This page has been validated.
Proposed Constitutional Amendment
385
already is the first territory, to give political equality to woman, and to show the world the model of a true republic.
St. Andrew.
Burlington, Vt., May 1, 1870.
Mr. Reed of Washington county submitted the report in favor of the woman suffrage amendment, from which we give the following:
One-half of the people of our State are denied the right of suffrage. Yet woman has all the qualifications—the capacity, the desire for the public welfare, that man has. She is among the governed. She pays taxes. Even-handed justice, a fair application of the principles of the Declaration of Independence and of our State constitution, give woman the ballot. There is no reason why woman should not be allowed to do what she is so eminently fit to do. We know no good reason why the most ignorant man should vote and the intelligent woman be refused. Our present political institutions were formed and shaped when men had their chief interests and pursuits out of doors, and women remained the humble slaves at home. The social change has been immense. Now woman sits by the side of man, is his companion and associate in his amusements, and in his labors, save the one of governing the country. And it is time that she should be in this.
The position of woman in regard to the common schools of the State is the most unjust. She must always be the chief instructor of the young in point of time and influence. She is their best teacher at home and in the school. And her share in this ever-expanding work is becoming vaster every day. Woman as mother, sister, teacher, has an intelligence, a comprehension of the educational needs of our youth, and an interest in their development, far in advance of the other sex. She can organize, control and teach the most difficult school in the State; yet she has no vote in the selection of teachers, the building, arrangements and equipments of school-houses, nor in the method and extent of instruction. She can pay her share of the expenses of schools, but can have no legal voice in their management. She can teach, but she can have no vote in determining what shall be taught. She is the very corner-stone of institutions which she has no power in shaping. Let us have her open, avowed and public coöperation—always safer than indirect influence.
The submission of an amendment to the constitution necessarily aroused a general agitation on the proposed changes. The fifth amendment decided on by the board of censors seemed to create a more general interest than either of the others, and accordingly a meeting was called for its full consideration, that efficient steps might be taken for a thorough canvass of the State, preparatory to the May election, and issued the following call:
The friends of woman suffrage in Vermont are requested to meet in mass convention at Montpelier on Wednesday, February 2, at 10 o'clock, for the purpose of considering
