n opportunity for Massachusetts women to say
whether their nature does revolt at it or no.

The whole object of this Convention, as I heard stated by one of
its firmest advocates, is simply this: to "make the Constitution
of Massachusetts consistent with its own first principles." This
is all these petitioners demand. Give them the premises which are
conceded in our existing Bill of Rights, or even its Preamble,
and they ask no more. I shall draw my few weapons from this
source. I know that this document is not binding upon your
Convention; nothing is binding upon you but eternal and absolute
justice, and my predecessor has taken care of the claims of that.
But the Bill of Rights is still the organic law of this State,
and I can quote no better authority for those principles which
lie at the foundation of all that we call republicanism.

I. My first citation will be from the Preamble, and will
establish as Massachusetts doctrine the principle of the
Declaration of Independence, that all government owes its just
powers to the consent of the governed.

"The end of the institution, maintenance, and administration of
government, is to secure the existence of the body politic....
The body politic is formed by a voluntary association of
individuals; it is a social compact, by which the whole people
covenants with each citizen and each citizen with the whole
people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common
good.... It is the duty of the people, therefore, in framing a
constitution of government, to provide for an equitable mode of
making laws, as well as for an impartial interpretation and a
faithful execution of them," etc., etc.

Now, women are "individuals"; women are a part of "the people";
women are "citizens," for the Constitution elsewhere
distinguishes male citizens. This clause, then, concedes
precisely that which your petitioners claim. Observe how explicit
it is. The people are not merely to have good laws, well
administered; but they must have an equitable mode of making
those laws. The reason of this is, that good laws are no
permanent security, unless enacted by equitable methods. Your
laws may be the best ever devised; yet still they are only given
as a temporary favor, not held as a right, unless the whole