The only real argument against the Federal amendment thus far advanced is that one group of states which want woman suffrage may force it upon another group which does not want it.  That argument works both ways. A group of counties which want woman suffrage may be deprived of it for years because another group of un-Americanized, foreign-born citizens do not want it.  The first is said to be the principle of “American sovereignty,” the second may fairly be called the principle of “foreign sovereignty.”

CHAPTER V.

FEDERAL ACTION AND STATE RIGHTS

HENRY WADE ROGERS

Judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, New York City, and Professor in the Yale University School of Law.

I do not propose to discuss the subject of woman suffrage in the abstract.  I am content with saying as regards the general question that in a republic which theoretically is founded upon the principle that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed I think it illogical, unreasonable and an injustice to deny the vote to adult women who are citizens.  With that statement I shall address myself to the suggestion of the National American Woman Suffrage Association that Congress should propose to the States an amendment to the Constitution which shall in effect provide that no State shall deny to any person the right to vote on account of sex.  And as respects that suggestion I shall deal with a single phase of the matter.  It seems to be supposed in some quarters that if such an amendment were to be adopted it would involve a breach of faith with the dissenting States, or violate some unwritten principle of local self-government, or conflict with the historic doctrine of State Rights.

I have no hesitancy in saying that I have for years believed and still believe that there is a constitutional doctrine of State Rights which cannot be safely or rightfully ignored.  Many of the foremost men in both parties share that belief.  It must be admitted, however, that this doctrine sometimes has been so perverted, misapplied and carried to such extreme limits as seriously to prejudice many worthy and intelligent citizens against its true merit and value.  This fact makes it all the more necessary on the part of those who would save the doctrine from absolute repudiation to be careful when and how and to what purpose it is invoked.

There has recently been published a book entitled “Woman Suffrage by Constitutional Amendment.”  The author of that book, the Hon. Henry St. George Tucker of Virginia, was at one time a member of Congress, and has been president of the American Bar Association.  He was invited to deliver a course of five lectures, in 1916, before the School of Law of Yale University on the subject of “Local Self-Government.”  In one of the lectures woman suffrage by Federal Amendment