f the United States. A
law authorizing the appointment of women to act as justices of
the peace would not, in our judgment, be repugnant to either. We
fail to find a single word, or sentence, or clause of a sentence,
which, fairly construed, either expressly or impliedly forbids
the passage of such a law. So far as the office of justice of the
peace is concerned, there is not so much as a masculine pronoun
to hang an objection upon.

It is true that the right to vote is limited to males. But the
right to vote and the right to hold office are distinct matters.
Either may exist without the other. And it may be true that the
framers of the constitution did not contemplate--did not
affirmatively intend--that women should hold office. But it by no
means follows that they intended the contrary. The truth probably
is that they had no intention one way or the other; that the
matter was not even thought of. And it will be noticed that the
unconstitutionality of such a law is made to rest, not on any
expressed intention of the framers of the constitution that women
should not hold office, but upon a presumed absence of intention
that they should.

This seems to us a dangerous doctrine. It is nothing less than
holding that the legislature cannot enact a law unless it appears
affirmatively that the framers of the constitution intended that
such a law should be enacted. We cannot concur in such a
doctrine. It would put a stop to all progress. We understand the
correct rule to be the reverse of that; namely, that the
legislature may enact any law they may think proper, unless it
appears affirmatively that the framers of the constitution
intended that such a law should not be passed. And the best and
only safe rule for ascertaining the intention of the makers of
any written law, is to abide by the language which they have
used. And this is especially true of written constitutions; for
in preparing such instruments it is but reasonable to presume
that every word has been carefully weighed, and that none is
inserted and none omitted without a design for so doing. Taking
this rule for our guide we can find nothing in the constitution
of the United States, or of this State, forbidding the passage of
a law authorizing the appointment of women to act as jus