Committee Room, March 27, 1895.

To the President of the Constitutional Convention:

The minority of your committee on elections and suffrage regret that they feel it their duty to disagree with the majority of the committee on the question of woman suffrage in Utah, and beg to present, briefly, their reasons for such disagreement.

We do not seek to dispute in the least the argument that in all intellectual attributes and attainments women are qualified to vote as intelligently as men, except that women are better than men; they are ruled more readily by their sympathies, impulses and religious convictions, and do not realize as much as men that law is an arbitrary and imperial machine, and knows neither impulse nor sympathy.

But conditions are presented to us that never confronted a people before. The masses of people of Utah have only just begun to study seriously the principles of the government of the United States, and the duties which pertain to citizenship. They have been reared in a school which taught sincere allegiance to a local government and in that allegiance has been woven an absorbing affection and pious devotion. It is hard for a woman's nature to swiftly change, when her sympathies and sense of duty have long controlled her in a particular channel.

Again, it is but a few years since the Congress of the United States thought it necessary to withdraw this privilege from the women of Utah, because in the friction between the nation and the ruling power in Utah, the sympathies and devotion of the women, all bending in one direction, in the judgment of Congress made it necessary to take suffrage from her, in order to begin to place this Territory in harmony with the Union under the laws.

A widespread fear prevails that with the privilege restored, the old overwhelming force would destroy the present equality of parties_which always leads to confusion, if not tyranny_and awaken a terrible temptation on the part of those who ruled before, to resume their sway by working upon the generous impulses and religious instincts of women, which would result in political, if not social and business, ostracism of the minority.

This feeling is not only widespread throughout Utah, but it awakens keen apprehensions and forebodings throughout the nation at large.

As a people we are poor. We need the strong arms and the capital of the more thickly settled portions of our country.

To adopt the report of the majority will be to keep both away until the unnecessary experiment may be tried.

But it is not on selfish grounds that we interpose this report. We are looking not only to the prosperity but the future peace of this region. Surely no one desires a return to the contentions which prevailed here only seven years ago. As true citizens, none of us can look forward with anything but apprehension to the possible placing of the entire power of the government of the new State in the hands of a power in {408} our midst which might easily, under statehood, become omnipotent.

We are reminded of the pledges of respective political platforms, we do not forget them, but we remember likewise that all platforms are changed from year to year and we are forced to take cognizance of the fact that a most decided change of thought has been wrought on the people of this Territory on this particular subject, since they began to seriously contemplate the possible results of the carrying out of the will of the majority of this committee.

Why not permit the question, which is making so much unrest in the thoughts of men, to be held in suspension for the present?

With the adoption of the Constitution, a Legislature will speedily be convened. The members of that body will come directly from the people. Why not leave the question to them?

We respectfully oppose the report of the majority of your committee, and recommend that the suffrage of women be kept out of the Constitution.

Respectfully submitted,

R. MACKINTOSH,

FRED J. KIESEL,

ROBERT MCFARLAND.

• Minority Report from the Committee on Elections and Right of Suffrage [Report No. 6B] (introduced on 1895-03-27 14:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e693483) [This document]

• Minority Report from the Committee on Elections and Right of Suffrage [Report No. 6B] (introduced on 1895-03-27 14:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e693483) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]
  • Adopt: Minority Report of the Committee on Elections and Right of Suffrage (introduced on 1895-03-27 14:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e693484) [view current proposal at this moment]
    • None (introduced on 1895-03-27 14:00:00 - REJECT_PROPOSAL - e693485) [view current proposal at this moment]
    • None (introduced on 1895-03-27 14:00:00 - DEBATE_MOTION - e693487) [view current proposal at this moment]
    • None (introduced on 1895-03-27 14:00:00 - DEBATE_MOTION - e693491) [view current proposal at this moment]
  • Special Order: The Minority Report will be considered after the usual program (introduced on 1895-03-27 14:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e693493) [view current proposal at this moment]
    • None (introduced on 1895-03-27 14:00:00 - DEBATE_MOTION - e693494) [view current proposal at this moment]
    • None (introduced on 1895-03-27 14:00:00 - ADOPT_PROPOSAL - e693498) [view current proposal at this moment]