In the 1850s, most men and women opposed granting suffrage to women. However, among the reformers of the period, there were many men and women who supported it. In 1853, such a group presented the following petition to the legislature in Massachusetts.
WE DEEM THE EXTENSION TO woman of all civil rights a measure of vital importance to the welfare and progress of the state. On every principle of natural justice, as well as by the nature of our institutions, she is as fully entitled as man to vote and to be eligible to office. In governments based on force, it might be pretended … that woman, being supposed physically weaker than man, should be excluded from the state. But ours is a government professedly resting on the consent of the governed. Woman is surely as competent to give that consent as man. Our Revolution claimed that taxation and representation should … [coexist]. While the property and labor of women are subject to taxation, she is entitled to a voice in fixing the amount of taxes and the use of them when collected, and is entitled to a voice in the laws that regulate punishments.
Woman as wife, mother, daughter, and owner of property has important rights to be protected. The whole history of legislation so unequal between the sexes shows that she can not safely trust these to the other sex. Neither have her rights as mother, wife, daughter, laborer ever received full legislative protection. Besides, our institutions are not based on the idea of one class receiving protection from another but on the well-recognized rule that each class, or sex, is entitled to such civil rights as will enable it to protect itself. The exercise of civil rights is one of the best means of education. … The grant of these rights on the part of society would quickly lead to the enjoyment by woman of a share in the higher grades of professional employment. …
Some may think it too soon to expect any action from the [legislature]. Many facts lead us to think that public opinion is more advanced on this question than is generally supposed. … It is never too early to begin the discussion of any desired change. To urge our claim on the [legislature] is to bring our question before the proper tribunal and secure at the same time the immediate attention of the general public. Massachusetts, though she has led the way in most other reforms, has in this fallen behind her rivals. … Let us redeem for her the old preeminence, and urge her to set a noble example in this, the most important of all civil reforms.