--_Law Rep. Com. Pleas,
4-374._
I infer, without being able to say how the fact is, that the votes given
by women, as mentioned in the newspapers, were given at municipal
elections merely, and that the cases decided by the Court of Common
Pleas relate to elections for members of Parliament.
Another objection is, that the right to hold office must attend the
right to vote, and that women are not qualified to discharge the duties
of responsible offices.
I beg leave to answer this objection by asking one or more questions.
How many of the male bipeds who do our voting are qualified to hold high
offices? How many of the large class to whom the right of voting is
supposed to have been secured by the fifteenth amendment, are qualified
to hold office?
Whenever the qualifications of persons to discharge the duties of
responsible offices is made the test of their right to vote, and we are
to have a competitive examination on that subject, open to all
claimants, my client will be content to enter the lists, and take her
chances among the candidates for such honors.
But the practice of the world, and our own practice, give the lie to
this objection. Compare the administration of female sovereigns of great
kingdoms, from Semiramis to Victoria, with the average administration of
male sovereigns, and which will suffer by the comparison? How often have
mothers governed large kingdoms, as regents, during the minority of
their sons, and governed them well? Such offices as the "sovereigns" who
rule them in this country have allowed women to hold (they having no
voice on the subject), they have discharged the duties of with ever
increasing satisfaction to the public; and Congress has lately passed
an act, making the official bonds of married women valid, so that they
could be appointed to the office of postmaster.
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