"AS WOMEN BECOME EDUCATED AND INTELLIGENT, THEY WILL LEARN THE RIGHTS WHICH GOD HAS GIVEN THEM, AND THEY WILL SO ASSERT THEM AS TO SECURE THE POSITION WHICH IS TRULY THEIRS": VERY RARE FIRST EDITION OF A 19TH-CENTURY WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE PAMPHLET

ANONYMOUS. "To Vote," or, "Not to Vote;" A Glance at the Question of the Day. [United States]: No publisher, circa 1875. Very slim octavo, stitched as issued, original printed white paper wrappers; pp.13. $4800.

Rare first edition of this pamphlet exploring the question of women's suffrage.

Written in the style of a Querelle des Femmes debate—a popular 17th-century method of debating women's rights, capacity, and humanity through a pamphlet war—this pamphlet approaches women's suffrage as a debate between ten archetypal characters (four men and six women). The discussion begins with a relatively diverse group of six women, married and unmarried. When confronted by the retrograde beliefs of a "Judge D," who blames the suffrage movement on a few noisy agitators out of a generally contented group, "Mrs. B" raises the arguments of suffragists Anna Dickinson and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who asserted that the seemingly radical women's movement was a natural result of women's social and economic progress. A couple minor pencil alterations to interior. This title is exceptionally rare; there are no auction records or OCLC holdings for it and it is unrecorded by the relevant bibliography.

Only slight creasing to a few corners, slight soiling to wrappers. Near-fine condition.