To the Women of New Jersey, and Reasons Why the Women of New Jersey Should Vote.
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Stone, Lucy. To the Women of New Jersey. Why You Should Vote. (Approved by the Executive Committee of the New Jersey State Woman Suffrage Association, Vineland, March 1, 1868.)
Boxed together with:
Stone, Lucy. Reasons Why the Women of New Jersey Should Vote. As shown from the Constitution and Statutes of New Jersey. (Approved by the Executive Committee of the New Jersey State Woman Suffrage Association, Vineland, March 1, 1868.)
2 vols., 12mo.; two leaflets; each printed on four pages. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First appearance of these tracts, “approved by the Executive Committee of the New Jersey State Woman Suffrage Association, Vineland,” on March 1, 1868 and sold by C.B. Campbell, Vineland, or Lucy Stone, Newark at the rate of $1 for 100.
The history of New Jersey suffrage is afforded generous space in the History of Woman Suffrage, for good reason: “New Jersey was the only State that, in adopting her first constitution, recognized woman's right to suffrage which she had exercised during the colonial days, and from time immemorial in the mother country.”
The fact that she was deprived of this right from 1807 to 1840 by a legislative enactment, while the constitution secured it, proves that the power of the legislature, composed of representatives from the people, was considered at that early day to be above the State constitution. If, then, the legislature could abridge the suffrage, it must have the power to extend it, and all the women of this State should demand is an act of the legislature. They need not wait for the slow process of a constitutional amendment submitted to the popular vote. In 1868, in harmony with a general movement in many other States, the women of New Jersey began to demand the restoration of their ancient rights. (p. 466)
Lucy Stone led the charge:
While Lucy Stone resided in New Jersey, she held several series of meetings in the chief towns and cities before the formation of the State Society. [Note 1]The agitation that began in 1867 was probably due to her, more than to any other one person in that State. The State society was organized in the autumn of 1867, and from year to year its annual meetings have been held in Vineland, Newark, Trenton, and other cities. On its list of officers are some of the best men and women in the State.
Speeches and pamphlets like these stated plainly, succinctly, and forcefully, the legal and ethical justification of woman suffrage in her state. The points she adumbrates in To the Women of New Jersey include the following:
1. It is right.
2. Voting would make you more independent.
3. Voting is the basis of all social privileges, and civil and political rights.
4. Some of the greatest men in the Church and State are satisfied, and are teaching, that you ought to vote.
5. It is no new thing for women to vote.
She also delineates the most common objections, and refutes them, stating, It is objected—
1. That voting would degrade you.
2. It is said, “woman at the polls would be out of her sphere, and would appear unwomanly and unladylike.”
3. “Women do not want to vote.”
4. It is feared that “if women vote, they will hold office.”
5. “If women vote, they will become jurors.”
6. It is said if women vote, they should take part in the government, and enter the army and navy.
7. It is also said, “women are now represented at the polls by their husbands, and nothing
would be gained by their vote.”
In Reasons Why The Women of New Jersey Should Vote, she opens with a passage from the state constitution which implies, in her words, that “the one hundred and thirty-four thousand intelligent, educated, loyal women of New Jersey are degraded to the level of, and ranked politically with, the only classes of men who are esteemed too wicked, or too worthless to govern themselves.” This she follows with passage after passage from Nixon’s Digest detailing the myriad ways in which women are legall
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