Universal Suffrage (1848)
The author of this article argues for the expansion of suffrage to women.
Topic: Woman’s Suffrage
Please study this document and answer the following questions.
The expansion of suffrage to nearly all white men excited a great deal of commentary about the benefits of "universal suffrage." One group of abolitionist women and men took the logical step of arguing that the fruits of citizenship should be extended to African-Americans and to women. They strongly objected the explicit exclusion of these groups by state constitutions and suffrage laws. In 1848, these activists organized a convention in Seneca Falls and published a Declaration of Sentiments, which stated their radical proposal to more than double the suffrage by including women. In this excerpt from an article in the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, the author argued for expanding suffrage to non-property-holders and to women.
Suffrage -- France and America
THE principle of universal suffrage, as adopted in the United States, was the unrestrained exercise of that right on the part of all white male citizens over twenty-one years of age, unless the right was forfeited by some violation of law on the part of the individual. Thus, the white males of age constituted the political nation; and these, according to the several enumerations, state and federal, number pretty uniformly about one-fourth part of the whole people, and these again are divided pretty equally into two parties, which alternately triumph; hence, about one-eighth part of the whole number of souls would govern the nation, or, at least, would appoint the officers who should carry on the government, if the principle was fully carried out. Through the operation of various state laws, however, restraints are imposed which still further reduce the number of legal voters, and render the governing minority of the whole people still more marked. Thus, of the New England states, Rhode Island had, in 1840, at the date of the census, a property qualification for voters; while in New Hampshire , as an instance, no restraint but those growing out of crimes were imposed upon the right of suffrage. If we compare these two states by taking the number of white males over the age of twenty-one, according to the United States census, and the number of votes cast at the presidential election of that year, when probably the strongest vote was brought out, we observe a great disparity...Thus, in New Hampshire, among 100 inhabitants, there were twenty actual voters, and only five per cent. of aged, sick, incapacitated, or neglecting to vote. In Rhode Island , out of 100 inhabitants, twenty-five were free white males, but only eight voted, while seventeen were mostly restricted by the operation of the property qualification.
...
In many of the states the rights of the "unrepresented classes" have, in the State Constitutional Conventions, received more attention of late, particularly in the mode of protecting them; but it would seem to be better to go directly to the point, and alter their condition from the "unrepresented classes." In the case of property, the relations between man and wife in New-York and some other states have been changed so far, that the married female holds absolutely in her own right the property which comes to her through any other channel than her husband. Thus her property is, before the law, no longer his property. In this position it becomes necessary for her to exercise the control of that property; and a law was passed at the last session of the New York legislature, giving married women the right to vote at elections of officers and directors in corporations of which they are stockholders. That is to say, if a married woman holds 100 shares of bank stock, she can vote at the election of officers and directors. Now, if the same woman holds land and houses forming a portion of the city corporation, has not she as much natural right to vote for the mayor and aldermen who manage the business of that corporation, as for the president and directors who manage the affairs of the moneyed corporation in which she is concerned? This, however, is applying a property qualification to women, and degrading the intellectuality of the voter in the manner pointed out by Dr. Franklin when the property qualification was proposed. Said he: "Suppose a man owns a jackass worth $100, and that property confers upon him the right to vote: very well! he votes, but in the next year the death of the animal deprives the man of the vote: was it then the man or the jackass which voted ?" It is not this ground of the mere possession of property, which, for the most part, she has not earned, that the female influence at the polls would be most desirable; but it is on the ground of the moral influence which the female voice would exert upon the course of government, that the greatest good might be expected. The moral influence of woman in the social state softening and purifying the ruder temper of the sterner sex has long been admitted, even if ever doubted. Her perception of right and wrong is more acute, and her superior love of offspring would form a most powerful check upon that profligacy of legislation, which has not only become so disgraceful, but is so rapidly increasing in magnitude, and which, if no check-upon it is applied, must become subversive of government.
Click here for sample answers | Read the document again
|
Observation |
| 1. What type of document is this? (Ex. Newspaper, telegram, map, letter, memorandum, congressional record) |
|
|
| 2. For what audience was the document written? |
|
|
Expression |
| 3. What do you find interesting or important about this document? |
|
|
| 4. Is there a particular phrase or section that you find particularly meaningful or surprising? |
|
|
Connection |
| 5. What does this document tell you about life in this culture at the time it was written? |
|
|
Submit to Gradebook:
Thomas Dorr on Universal Suffrage (1824)
Dorr maintains that as property holders women should have the right to vote.
Topic: Woman’s Suffrage
Please study this document and answer the following questions.
In this speech, Thomas Dorr argued for the need to change the Rhode Island Constitution to enfranchise those who were not property holders. Across every state during this period, movements for what was called "universal suffrage" sprang up, many of them associated with the presidential campaign of Andrew Jackson.
Suffrage -- France and America
THE principle of universal suffrage, as adopted in the United States, was the unrestrained exercise of that right on the part of all white male citizens over twenty-one years of age, unless the right was forfeited by some violation of law on the part of the individual. Thus, the white males of age constituted the political nation; and these, according to the several enumerations, state and federal, number pretty uniformly about one-fourth part of the whole people, and these again are divided pretty equally into two parties, which alternately triumph; hence, about one-eighth part of the whole number of souls would govern the nation, or, at least, would appoint the officers who should carry on the government, if the principle was fully carried out. Through the operation of various state laws, however, restraints are imposed which still further reduce the number of legal voters, and render the governing minority of the whole people still more marked. Thus, of the New England states, Rhode Island had, in 1840, at the date of the census, a property qualification for voters; while in New Hampshire , as an instance, no restraint but those growing out of crimes were imposed upon the right of suffrage. If we compare these two states by taking the number of white males over the age of twenty-one, according to the United States census, and the number of votes cast at the presidential election of that year, when probably the strongest vote was brought out, we observe a great disparity...Thus, in New Hampshire, among 100 inhabitants, there were twenty actual voters, and only five per cent. of aged, sick, incapacitated, or neglecting to vote. In Rhode Island , out of 100 inhabitants, twenty-five were free white males, but only eight voted, while seventeen were mostly restricted by the operation of the property qualification.
...
In many of the states the rights of the "unrepresented classes" have, in the State Constitutional Conventions, received more attention of late, particularly in the mode of protecting them; but it would seem to be better to go directly to the point, and alter their condition from the "unrepresented classes." In the case of property, the relations between man and wife in New-York and some other states have been changed so far, that the married female holds absolutely in her own right the property which comes to her through any other channel than her husband. Thus her property is, before the law, no longer his property. In this position it becomes necessary for her to exercise the control of that property; and a law was passed at the last session of the New York legislature, giving married women the right to vote at elections of officers and directors in corporations of which they are stockholders. That is to say, if a married woman holds 100 shares of bank stock, she can vote at the election of officers and directors. Now, if the same woman holds land and houses forming a portion of the city corporation, has not she as much natural right to vote for the mayor and aldermen who manage the business of that corporation, as for the president and directors who manage the affairs of the moneyed corporation in which she is concerned? This, however, is applying a property qualification to women, and degrading the intellectuality of the voter in the manner pointed out by Dr. Franklin when the property qualification was proposed. Said he: "Suppose a man owns a jackass worth $100, and that property confers upon him the right to vote: very well! he votes, but in the next year the death of the animal deprives the man of the vote: was it then the man or the jackass which voted ?" It is not this ground of the mere possession of property, which, for the most part, she has not earned, that the female influence at the polls would be most desirable; but it is on the ground of the moral influence which the female voice would exert upon the course of government, that the greatest good might be expected. The moral influence of woman in the social state softening and purifying the ruder temper of the sterner sex has long been admitted, even if ever doubted. Her perception of right and wrong is more acute, and her superior love of offspring would form a most powerful check upon that profligacy of legislation, which has not only become so disgraceful, but is so rapidly increasing in magnitude, and which, if no check-upon it is applied, must become subversive of government.
Click here for sample answers | Read the document again
|
Observation |
| 1. What type of document is this? (Ex. Newspaper, telegram, map, letter, memorandum, congressional record) |
|
|
| 2. For what audience was the document written? |
|
|
Expression |
| 3. What do you find interesting or important about this document? |
|
|
| 4. Is there a particular phrase or section that you find particularly meaningful or surprising? |
|
|
Connection |
| 5. What does this document tell you about life in this culture at the time it was written? |
|
|
Submit to Gradebook:
Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions (1848), Seneca Falls Convention
The Declaration of Sentiments calls for equality in many areas of American life, including voting.
Topic: Woman’s Suffrage
Please study this document and answer the following questions.
Margaret Fuller's voice was but one among many, thus when she left America for Europe in 1846 the call for woman's rights was far from extinguished. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) became active in woman's rights issues, as did many other women, by way of her involvement in the antislavery movement. After living in Boston in the mid 1840s and there enjoying the stimulating company of other reformers, the Stantons moved to Seneca Falls, New York, where Henry practiced law and Elizabeth continued her activism. Stanton wanted full legal equality as well as educational, political, and economic opportunities for women. In July 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Jane Hunt, Mary McClintock, and Martha C. Wright organized a woman's rights convention that was held at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Seneca Falls. On the agenda was a Declaration of Sentiments and various resolutions calling for change. Stanton, who drafted the Declaration of Sentiments using another, earlier, and revered American declaration as her model, also submitted a resolution calling for suffrage—the vote—for women. The fight for suffrage and equal rights would continue beyond her lifetime.
Declaration of Sentiments
* * *
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . . . But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.
He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.
He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men—both natives and foreigners.
Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.
He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.
He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.
He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master—the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement.
He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of women—the law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands.
After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it.
He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction which he considers most honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known.
He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her.
He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and, with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the Church.
He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated, but deemed of little account in man.
He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and to her God.
He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.
Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation—in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.
In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and National legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of Conventions embracing every part of the country.
The following resolutions . . . were adopted:
* * *
Resolved, That such laws as conflict, in any way, with the true and substantial happiness of woman, are contrary to the great precept of nature and of no validity, for this is "superior in obligation to any other."
Resolved, That all laws which prevent woman from occupying such a station in society as her conscience shall dictate, or which place her in a position inferior to that of man, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and therefore of no force or authority.
Resolved, That woman is man's equal—was intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such.
Resolved, That the women of this country ought to be enlightened in regard to the laws under which they live, that they may no longer publish their degradation by declaring themselves satisfied with their present position, nor their ignorance, by asserting that they have all the rights they want.
Resolved, That inasmuch as man, while claiming for himself intellectual superiority, does accord to woman moral superiority, it is pre-eminently his duty to encourage her to speak and teach, as she has an opportunity, in all religious assemblies.
Resolved, That the same amount of virtue, delicacy, and refinement of behavior that is required of woman in the social state, should also be required of man, and the same transgressions should be visited with equal severity on both man and woman.
Resolved, That the objection of indelicacy and impropriety, which is so often brought against woman when she addresses a public audience, comes with a very ill-grace from those who encourage, by their attendance, her appearance on the stage, in the concert, or in feats of the circus.
Resolved, That woman has too long rested satisfied in the circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a perverted application of the Scriptures have marked out for her, and that it is time she should move in the enlarged sphere which her great Creator has assigned her.
Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.
Resolved, That the equality of human rights results necessarily from the fact of the identity of the race in capabilities and responsibilities.
Resolved, therefore, That, being invested by the Creator with the same capabilities, and the same consciousness of responsibility for their exercise, it is demonstrably the right and duty of woman, equally with man, to promote every righteous cause by every righteous means; and especially in regard to the great subjects of morals and religion, it is self-evidently her right to participate with her brother in teaching them, both in private and in public, by writing and by speaking, by any instrumentalities proper to be used, and in any assemblies proper to be held; and this being a self-evident truth growing out of the divinely implanted principles of human nature, any custom or authority adverse to it, whether modern or wearing the hoary sanction of antiquity, is to be regarded as a self-evident falsehood, and at war with mankind.
* * *
Resolved, That the speedy success of our cause depends upon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men and women, for the overthrow of the monopoly of the pulpit, and for the securing to woman an equal participation with men in the various trades, professions, and commerce.
| Author : |
Henry David Thoreau |
|
| Citation / Source : |
From Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, eds., History of Woman Suffrage, vol. I (1881; New York: Arno Press and The New York Times, 1969), pp. 7072 |
|
| Reference : |
America: A Narrative History, 6th Edition, Chapter 13; Inventing America, Chapter 13; Give Me Liberty, Chapter 12
|
Click here for sample answers | Read the document again
|
Observation |
| 1. What type of document is this? (Ex. Newspaper, telegram, map, letter, memorandum, congressional record) |
|
|
| 2. For what audience was the document written? |
|
|
Expression |
| 3. What do you find interesting or important about this document? |
|
|
| 4. Is there a particular phrase or section that you find particularly meaningful or surprising? |
|
|
Connection |
| 5. What does this document tell you about life in this culture at the time it was written? |
|
|
Submit to Gradebook:
Women's Suffrage (1830)
In this 1830 address to the Virginia state convention, the speaker condemns the notion of women's suffrage.
Topic: Woman’s Suffrage
Please study this document and answer the following questions.
In this speech, Thomas Dorr argued for the need to change the Rhode Island Constitution to enfranchise those who were not property holders. Across every state during this period, movements for what was called "universal suffrage" sprang up, many of them associated with the presidential campaign of Andrew Jackson.
Suffrage -- France and America
THE principle of universal suffrage, as adopted in the United States, was the unrestrained exercise of that right on the part of all white male citizens over twenty-one years of age, unless the right was forfeited by some violation of law on the part of the individual. Thus, the white males of age constituted the political nation; and these, according to the several enumerations, state and federal, number pretty uniformly about one-fourth part of the whole people, and these again are divided pretty equally into two parties, which alternately triumph; hence, about one-eighth part of the whole number of souls would govern the nation, or, at least, would appoint the officers who should carry on the government, if the principle was fully carried out. Through the operation of various state laws, however, restraints are imposed which still further reduce the number of legal voters, and render the governing minority of the whole people still more marked. Thus, of the New England states, Rhode Island had, in 1840, at the date of the census, a property qualification for voters; while in New Hampshire , as an instance, no restraint but those growing out of crimes were imposed upon the right of suffrage. If we compare these two states by taking the number of white males over the age of twenty-one, according to the United States census, and the number of votes cast at the presidential election of that year, when probably the strongest vote was brought out, we observe a great disparity...Thus, in New Hampshire, among 100 inhabitants, there were twenty actual voters, and only five per cent. of aged, sick, incapacitated, or neglecting to vote. In Rhode Island , out of 100 inhabitants, twenty-five were free white males, but only eight voted, while seventeen were mostly restricted by the operation of the property qualification.
...
In many of the states the rights of the "unrepresented classes" have, in the State Constitutional Conventions, received more attention of late, particularly in the mode of protecting them; but it would seem to be better to go directly to the point, and alter their condition from the "unrepresented classes." In the case of property, the relations between man and wife in New-York and some other states have been changed so far, that the married female holds absolutely in her own right the property which comes to her through any other channel than her husband. Thus her property is, before the law, no longer his property. In this position it becomes necessary for her to exercise the control of that property; and a law was passed at the last session of the New York legislature, giving married women the right to vote at elections of officers and directors in corporations of which they are stockholders. That is to say, if a married woman holds 100 shares of bank stock, she can vote at the election of officers and directors. Now, if the same woman holds land and houses forming a portion of the city corporation, has not she as much natural right to vote for the mayor and aldermen who manage the business of that corporation, as for the president and directors who manage the affairs of the moneyed corporation in which she is concerned? This, however, is applying a property qualification to women, and degrading the intellectuality of the voter in the manner pointed out by Dr. Franklin when the property qualification was proposed. Said he: "Suppose a man owns a jackass worth $100, and that property confers upon him the right to vote: very well! he votes, but in the next year the death of the animal deprives the man of the vote: was it then the man or the jackass which voted ?" It is not this ground of the mere possession of property, which, for the most part, she has not earned, that the female influence at the polls would be most desirable; but it is on the ground of the moral influence which the female voice would exert upon the course of government, that the greatest good might be expected. The moral influence of woman in the social state softening and purifying the ruder temper of the sterner sex has long been admitted, even if ever doubted. Her perception of right and wrong is more acute, and her superior love of offspring would form a most powerful check upon that profligacy of legislation, which has not only become so disgraceful, but is so rapidly increasing in magnitude, and which, if no check-upon it is applied, must become subversive of government.
Click here for sample answers | Read the document again
|
Observation |
| 1. What type of document is this? (Ex. Newspaper, telegram, map, letter, memorandum, congressional record) |
|
|
| 2. For what audience was the document written? |
|
|
Expression |
| 3. What do you find interesting or important about this document? |
|
|
| 4. Is there a particular phrase or section that you find particularly meaningful or surprising? |
|
|
Connection |
| 5. What does this document tell you about life in this culture at the time it was written? |
|
|
Submit to Gradebook:
Photograph: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
Stanton and Anthony were leaders of the suffrage movement.
Topic: Woman’s Suffrage
Please study this document and answer the following questions.
Photograph: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
Click here for sample answers | Read the document again
|
Observation |
| 1. Which individual items within the picture are drawn to your attention? |
|
|
| 2. List the characters, objects, and / or action in the photograph. |
|
|
Expression |
| 3. What is your overall impression of this photograph? |
|
|
| 4. What is this photograph attempting to convey to the viewer? |
|
|
Connection |
| 5. What does this photograph tell you about this period in America History? |
|
|
Submit to Gradebook:
Illustration: Women voting, 1879
Sights such as these did not become common until after 1869,when Wyoming became the first state to grant women the right to vote.
Topic: Woman’s Suffrage
Please study this document and answer the following questions.
Illustration: Women voting, 1879
Click here for sample answers | Read the document again
|
Observation |
| 1. Which individual items within the image are drawn to your attention? |
|
|
| 2. List the characters, objects, and / or action. |
|
|
Expression |
| 3. What is your overall impression of this image? |
|
|
| 4. What is this image attempting to convey to the viewer? |
|
|
Connection |
| 5. What does this image tell you about this period in America History? |
|
|
Submit to Gradebook: