Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/202

 peroration to the most perfect short speech which was ever made, that made by Abraham Lincoln on the battle-field of Gettysburg, which Liberal politicians are for ever quoting in their election leaflets, 'Government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth,' includes women, for, notwithstanding the law, women are people. That fine phrase contained in the American Constitution, 'Government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed,' might be the text for every feminist appeal.

Herein lies the distinction between the suffragist and the anti-suffragist. The suffragist wishes to be enfranchised, but does not seek to compel those who prefer to be governed by others from being so. Anti-suffragists do not wish to be enfranchised, they consent to be governed, but they would prevent those people from governing themselves who do not consent to be governed. There is no power to compel a woman to vote if she should have conscientious scruples about the rightness of voting. No police officer will arrest her, no summons be served upon her for not doing so. Then why should she object to the power of governing themselves being granted to those women of independent spirit who desire it? The right to say who shall govern her and how she shall be governed belongs to every grown woman of good