Women’s Suffrage Vermont Council of Censors Constitutional Proposal, 1869

Vermont Council of Censors Women’s Suffrage

First Edition

Vermont Council of Censors. Journal of the Council of Censors of the State of Vermont, at its Several Sessions Held in Montpelier, 1869, records Vermont’s consideration of a constitutional amendment extending suffrage without regard to sex during the national campaign for women’s voting rights following the Civil War. On June 2, 1869, Council member Jasper Rand of St. Albans introduced a resolution directing consideration of an amendment “to extend the right of suffrage to all citizens of this State without regard to sex.” The proposal was referred to a special committee consisting of Rand, Charles Reed of Montpelier, and H. Henry Powers of Morrisville, which subsequently reported favorably. The proceedings preserve the amendment within the official record of Vermont’s constitutional revision process.

Vermont Council of Censors. Journal of the Council of Censors of the State of Vermont, at its Several Sessions Held in Montpelier, 1869. Montpelier: Freeman Steam Printing House and Bindery, 1869. 106 pages. The journal records the Council’s resolutions, committee proceedings, debates, and proposed constitutional amendments, including the woman-suffrage measure. The Council ultimately proposed that women be subject to no greater restrictions than men in voting and called a constitutional convention for June 1870 to consider its amendments.

The proceedings date from a decisive period in the national suffrage campaign, when activists pursued both federal and state constitutional strategies. Vermont considered the measure in the same year that Wyoming Territory enacted legislation granting women the vote, while suffrage advocates were pressing similar questions before legislatures and constitutional conventions elsewhere. The journal documents how woman suffrage entered Vermont’s formal constitutional machinery through a resolution, committee review, and proposed amendment rather than recording the movement only through advocacy literature. Very good condition.

Item #16435

Price: $225.00