who are far more competent to exercise the franchise than thousands already on the register. Those who oppose the concession of the suffrage to women, are astonishingly inconsistent. In one sentence they speak of the difference of sex as something which ought to exclude them from any share in the political workings of the world—something affecting all their thoughts and impulses and actions, and making it right to keep votes from them simply on the ground that they are women. ”

“ And it is upon this just interpretation of the United States Constitution that our National Woman Suffrage Association, which celebrates the twenty-fifth anniversary of the woman's rights movement, in New York on the 6th of May next, has based all its arguments and action the past three years. We no longer petition Legislature or Congress to give us the right to vote. We appeal to the women everywhere to exercise their too long neglected "citizen's right to vote." We appeal to the inspectors of election everywhere to receive the votes of all United States citizens, as it is their duty to do. ”

“ Now let us turn to the second argument urged against the extension of the suffrage to women, namely, a woman is so easily influenced, that if she had a vote it would practically have the same effect as giving two votes to her nearest male relation, or to her favourite clergyman. ”

“ How utterly incompetent this Democratic Government is to bring about a few democratic measures!
I think the above will clearly show there is nothing to be feared by giving women the vote. Have women not always been from the cradle to the grave the best friends men had? Then what have they to fear? Do they think women will combine in one great Party to make men suffer? I have heard it said that women being in the majority by three-quarters of a million would be able to overrule the men. ”

“ I believe I voice the general impression when I say we owe this condition more to woman suffrage than to any other cause. The results of woman suffrage have been so altogether satisfactory that it is hard to understand how it encounters opposition in other states. I never heard a criticism directed against woman suffrage that ever worked out in practice, or, if it did, was not equally applicable to male suffrage.' As briefly as may be I would like to base on these facts an appeal for votes for women. ”

“ For the rest it would be extremely difficult to prove that women would make undesirable citizens. To the anxious inquiry, What will women do with their votes? the answer is simple. They will do with their votes precisely what they do, or try to do, without votes. ”

“ I now turn to the consideration of the eighth objection to the extension of political power to women—that women do not want votes. Notwithstanding the obvious reply that a considerable number of women do want votes, and are continually petitioning Parliament to remove their electoral disabilities, I must confess that this objection to the enfranchisement of women appears to me more formidable than any other which has ever reached me. ”

“ For there are very few indeed whose political opinions are not biased by the views of some of these distinguished and able men. But perhaps this argument, that women’s suffrage would only double the voting power of some men, can best be answered by making way for the next argument, namely, that women are so obstinate, that if they had votes, endless family discord would ensue. Now the people who urge this as a reason why women should not be allowed to exercise the franchise, seem to have an erroneous notion of what a vote is. ”

“ If, for example, the Senate of the United States should be entirely composed of women, but two in each State would be withdrawn from the pursuit of domestic happiness."
How could "the class of men now elected" help resigning, if women enough chose to put up a woman and give her a majority of votes,—provided, as Suffragists say, that the vote secures the office and retains it by a mere mandate? But it is not one office, or set of offices, which we have to consider. It is the entrance upon political life, permanently, of a large body of women. ”

“ Third Argument.—Again, it is urged that the concession of Parliamentary suffrage to women is merely the final step in that extension of their liberties and rights which in England, above all other countries, has been the glory of the nineteenth century, and remains by far the most certain sign of human progress. This emancipation of women, as it is called, has been full of blessing to the world. ”

“ I do not, however, for a moment doubt that the gradual removal, which has been going on for more than a century, of fetters placed on the free action and thoughts of women, as also of men, has been an unspeakable blessing to our country. Nor do I wonder at the argument drawn from this fact in favour of admitting women to a share in sovereignty. ”

“ The second is that woman suffrage must with us finally lead to its logical result—^that is, the complete political equality of men and women. Neither assumption can be disputed by any clear-headed suffragist. No such person can deny that the idea which underlies the claim of votes for women is fairly summed up in the dogma laid down by Mill: 'That the principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes—the legal subordination of one sex to the other—is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement ”

“ To give votes to women is, we are assured, nothing but the final step in that path of democratic progress which, during the last eighty years, has led the men and women of England towards freedom and happiness. ”

“ Those people who say the enfranchisement of women will stop all Social Reforms will be surprised to learn that the very reforms they are talking of have been brought about with the aid of the women’s vote. ”

“ Nor must it for a moment be forgotten that the vast majority of the 10,000,000 or more women who under a system of adult suffrage would be admitted to the electorate have never sanctioned the demand for participation in sovereign power; whilst the protest by a large and increasing body of women against the so-called concession to English women of rights which thousands of them regard as the unjust imposition of an unbearable burden becomes every day more and more audible, and must be heard with the most profound respect. ”

“ First Argument.—All the ordinary democratic principles or maxims, it is argued, on which English reformers have been accustomed to rely, support in appearance the claim of women to vote for members of Parliament. 'Every citizen,' it is often said, and still more often assumed, 'has a right to a vote.' It is surely hard to prove that a woman does not share this natural right. ”

“ I have always admitted that woman suffrage will increase the chance of Parliament turning its attention towards the special wants of women, and thus opening to them some few careers from which they are excluded simply by law. ”

“ The pregnant principle or fact that government itself depends at bottom upon force, tells all but fatally against the establishment of woman suffrage in a country, at any rate, such as England, where it would ultimately give predominant power to women. ”

“ Let us suppose that to-day the proposed revolution were effected; all women, without restriction, even the most vile, would be summoned to vote in accordance with their favorite theory of inalienable right. That class of women, and other degraded classes of the ignorant and unprincipled, will always be ready to sell their votes many times over—to either party, to both parties, to the highest bidder, in short. They will sell their vote much more readily than the lowest classes of men now do. ”

“ Their political blindness is shown by the failure to perceive that for women to rely on physical force for the attainment of political authority calls into play the instrument, and creates the condition of opinion, which, should women obtain votes, might deprive them of any real share in sovereignty. ”

“ It is constantly assumed that the votes of women would assuredly tell against everything which many—let me say which most—good women hold to be evils, more or less suppressible by law or by national policy. ”

“ If the courtesy of men to women is bought at this price, it must not be forgotten that the sale is compulsory, and can in no case be regarded as a free contract. But now let us consider whether women would really lose all the politeness now shown to them if their right to the franchise were recognised. At elections it is not usually the case that those who have votes are treated with the least consideration; but apart from this, how would the courtesy of every-day life be affected by an extension of the suffrage to women? ”

“ A petition signed by more than 250,000 women has already told for much. Let the numbers be doubled, and it takes no prophet to predict that the pledges and opinions of candidates for seats in Parliament will undergo a miraculous change. Women can do more than any men to check an agitation which may delay for years the removal, at the instance of moderate reformers, of really injurious restraints upon the free action of women. Moderate reform has everything in its favour. ”

“ First, we are independent of all party politics, and we go to all by-elections to work against the Government nominee, until the Government will find a place on its programme for our Bill. We get the people's ears, and the justice of our cause appeals to them—we never hold a meeting without making converts, We are reaching the women as well as the men; we show plainly that every law which affects men also affects women; we prove to them we are taxed and not represented; we point out the great reforms effected in the colonies by the women's votes ”

“ Nay, women are placed lower than the latter; for the House of Commons has deliberately resolved not to disfranchise felons permanently, on the ground that a citizen ought not to bear for life the brand of political disqualification. The principle which we so often hear enunciated in the epigrammatic form “that taxation and representation should be co-extensive,” logically covers the claim of women to be represented. All history teaches that women must have votes, in order to protect their own interests. ”

“ It would be unjust to allow 750,000 more women than men to vote, but evidently, from his standpoint, it is no injustice to withhold the vote from all women! He is a member of that great Democratic Party now sitting at Westminster, and an advocate for Peace and Arbitration, but has not yet learned the golden rule laid down by the Nazarene, and the principle on which Peace with Justice must be maintained, viz., to "Do unto others as you would have them do to you." No Party will suffer by a righteous action, and to enfranchise the women is right. ”

“ Does the Government want to punish all women because they don't like the manners of a handful? Perhaps that's you men's notion of justice. It isn't women's.
Voices. Haw! haw!
Miss L. Yes. Th-this is the first time I've ever "gone on," as you call it, but they never gave me a vote.
Miss E. B. (with energy) . No! And there are one—two—three—four women on this platform. Now, we all want the vote, as you know. Well, we'd agree to be disfranchised all our lives, if they'd give the vote to all the other women.
Voice. Look here, you made one speech, give the lady a chawnce. ”

“ Practically every trade and profession are represented in the party's ranks.
The object of the Woman Suffrage Party is organization for political work. Last winter the party made the first aggressive move towards forcing the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly to report on the bill to give women votes by constitutional amendment. They succeeded in getting a motion made for the discharge of the committee, sixteen legislators voting for the women. ”

“ Under the present system women cannot be prevented from having political opinions, or from expressing them, and I venture to think that if they had votes there would be more domestic harmony on political subjects than there now is ”

“ These expressions, because they mean sometimes delivery from bondage and sometimes the acquisition of political rights, suggest the notion that to give English women votes is to give them freedom. They cannot be emancipated, because they are born free, are free, and will remain free, whether they obtain Parliamentary votes or not. ”

“ Suffragists are not labouring under the impression that because women now have votes no further reform is needed in our representative system. A large proportion of suffragists are probably in favour of proportional representation, and would favour its adoption mainly on the ground that it would secure a much fairer reflection of the whole nation than the present system, which may, and frequently does, result in the practical exclusion from representation of large masses of the voters. ”