Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/425

384 drew," for many of the interesting incidents and substantial facts as to the [sic]iniative steps taken in this campaign. He said:

The only way of amending the constitution is for the people (meaning the male voters) to elect, every seventh year, a board called the Council of Censors, consisting of thirteen persons. This council can, within a certain time, propose amendments to the constitution, and call a convention of one delegate from each town, elected by the freemen, to adopt or reject the articles of amendment proposed by the council. The Council of Censors, elected in March, 1869, proposed six amendments: (1) In relation to the creation of corporations; (2) in relation to biënnial sessions and elections; (3) in relation to filling vacancies in the office of senators and town representatives; (4) in relation to the appointment, terms, etc., of judges of the Supreme Court; (5) providing that women shall be entitled to vote, and with no other restrictions than the law shall impose on men; (6) in relation to the manner of amending the constitution.

The election of delegates occurs on Tuesday, May Io, and the convention meets on the first Wednesday in June. There is no general excitement in the State in relation to any of the proposed changes; and now, upon the eve of the election, it is impossible for the most sagacious political observer to predict the fate of any of the amendments. The fifth is the only one in support of which public meetings have been held, and those took place the early part of the spring at the larger places in the State. The friends have never expected to obtain a majority, nor even a considerable vote in the convention, and the meetings that have been held were not expected to settle the question, but to awaken the public mind upon the subject. These meetings have been a decided success, attended by hundreds of intelligent citizens, many of whom for the first time listened to an address upon the subject. It is true that ladies were advised to remain away, but such advice generally resulted in a larger attendance; and today the measure has a firmer support than ever before, and its advocates are more confident of final success. We may not have more than "ten righteous" men elected to the convention, but that number was enough to save the cities of the plain, and we have full faith that as small a number can save the cities of the mountains.

The press of the State is divided on the.subject. We have two dailies—one, the Rutland Herald, the oldest paper in the State, in favor of the movement, and the Free Press of Burlington, opposed to it. After the coming convention, no change can be made in our constitution for seven years, at least, and if the sixth amendment be adopted, not for ten years. But, in the meantime, the question will assume more importance by a constant agitation as to the equality of the sexes, the admission of women to the State University, the professions, and other rights to which men are entitled. Vermont can never emulate in wealth and population the manufacturing States of the seaboard, or the prairie States of the West; but she can win a nobler preëminence in the quality of her institutions. She may be the first State, as Wyoming