- Event type: CREATE_FROM
Utah State Constitutional Convention 1895 (2020 Edition)
Proceedings and Debates of the Convention Assembled to Adopt a Constitution for the State of Utah
Committee on Elections and Right of Suffrage
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Memorial from the women of Davis County to be read and referred
To the Honorable President and Members of the Constitutional Convention of Utah.
Gentlemen: -
Your Memorialists respectfully represent to your Honorable Body that the women of Davis County desire to unite with their sisters from other parts of the Territory in asking you to provide in the Constitution of the State of Utah for equal suffrage to men and women.
We believe that the present disfranchised condition of women is a reproach to the government of this free land. It is a relic of the dark ages when, through superstition and bigotry, women were regarded as chattels and political nonentities. It is not in keeping with the higher civilization of the 19th Century.
The right to live in a free government and to contribute to its stability and prosperity should carry with it the right to participate in the affairs of the government. Experience has shown that women can perform those sacred duties with the same intelligence and integrity as men. For seventeen years we exercised the rights of electors in Utah and during that time no charge was ever made that any women had abused the precious privileges conferred upon her. This is the first opportunity that Utah has had to restore the franchise. Surely you will not hesitate to vindicate us now, and prove to the world that Utah en are neither ashamed nor afraid of Utah women.
When our patriot father enunciated the grandest declaration of human rights that the world has ever seen, they placed the fundamental governmental affairs, at the very foundation of our temple of Liberty. The declaration that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that taxation without representation is tyranny, will go thundering down the ages as immortal axioms. It is for you to give them full force in the organic law of our new State. That you will do so, and there by vindicate the cause of woman, is the fervent hope and earnest prayer of your Memorialists and their constituents.
Decisions yet to be taken
- Memorial from the women of Davis County to be read and referred (introduced on 1895-03-20 10:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e697299) [This document]
Document Timeline
- Memorial from the women of Davis County to be read and referred (introduced on 1895-03-20 10:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e697299) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]