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Show 1 WO MA N 9 SEX P ONE NT . and so little to the wrongs of women. When such a speech as that of Mr. Blaine Mrs. different wards and settlements. Is made, we wonder whero political consisEliza Melissa Hall was elected Treasurer Mrs. Mary Kay Pres. for the R. S. Stake. tency has flown. Then there was another point of Mr. Silk Association, Mrs. Letitia Peery and Blaine's All Mrs. Elizabeth Stanford Counselors. speech that was bitter to tho thinkofficers of the nation. of women and members Relief Society the That is, his ing out and Y. L. M. I. A. were elected members tho fact that members of the pointing House of the Silk Association; were hold office in defiance of the their Agents chosen for all the different localities in the rights of representation. to see We know and feel that every Representathat the mulberry leaves were county, utilized j and the sisters were urged by tive and every Senator, the Hon. Mr. Blaino Sister Snow to be energetic in promoting himself not excluded, hold their seats in the interests of silk culture. Mary Ellen defiance of woman's rights of representation. Women have been counted in the Kay was elected Secretary, and Ellen Morse basis of representation, and are not allowed Treasurer, Weber Co. Silk Association. The next business In order was the orto exercise political power. M. L. L Mr. Blaine, in his argument, quoted that Association for ganization forY. the County. The officers elected were portion of the 14th Amendment which Mrs. Sarah Hen ick, President; Mrs. Emily says, "Representatives shall be apportioned Mrs. Richards and Josephine R. West, among the several states, fce., fcc., but when Miss Hattle Brown, Secretary; Counselors; the right to vote, Ac, is denied to any of and Miss Rosetta Canfield, Treasurer. the male ' inhabitants, &c. Pres. J. S. Richards made a few remarks Mr. Blaino declared the patent undeniaupon position and responsibility, the work ble intent of this provision was, that if any it involved and the impossibility of giving class of voters were denied, or in any way satisfaction to all; remaked that in her abridged their right of suffrage, the class transaction of Relief Society affairs at large, so denied or abridged should not be counted she relied upon Sister E. R. Snow. Those in the basis of representation. who preside are public servants of tho peoThe women of the nation notice this anple. nulling provision, because through it tbey The names of the officers of R. S. of are cunningly made to count in the basis of Weber Stake were then brought before the representation. people to be voted upon. Miss Eliza R. It is an underlying principle of true Snow was sustained as General President, statesmanship that constitutions should bo Mrs. Jane S. Richards was sustained as general in their character, securing in a Pres. R. S. Weber Stake, Mrs. H. C. Brown general way the rights of all members of and Mrs. S. A. Herrick, Mrs. the nation But the women of the nation Counselors; A. M. Frodsham, are indebted to the Republican party for a Secretary. Sister Snow exhorted the young Udies to respect their - principle in opposition to general rights, by organizations and go to their presiding offithe introduction of the word "male" three cers for counsel. Elder times in the constitution. McQuary and Bro. Shurtliff each made good I shall make use of Mr. Blaine's very lanremarks, expressing their satisfaction and appreciation f guage, and say that ''wherever a feeble pro. the labors of the sisters and said the Con. Is made against this Injustice" to one-ha- lf test ference had been a good one for all who atthe people the taunt comes, "What are tended. Conference was adjourned for you going to do about it?" and "how do three months. Singing and benediction. you propose to help yourselves?" As Mr. Evarts so graphically said in the MRS. GAGE'S SPEECH AT THE WASHgreat Tilton-Beechtrial, "man holds woIn man hollow the of his band to protect or INGTON CONVENTION. to crush," so the great political parties seem to to the women of say the CONCLUDED. nation, "We hold your rights in our grasp; we can proLet me show you one good that has come tect you or crush you. What are you to woman going her ballot in Wyoming. through to do about it? and how do you propose to The payment of men and women teachers . help yourselves?" has been adjusted upon the basis of the That they hold power we acknowledge-t- hat same pay for the same qualifications, and they hold it rightfully we deny. been thus equalized by direct statute for Let us look at a few other ways In which political power alwayi benefits the the United States has touched the parties rights of holding it. In reading ancient history we women where has been protection find political power shown secured by one person, her by legislation outside of itself. One inupon whole class. For instanced stance that has come to my the ancient Roman women knowledge worshiped the since I have been In your In the goddess Viriplaca, whose special mission cityIs case of for colored pensions women. The was to appease husbands; but after Volum-ni- a United States not only secured tho ballot to had shown power to stop the conquerthe black male citizen outside of state ing march of, her son Coriolanus, at the very authority, but it has touched the family regates of Rome, the whole sex were treated lation with its powerful hand. It has aswith more consideration, and a was temple sumed that the woman with whom a colerected to Woman's Fortune. ored soldierwas living at the time of his Milman calls attention to the death was his wife, with which Greek women werodisrespect notwithstanding he may have lived for many years in recogbecause of their total want of treated, political nized married relations with another woPower, their "political insignificance." man, and become the father of children by Now we women of the states know that her during this period. In one case comthe women of the Territories of ing under, the cognizance of our Washingand Utah are not secure in theirWyoming ton woman la wver. Mrs. T,lr mn political rights, because the women of tho nation sion was by United "States nave no political rights. authority thus a session Scarcely to a woman living with granted or Congress but some such colpolitical busy-bod- y ored soldier at time of his introduces into that body a bill to disfranalthough ' she had no other claim upondeath, chise the women of these territories it. This sol We dier had, the during of period slavery, been ?In,iredv0f, UI we aro ired ojt much married In his master's house,by a being paid to the wrongs of men ly ordained clergyman to another regularwoman, ization for the interest of the societies in . er ; re-acti- ng ; 253 and by that wife had become, tho father of. five or six children. This woman was his lawful Widow, according to state, and religious law. These children were hlslaW; ful children, according to 6tatoand; religious law, but the United States stepped in, and made of this married woman a thing I will not name, and cast her children into the world with the brand of illegitimacy. ' What a strange thing is law! what a strange power the United States wields ! and how unjustly it always manages to touch women, for now comes up Utah with similar complaint. I am not careful to touch the religious aspects of this' Utah question. I do not care for it only so far as it touches, or is touched by woman's political rights, although I do know that womanfs political wrongs and her religious wrongs have been very closely intermingled in the past. I recall a Papal Bull of Urban II, In the 12th century which compelled priests to discard their wives, making of thousands of wo-- " men In England, wives who were not wed, of children, offspring who had no recognizr ed fathers. We of the National Woman's Suffrage Association have nothing to do with tho religious rights of women in Utah, except in so far as they Intermingle with, and touch woman's political rights. But the Utah question, which now comes up again, is not simply a religious question. Tho government is continuously 'striving to touch the political rights of the women of this territory. Its Governor is a United Statas officer, and in his Last report to the Secretary of the Interior, he so far trans cended the duties of his office, as to suggest the disfranchisement of Utah women. Almost every session of Congress sees some bill of similar Import introduced. ' The general government did not confer this right, did not secure even the exercise of this right. The territorial1 legisla. ture the same as in Wyoming,4 secured to women the exercise of the right of the United States according to suffrage; its own no has theory, authority to interfere witH this right, because according to that theory, it has nothing at all to do with tho suffrage question. It proposes to disfranchise thoso women as a punishment for their religious belief; it proposes to make social outcasts of them, as it has already done with tho wives of some of its black soldier "voters. Looking back through history wo find no act of the Romish Church more" vile than that which compelled Its priests to disown their wi ves and legitimate children none which so Utterly demoralized society; and destroyed its tens of thousands of women' And although as a body of reformers, '! again say we do not touch religion except where it, and politics together infringe up. ou the rights of women, do not hesitate I to say for myself individually, that I havo no faith in any form of religion, bo it what it may, Christian, Mohammedan: Buddhist; that receives revelation only through1 some man; or farther than that, I will say,Ihavo no faith in any form of religion that does not place man .and woman on; an exact equality of religious rights. - Two forms of religion of the present day which havo risen through women, or as revelations to her, namely the Shaker and tho Spiritual do give us equality In rellgiousi for men ami women. But I closerights, ' by Tf UnD ted alen"on the Inconsistelicy States laws, and their especial to women by interference with injustice those rights secured them by state or territorial laws, as In case of the colored soldier's: wife, as in case tho assumption, that h i . 1 - -- ,..f |