And if the restrictions contained in the Constitution as to color, race
or servitude, were designed to limit the State governments in reference
to their own citizens, and were intended to operate also as restrictions
on the Federal power, and to prevent interference with the rights of the
State and its citizens, how then can the State restrict citizens of the
United States in the exercise of rights not mentioned in any restrictive
clause in reference to actions on the part of those citizens having
reference solely to the necessary functions of the General Government,
such as the election of representatives and senators to Congress, whose
election the Constitution expressly gives Congress the power to
regulate?
S. C., 1847: Fox vs. Ohio, 5 Howard, 410.
Your memorialist complains of the existence of State Laws, and prays
Congress, by appropriate legislation, to declare them, as they are,
annulled, and to give vitality to the Constitution under its power to
make and alter the regulations of the States contravening the same.
It may be urged in opposition that the Courts have power, and should
declare upon this subject.
The Supreme Court has the power, and it would be its duty so to declare
the law; but the Court will not do so unless a determination of such
point as shall arise make it necessary to the determination of a
controversy, and hence a case must be presented in which there can be no
rational doubt. All this would subject the aggrieved parties to much
dilatory, expensive and needless litigation, which your memorialist
prays your Honorable Body to dispense with by appropriate legislation,
as there can be no purpose in special arguments “ad inconvenienti,”
enlarging or contracting the import of the language of the Constitution.
_Therefore_, Believing firmly in the right of citizens to freely
approach those in whose hands their destiny is placed, under the
Providence of God, your memorialist has frankly, but humbly, appealed to
you, and prays that the wisdom of Congress may be moved to action in
this matter for the benefit and the increased happiness of our beloved
country.
Most respectfully submitted,
VICTORIA C. WOODHULL.
Dated NEW YORK, January 2, 1871.
The issue upon the question of female suffrage being thus definitely and
clearly set forth, and its rights inalienably vested in woman, a
brighter future dawns upon the country. When Congress shall have moved
in the matter, and thus secured to woman the free exercise of these
newly-defined rights, she can unite in purifying the elements of
political strife—in restoring the Government to pristine integrity,
strength and vigor. To do this, many reforms become of absolute
necessity. Prominent among these are—
A reform in representation by which all Legislative Bodies and the
Presidential Electoral College shall be so elected that minorities as
well as majorities shall have direct representation.
A complete reform in Executive and Departmental conduct, by which the
President and the Secretaries of the United States, and the Governors
and State Officers shall be forced to recognize that they are the
servants of the people, appointed to attend to the business of the
people, and not for the purpose of perpetuating their official
positions, or of securing the plunder of public trusts for the
enrichment of their political adherents and supporters.
A reform in the tenure of office, by which the Presidency shall be
limited to one term, with a retiring life pension, and a permanent seat
in the Federal Senate, where his Presidential experience may become
serviceable to the nation, and on the dignity and life emolument of
Presidential Senator he shall be placed above all other political
position, and be excluded from all professional pursuits.
A radical reform in our Civil Service, by which the Government, in its
executive capacity, shall at all times secure faithful and efficient
officers, and the people trustworthy servants, whose appointment shall
be entirely removed from, and be made independent of, the influence and
control of the legislative branch of the Government, and who shall be
removed for “cause” only, and who shall be held strictly to frequent
public accounting to superiors for all their official transactions,
which shall forever dispose of the corrupt practices induced by the
allurements of the motto of present political parties, that “to the
victor belong the spoils,” which is a remnant of arbitrarily assumed
authority, unworthy of a government emanating from the whole people.
A reform in our systems of finance, by which the arbitrary standard of
ancient and feudal despotisms shall be removed; by which the true source
of wealth shall become the basis and the security of a national
currency, which shall be made convertible into a National Bond bearing
such an interest, while in the hands of the people, as shall secure an
equilibrium between the demands of all the varieties of exchanges and
the supply of money to effect them with, the Bond being also convertible
at pleasure into money again, by which system of adjustment, “plethora”
equally with “tightness” shall be banished from the financial centres of
our country; and which, in its practical workings, shall secure such
pecuniary equality between the employing and the laboring classes as
will forever make poverty and its long list of consequent ills
impossible in our country; and which shall suggest the solution of those
schemes which are being discussed for “funding the public debt” at a
lower rate of interest.
A complete reform in our system of Internal improvements, which connect
and bind together the several States in commercial unity, to the end
that they shall be conducted so as to administer to the best interests
of the whole people, for whose benefit they were first permitted, and
are now protected; by which the General Government, in the use of its
postal powers, and in the exercise of its duties in regulating commerce
between the States, shall secure the transportation of passengers,
merchandise and the mails, from one extremity of the country to the
opposite, and throughout its whole area, at the actual cost of
maintaining such improvements, plus legitimate interest upon their
original cost of construction, thus converting them into public
benefits, instead of their remaining, as now, hereditary taxes upon the
industries of the country, by which, if continued, a few favored
individuals are likely to become the actual rulers of the country.
A complete reform in commercial and navigation laws, by which American
built or purchased ships and American seamen shall be practically
protected by the admission of all that is required for construction of
the first, or the use and maintenance of either, free in bond or on
board.
A reform in the relations of the employer and employed, by which shall
be secured the practice of the great natural law, of one-third of time
to labor, one-third to recreation and one-third to rest, that by this,
intellectual improvement and physical development may go on to that
perfection which the Almighty Creator designed.
A reform in the principles of protection and revenue, by which the
largest home and foreign demand shall be created and sustained for
products of American industry of every kind; by which this industry
shall be freed from the ruinous effects consequent upon frequent changes
in these systems; by which shall be secured that constant employment to
workingmen and workingwomen throughout the country which will maintain
them upon an equality in all kinds and classes of industry; by which a
continuous prosperity—which, if not so marked by rapid accumulation,
shall possess the merit of permanency—will be secured to all, which in
due time will reduce the cost of all products to a minimum value; by
which the laboring poor shall be relieved of the onerous tax, now
indirectly imposed upon them by government; by which the burden of
governmental support shall be placed where it properly belongs, and by
which an unlimited national wealth will gradually accumulate, the ratio
of taxation upon which will become so insignificant in amount as to be
no burden to the people.
A reform by which the power of legislative bodies to levy taxes shall be
limited to the actual necessities of the legitimate functions of
government in its protection of the rights of persons, property and
nationality; and by which they shall be deprived of the power to exempt
any property from taxation; or to make any distinctions directly or
indirectly among citizens in taxation for the support of government; or
to give or loan the public property or credit to individuals or
corporations to promote any enterprise whatever.
A reform in the system of criminal jurisprudence, by which the death
penalty shall no longer be inflicted—by which the hardened criminal
shall have no human chance of being let loose to harass society until
the term of the sentence, whatever that may be, shall have expired, and
by which, during that term, the entire prison employment shall be
for—and the product thereof be faithfully paid over to—the support of
the criminal’s family; and by which our so-called prisons shall be
virtually transformed into vast reformatory workshops, from which the
unfortunate may emerge to be useful members of society, instead of the
alienated citizens they now are.
The institution of such supervisory control and surveillance over the
now low orders of society as shall compel them to industry, and provide
for the helpless, and thus banish those institutions of pauperism and
beggary which are fastening upon the vitals of society, and are so
prolific of crime and suffering in certain communities.
The organization of a general system of national education, which shall
positively secure to every child of the country such an education in the
arts, sciences and general knowledge as will render them profitable and
useful members of society, and the entire proceeds of the public domain
should be religiously devoted to this end.
Such change in our general foreign policy as shall plainly indicate that
we realize and appreciate the important position which has been assigned
us as a nation by the common order of civilization; which shall indicate
our supreme faith in that form of government which emanates from, and is
supported by, the whole people, and that such government must eventually
be uniform throughout the world; which shall also have in view the
establishment of a Grand International Tribunal, to which all disputes
of peoples and nations shall be referred for final arbitration and
settlement, without appeal to arms; said Tribunal maintaining only such
an International army and navy as would be necessary to enforce its
decrees, and thus secure the return of the 15,000,000 of men who now
compose the standing armies of the world, to industrial and productive
pursuits.
Thus in the best sense do I claim to be the friend and exponent of the
most complete equality to which humanity can attain; of the broadest
individual freedom compatible with the public good, and that supreme
justice which shall know no distinction among citizens upon any ground
whatever, in the administration and the execution of the laws; and also,
to be a faithful worker in the cause of human advancement; and
especially to be the co-laborer with those who strive to better the
condition of the poor and friendless; to secure to the great mass of
working people the just reward of their toil,—I claim from these, and
from all others in the social scale, that support in the bold political
course I have taken, which shall give me the strength and the position
to carry out these needed reforms, which shall secure to them, in
return, the blessings which the Creator designed the human race should
enjoy.
If I obtain this support, woman’s strength and woman’s will, with God’s
support, if He vouchsafe it, shall open to them, and to this country, a
new career of greatness in the race of nations, which can only be
secured by that fearless course of truth from which the nations of the
earth, under despotic male governments, have so far departed.