the states have closed the door to the simple processes by which men
and women of other countries have been enfranchised. An amendment to
our Federal Constitution is the nearest approach to them. To deny the
benefits of this method to the women of this country is to put upon
them a PENALTY FOR BEING AMERICANS.

[Footnote A: See Appendix A for dates and conditions.]


2. EQUAL RIGHTS DEMANDS IT.

Men of this country have been enfranchised by various extensions of
the voting privilege but IN NO SINGLE INSTANCE were they compelled to
appeal to an electorate containing groups of recently naturalized
and even unnaturalized foreigners, Indians, Negroes, large numbers of
illiterates, ne'er-do-wells, and drunken loafers. The Jews, denied the
vote in all our colonies, and the Catholics, denied the vote in
most of them, received their franchise through the revolutionary
constitutions which removed all religious qualifications for the vote
in a manner consistent with the self-respect of all. The property
qualifications for the vote which were established in every colony and
continued in the early state constitutions were usually removed by a
referendum but the question obviously went to an electorate limited to
property-holders only. The largest number of voters to which such an
amendment was referred was that of New York. Had every man voted who
was qualified to do so, the electorate would not have exceeded 200,000
and probably not more than 150,000.[A]

[Footnote A: Suffrage in the Colonies. New York Chapter. McKinley.]