Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 2.djvu/349

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Pomeroy, Julian and Wilson.
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who are inhabitants of the said District of Columbia and citizens of the United States, may vote at all elections and be eligible to civil offices in said District on the same terms and conditions in all respects as men.

Mr. Julian, in the House, on leave, introduced the following bill further to extend the right of suffrage in the District of Columbia:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, That from and after the passage of this act the right of suffrage in the District of Columbia shall be based upon citizenship; and all citizens of the United States, native and naturalized, resident in said District, who are twenty-one years of age, of sound mind, and who have not forfeited this right by crime, shall enjoy the same equally, irrespective of sex.

Sec. 2, And be it further enacted, That all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

"Mr. Julian, on leave, introduced the following bill further to extend the right of suffrage in the Territories of the United States:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, That from and after the passage of this act the right of suffrage in all the Territories of the United States, now or hereafter to be organized, shall be based upon citizenship; and all citizens of the United States, native or naturalized, resident in said Territories, who are twenty-one years of age, of sound mind, and who have not forfeited their right by crime, shall enjoy the same equally, irrespective of sex.

Sec. 2, And be it further enacted, That all acts or parts of acts, either by Congress or the legislative assemblies of said Territories, inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby declared null and void.

Woman Suffrage In Utah.—March 25, 1869.—Mr. Julian introduced the following bill into Congress to discourage polygamy in Utah by granting the right of suffrage to the women of that Territory:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, That from and after the passage of this act the right of Suffrage in the Territory of Utah shall belong to, and may be exercised by, the people thereof, without any distinction or discrimination whatever founded on sex.

The bill was read twice, referred to the Committee on Territories, and ordered to be printed.

The New York Herald is no more than an average of the voice of the intelligent portion of the press in the following excerpts from its columns: Senator Wilson has introduced a bill so to amend the suffrage laws of the District of Columbia as to give to women of all colors and races, as well as men, the right of suffrage. As Congress has exclusive powers of legislation over the District of Columbia in all cases whatsoever, here is a fair chance to try the two houses upon this very interesting question. There are a few out-spoken members of the Senate in favor of Woman Suffrage, and first and foremost among them is "Old Ben Wade," who goes for the whole programme of negroes' rights and women's rights. Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, has so far advanced in the cause of Woman Suffrage that he has proposed to make it a part of the supreme law of the land. But we like the idea of Mr. Wilson of first trying the experiment in the District of Columbia.

We remember the time when, in full view from the west front of the Capitol, there was a regular slave pen, which was also a market where ne-