1895 Constitutional Convention Files; 95-96; March 16-18, 1895

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citizens who are now disfranchised, who are now deprived of authority to speak a word or cast a vote in the framing of an organic law which determines their personal and property rights, their civil and political status in the social organism. We are glad to feel assured that our brothers are dealing honestly and righteously with us, and that they will ordain truth and justice in the name of God and humanity. And we are happy, too, in the belief that these overtures made by the men of Utah are in line with the onward march of civilization, that the bow of promise is rising higher and brighter in the heavens of human hope, that with the elevation and emancipation of women "the plans of God are ripening with the process of the suns". And we say to you that we contemplate no rival sovereignty, no sphere peculiar and apart, no conflicting regime or antagonistic legislation, no hostile policy or divided counsels. No, the woman movement means only true human progress. It means higher and truer harmony, more genuine and enlightened fellowship, more real co-operation, more vital and perpetual union. The key and the clue to all true progress is the larger harmony that the Infinite Spirit is breathing into the rising grandeur of human development.

As Constitution makers, as framers of the chart that shall guide us in what we hope to be a long and prosperous future, you will cherish in your deliberations a sacred regard for the principles of liberty, for those undying axioms that have been laid at the foundations of our Temple of Freedom. We have thousands of women in Utah who are property holders and tax payers in their own right. Probably no other State furnishes as large a

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roll of tax paying woman. "Taxation without representation od tyranny". This was the key note, the bugle call of the revolutionary fathers in their struggle for liberty. Says James Otis in 1764, in one the pamphlets that made our independence, "The very act of taxing, exercised over those who are not represented, appears to me to be depriving them of one of their most essential rights. For what one civil right is worth a rush after a man's property is subject to be taken from him at pleasure, with out his consent. If a man is not his own assessor, in person or by deputy, his liberty is gone.". Hon. Charles Sumner, in his speech on March 7th, 1866, endorses these declarations of James Otis, and he says, "Stronger words for universal suffrage could not be employed". His argument is that of men are taxed without being represented, they are deprived of essential rights. These axioms are as clear as sunlight, and it would be in violation of the fundamental principles of our institutions for the men of Utah to frame laws whereby women property holders shall be taxed without their consent given through such repersentation as is accorded to men as a condition precedent to their being taxed.

Again, all our constitutions, either in terms or in substance, commence their preambles with that comprehensive formula, "We, the people". Our government is "of the people, for the people and by the people." Whatever the status of women may be, they are at least a part of the people. As such the government provides a place for them, and by no form or principles of reasoning can they be deprived of such rights and privileges as enure to men under government, without at the same time destroying the natural rights which menheld for themselves to be inviolate.

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Furthermore, by the Declaration of Independence the existence of government hinges upon "The consent of the governed". This consent is to be given through the forms and provisions where by the governments are made and administered. This consent goes to the framing of the constitution, to the enactment of laws under that constitution and to the administration of those laws; and there can be no consent without representation. Hence the disfranchisement of half the people and a large proportion of tax payers and creators of wealth is tyranny pure and simple, even though it be under the shadow and in the name of liberty and free government.

But we seek not to weary you with the recital of axioms. What we desire is that we may uphold your hands in revealing them to the world and making them effective in human government. Jefferson laid a deep foundation for human freedom in planting equal rights at the roots of the tree of liberty; but it was given to Lincoln to make those principles most effective, and to cause them to shine as the noon-day sun in the firmament of American history. To you, gentlemen of the Utah Constitutional Convention, it is given to make other deep and fundamental principles of our government effective in the administrations of law. We do not doubt your ability and willingness to do so. But we come to greet you in behalf of the women of Utah, to strengthen your hand and to assure you that we are keenly alive to the importance and far reaching consequences of your labor in our behalf.

And above all we would impress you with the fact that the women of Utah are by no means indifferent spectators of the drama that is now being enacted. We believe that every age has its rising and its setting sun. We believe that the woman move-

He said:

"I believe the day is not far distant when women will wield the ballot to purify and ennoble politics. I go for all sharing in the government who assist in bearing its burdens by no means excluding the females."

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ment has come because the sun of our civilization has thrown across our social horizon the dawning of a new and more glorious era in the history of man. We believe that "through the ages an eternal purpose runs," and that in the full enfranchisement of women there will come a larger and truer sovereignty, a national conscientiousness in fuller harmony with the temporal welfare and happiness of man. We believe that both men and women will be benefitted morally, socially and economically. We believe that now the time clock of American destiny has struck the hour to inaugurate a larger and truer civil life, and that the future writers of Utah history will immortalize the names of those men who in this Constitutional Convention, defying the injustice and prejudice of the past, strike off the bonds that have heretofore enthralled women, and open the doors that will usher her into free and full emancipation.

We therefore ask you to provide in the Constitution that the rights of citizens of the State of Utah to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex, and that male and female citizens of the State shall equally enjoy all civil, political and religious rights and privileges.

Emmaline B. Wells President Woman's Suffrage Association of Utah. Emily S. Richards Vice-President Woman's Suffrage Association of Utah. Vice-President Woman's Suffrage Association of Utah. Nellie M. Settle Secretary Woman's Suffrage Association of Utah. Gina S.H. Young President National Woman's Relief Society. Jane S. Richards Vice-President National Woman's Relief Society. Vice-President National Woman's Relief Society. Emmaline B. Wells Secretary National Woman's Relief Society.