on which framed the Constitution had
no view to the admission of females, either single women or
widows, to elect the public officers. But such is the phraseology
of the Constitution that it seems a violation of it not to admit
their votes. The best constitutions have guarded against mistakes
on this head. Those of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Vermont, etc., do not admit of female electors. Whether
this be right or wrong, the objection to our Constitution is,
that it does not settle the point one way or the other with an
absolute certainty. The practice is variable. The generally
received opinion, however, is that the Constitution permits it.
In this state of the matter it is not competent for the
Legislature to interfere. Nothing short of a constitutional
declaration can decide the question; which is, in fact, an
important one, and is growing more and more so to the country in
proportion as the towns and villages increase in numbers and
population. For, independent of the theoretic question, it is
evident that the admission of these votes gives a vast advantage
to the thickly settled places over the more dispersed population
of the country.

In another note the author says: "Mr. Fox in his late harangue in
the British House of Commons, in favor of more _equal_ suffrage,
concedes the unfitness of _females_ to share in elections. He
says no instance of their participation of public suffrage in any
government can be shown; and that this right (which many of his
party hold to be a natural one, though he affects to stop short
of that) is properly denied to the fairest productions of nature.
Of widows and spinsters above twenty-one, there can not, I
imagine, be fewer than 10,000. It is certainly not unimportant to
leave doubtful the rights of so great a number of people."

Mr. Whitehead's report clearly shows three unjust inferences from the
facts stated:

_First._ That all the corruptions of that special election in Essex
County could be traced to the women.

_Second._ That the quiet, good order, and dignity of the State could
be secured only by the restriction of the suffrage to "free white male
citizens worth fifty pounds."

_Third._ "The unreasonableness of the demand" for representation by
women tax-payers.

1st. Tradition shows that the voting early