42d Congeess,. » HOUSE OP EEPBESENTATIVES. ( Mis. Doc. 
 1st /Session. $ ) I^o. 40. 
 
 WOMAN SUFFEAGE. 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ST. LOUIS COUNTY WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 ApurL 17, 1871. — Referi'ed to the Committee cn the Ju Jiciary and ordered to be printed. 
 
 To the Congress of the United States : 
 
 Your memorialists, officers and members of the St. Louis County 
 Woman Suifrage Association, organized in tlie city of St. Louis, State 
 • of Missouri, in May, 1870, respectfully and earnestly urge a submission 
 by Congress of an amendment to the Constitution of the United States 
 securing the right of suffrage to women upon the same terms and with 
 no other conditions than shall be imposed on men. 
 
 Every consideration which impels Government to extend and secure 
 the elective franchise to men applies with equal force to women. Equal 
 responsibility before the law demands the recognition of a corresponding 
 right to i)articipate in the enactment of the law. This is an axiom of 
 republican government which should no longer be ignored. A denial of 
 the application of this political axiom to woman is an anomaly in our 
 Government. It stamps female citizens as an inferior class, and neces- 
 sarily deprives them of innumerable advantages enjoyed by the govern- 
 ing class. It encourages feebleness and dependence in the class thus 
 proscribed. It induces on the part of woman the exercise of an indirect 
 influence upon political affairs highly injurious because unattended by a 
 just sense of her duty and responsibility. Upon the other hand, a recog- 
 nition of this axiom of the civil equality of the sexes secures justice to 
 woman, an equal advantage in all the avenues of life, tends to elevate 
 public morals, and to bring into public affairs the refining influences 
 which are now confined to social life. 
 
 WAYMAN CROW, President. 
 
 S. L. EiDGLEY, Mrs. G. F. Filley, 
 
 E. FiTTMANN, ' T. G. C. Davis, 
 
 John M. Krum, Albert Todd, 
 
 James E. Yeatman, Vice Presidents. 
 
 Mary E. Beedy, Secretary. ■ 
 Ann C. Sturgeon, Treasurer. 
 E. W. Decker, Chairman of Executive Committee. 
 Mrs. .W.T. Hazard. Mrs. Fannie Holy. 
 Mrs. E. L. Case. Wenzel Holy. 
 
 Mrs. P. J. CowPER, Jno. M. Dutro. 
 Miss J. Walbridge. 
 
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