03212005023_004

P 5160

Salt Lake City, Utah, March 18th, 1895.

To the Honorable the President and Members
of the Constitutional Convention.

Gentlemen:-

The undersigned delegates of the Woman Suffrage Association of
Salt Lake County, appointed to represent that Association in present-
ing this memorial of your honorable body, respectfully state that the
women of said Association together with all the women of the Territory
of Utah are at present deprived of the privileges of America Citizen-
ship, and the right of suffrage, notwithstanding the majority of them
are native born citizens of the United States.

We further represent that though we are amenable to the laws, and
pay taxes for the support of the municipal and territorial government
exactly the same as male citizens, yet we are not permitted a voice or
vote in the levying or expenditure of such taxes nor in the making the
laws by which we are governed.

We further represent, that though a few women may not be willing
to exercise the right of suffrage, we belive that the majority of the
women of this territory desire and will conscientiously use this great
privilege of citizenship, and that it is not just that the large num-
ber who do desire it should be longer deprived of their rights as cit-
izens because of the few who are indifferent.

We rejoice that both the great political parties in Utah have de-
clared in favor of equal suffrage, and we now ask that the pledges made
to the women of Utah be kept, and that the new State of utah may have
a Constitution framed upon the basis of justice and equal rights and
privileges for all her citizens.

Believing that you are actuated by the sentiments of true liberty
and justice, and because you have solemnly pledged yourselves to the
enfranchisement of the women of this territory, we respectfully re-
quest that you insert a clause in the Constitution of the State of
Utah conferring upon women the right of suffrage, and your memorialists
will ever pray &c.

(Signed) Ellen B. Ferguson
President

Delegates from Woman
Suffrage Association
of Salt Lake County

Elizabeth J Macfarlene
Mary E Irvene
May P Silver
Jemima R Midgbey