Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/525

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History of Woman Suffrage.

the woman suffrage cause. We think it is time to say to candidates for office: "You tell us we have a good deal of influence, and ask us to exert it for your election. We will do so, if you will promise to advocate our cause. If you do not, we will oppose your election." The result of the ballots cast by the women of Vineland is this: For president—Grant, 164; Seymour, 4; E. Cady Stanton, 2; Fremont, 1; and Mrs. Governor Harvey of Wisconsin, 1. The president of the Historical Society of Vineland, S. C. Campbell, has petitioned for the ballot-box and list of voters, to put into its archives. He will probably get them.

A gentleman said to me last week: "What is the use of your doing this? Your votes will count nothing in the election." "It will do good in two ways," I replied. "You say there will not be five women there. We will show you that you are mistaken; that women do want to vote, and it will strengthen them for action in the future." Both these ends have been accomplished; and on November 12 we are to meet again, to consider and decide what to do about the taxation that is soon coming upon us.

While the Vineland women expressed their opinion by voting, other true friends of woman's enfranchisement were moved to do the same. The Revolution of November 12, 1868, gave the following:

The Newark Daily Advertiser says that Mrs. Hannah Blackwell, a highly esteemed elderly lady, long resident in Roseville, and Mrs. Lucy Stone, her daughter-in-law, both of them property-holders and tax-payers in the county, appeared at the polls in Roseville Park, accompanied by Messrs. Bathgate and Blackwell as witnesses, and offered their votes. The judges of election were divided as to the propriety of receiving the votes of the ladies, one of them stating that he was in favor of doing so, the two others objecting on the ground of their illegality. The ladies stated that they had taken advice of eminent lawyers, and were satisfied that in New Jersey, women were legally entitled to vote, from the fact that the old constitution of the State conferred suffrage upon "all inhabitants" worth $250. Under that constitution women did in fact vote until, in 1807, by an arbitrary act of the legislature, women were excluded from the polls. The new constitution, adopted in 1844, was framed by a convention and adopted by a constituency, from both of which women were unconstitutionally excluded, so that they have never been allowed to vote upon the question of their own disfranchisement. The article in the present constitution on the right of suffrage confers it upon white male citizens, but does not expressly limit it to such. It is claimed that from the absence of any express limitation in the present constitution, and from the compulsory exclusion of the parties interested from its adoption, the political rights of women under the old constitution still remain. Mrs. Stone stated these points to the judges of election with clearness and precision. After consultation, the votes of the ladies were refused. The crowd surrounding the polls gathered about the ballot-box and listened to the discussion with respectful attention; but every one behaved with the politeness which gentlemen always manifest in the presence of ladies.

The women of New Jersey may have been roused to assert their right to vote by an earnest appeal of that veteran of equal rights, Parker Pillsbury, in The Revolution of March 25, 1868, suggested by the following:

At the recent election in Vineland, New Jersey, a unanimous vote in favor of "no rum" was polled. The Vineland Weekly says: "Among the incidents of the late election was the appearance of a woman at the polls. Having provided herself with a ballot, she marched up to the rostrum and tendered it to the chairman of the board of registry. The veteran politician, John Kandle, covered with blushes, was obliged to inform the lady that no one could vote unless his name was registered.