all the votes given by female citizens over twenty-one years of age, at an election called for that purpose, at which women alone shall have the right to vote."
Mr. Graves said:—Mr. President. I do not desire at this time to discuss the merits of the resolution; but allow me to suggest that there are four classes of persons interested in the questions involved in it. The first class is what is opprobriously known as "strong-minded women," who claim the right to vote upon the ground that they are interested and identified with ourselves in the stability and permanency of our institutions, and that their property is made liable for the maintenance of our Government, while they have no right to choose the law-makers or select the persons who are to assess the value of their property liable to taxation. They claim that they are not untaught in the science of government to which the right of administration is denied to them.
The second class includes both males and females who sympathize with the first class, and who claim that there is no disparity in the intellect of men and women, when an equal opportunity is afforded by education for progress and advancement. They also claim that our country is diminishing all the time in moral integrity and virtue, and ask that a new element be introduced into our governmental affairs by which crime shall be lessened and the estimate of moral virtue be made higher.
The third class urges that there should be no distinction between males and females in the exercise of the elective franchise, and they claim that it is anti-democratic that there should be a minority in this country to rule its destinies.
There is a fourth class who believe that the right to exercise the elective franchise is not inherent, but permissive, and that the people are the Government, and that this power of the elective franchise is under their immediate control, and they claim the right to become part and parcel of the Government which they help to support and maintain.
Now these four classes, differing in opinion upon this great question, constitute a very large body of worthy, high-minded, and intelligent men and women of this State who have long sought to enlarge the elective franchise, and they claim the deliberate consideration of this body upon the ground of equality, as their innumerable petitions[1] to this Convention
- ↑ June 20, 1867.—Mr. Corbett presented a memorial from citizens of Syracuse for securing the right of suffrage for women on equal terms with men. Mr. Graves—Petition of Mrs. F. D. Fish and 180 other citizens—worthy and intelligent men and women—of the city of Utica, asking equal suffrage for men and women. Referred to the Committee on Suffrage. June 26, 1867.—Mr. Rathbun—Petition for universal suffrage for women as well as men. C. E. Parker—Petition for citizens of Tioga County. Mr. Curtis—A petition from Mrs. Daniel Cady, of Johnstown, and 200 others, asking to have "male" stricken from the State Constitution. E. G. Lapham presented a petition. Mr. Ezra Graves presented thirty-seven petitions—Brooklyn, 1; Mt. Morris, 4; Troy, 1; Lima, 1; New York City, 8; Buffalo, 3; Skaneateles, 2; Lockport, 1; Poughkeepsie, 1; Dutchess County, 1; Utica, 1; Fairfield, Herkimer Co., 1. In all, 2,040 persons asking for equal suffrage.
