Carrie S. Burnham

Have women citizens the right of suffrage under the Constitution of the United States and of this particular State of Pennsylvania?

With this simple question, Carrie S. Burnham began her argument, made before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on April 3 and April 4, 1873, for her right to vote. "It is not simply," Burhnam reasoned, "whether I shall be protected in the exercise of my inalienable right and duty of self-government, but whether a government, the mere agent of the people, …can deny to any portion of its intelligent, adult citizens participation therein and still hold them amenable to its laws…" Continued

Image: WOMAN SUFFRAGE (MISC. INDIVIDUAL SUFFRAGETTES), Library of Congress