and resolutions[1] as well as the speeches in the three days' convention held in Lincoln Hall, Washington, in January, 1872.
- ↑
RESOLUTIONS.
Whereas, in the adjustment of the question of suffrage now before the people of this country for settlement, it is of the highest importance that the organic law of the land should be so framed and constructed as to work injustice to none, but secure, as far as possible, perfect political equality among all classes of citizens; and whereas, all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside; be it Resolved, That the privileges and immunities of American citizenship, however defined, are National in character and paramount to all State authority. That while the Constitution of the United States leaves the qualifications of electors to the several States, it nowhere gives them the right to deprive any citizen of the elective franchise which is possessed by any other citizen—the right to regulate, not including the right to prohibit the franchise. That, as the Constitution of the United States expressly declares that "no State shall make or enforce any Jaw that shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States," those provisions of the several State Constitutions that exclude women from the franchise on account of sex, are violative alike of the spirit and letter of the Federal Constitution. That, as the subject of naturalization is expressly withheld from the States, and as the States clearly would have no right to deprive of the franchise naturalized citizens, among whom women are expressly included, still more clearly have they no right to deprive native-born women citizens of this right. That justice and equity can only be attained by having the same laws for men and women alike. That having full faith and confidence in the truth and justice of these principles, we will never cease to urge the claims of women to a participation in the affairs of government equally with men. Resolved, That as the XIV: and XV. Amendments to the Constitution of the United States have established the right of woman to the elective franchise, we demand of the present Congress a declaratory act which shall secure us at once in the exercise of this right. As the recognition of woman suffrage involves immediate political action, and aa numbers as well as principles control parties, Resolved, That we rejoice in the rapidly organizing millions of Spiritualists, labor reformers, temperance, and educational forces, now simultaneously waking to their need of woman's help in the cause of reform. Resolved, That the movement for the enfranchisement of woman is the movement of universal humanity; that the great questions now looming upon the political horizon can only find their peaceful solution by the infusion of the feminine element in the councils of the nation. Man, representing force, would continue in the future, as in the past, in the New World as in the Old, to settle all questions by war, but woman, representing affection, would, in her truce development, harmonize intellect and action, and weld together all the interests of the human family—in other words, help to organize the science of social, religious, and political life. Resolved, That our thanks are due to Governor Campbell, of Wyoming, for his veto, and to the Republican members of the Legislature of Wyoming, for their votes against the bill disfranchising the women of that Territory. Resolved, That the thanks of the women of America are due to Hon. Benjamin F. Butler,
already citizens, and their rights as such, secured by the XIV. and XV. Amendments of the Federal Constitution.
| Lucretia Mott. | Isabella Beecher Hooker. |
| Elizabeth Cady Stanton. | Susan B. Anthony. |
| Josephine S. Griffing. | |
