Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
As this question of woman's enfranchisement is one of national
safety, we ask you to remember that we are citizens of the United
States, and, as such, claim the protection of the national flag
in the exercise of our national rights, in every latitude and
longitude, on sea, land, at home as well as abroad; against the
tyranny of States, as well as against foreign aggressions. Local
authorities may regulate the exercise of these rights; they may
settle all minor questions of property, but the inalienable
personal rights of citizenship should be declared by the
constitution, interpreted by the Supreme Court, protected by
congress and enforced by the arm of the executive. It is nonsense
to talk of State rights until the graver question of personal
liberties is first understood and adjusted. President Hayes, in
reply to an address of welcome at Charlottesville, Va., September
25, 1877, said:
Equality under the laws for all citizens is the corner-stone
of the structure of the restored harmony from which the
ancient friendship is to rise. In this pathway I am going,
the pathway where your illustrious men led--your Jefferson,
your Madison, your Monroe, your Washington.
If, in this statement, President Hayes is thoroughly sincere,
then he will not hesitate to approve emphatically the principle
of national protection for national citizens. He will see that
the protection of all the national citizens in all their rights,
civil, political, and religious--not by the muskets of United
States troops, but by the peaceable authority of United States
courts--is not a principle that applies to a single section of
the country, but to all sections alike; he will see that the
incorporation of such a principle in the constitution cannot be
regarded as a measure of force imposed upon the vanquished, since
it would be law alike to the vanquished and the victor. In short,
he will see that there is no other sufficient guarantee of that
equality of all citizens, which he well declares to be the
"corner-stone of the structure of restored harmony." The Boston
_Journal_ of July 19, said:
There are cases where it seems as if the constitution should
empower the federal government to step in and protect the
citizen in the State, when the local authorities are in
league with the assassins; but, as it now reads, no such
provision exists.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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