Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1884 — BELVA LOCKWOOD. [ARTICLE]

BELVA LOCKWOOD.

She Writes a Letter Accepting the Presidential Nomination of the Woman’s Rights Party. Marietta L. Stowe, President: Eliza O. Webb, Secretary; and members of the Woman's Na- . tdonal Equal Right* party: Having been duly notified ot your action in convention assembled of Aug. 23, 1884. in nominating me as a candidate for the high position of Chief Magistrate of the United States as the choice of the Equal Rights party, and although feeling unworthy and Incompetent to fill so high a place, I am constrained to accept the nomination so generously and enthusiastically tendered by the only political party which really and truly represents the interests of our whole people, North and South, East and West, be- ‘ cause I believe that with your unanimous and cordial support, and the fairness and justice of our cause, I shall not only be able to carry the election, but to guide the ship of state safely into port. In furtherance of this purpose, I have to say that should It be my good fortune to be elected, and should our party. With its grand platform of principles, be successful in the contemplated election, it will be my earnest effort to promote and maintain equal political privileges to every class of pur citizens, irrespective of sex, color, or nationality, and to make of this great and glorious country In truth what it has so long been in name—"the land of the free and the home ot the brave.” I shall seek to insure a fair distribution of the public offices to women as well as to men, with scrupulous regard to civil service reform, after women are duly installed into the offices. lam also in accord with the platform of the party in the desire to foster Americanfindustries, and in sympathy with the working men and women of the country who are organized against free trade, for the purpose of rendering the laboring classes of our country comfortable and independent. I sympathize with the soldier's widow, believe in the re-enactment of the arrears act, and the Increase of pensions to widows, believing that the surplus revenues of the country can not be better used than in clothing the widows and educating the orphans of our nation’s defenders. I would also suggest the abolishment of the pension office, its complicated and technical machinery, which so beautifully illustrates how not to do it. and recommend in its stead three Commissioners, whose only duty should consist in requiring from an' applicant for invalid pension his certificate of honorable discharge; from the widow, proof of marriage; and from the mother, proof of birth. I am opposed to monopoly in the sense of men monopolizing all of the votes and all of the offices, and at the same time insisting upon having the distribution of all of the money, _noth public and private. It is this sort of monopoly that has made possible the large breaches of trust with Government officials, caused bank suspensions, and defalcations all over the country. It has engendered and fostered strikes, lam opposed to the wholesale monopoly of the judiciary of the country by male voters. If elected, I shall feel it incumbent on me to appoint a reasonable number of women as District Attorneys, M&shals, and Judges of the United States, and would appoint any competent woman to any vacancy that might occur on the United States Supreme Bench. lam in full sympathy with the temperance advocates of the country, especially the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, but believe that woman suffrage will have a greater tendency to abolish the liquor traffic than prohibition will bring about woman suffrage. If the former is adopted, the latter will be its proQable sequence. If elected, I shall recommend in my inaugural a uniform system of laws as far as practicable for all of the States, and especially for marriage, divorce, and the limitations of contracts, and such regulation of laws of descent and- distribution of estates as will make the wife equal with the husband in authority and riglit, and an equal partner in the common business. I favor an extension of our commercial relations with foreign countries, and especially with the Central and South American States, and the establishment of a high court of arbitration to which shall be referred all differences that may arise between them and the United States. My Indian policy would lie, first, to have the Government pay them what it owes them, to break up their tribal relations, distribute to them their lands in severalty, and make them citizens amenable to the laws of the land as other white and colored citizens are. While we sympathize with unhappy Ireland and deprecate oppression on one side and lawlessness on the other, our neutral policy as a nation does not allow any public expression from our people. Due consideration will be given to the interest of the honest, industrious, home-loving German. Again thanking you, ladies, for your expressions ot esteem, I think that I may safely say I fully indorse your. Whole platform. Cordially yours, Belva A Lockwood. Washington, D. C., Sept. 4,1884.