Show EDMUNDS senator very lady SENATE IJ dziut i 3 vs tho alt la received if you and your as understood this things in I 1 am suro you would hup part instead of opposing the provision 10 the women of utah from the degradation af voting as their masters ic quire I 1 have so fur rt not a word of opposition any gentled woman in thai territory and law id such thai it is impracticable to disfranchise mormon women without including alie gentilo women in baste respectfully yours GEO F EDMUNDS miss 4 new york STATIS WOMAN PAIIT Y kew york mar 20 1685 lion geo I 1 edmund s senall of ahe united washington D C SIK A letter from you copied above to a member of our party which would have been sooner ans acred but fur the recipients seeks to excuse your last assault on american lib arty but your attempt ia 11 failure you tiro a ready guilty aith fiur a peculiarly and wicked crime against the birst in utah clieo ft omen are not respa eible their husbands hus banda taking additional wives in most cases they arc practically to prevent this yet you have disfranchised dis them and thus then fur the acts of their husbands to which ha a rule they are at heart opposed you have not only inflicted aliis odious penalty of disfranchisement dia is commonly prescribed as a punishment for the foulest crimes on many ands of innocent women but you bayo unconstitutionally deprived them of that trial by court and jury and that opportunity to prove innocence which the constitution and natural justice bogli be cureto the worst felon you have inflicted tins detestable penally on these blameless thousands by the sweeping and arbitrary exercise of legislative power wi hout even the semblance of a trial and without giving then a chance to defend themselves ot c intent with your guilt herein you now t ack to treble it by two other classes of the aex you pre tend to respect when you and those alio follow you misled congress into chiline the polygamist utah true friends of fread om protested not because aliey had any sympathy with polygamy either in its utah lonh or in the for vorie form wherein it ex ista is ta among public men at washing ton but because they knew that one successful attempt to invade the and vested right of ruu rage on whatever pretext would surely be followed by a fresh attempt at dis and because that the know in the continued cx erciso of by the women lay the true hope of tho hitters uplifting to the mental and moral level of monogamy their fears are justified having succeeded in making this mot dangerous dan cerous precedent though as a lawyer you well know the wrong aal peril penalties fur sets als ready done and the injustice and ll 11 vested rights you now seek to use this precedent as around for committing two new violations of vested and naturel tl rights you beek to disfranchise the mormon women who are not engaged in polygamy and also the women who aro not cormons mormons whatever may bo said in you have already procured which inflicts this heavy penalty on thousands of i men and women without eliat jury trial which is their constitutional your present effort to inflict thia odious punishment on thousands innocent women is unpardonable tho right of belons bt lons to elioso women as a god right of their nature an I 1 as a leal lias vested in them by sixteen years possession and use it cannot be disturbed without a ha grant breach of settled principles plea of law if you aro the lawyer you claim to be you will know true if you do not know it yon aro too ig borant of law and justice to bo fit for a senator either way your action that your constituents will do very wisely to remove yo i from the senatorial boat wherein you have shown yourself cal and n our bourse in thi matter has doal royed your arns peels of the residency your leaders wall know that you cannot carry new york and that thourl dis franchised tho womanhood of america would manage to turn other tho pretext whereon you seek to enact this new wrong no serious consideration tha non mormon men arc largely in the majority and 80 long as they are not dis franchised so the itibus ia mado against them at the philla of their ton so long they will stand together and control tho elections to disfranchise their wives and daughters will not change tho your deturi to achieve thia has not this excuse ilia a adeer attack on womanhood an attempt to stigmatize and cumah women for of being a woman where is your attempt ia of a piece in tha to prevent wo man from earning an honest ai the bar and ja nn outgrowth noi of a beaire lo 10 procolo virtue but of a disposition which you haap on all occasions shown to prolong tho op preB aion of he and keep women subject and dependent buur that tho woman du not not understand the state tn utah ia as imperil amt as 3 our suggestion on tho fl bior of thu cenate tho ladies of your own state ami elsewhere who seek to bo relieved from tho wrong oadis are trying to degrade and thu women aulT ista du tha stale of in utah and long have dyna so in deed woman buu kaaa n utah waa originated by ona of their moat de leaders mr hamilton Ull cox anear neat polygamy in all lm forms who after careful examination recommended I 1 ho tion political at really legislation legi against iti ment would at first polygamy but would af lernard operate tu it tho farat prediction camo true the second is so under tho of political lib arty lauy aro now besin nina to out pamy ret this auspicious moment is the vory one chosen by yon for an endeavor to thrust them back under thu of disfranchise nilet furthermore alib woman suf frusa know what it not religious belief however obnoxious to choso who d not sharo it can be extinguished by persecuting those who livo according to it they know what it also appears that yoi do not that in the growing and power which tho exercise raab secures to ita possessors is the real hope for deliverance of utah women from their belief in and thair practice of poh gAmy it ill becomes yon to talk of tie degradation of non moua women when you yourself propose to inflict on them a degradation far worse than voting under compel bion alio deg urd insult of undeserved lifelong dis franchiser nent is your statement correct clial w arn are to vote as their n quire the ballot diw us secret in utah as in new ynh and wi men unless very dull can vote atre alio vote not free common would buest atiya to ianke it fo f o not to take it imay N als your correct that the mormon women cannot bo dis franchised without including the gentiles ien tiles will such sweeping and unscrupulous legislation as you have engineered the senate a provision could easily leavo been included res tie d iff ranch ise aeilt to of alie mormon community or church unjust as this would be it would have at least been fair to gentilo women but you are bent or were till you discovered abo strength of the opposition you provoke on degrading every innocent woman in utah and alie movement for justice to women throughout the world every woman and every truly chivalrous roan should regard you as the deadly foe of and treat you as such you are free to ally yourself with grasping c cattle kings and land veil their pur of wholesale ader beneath professed zeal for virtue if you choose the country can stand your doing so if you can but when yon dare to lay a hostile hand on the ark of american liberty and civilization universal biffl rake you deserve and will receive acorn and choso whoso extent and power will astonish you S lozica M D Lh airman |