it was adorned for the present occasion, and the innocent
appearance of the _white-robed choir_, who met him with the
gratulatory song, have made such an impression on his remembrance
as he assures them will never be effaced.

TRENTON, _April 21, 1789_.

THE ORIGIN, PRACTICE, AND PROHIBITION OF FEMALE SUFFRAGE IN NEW
JERSEY.

William A. Whitehead, Corresponding Secretary of the New Jersey
Historical Society, read the following paper at their annual meeting,
January 21, 1858:

By the Proprietary laws, the right of suffrage in New Jersey was
expressly to the _free men_ of the province; and in equally
explicit terms a law passed in 1709 prescribing the
qualifications of electors, confined the privilege to male
freeholders having one hundred acres of land in their own right,
or worth fifty pounds, current money of the province, in real and
personal estate, and during the whole of the colonial period
these qualifications remained unaltered.

By the Constitution adopted July 2, 1776, the elective franchise
was conferred upon all inhabitants of this colony, of full age,
who are worth fifty pounds, proclamation money, clear estate in
the same, and have resided within the county in which they claim
a vote for twelve months immediately preceding the election; and
the same, or similar language, was used in the different acts
regulating elections until 1790; but I have not discovered any
instance of the exercise of the right by females, under an
interpretation which the full import of the words, "all
inhabitants," was subsequently thought to sanction, during the
whole of this period.

In 1790, however, a revision of the election law then in force
was proposed, and upon the committee of the Legislature to whom
the subject was referred was Mr. Joseph Cooper, of West Jersey, a
prominent member of the Society of Friends. As the regulations of
that society authorized females to vote in matters relating
thereto, Mr. Cooper claimed for them the like privilege in
matters connected with the State, and to support his views,
quoted the provisions of the Constitution as sanctioning such a
course. It was therefore to satisfy him that the committee
consented to report a bill in which the expression, "he or she,"
applied to the voter, was introduced into the sectio