orth, believing
in the declaration of our forefathers, that "governments derive
their just powers from the consent of the governed," and that
"taxation without representation is tyranny," beg leave to
protest against being taxed for support of laws that we have no
voice in making. By taxing us you class us with aliens and
minors, the only males who are taxed and not allowed to vote, you
make us the political inferiors of the most ignorant foreigners,
negroes, and men who have not intellect enough to learn to write
their names, or to read the vote given them. Our property is at
the disposal of men who have not the ability to accumulate a
dollar's worth and who pay only a poll-tax. We therefore protest
against being taxed until we are allowed the rights of citizens.

AUGUSTA, March 1, 1872.

EDITORS WOMAN'S JOURNAL: I have never seen a letter in the
_Woman's Journal_ written from Augusta, the capital of Maine, and
as some things have transpired lately which might interest your
readers, I take the liberty of writing a few lines. The bill for
woman suffrage was defeated in the House, fifty-two to forty-one.
In the Senate the vote was fifteen in favor to eight against. I
think the smallness of the vote was owing to the indifference of
some of the members and the determination of a few to kill the
bill. Some politicians are afraid of this innovation just now,
lest the Republican party be more disrupted than it already is.
Day after day, when the session was drawing to a close, women
went to the state-house expecting to hear the question debated.
Wednesday every available place was filled with educated women.
The day was spent--if I should say how, my criticism might be too
severe. Gentlemen from Thomaston, Biddeford, Burlington and
Waldoborough had the floor most of the time during the afternoon.
In the evening, while those same women and some of the members of
the legislature were attending a concert, the bill was taken up
and voted upon, _without any discussion whatever_. Now, I submit
to any fair-minded person if this was right. I have listened to
discussions upon that floor this winter for which I should have
hung my head in shame had they been conducted by women. The whole
country, from Maine to California,