e question of enfranchising one-half the
people is superior to that of Indian treaties, admission of new
States, tariff, international copyright or any other subject
before the country, and that it is the foremost duty of the
Fiftieth Congress at this, its last session, to submit an
amendment to the Constitution forbidding States to disfranchise
citizens on account of sex.

_Resolved_, That as a question of ethics the difference between
putting a fraudulent ballot in the box and keeping a rightful
ballot out is nothing, and that we condemn the action which
prevents women from casting a ballot at any election as a
shameful evidence of the corruption of dominant political parties
in this country.

WHEREAS, The Legislature of Washington Territory has twice voted
for woman suffrage--women for the most part having gladly
accepted and exercised the right, Governor Squire in his report
to the Secretary of the Interior in 1884 having declared that it
met the approval of a large majority of the people; and,

WHEREAS, In 1887, after the women had voted for three and a half
years, the Territorial Supreme Court pronounced the law invalid
on the ground that the nature of the bill must be described in
the title of the act; and,

WHEREAS, In January, 1888, another bill passed by the Legislature
gave to this law an explicit title; and the bill, again granting
suffrage to women, was signed by Governor Semple, thus
triumphantly showing the approval of the people, the Legislature
and the Governor; and,

WHEREAS, The Territorial Supreme Court, in August, 1888, again
rendered a decision against the right of the women of the
Territory to vote, basing their decision upon the false
assumption that Congress had never delegated to the Territories
the right to define the status of their own voters; and,

WHEREAS, This decision strikes a blow at the fundamental powers
of the United States Congress, confounding laws delegated to the
Territories by the Organic Act of 1852, which vests in their
Legislatures the power to prescribe their qualifications for
voting and holding office--with State governments which limit
legislative enactments by constitutions of their own making--thus
setting at naught the will of the people; therefore,

_Resolved_, That