"The exercise of the elective franchise for women was practically
illustrated in the election of officers for the Mercantile Library,
Philadelphia, on Tuesday. A poll was opened for the female
stockholders, who, to the number of a hundred and fifty-six, cast
their votes. Both sexes voted together; and the proceedings were
conducted with the utmost propriety, there being no confusion or
disorder, as is too often the case where men vote alone. The ladies
walked up, and deposited their ballots with as much _sang froid_ as
if they were accustomed to the privilege. As illustrating how the
thing _might be done_, this voting at the library election should
be noted."
Some doubts having been expressed as to the fact of women having voted
in New Jersey, first published by me, on information given by Thomas
Garratt, in my lectures upon Law, I append here a history of the
Constitution of New Jersey in that regard, which has been gathered by
Lucy Stone and Antoinette Blackwell, as well as an account of my own
recent interview with a member of the House of 1807, which finally
repealed the obnoxious clause.
During the recent important discussion in the Senate upon the
proposition to extend the ballot to the women of the District of
Columbia, New Jersey was alluded to as a precedent. The precedent being
disputed, the following statement was published in the "Newark Daily
Advertiser:"--
"In 1709 a provincial law confined the privilege of voting to 'male
freeholders having one hundred acres of land in their own right, or
fifty pounds current money of the province in real and personal
estate;' and, during the whole of the colonial period, these
qualifications continued unchanged.
"But on the 2d of July, 1776 (two days before the Declaration of
Independence), the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, at
Burlington, adopted a Constitution, which remained in force until
1844, of which sect. 4 is as follows: 'Qualifications of Electors
for Members of Legislatures. _All inhabitants of this colony_, of
full age, who are worth fifty pounds proclamation-money, clear
estate in the same, and have resided within the county in which
they claim a vote for twelve months immediately preceding the
election, shall be entitled to vote for representatives in Council
and Assembly, and also for all other public officers that shall be
elected by the people of the county at large.'
"Sect. 7 provides that the Council and Assembly jointly shall elect
_some fit person within the colony_ to be Governor. This
Constitution remained in force until 1844.
"Thus, by a deliberate change of the terms 'male freeholder' to
'all inhabitants,' suffrage and ability to hold the highest office
in the State were conferred both on women and negroes.
"In 1790, a committee of the Legislature reported a bill regulating
elections, in which the words '_he or she_' are applied to voters;
thus giving legislative indorsement to the alleged meaning of the
Constitution.
"In 1797 the Legislature passed an act to regulate elections,
containing the following provisions:--
"Sect. 9. 'Every voter shall openly, and in full view, deliver _his
or her ballot_, which shall be a single written ticket, containing
the names of the person or persons for whom _he or she votes_,' &c.
"Sect. 11. 'All free inhabitants of full age, who are worth fifty
pounds proclamation-money, and have resided within the county in
which they claim a vote for twelve months immediately preceding the
election, shall be entitled to vote for all public officers which
shall be elected by virtue of this act; and no person shall be
entitled to vote in any other township or precinct than that in
which he or she doth actually reside at the time of the election.'
"Mr. William A. Whitehead, of Newark, in a paper upon this subject,
read by him in 1858 before the New-Jersey Historical Society,
states that, in this same year (1797), women voted, at an election
in Elizabethtown, for members of the Legislature. 'The candidates
between whom the greatest rivalry existed were John Condit and
William Crane, the heads of what were known, a year or two later,
as the "Federal Republican" and "Federal Aristocratic" parties, the
former the candidate of Newark and the northern portions of the
county, the latter that of Elizabethtown and the adjoining country,
for Council. Under the impression that the candidates would poll
nearly the same number of votes, the Elizabethtown leaders thought,
that, by a bold _coup d'état_, they might secure the success of Mr.
Crane. At a late hour of the day, and, as I have been informed,
just before the close of the poll, a number of females were brought
up, and, under the provisions of the existing laws, allowed to
vote. But the manoeuvre was unsuccessful; the majority for Mr.
Condit in the county being ninety-three, notwithstanding.'
"The 'Newark Sentinel,' about the same time, states that 'no less
than seventy-five women were polled at the late election in a
neighboring borough.' In the presidential election of 1800, between
Adams and Jefferson, 'females voted very generally throughout the
State; and such continued to be the case until the passage of the
act (1807) excluding them from the polls. At first, the law had
been so construed as to admit single women only: but, as the
practice extended, the construction of the privilege became
broader, and was made to include females eighteen years old,
married or single, and even _women of color_; at a contested
election in Hunterdon County in 1802, the votes of two or three
such actually electing a member of the Legislature.
"That women voted at a very early period, we are informed by the
venerable Mr. Cyrus Jones, of East Orange, who was born in 1770, and
is now ninety-seven years old. He says that 'old maids, widows, and
unmarried women very frequently voted, but married women very
seldom;' that 'the right was recognized, and very little said or
thought about it in any way.'
"In the spring of 1807, a special election was held in Essex County,
to decide upon the location of a court-house and jail; Newark and
its vicinity struggling to retain the county buildings,
Elizabethtown and its neighborhood striving to remove them to
'Day's Hill.'
"The question excited intense interest, as the value of every man's
property was thought to be involved. Not only was every legal voter,
man or woman, white or black, brought out; but, on both sides, gross
frauds were practised. The property qualification was generally
disregarded; aliens, and boys and girls not of full age,
participated; and many of both sexes 'voted early, and voted often.'
In Aquackanonk Township, thought to contain about three hundred
legal voters, over eighteen hundred votes were polled, all but seven
in the interest of Newark.
"It does not appear that either _women or negroes_ were more
especially implicated in these frauds than the white men. But the
affair caused great scandal, and they seem to have been made the
scapegoats.
"When the Legislature assembled, they set aside the election as
fraudulent; yet Newark retained the buildings. Then they passed an
act (Nov. 15, 1807), restricting the suffrage to white male adult
citizens twenty-one years of age, residents in the county for the
twelve months preceding, and worth fifty pounds proclamation-money.
But they went on, and provided that all such whose names appeared
on the last duplicate of State or county taxes should be considered
worth fifty pounds; thus virtually abolishing the property
qualification.
"In 1820, the same provisions were repeated, and maintained until
1844, when the present State Constitution was substituted.
"Thus it appears, that, from 1776 to 1807,--a period of thirty-one
years,--the right of women and negroes to vote was _admitted and
exercised_; then from 1807 to 1844--by an arbitrary act of the
Legislature, which does not seem to have been ever contested--the
constitutional right was _suspended_, and both women and negroes
excluded from the polls for thirty-seven years more. The extension
of suffrage, in the State Constitution of 1776, to 'all
inhabitants' possessing the prescribed qualifications, was
doubtless due to the Quaker influence, then strong in West Jersey,
and then, as now, in favor of the equal rights of women.
"Since 1844, under the present Constitution, suffrage is conferred
upon 'every white male citizen of the United States, of the age of
twenty-one years, who shall have been a resident of this State one
year, and of the county in which he claims a vote five months next
before the election,' excepting paupers, idiots, insane persons,
and criminals.
"This Constitution is subject to amendment by a majority of both
Houses of two successive Legislatures, when such amendment is
afterward ratified by the people at a special election.
"LUCY STONE,
H.B. BLACKWELL."
In a recent visit to Perth Amboy, a friend directed my attention to a
figure in a broad-brimmed hat, very much like that which used to adorn
the cover of Poor Richard's Almanac. "That man is ninety-five years
old," said he. "He spent his youth in preventing the New-Jersey people
from running their slaves off South. A prospective emancipation act had
been passed, which made the young negroes a poor investment; but our
friend Parker, there, looked after them without any fee. We think he
looks like Benjamin Franklin." The next day, I took a drive with Mr.
Parker himself, and I found he possessed another claim on my interest.
The original Constitution of New Jersey, adopted in 1776, left women
free to vote, by leaving out the word "male." In 1790, when the
Constitution was revised, a Quaker member, "Friend Hooper," rose to say
that among his people the women were allowed their natural share of
influence. At his instance, the matter was made clearer by the insertion
of the words "he or she." In 1807, after an election contested with
singular virulence, these words were expunged, and the word "male"
inserted. I had never expected to see a member of the Legislature who
repealed this phrase; but Friend Parker was there, and helped do it. He
assured me that the women were not at that time anxious to retain the
privilege; but that, if they had been, the Legislature was so irate,
that the change would have taken place. Lads, both white and colored,
and under age, had dressed in women's clothes, to swell the ballot,
which was more than double what it should have been; the irritating
question being the possible removal of the county buildings.