WOMAN SUFFRAGE. All political revo lutions have had for their primary object the desire of the revolutionists for a voice in their own government. Men for obvious reasons have taken the largest part in them, but women have assisted in all and yet when a voice in the government has been obtained men have claimed the nen to speak for women as well as themselves. Women in the mass, living in isolated homes, in early days absorbed in all engrossing household duties, without education, pecuniary independence or organization, bound by social customs and the traditions of ages, have submitted to this usurpation of authority. There are preserved in history, however, enough instances to show that individual women did protest by voice, by pen and by petition. In Italy, where the universities were omt to women in the 14th and 15th centuries; they de manded equality of rights. In England, which was the cradle of representative government, the records show that in 1499 women signed a petition for the right to a vote, and this was followed by others.
Mistress Margaret Brent brought this spirit with her to the American colony of Maryland, where in 1647, as heir of Lord Calvert, a brother of Lord Baltimore, and executor of the estates of both in the colony, she demanded 'place and voyce' in its assembly, or legisla ture. Representation in England was based on property and this with other English laws was established in the American colonies. Al though the demand of Mistress Brent was re fused, the records show that some women property-owners voted in Virginia, and that in Massachusetts under the Old Province Charter women property-holders voted from 1691 to 1780. When a constitution was adopted they were excluded from a vote for governor and legislature but retained it for other officials. Under the close restrictions not one-fourth of the men could vote. Doubtless the hard condi tions of domestic life for women in those days precluded any desire or attempt to take part in public affairs.
The American. Revolution, based on the fundamental principle of 'no taxation without representation,' could not fail to rouse in women a sense that they were entitled equally with men to representation That it did so is evidenced by the famous letter of Abigail ams to her husband. John Adams, while he was sitting in the Continental Congress 'I long to hear that you have declared an independency, and, by the way, in the new code of laws, which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than were your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands. Remember
all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention are not paid to the ladies we are determined to foment a re bellion and will not hold ourselves bound to obey any laws in which we have no voice or representation.' As Mrs. Adams used the plural °we" she undoubtedly spoke also for Mrs Mercy Otis Warren, Mrs. Hannah Lee Corbin and other women of influence closely associated with the leading men of the Revolution. In 1778 Mrs. Corbin, sister of Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, presented her own petition for the right to vote.
It is not likely that Mary Wollstonecraft heard of these protests, but in 1790 she pub lished in London her remarkable book, 'Vindi cation of the Rights of Women.' In the French Revolution of 1793 Condorcet and other leaders proposed conferring political rights on women. During the preceding four centuries and doubtless in far earlier times treatises were written by men in various countries calling for the education,_ development and emancipation of women. (Plato in his 'Republic,' 5th cen tury Lc] Old manuscripts on the rights of women are in existence dated through the 16h and 17th centuries, but all of these were only individual protests made at long intervals.
In the 18th century the idea and the hope of political liberty were everywhere permeating the minds of men and found practical ex pression through the American Revolution. The Declaration of Independence was written as a guide for all countnes, and with this and the Constitution of the United States, framed 1787-89, was begun the greatest experiment ever made in representative government, even though the makers of these documents did not contem plate giving to women a voice in this govern ment. The Constitution did not in fact confer the suffrage on any one but left those who al ready possessed it entirely free, under the juris diction of the State governments, to grant it to or withhold it from any class of citizens. The religious qualifications had practically ended with the colonies. Some of the new States made property or educational requirements and others imposed both: all of them restricted voting to rook citizens except New Jersey. whose constitution gave the franchise to •all inhabitants worth Peso, etc.' In 1790 a re vision of the Election Law used the words 'be or she,' thus emphasizing the inclusion of women in the electorate. Enough women voted to gain the enmity of the politicians and in 18137 the legislature passed an arbitrary act limiting the suffrage to 'white male citizens.* This was clearly illegal, as the constitution could be changed only by action of the voters.