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Not a Question of Taxation.
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best men of every country and of every age have held one view upon it, and the worst men have naturally held the other view. It is not a question of mere taxation; it is a question of thorough humanity; a question not of mere geographical limitation, not of America, not of England, not of France, not of Italy, not of Spain; but, were it a question in any of these countries, a woman would stand up to show you that woman can do woman's work of making man truer and purer; and there is no age of the world in which you can not find some woman who has shone out in the darkness of night to show you that, though other stars were obscured, she could still shine; and whenever woman suffrage is debated, my voice is at their service, for the grander woman is made, the purer will man be.
At the next session the report of the Executive Committee was made by the Chairman, Mrs. Lucy Stone. After which letters were read from Lydia Maria Child, Mrs. H. M. Tracy Cutler, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Hon. H. A. Voris, and Miss Lavinia Goodell. The Committee on Resolutions[1] reported a long list of stirring appeals to those who have the real interests of humanity at heart. Their adoption was urged in an able speech by Mr.
- ↑ 1. The American Woman Suffrage Association, in its seventh annual meeting assembled, re-affirm the great self-evident principle of equal rights for women, and demand its practical application in the public and private life of the nation. We declare that women who obey laws should have a voice in their enactment; that women who pay taxes should have a voice in their expenditure. We protest against the subjection and disenfranchisement of woman as injurious to society, destructive of morals, corrupting to politics, and a reproach to civilization. We attribute the alarming increase of insults and personal outrages inflicted upon women to a public sentiment hostile to their individuality and equality of rights. We affirm that a Government of the people, by the people, for the people, must be a Government composed impartially of men and women, and that the co-operation of the sexes is essential alike to a happy home, a refined Society, a Christian Church, and a Republican State. 2. In view of the approaching Presidential election, in which a great party will struggle to retain possession of power, while all the elements of opposition are organizing for its overthrow, we urge our friends in each State to petition their Legislature for the enactment, next winter, of a law enabling women to vote in the Presidential election of 1876. 3. In view of the evident disintegration of parties, we rejoice at the steady growth of the new issue of woman suffrage, at its successful establishment in Wyoming and Utah, in England, Holland, Austria, and Sweden, and at the recent promise of the Republicans of Massachusetts, at their State Convention, that they "will support all measures regarding the promotion of equal rights for all American citizens, irrespective of sex." And whereas, on the second day of July, 1776 (two days before the Declaration of Independence), the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, assembled at Burlington, extended suffrage to all inhabitants, men and women; therefore, Resolved, That in commemoration of that notable event we hold a woman suffrage Centennial celebration at Burlington, N. J., on the 2d day of July, 1876, or at such other place as the Executive Committee may select. Resolved, That heroic deeds done for justice and human rights deserve and should receive commemorative tribute from all those who love justice and respect human rights; that a Centennial celebration on the Fourth of July next, of the one-hundredth Anniversary of the Independence of the United States is in the highest degree proper, and is due to the brave dead who periled all they had to secure the right to govern themselves; nevertheless, Resolved, That men who use their political and personal power to deprive women of their right to govern themselves, can not with consistency have any share in that Centennial celebration.
