n specifying
the necessary qualifications; thus giving a legislative
endorsement of the alleged meaning of the Constitution. Still,
no cases of females voting by virtue of this more definite
provision are on record, and we are warranted in believing that
the women of New Jersey then, as now, were not apt to overstep
the bounds of decorum, or intrude where their characteristic
modesty and self-respect might be wounded.

This law and its supplements were repealed in 1797, and it is
some proof that the peculiar provision under review had not been
availed of to any extent, if at all (as its evil consequences
would otherwise have become apparent), that we find similar
phraseology introduced into the new act. The right of suffrage
was conferred upon "all free inhabitants of this State of full
age," etc., thus adopting the language of the Constitution with
the addition of the word "free," and "no person shall be entitled
to vote in any other township or precinct than that in which he
or she doth actually reside," etc., and in two other places is
the possible difference in the sex of the voters recognized.

The first occasion on which females voted, of which any precise
information has been obtained, was at an election held this year
(1797) at Elizabethtown, Essex County, for members of the
Legislature. The candidates between whom the greatest rivalry
existed, were John Condit and William Crane, the heads of what
were known a year or two later as the "Federal Republican" and
"Federal Aristocratic" parties, the former the candidate of
Newark and the northern portions of the county, and the latter
the candidate of Elizabethtown and the adjoining country, for the
Council. Under the impression that the candidates would poll
nearly the same number of votes, the Elizabethtown leaders
thought that by a bold _coup d'etat_ they might secure the
success of Mr. Crane. At a late hour of the day, and, as I have
been informed, just before the close of the poll, a number of
females were brought up, and under the provisions of the existing
laws, allowed to vote; but the manoeuvre was unsuccessful, the
majority for Mr. Condit, in the county, being ninety-three,
notwithstanding. These proceedings were made the topic of two or
three brief articles in the _Newark