TAXATION OF WOMEN IN MASSACHUSETTS. BY WILLIAM I. BOWDITCH. "Yet some there be that by due steps aspire To such my errand is." COMUS. "A frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles of the Constitution and a Mass. Declaration of Rights, Art. 18. CAMBRIDGE: PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 1875. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by WILLIAM I. BOWDITCH, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. TAXATION OF WOMEN. THE Constitution of 1780 was framed for the people of Massachusetts. The preamble describes the body politic as “a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good." And it closes with this paragraph: "We, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, . . . do agree upon, ordain, and establish the following Declaration of Rights and Frame of Government as the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.” The Declaration of Rights ordains: "ART. 4. The people of this Commonwealth have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves," &c. "ART. 5. All power residing originally in the people, and being derived from them," &c. "ART. 7. Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men. Therefore the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government, and to reform, alter, or totally change the same when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it." "ART. 8. In order to prevent those who are vested with authority from becoming oppressors, the people have a right, at such periods and in such manner as they shall establish by their frame of government, to cause their public officers to return to private life, and to fill up vacant places by certain and regular elections and appointments.” "ART. 19. The people have a right, in an orderly and peaceable manner, to assemble to consult upon the common good, give instructions to their representatives, and to request of the legislative body, by the way of addresses, petitions, or remonstrances, redress of the wrongs done them, and of the grievances they suffer." “ART. 23. No subsidy, charge, tax, impost, or duties ought to be established, fixed, laid, or levied, under any pretext whatsoever, without the consent of the people, or their representatives in the Legislature." After the Declaration of Rights comes the Frame of Government, wherein "the people inhabiting the territory formerly called the Province of Massachusetts Bay do hereby solemnly and mutually agree with each other to form themselves into a free, sovereign, and independent body politic, or state, by the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." More than one-half the people were then females.1 But, in framing the government to carry out the principles of the Declaration of Rights, the right to vote for Senators is limited to "male inhabitants" (Chap. I. sec. 2, § 2); and, though professing a desire to have in the House of Representatives "a representation of the people . . . founded upon the principles of equality" (Chap. I. sec. 3, § 1), our fathers allowed no one to vote for Representative except "male residents" having a certain amount of property. As only men framed the Constitution, as only men voted on its adoption, and as only men were thus allowed to vote 1 In 1765 there were 4,705 more white females than males in the Province. (State Census 1865, p. 288.) In 1790 there were 7,910 more white females than males. The sex of the colored inhabitants was not given. It seems clear, therefore, that in 1780 there were more females than males among the people. This excess was less in 1800, 1810, and in 1840 than it was in 1790; but at all other enumerations the excess has been greater. By the last State census (1865) there were 62,420 more females than males. This number has been reduced to 49,793 by the United States census of 1870. |