A WOMEN'S PARLIAMENT.

Southland Times, Issue 1154, 7 May 1869, Page 3

A WOMEN'S PARLIAMENT.

(' Pall Mall Gazette. 1 ) The first annual Convention of the State Woman's Suffrage Association of New Jersey, though it took place at the beginning of the month, has not yet been fully rvporled in this country. There W3i'-! (s'tvs the ' New York Times') about 150 I .n lies present, several of them in Bloomer costume, and all of the caste known as strong-minded. Neither Miss Susan 11 Authony nor Mrs Elizabeth Cady Stanton was present, owing, it is said, to a, coolness existing between them and Lucy Stone's organisation. The call under which the meeting was held is couched in the following terms : — " All representatives who are opposed to the existing aristocracy of sexes, and who desire to establish a Republican form of goyernment in New Jersey, based upon the consent of the governed, are respectfully invited to attend. This is woman's hour. The Presidential election is settled, By .Republican aud Democrat the respective claims of the negro and the rebel to the ballot are vehemently urged. Prominent leaders of each party propose to compromise by conferring suffrage upon both. Shall women alone be omitted in the reconstruction ? Shall our mothers, wives, and sisters be ranked politically below the most ignorant and degraded men ? Let the friends of virtue, intelligence, loyalty, temperance, and justice answer!" At 11 o'clock Lucy Stone, the president called the convention to order, and Jtev Antoinette L. Brown Blackwell opened the proceedings with prayer. Lucy Stone, Dr Allen, and Rev. Mrs Blackwell were appointed a committee to present petitions for the enfranchisement of women to Congress and the State Legislature. Other committees were also appointed. After a congratulatory address by the president, letters of sympathy from Hon. James M. Scovill, of New Jersey, the Maryland State "Woman's Rights Association, and others, were read and applauded. The treasurer reported receipts for the past } r ear 208dols. 62c, and expenditure 197d015. 62c, leaving a credit balance of lldols. A nuuber of resolutions were then submitted ; among them the following : — " That we demand the ballot for the 134,000 women of New Jersey, not as a privilege, but as a right, and we earnestly recommend to all the friends of the cause" to discriminate carefully, in casting their votes, between ita friends and its opponents, and so to use theballanee of power as to make the infranchisement of women the direct path to political preferment." After the reading of the resolutions, the debate upon which was made the order of the afternoon, Mr Treat made a lengthy speech, the burden of which was that the women and not the men should be our political leaders and rulers. He preferred a woman for President instead of G-eneral Grant, much as the latter had done for the nation in saving it from destruction by the rebels of the South. He would prefer, also, to be tried before a jury of women than of men, for women are our superiors and are more pure and just. Mr Edwards said very warmly, that he did not like the extreme views of the previous speaker. He did not believe that women were superior to men, and he could not say that he would prefer a woman before General Grant as President ; nei. ther would he prefer to have women to act, exclusively, as jurors. Mrs Andrew Jackaon Davis spoke earnestly in favour of the proposed employment of competent lecturers to canvas the State, and present the views of the association to the people. No definite action in the matter was taken before the noon recess. In the afternoon there was a large attendance. The resolutions offered in the morning were taken up singly, on the question of their adoption. The first resolution was passed unanimously without debate. The second resolution was called, when Mr Campbell moved for its amendment, so that it would read : — " Resolved — That we demand the ballot for the 134,000 women of New Jersey, not as a privilege, but as a right, ; that we will henceforth support only the men and the party who support the woman's claim to the ballot, and will oppose the men and the party who oppose it." M!r Gage, the author of the original resolution, accepted the amendment. Mrs Andrew Jackson Davis opposed the amendment, because, she said, this woman's suffrage movement is a moral one, and if we pledge ourselves to unequivocally support the man aud party who support us, we lower ourselves, selling our principles to Copperheads, rebels, or any worthless class who might indorse us to get our vote. Great principles should never be departed from for mere expediency's sake. Mr Blackwell supported the amendment, urging that this question of woman suffrage should be made a fundamental principle, and all other issues should be set aside until the disfranchised women of the State should have been allowed to vote. Mrs Blackwell took strong grounds against her husband, and agreed entirely with Mrs Davis. Suppose, she asked, that George Francis Train, self-nominated for the Presidency, had opposed General Grant, would they have voted for the former simply because he was a woman's rights advocate ? It was not necessary to trade off in this way, agreeing, if necessary, to be villians on every point except this one. Principle first and expediency afterward was the right motto. Many | others spoke on the question, the discussion continuing more than two hours. The amendment was then put to vote and lost, and the original resolution was re-committed. The third to the eighth resolutions, inclusive, were adopted without debate. The ninth was passed with a slight modification, the words " and all public teachers " being added to the word " clergymen."