actually paid taxes to the state. In a number of the States the right
to vote was restricted to taxpayers. In Pennsylvania every freeman
of 21 years who had resided in the state two years next before the
election and within that time had paid a State or a county tax could
vote.

There is today a wide divergence in the qualifications required in
the various states to entitle one to vote. In a few States there
are educational qualifications, as in California, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, Washington and North Carolina. In some States one
cannot vote unless he has paid certain taxes, almost always poll
taxes. In certain States Indians who are not members of any tribe can
vote. And in a number of the States every male of foreign birth,
21 years of age, who has declared his intention to become a citizen
according to the naturalization laws of the United States can vote.

These differences exist because the Constitution remains, so far as
this subject is concerned, as it was originally adopted, except that
the Fifteenth Amendment provides that "The right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition
of servitude." It is, however, an anomalous condition that the right
of citizens of the United States to vote remains wholly dependent on
the laws of the States, subject only to the restriction that in the
regulations the States establish they cannot discriminate against any
citizen on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.
If woman suffrage is a sound principle in a republican form of
government, and such I believe it to be, there is in my opinion
no reason why the States should not be permitted to vote upon an
Amendment to the Constitution declaring that no citizen shall be
deprived of the right to vote on account of sex.

CHAPTER VI

OBJECTIONS TO THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT

I. STATES RIGHTS. THIS OBJECTION IS URGED BY ALL OPPONENTS OF WOMAN
SUFFRAGE, BUT IS EITHER A BARRICADE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES FROM THE
NECESSITY OF EXPOSING THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE NO REASONS, OR IS A PLAY
TO POSTPONE WOMAN SUFFRAGE AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. BY A FEW IT IS URGED
CONSCIENTIOUSLY AND WITH CONVICTION.

That there are many problems whose treatment belongs so appropriately
to state governments that any infringement of that right by the
Federal Government would be an act of tyranny, no American will
question. Bu