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Show WOMAN SUFFRAGE. Two Territories of the United States-Wyoming States-Wyoming and Utah have by legislative legisla-tive enactment declared that women are the equals of men at the ballot bos, nnd have the right to say who thai! enact laws which they arc required to obey, and impose and appropriate' taxes which they arc required to pay. The question of extending the elective franchise to the .women of America, in all tho State and Territories, is only one of time, and will as surely become a recognized fact as that the colored race now exerciso it; though the stylo of argument adopted by some advocates ad-vocates of the measure is likely to retard re-tard it. Presented iu the light in which Elizabeth Cady Stanton put it ou Thursday night, hypcrcriticism and unreasoning prejudice alono would object ob-ject to it. Admitting that woman has a purifying and elevating influence, wherever that influence is felt, its effect ef-fect in elections would bo unquestioned. Tho high prerogative of the clMtive franchise, as interpreted by ccr tain politicians, is for its possessors posses-sors to degrade themselves with drinking on election days and using every mean?, fair or foul, to elect their I party candidates and defeat their op-; ponents. How much of positive wrong and indirect evil would be averted by tho presence of puro women at the; polls it would be difficult to estimate; but that a change, and an important' one, would be the result is beyond ar-! gunicnt. It is somewhat curious, though, that those who at ono time clamored loud-, est lor I ho enfranchisement of the women wo-men of I tah, now decry the act which confers the sullV.ige upon tlicui, and even say it is uncon-titiitiomd. They were anxious that Con cress should pass a law givin,' the baiiot to tho wntuen of this Territory, with the .-illy idea that women here were in a .-cite of boiKia.'; but when the 'lYnicorial legislature conferred. he riht of vo ting up w uicn, the.-c atue puiitieal busters, lindiiu the wvmcrt exercised it as free wontn and not ;.t their bidding, bid-ding, became i:s mo-t determined opponents. op-ponents. O'i. they are wonderfully coiiMsienr, u::!y their consistency ui:m-ife-'s it-i'!f iu a series: of ground and lofty t.imL'liogs th.t give iheot a sort ofemin 'lue n- political acrobat.-! If i wore ii:K-on-ti;nti.'::;;l for the legislature legisla-ture of either Wyoming or Utah to pa-s- such an act, it wou;d be equally ; to;- Congress- to do it. But sonic of the soundest juri-:s in the United States hold that women have the right to vote conferred by the Cou-tituuon, without any sjh:cm1 act of Congress or. Legislature; and there is not a single! line in the Constitution which prohibits any State or Territory from extending it to womu. The ladies of Utah possessing that right, we hope to see them usiDg it' wisely and well; not apathetically en-i joying a right without exercising it, but intelligently, faithfully and fear-j le.--Iy, by their votes, asi.-tina in con-j trolling effi-ial and Icgi-lative proceeding proceed-ing for the best intercuts of themselves, their sex and the general good. |