In what way does the consent of the governed come?
By and through the ballot alone. The ballot answers questions. It says
yes, or no. It declares what _principles_ shall rule; it says what
_laws_ shall be made, it tells what _taxes_ are to be raised; it places
men in office or lays their heads low in the dust. It is the _will_ of a
man embodied in that little piece of paper; it is the consent of the
governed.
Are women governed? Most certainly; they pay taxes,--they are held
amenable to laws; they are tried for crimes; they are fined, imprisoned,
hung. The government wields strong power over them. Have they consented
to this power of the government? Have they a recognized right to the
ballot? Has their consent bean asked through their votes? Have they had
a voice in saying what taxes shall be levied on their property,--what
penalties they shall pay for crimes? _No._ They are ruled without their
consent. The first principles of government are founded on the natural
rights of individuals; in order to _secure_ the exercise of these
natural, individual rights our government professed to be founded.
Governments never created a single right; rights did not come new-born
into the world with our revolutionary fathers. They were men of middle
age when they severed their connexion with Great Britain, but that
severance did not endow them with a single new right.
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