Experience Seamless Full Ebook Downloads for Every Genre at textbookfull.

com

The Voice Book for Trans and Non Binary People A

Practical Guide to Creating and Sustaining
Authentic Voice and Communication Matthew Mills

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-voice-book-for-trans-
and-non-binary-people-a-practical-guide-to-creating-and-
sustaining-authentic-voice-and-communication-matthew-mills/

OR CLICK BUTTON

DOWNLOAD NOW

Explore and download more ebook at https://textbookfull.com

 Recommended digital products (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) that
you can download immediately if you are interested.

Voice and Communication Therapy for the Transgender Gender

Diverse Client A Comprehensive Clinical Guide 3rd Edition
Adler
https://textbookfull.com/product/voice-and-communication-therapy-for-
the-transgender-gender-diverse-client-a-comprehensive-clinical-
guide-3rd-edition-adler/
textboxfull.com

Beckett Lacan and the Voice Llewellyn Brown

https://textbookfull.com/product/beckett-lacan-and-the-voice-
llewellyn-brown/

textboxfull.com

Design Works: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Value

Through Business Design, Revised and Expanded Edition
Heather M A Fraser
https://textbookfull.com/product/design-works-a-guide-to-creating-and-
sustaining-value-through-business-design-revised-and-expanded-edition-
heather-m-a-fraser/
textboxfull.com

Anatomy of the Voice An Illustrated Guide for Singers

Vocal Coaches and Speech Therapists Theodore Dimon

https://textbookfull.com/product/anatomy-of-the-voice-an-illustrated-
guide-for-singers-vocal-coaches-and-speech-therapists-theodore-dimon/

textboxfull.com
Pro Hibernate and MongoDB The Expert s Voice Leonard
Anghel

https://textbookfull.com/product/pro-hibernate-and-mongodb-the-expert-
s-voice-leonard-anghel/

textboxfull.com

Genderqueer and Non-Binary Genders 1st Edition Christina

Richards

https://textbookfull.com/product/genderqueer-and-non-binary-
genders-1st-edition-christina-richards/

textboxfull.com

Creating sounds from scratch : a practical guide to music

synthesis for producers and composers 1st Edition Metcalfe

https://textbookfull.com/product/creating-sounds-from-scratch-a-
practical-guide-to-music-synthesis-for-producers-and-composers-1st-
edition-metcalfe/
textboxfull.com

Surgical Pathology: A Practical Guide for Non-Pathologist

Ahmad Altaleb

https://textbookfull.com/product/surgical-pathology-a-practical-guide-
for-non-pathologist-ahmad-altaleb/

textboxfull.com

Chatter The Voice in Our Head and How to Harness It UK

Edition Kross Ethan

https://textbookfull.com/product/chatter-the-voice-in-our-head-and-
how-to-harness-it-uk-edition-kross-ethan/

textboxfull.com
The Voice Book for Trans and
Non-Binary People
A Practical Guide for Creating and
Sustaining Authentic Voice and
Communication
Matthew Mills and Gillie Stoneham

Illustrations by Philip Robinson

Graphics by Matthew Hotchkiss

The accompanying videos can be downloaded from

www.jkp.com/voucher using the code MILLSVOICE

Jessica Kingsley Publishers

London and Philadelphia
 Contents

Online Resource
Preface

Introduction
1. Let’s Start at the Very Beginning
2. Understanding the Challenge of Change
3. Understanding the Anatomy and Physiology of Sound
4. The Vocal Workout: Learning through Practice
5. Moving from Exercises into Situations
6. Supporting Change and Integration of Vocal Identity
7. The Wider Journey

References
Subject Index
Author Index
Acknowledgements
 Preface

In writing this book, we acknowledge the rich history and tradition of

voice practice that has emerged from more than one discipline: the
wealth of expertise shared by many teachers and authors who have
in turn inspired us in our own work. In setting out a comprehensive
exploration and programme of practical exercises, what we offer
here is our combined experience as speech and language therapists
and voice coaches. While tailoring the content specifically to trans
and gender diverse people, we set voice work within the context of
the whole person, seeking authenticity and integration. We offer the
reader something very practical in the spirit of fostering self-efficacy:
in helping people to master their own vocal instrument and
communication style, we welcome our own redundancy as
therapists.
Collaboration has been at the heart of writing this book. It has
been a process of deep learning and pleasure to sit, share and
reflect on our practice together. It has been inspiring to learn from
the many stories and lived experiences of those who have come to
consult with us: those who, like the reader, are central to this book.
We are grateful to so many who have helped us. Thanks
particularly to: Philip Robinson for the life in his illustrations;
Matthew Hotchkiss for the clarity in his diagrams; John Stack for
impromptu technical support; Niall Towl, Simon Fairhead and the
team at TellyJuice for their sensitive work; Jeannette Nelson, Brené
Brown and Ursula Le Guin for permission to use their quotations as
epigraphs; Jan Logan, Amanda Redstone and Mark Hayward for their
affirming narrative conversations; friends who generously gave up
their spare rooms in providing sanctuary to think and write; and
above all thanks to those who have come and shared their insights
and wisdom, and offered us all learning without end…
 Introduction

Who is this book for?

This book is primarily for trans and gender diverse people who are
seeking information, guidance and insider accounts on exploring
voice and communication related to gender identity. It may be of
interest to their families, friends and significant others who are
supporting them. It is also intended as a supportive text for speech
and language therapists/pathologists and voice coaches who are
starting out or continuing on their journey of affirmative clinical
practice with trans and gender diverse people. It may also be a
useful additional text for other gender specialist professionals
wishing to learn more about approaches to trans and non-binary
voice and communication therapy and its intersection with other
disciplines such as psychology, and to read the lived accounts from
the very people who can impart this knowledge from the inside.

Collaboration at the heart of the book

The central tenet of the book is that voice is absolutely integral to
our identity. Indeed, nothing is more important to any of us than our
identity – our sense of self through which we come to understand
our deepest values and strongest beliefs, our hopes, intentions and
commitments in life. Expressing these as part of who we are is
therefore an essential part of interacting with the world. It is for this
reason, when asked to write this book, that we came immediately to
the conclusion that producing a manual or ‘how to’ guide had to
include the lived experience of the people with whom we have
worked. We offer our expert opinion, grounded in clinical experience,
as a starting point to the journey, knowing that this is only one part
of the jigsaw. We felt that the trans and non-binary voice, in its
political sense as well as the more practical one, needed to be at the
very centre of this work.
With this philosophy at the heart of the book, we asked the
people with whom we have worked questions about what was most
useful in learning about voice and communication, both in and
outside the therapy sessions, what has helped them most, and what
continue to be the challenges on the journey towards comfortable
gender expression with those they encounter in everyday life. We
also asked them what they might share with people entering into a
similar process. In setting out to ask them what works and has
worked, we were acutely aware of the cultural discourse that tends
to privilege the therapist’s expertise over client contribution when
evaluating therapy. This is what pioneering family and narrative
therapist Michael White called ‘privileging the micro world of therapy
over the macro context of clients’ lives’ (Redstone, 2004, p.2; see
also White, 1997b). Instead, we wanted to centre the contribution
and determination of those who came to consult with us. So we
present a collaboration in which our approach to trans and non-
binary voice and communication therapy is interwoven throughout
with the reflections of people with whom we have worked, past and
present. Some people used personal metaphors and imagery to
richly describe aspects of the change process, all of which provide
insight into exploring voice and communication. The insider
knowledge and skills of the people with whom we consulted is
evident in the many stories of their individual journeys towards voice
and communication congruence. We hope that you will find them as
enlightening and educational as we did, and that the whole book
sparks new reflections on your own knowledge and skills in trans
and non-binary voice and communication. The people with whom we
worked have generously given permission to publish their reflections
from interviews conducted with them and these appear throughout
the book in a different font. We wanted comments to be clearly
attributed, so names of interviewees are recorded where consent
was given, or pseudonyms used where preferred.
Jane (on starting out): When I started thinking about my voice about five
years ago, I looked around and there were no voice therapy books for
and involving trans people with stories of people’s actual experiences to
guide me, and that was frustrating.
Talen (on charting new territory): This has not been done before. It’s a
coming together of therapist expertise and trans people’s actual
experience of doing the therapy and reporting on how useful and
challenging it is. We have insider knowledge because we are doing the
voice therapy, and therapists have other insider knowledge based on
their clinical experience – sharing these perspectives creates something
very worthwhile for all of us. It feels very important and timely to be
collaborating in this way.
Col (on working together): Sharing and collaborating and reflecting on how
we are doing is at the heart of this, and our progress.

A word about terms

We take our lead from discussions with the people we work with and
supervision with our colleagues. It is our intention to use safe, or
safer, terms and be mindful of the varying impact that even well-
intended words can have (see Richards and Barker, 2013, for an in-
depth discussion). We acknowledge that everyone is an individual,
each with a unique history and set of values, beliefs and things they
hold dear. For this reason, we use ‘trans’ rather than ‘transgender’ as
it is a more community acceptable term and is seen as less
medicalising or pathologising of the individual. We understand the
individuality of everyone’s journey and use trans and non-binary
voice in the context of exploring vocal change or effective
communication as part of a process and movement towards gender
comfort.

Working solo or consulting a voice

practitioner?
A supportive voice practitioner, whose practice is trans and non-
binary sensitive and, of course, up to date and regularly supervised,
can help you to understand your voice and work with it safely.
Throughout the book, we highlight the benefit of working with a
speech and language therapist who is a specialist in trans and non-
binary voice and communication therapy. We refer to these
specialists by their official professional title of speech and language
therapist, or just therapist, to distinguish them clearly from voice
coaches. You may find a voice coach to work with who has
appropriate experience. What is the difference in what these
practitioners offer? Voice coaches have an artistic background and
training in experiential, performance voice, public speaking and
singing, whereas speech and language therapists are medically
trained and work in the context of health, psychology and education.
The authors of this book have experience both as speech and
language therapists and voice coaches.
The speech and language therapist is an expert on voice and you
are an expert on you: your life and your voice. Together these
perspectives combine so that the therapist becomes an external ear
to give feedback, enabling you to make a link with your subjective,
personal perception and experience of how your voice feels and
sounds from the inside.

Praxis
Like a pianist practising scales, we learn by breaking down the task
into manageable pieces: we practise a task to become more
proficient, repeat it, reflect using our senses and understanding,
then problem solve and refine the skill by changing an aspect that is
not working so well. This process maps practice on to the theory –
how you are developing understanding about the skill – and theory
in turn informs practice. This is known as praxis, or the process by
which theory or skill is practised or applied, and we believe mastery
requires both when applying voice skills effectively for whatever
function they are required. Consultation with a speech and language
therapist is recommended in order to work through voice exercises
safely, and with the benefit of individual coaching and feedback.
Occasionally, the people with whom we work present with a voice
problem that requires therapy before embarking on modifying voice
in a safe and sustainable way. Such difficulties may require ear, nose
and throat (ENT) investigation and a voice assessment by the
specialist speech and language therapist in order to diagnose the
problem, and then rehabilitation by the therapist (Taylor-Goh, 2005).
We are aware that working with a therapist to explore or modify
voice is not always possible from a provision or a practical point of
view. Some people may achieve the voice they want through self-
help, support from friends and family, web-based materials and
social media alone. Suitably experienced speech and language
therapists and voice coaches, however, can build in face-to-face
practice that is structured into small, realistic steps, and encourage a
pattern of trying something, feeling the sensation in the muscles,
knowing what is happening and then repeating it to practise what is
helpful. The experience of open communication and constructive
feedback can be invaluable in building skills. Specialist knowledge in
trans voice and communication can help you set, and keep on track
with, individual goals that are small, realistic steps towards your
ultimate, highly personal aim.
Ginger (on what helps in voice exploration): It was incredibly important to
me to see the therapist demonstrating voice change as that made things
feel achievable. We feel quite disempowered at the beginning of this
process, so to work with a speech therapist or teacher in partnership
who is using their voice in the session – demonstrating, being as
vulnerable as I am and meeting me halfway – is so helpful. We know
when people are really authentic and helpful to us, not just being an
expert, making pronouncements on our lives and remaining in their own
bubble. The flow of information and exploration from one to another
really helped me. You can do a lot of work on your own, but it is good to
seek out a trans-sensitive speech therapist or voice teacher at some
point in your voice journey.

There is an important clinical point here: whatever your gender as a

speech and language therapist or voice coach, it is very important to
learn how to modify your voice so that you can usefully show the
people with whom you work how change sounds in the context of
your own voice. The aim is not to invite them to copy you as a
target end product, but to provide a therapeutic and supportive
means of showing that change is possible. We advocate for
therapists and voice practitioners to be actively engaged in their own
vocal as well as therapeutic supervision – it is live and relevant, and
means there can be genuine collaboration with the people with
whom we work (see Mills and Stoneham, 2016).

Structure of the book

Voice work is at its root an art and has also grown as a science with
the advent of biophysical research. We acknowledge both art and
science in this book by including some exploration of voice in
general, for example its links with identity and emotion, and
including a structured approach to exercises that have both scientific
support and evidence of successful outcomes for voice modification
(for more on this see Shewell, 2009; Thomas and Stemple, 2007).
Whatever your reason for choosing this book, whether you are a
trans or non-binary person, a professional or part of a supportive
community network, the book is designed to provide a whole
package to progress through as well as chapters to dip in and out of
independently. It gives information, rationale and evidence for
therapy exercises and approaches and further reading; it suggests
practices to explore and experiment with your vocal apparatus; it
offers opportunities to learn and reflect on what is helpful and
challenging about voice exploration and therapy from the lived
experience of trans women, trans men and non-binary identifying
people who are working towards gender-comfortable voice and
communication.
The book is divided into sections that follow the trajectory of the
therapeutic process and the exploratory journey that might be
undertaken, and takes into account aspects that the people with
whom we work consider most useful. This journey encompasses
understanding the vocal mechanism, practising vocal skills, and
assimilating these into everyday communicative situations with a
voice that feels authentic and true to the individual.
• In Chapter 1 we set out the attitudes to getting started and
explain the learning model. We invite you to rate your own
knowledge and skills before making a start with us, and to set
your own goals for voice. This process uses a solution-focused
approach (see De Shazer et al., 2012; Visser, 2013) that is
often used in therapy to support change.
• In Chapter 2, we examine the challenges involved in exploring
or changing voice, gender cues, issues around confidence and
authenticity, and considerations for neuro-different
individuals.
• Chapter 3 considers the anatomy and physiology of breathing
and voice and analyses vocal aspects of pitch, resonance and
intonation.
• Chapter 4 contains a range of exercises we recommend that
you can safely attempt on your own, geared to exploring
effective voice. We have stated where these are aimed at
masculinising (M), feminising (F) or gender neutralising (N)
voice according to your own needs. We include a link to film
clips demonstrating and working through selected exercises
as an additional resource for you.
• Chapter 5 examines the steps after vocal exercises have been
attempted and practised and how these technical exercises
can be applied to reading and speaking contexts and
everyday life situations such as speaking on the telephone
and projecting voice in noisy environments.
• Chapter 6 deepens the focus to examine the psychological
journey of voice and communication exploration – how finding
and arriving at a ‘fit’ with your voice can be encouraged. We
have included in particular two approaches we use to support
people in this process of finding vocal identity comfort –
 narrative therapy (White, 2007) and solution-focused brief
therapy (De Shazer et al., 2012). As part of the narrative
therapy approach, we include an in-depth interview about a
person’s ‘migration of vocal identity’; we also return to some
solution-focused tools to help you review your own change
process.
• And finally, Chapter 7 looks at the wider journey of voice and
communication exploration and the importance of
collaboration with others in the process. We examine group
therapy, singing exploration, relational presence and
connection in public speaking. Appropriately, we end with the
voice of the people we work with: the stories and anecdotes
of their wider journey in self-expression and communicative
ease.
We recommend keeping a separate voice diary or ‘Book of
Knowledge’. Capturing your own reflections on your reading and
experience of practical exercises is invaluable in building knowledge
and taking small actions towards your goals. Each section is topped
with a bullet-point summary of learning aims, and a reference list is
provided at the end of the book as an invitation to further reading
and self-study.

Your Book of Knowledge

Ellen (on journal writing): When I started writing a journal I tried to be
curious and also not judgemental. It was a lot of work to be doing it
every day. And what I found helpful was that I can have a bad day and
write that down, and several days later the same words were brilliant
and it’s not like I was consciously doing something – it almost happens
by itself. You need to be writing that down too, to observe that. Once
you’ve had the experience that ‘This didn’t work today but I’m going to
write it down’, and you’ve had that experience several days later that
‘Oh that wasn’t bad’, it can give you the confidence that the next
exercise you learn – ‘Yes, it doesn’t work now, but as long as I keep
practising and just be kind, then it’s not a guarantee, but something
may happen.’
 ~ Chapter 1 ~
Let’s Start at the
Very Beginning

This chapter aims to:

• examine the importance of voice
• explore helpful attitudes to beginning voice work
• give an overview of the learning cycle
• outline a focus on solutions and present solution-focused brief
therapy scaling
• suggest ‘golden rules’ for exploration and practice.

The voice creates a sphere around it, which includes all its
hearers: an intimate sphere or area, limited in both space and
time.
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind (2004)

Why is voice so important to us?

Our voice is the means by which what is known to us – our
thoughts, ideas and feelings – can be heard and shared with others
in a social environment. Our voice is totally individual and a deeply
personal expression of our identity. In a hearing-speaking world, it
bridges a communicative connection to others, so that we can form
relationships, express desire or protest, and tell and retell our unique
story. Our voice reveals where we come from through our language,
dialect and accent, and may say something about our age, education
and culture through our choice of words. When we speak, we reveal
our vulnerability: sometimes we feel free, easy and confident in
communicating, and at other times we withdraw into ourselves and
hide – voice reveals these things in the energy of sound. Our voice is
‘a critical indicator of both physiological and psychological well-being’
(Martin, 2009, p.34). In effect, our voice brings us into social
relationship, and the cues we make both in sound and with our body
contribute to our own and other people’s perception of our identity,
gender and communicative competence.

Beginning exploration with an attitude of play

A healthy, expressive voice is not achieved by affecting a way
of speaking or copying someone else. It is achieved by
developing the voice you have.
Jeannette Nelson, The Voice Exercise Book (2015)
In short, use everything you read in this book to develop and
change the voice you already have in order to express who you
really are. Let us pose a question: What do you like about your voice
as it is? This might seem an insensitive question if you have a
significant gender dysphoria related to the sound of your voice, but
it is intended to unearth and rediscover glimmers of those easily
discounted success stories that you can draw on. What resources in
using voice and communication emerge from current, recent or
distant experiences, however small? For example, perhaps you are a
good mimic and enjoy copying accents and dialects. Perhaps there
was a time when you felt you communicated well, easily and
expressively, whatever the difficulty of the circumstances in which
you did so. Perhaps you managed to risk speaking up in public or
you made it through the ordeal of delivering a speech or
presentation! Perhaps you enjoy singing to yourself or music-making
with others. Perhaps you feel your voice is gentle and reassuring to
your friends and that you are seen as a loyal confidante, or that your
voice is strong and authoritative and you are able to project it easily
in stressful or particular work situations. Perhaps you enjoy reading
stories or poems aloud to yourself or loved ones. Perhaps you enjoy
easy communication with a beloved pet or animal and notice
changes in pitch and melody when you do so. There will be
moments in your life when you have expressed yourself easily, and
many stories of your communicative success that can be recognised
and given value. However much we all want to change an aspect of
ourselves, it is important to acknowledge and connect with the
things that we do and have done well, our skills and resources,
however seemingly small, delicate or fledgling you may feel them to
be. We integrate these resources by remembering them: by living
our life by what we hold dear.
Most of us feel vulnerable when it comes to our voice. Why is
this? The reason is partly because we hear our own voice ‘internally’
through bone conduction in our skull, with some external sound-loop
via our ears. As such we are not completely sure how it is being
perceived by the hearer-listener who hears our voice ‘externally’
through air vibration. It is human to recoil somewhat when we listen
back to our voice on recordings – not because there is anything
wrong, but because we are experiencing ourselves in that moment
as being separate from our usual perception of ourselves, familiar
but unfamiliar, and it is often not entirely comfortable. The quality of
the recording will also be a factor in our response to what we hear.
In addition, we all tend to have a degree of critical self-talk when
doing things that are new and unfamiliar. Our minds can produce a
background running commentary which tends to be judgemental,
assigning critical labels and statements, until it can be trained to be
stilled into the present moment and be taught to notice without
judgement (see Chapter 3 on ‘the mindful breath’). These
judgements may have come from others at a time when we have
been unable to speak out or protest, and we have absorbed some
criticism, even if the original intention was meant to be care giving.
 Ellen (on how past criticism has influenced her judgement of voice. Here
she refers to her quiet voice as a 1 and her loud voice as a 10):
Somebody did make a comment to me about my voice once and I never
quite knew what they actually meant, and that’s why I’ve been so keen
to hold onto that ‘1 voice’. If I do that ‘towards 10’ voice, am I doing the
thing that they mentioned?

As babies and young children, we babbled and experimented with

our voices freely, using our whole pitch range and imitating all kinds
of weird and wonderful sounds! We have often been conditioned by
others to ‘be quieter’, ‘stop making a noise’ or believe that we can’t
sing. As we mature, many of us at best stop using our whole vocal
range and the expressive possibilities of our voice, so do not know
what our instrument can do unless we learn to sing, act or take part
in public speaking. At worst, we become self-conscious and reluctant
to be heard. Critical self-talk is sometimes known as ‘the cop in the
head’. Acknowledge your ‘cop’ as human and an unhelpful habit that
interferes with progress. Managing it is important in accepting
change with all its risks of voice not sounding ‘right’ or responses
from others not being what is expected.
Amy (on managing unhelpful thoughts): You know, it’s always worse in my
mind. And sort of thinking it through logically, as to what really would be
the worst case, actually that’s not that bad, and having the confidence
to go through it. That really helped!

Developing a positive, ‘can-do’, curious, even playful attitude is

important when beginning and progressing through voice exploration
and exercises. All we invite you to do is to connect with what is
important to you.

How we learn
This book is about having a go, trying new things out and staying
with them until they become known and move towards a fit for you
as an individual. It is not about perfection or getting it ‘right’. We
learn, particularly physical tasks, by committing to doing the task in
hand, then considering how things went afterwards. Muscular
repetition builds new patterns of behaviour – this is the process of
motor learning (for a detailed analysis of this see Titze and Verdolini
Abbott, 2012).
Therefore the approach in this book follows an established model
for learning through experience. It emphasises the value of
integrating both knowledge and skills as part of praxis (Kolb, 1984).
Following the ABCD pattern below of this ‘learning cycle’ will help
you reflect on your progress and formulate ideas to note down in
this book, or in a dedicated journal.

Learning through experience and practice

Think again of the analogy of the pianist learning scales or a new

piece of music. It is not possible to play a finished tune without
practising the musical patterns, the position of the fingers on the
keys, becoming aware of and releasing any unwanted tension in the
wrists, maintaining an aligned body posture while sitting at the
piano, and so on. All this enhances the dexterity to play the desired
sequence of notes with the desired smoothness and fluidity that the
music requires.
 The learning cycle

In the very same way you are learning to play your instrument –
your voice – so that you can perform in a way that is comfortable.
The basics will always relate to and inform more complex
performance. Just as the scales enable the playing of concertos and
jazz standards, so vocal exercises will form the basis of how you go
on to use your voice effectively in the most demanding of speaking
situations. Pioneering voice teacher Cicely Berry wrote, ‘The voice is
a statement of yourself – it is the “I am”, therefore, for you to feel
you are getting the most out of it, it must be physically part of your
whole self’ (1975, p.49).

A focus on solutions
 Nina (on voice work and discovering your own resources): You are your
own fountain of knowledge and you have all the solutions you need at
your fingertips already!

Many speech and language therapists support voice change using an

approach called solution-focused brief therapy or solution-focused
(SF) therapy, which was developed in the 1970s by Steve De Shazer
and Inso Kim Berg (Burns, 2005; De Jong and Berg, 2008; De
Shazer et al., 2012; Gingerich and Eisengrat, 2000). In its essence,
an SF approach is future focused and goal directed and focuses on
solutions rather than the problem. Supporting change in this way
relies on asking useful questions. We will use some SF tools right
now, at the beginning of your journey in reading this book, and later
when you have tried some things out. The starting point is what you
already know and the focus is on your vision of a future that you
want.
Rather than emphasising the expertise of the therapist, an SF
approach assumes that you come to voice work as the expert in you
and your own life and what needs to change. You have most of the
resources and in addition are looking to learn new skills, ideas and
perspectives. So we aim in this book to ‘lead from behind’ by giving
you the opportunity to try something and notice more when you do.
The starting point of clarifying your vision is to review what you
want from voice work.

What are your best hopes from committing to doing voice exercises?
The medical world often focuses on the problem or difficulty and this
can detract from the strengths and resources that you already have
regarding your own situation.

What has already changed?

Use a journal or your personalised ‘Book of Knowledge’ to jot down
some thoughts about your own voice since deciding to pick up this
book. Even if you perceive what you have written as negative and
critical, it is important to recognise your awareness and reflection on
voice as a strength that will stand you in good stead as you progress
through the book. How do you manage when you have negative
thoughts about voice, or are feeling more ‘hopeless’ about your
ability to change? Write down strategies you already use for coping
at these times.

What is already motivating you to learn more from this book?

You may only have a hunch at this stage, and this book may help
you to put thoughts about your voice into words differently and learn
to critique your own voice with more knowledge and understanding.
In this way, the complexity of voice and communication can be
appreciated. In speech and language therapy, talking about even the
smallest hunches means that they become externalised and can be
acted on, rather than being stuck with the emotion of discomfort or
embarrassment. This book is no substitute for talking with a
specialist voice therapist about your hunches, but encouraging you
to reflect and think along the way may help you to decide on actions
that are right for you. Even small actions can accomplish a lot when
there are feelings of hopelessness about voice, or anxiety in social
situations. Emphasising strengths can be helpful in keeping
motivated at times where progress seems slow or to be flat-lining.
Keeping a journal is also a useful way of reminding yourself where
you have come from when you might otherwise not feel as though
you are still progressing.
We aim to give information and suggested exercises that may be
useful and put you in charge of trying things out to see what works
and what does not. Part of working realistically to achieve your best
hopes is setting small goals that you decide are achievable. These
goals work best when they incorporate ways in which you are
already successful – sometimes this means gathering information
from friends, family, or therapist about what they notice are your
strengths. This may not immediately seem connected with voice, but
may be a strength you already bring to another area of your
transition or life in general. For example, you may be an analytical
person – this is great for breaking down different aspects of your
voice and communication; you may be good at committing to
something when you decide to do it – 10 or 15 minutes a day of
voice exercises will be easy; you may be good at reflecting and
jotting thoughts down on paper – really useful for keeping a voice
journal and reflecting on progress.
Try this rating exercise:

Place a mark along the above line to note where your voice is at this
point in time, where 10 represents your best hopes articulated above
in terms of feminine, masculine or gender neutral.

Notice what works

It is all about noticing – noticing what you are doing that works and
changing what is not helpful to where you want to get to. The South
African cricketer Ricky Ponting was acknowledged as a master of
placing the ball and making runs. When asked how he managed to
hit so many good shots he answered that, rather than focus on the
fielders, he trained himself to notice the gaps in between. The
fielders are obstacles – they stop batsmen from scoring runs. The
gaps are opportunities – spaces waiting to be filled by the ball’s
trajectory towards its successful goal. So do not focus on your
fielders: these are the obstacles to voice change – the judgements,
assumptions and anxiety that is the ‘cop in the head’. Focus on the
gaps: in this way new opportunities open up, waiting to be filled by
new awareness, new skills through which you will ‘score runs’ with
your voice skills.

Back to the scale

10: If you rated yourself at 10, congratulations! Keep doing what
works and be a role model for others!
1: If you rated yourself at 1:
 • What are the exceptions to this?
• When is your voice at 2 (or moving towards)?
• When it is at 2, what are you doing differently (or imagine
what you will be doing)?
• What do others notice you doing?
• What would a close friend or family member say that you are
doing to be a 2?
2–9: If you rated yourself higher than a 1, rather than focusing on
how far from 10 your voice is, notice the gap between 1 and your
rating. For example, if you rated yourself as 4, write several actions
that you are already taking:
• What are you doing that means your voice is as high as a 4?
• What else?

I am

and

and

• What small action would move you along to a 5?

Focusing on the small gap between where you have placed yourself
now and progressing one number along to the next step highlights
what can be accomplished now rather than the perceived
impossibility of getting to your ultimate goal of 10. It is also
important to note that you can change your ultimate goal as you
learn about voice and, when you get there, may decide that you are
happy enough with a 7 or 8.
Approaching the exercises
Take time to read through the exercises before attempting them.
They take you on a journey of development and have an
accumulative effect. Voice is a set of behaviours and it will change
by doing. Through understanding how muscles in the voice function
and by practising little and often, you will find that a more fixed
perspective of ‘this is what they do’ can become a more dynamic
sense of control as ‘this is what I am doing’. However, we cannot
shove, push, shock or bully our voice into change! Knowing what it
is you are doing, and making gentle, small adjustments, builds self-
trust that new skills will last and be absorbed. Jeannette Nelson,
Head of Voice at the National Theatre, speaks of ‘falling in love with
your voice’ (2015, p.8). This might seem hard when you want it to
sound different, but the starting place that leads to your unknown
potential is respecting your voice as it is right now. Nurture and care
for your voice as it is today and you will love it into change and
begin to enjoy all its new possibilities.
Mara (on celebrating difference): There are a lot of women in the world
whose voices are deep… It’s slowly becoming more acceptable; younger
people coming up and people being given a wider education have more
understanding.

Voice and communication skills are dynamic. Steven Covey writes

about change, choice and principles as constants for finding true
meaning in life (Covey, 2004). In his online blog, he describes voice
as ‘the overlapping of the four parts of our nature: our body, our
mind, our heart, and our spirit’ (Covey, 2008). We write with these
four parts in mind throughout this book to emphasise that voice is
part of who we are: physically, mentally, emotionally and, at its
deepest level, spiritually. We know, for example, that lack of sleep
and being tired have a negative impact on the voice (Shewell, 2009).
So check in with these parts of yourself and use the energy you
have at a particular time, for example:
• if your physical energy is high, challenge your voice skills to
be more athletic
 • if you are mentally busy with distracting thoughts, accept that
you will be perhaps less able to evaluate your voice on that
day
• if you are emotionally feeling low, try something gentle that is
restorative, such as breath work, stretching and relaxation,
humming or singing.
Ellen (on energy levels): I started to think quite personally about my
experience. It’s been difficult to do the practice at times, simply because
I’ve had periods of feeling quite down, and not on top of the world. And
when that happens, it’s just the confidence to be able to do the practice.
You know, the neighbours might be able to hear me. When I’m in a
good mood, that doesn’t matter. But when I’m down it’s like, oh I just
can’t be bothered. And also it’s getting over that little hurdle of the
confidence when it just evaporates. That’s still my personal challenge.

The voice exercises are in Chapter 4 and we have grouped them into
preliminaries, pitch, resonance, intonation and voice quality, for ease
of reference and to develop your technique.
Some exercises are aimed at everyone, for example how to keep
the voice healthy, warm-ups and general flexibility. Others are aimed
at specifically feminising voice, masculinising voice, or gender
neutralising your voice, and we have indicated this as follows:
• F – Feminising
• M – Masculinising
• N – Gender neutralising.
Suggested summaries follow. We deliberately keep this open for you
to select what to work on and to make your own positive choices.
You can check the rationale underpinning the exercises or process at
the beginning of the guidance, and then make a choice to try it out
according to what is important for you. If it feels right – try it again!
For each exercise you select, read it through, try it out and have
a go. Keep in mind these guiding principles:
• Safety: You will not aggravate your voice if you take things
steadily and follow the guidance, but there should be effort
 involved – you are working the muscles. Ensure that you stop
if you are experiencing any strain or soreness and seek advice
from a specialist speech and language therapist in voice if this
continues.
• Sensing: Start using all of your senses, for example close your
eyes and do the exercise – does it feel or sound different with
your eyes closed or open? Listen to other people’s voices –
people-watch and people-listen in the office, on the phone, in
shops, in a waiting room, on the bus, on the radio.
• Recording: Keep a journal of your progress and notes in your
own Book of Knowledge.
• Reflecting: Reflect on the lived experience and insider
knowledge from the people we have consulted about their
wealth of hints, tips, anecdotes, comments and stories.
Reflect on your own body, mind, heart and spirit to develop
awareness of how you bring the best of yourself and your
own resources to the change you seek.
Rita (on what exploration is about): Engage with regular practice but keep
in your mind that you want to be the best communicator you can be –
your voice is not fancy dress.

Summary of some ‘golden rules’ when learning and exploring:

• Spirit of play: Keep this when having a go in order to
recognise your habits and what needs to happen to change
them. Try things out.
• Self-awareness: Develop awareness without judging. What do
you notice? The more mindful and present you are, the more
self-aware you will become, helping you to recognise what is
working and make a choice to change what isn’t.
• Sensing: Use information through your senses. What do you
hear? How does it feel? Decide what needs to change and
have another go.
• Curiosity: Be interested rather than critical, as all information
is useful. Notice self-talk and when you criticise your own
effort: ‘I can’t do it’ or ‘That’s not right’. Substitute a more
helpful thought that takes action and builds your skills, for
example ‘I need to pause for longer next time’ or ‘I’ll have
another go and focus more on voice’.
• Time: Set time aside to practise little and often, just as you
would with any new motor skill such as a musical instrument
or learning a new language.
• Take baby steps: The small steps in this book are like money
in the bank: you are investing in skills that will help your voice
and communication express fully who you are.
• Keep a journal: Jot down in your Book of Knowledge what
you noticed, your observations of others and your experience
of trying something.
• Know the demands and capacities of a situation: Don’t expect
transfer of skills into everyday situations too quickly. It’s all
about the demands the situation places on your voice and
communication (such as thinking and language, relationship,
emotional state) versus your capacity to use the skills.
Initially, the demands of everyday interactions will outstrip
your capacity to use the modified voice you can achieve in
exercises. In voice therapy, we therefore use a hierarchy to
help clients move gradually from simple to more complex
communication, for example from automatic, rote-learned
speech to spontaneous phrases, as greater control is
mastered.
• Enjoy: Above all, have fun working with your voice, mistakes
and all! What you are setting out to do is courageous and
hard work. It is also fun, exciting and energising and you will
learn more than most people know about their voice.
Ellen (on fun): One day my friend was sitting in the lounge and I started
doing my voice exercises while I was in the kitchen making my dinner
 and they were actually quite good and she actually started talking and
commenting… and laughing quite a bit and joining in the fun of it.
Allie (on practice and progressing): Remember there is no ‘silver bullet’ and
like most things in life, the more you put into it the more success you
have. It is unquestionably though worth every ounce of effort. Record
your voice at the start and then at regular intervals. You don’t have to
play it back if you don’t want to but it will always be there for you. If
you do listen to it you will probably be amazed at the progress you have
made. Be patient – eventually it really does click into place!
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
upon such terms, conditions, and limitations as to its
internal status as may best subserve the interests of the
United States, and it is not necessary to invest such
territory with the full status of an integral part of the
Union.

"That this is one of the ordinary and necessary sovereign

powers of an independent nation, and nothing in the Federal
Constitution or in the fundamental principles that underlie
our Republic denies to the nation a right to the full exercise
of this usual and common sovereign right.

"That the treaty-making power—the President and the Senate—as

evidenced by the language of the treaty of Paris, did not
intend to make Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands integral
parts of the United States, but intended, in several
particulars, to reserve their final status for adjustment by
Congress, at the same time making peculiar and special
differential provisions for variations and exceptions in
customs and port regulations as to Spain and Spanish goods and
subjects, which are inconsistent with the intention that the
ceded countries became upon the ratification of the treaty a
part of the United States in all respects and in the fullest
sense.

"The Government contends that the term 'foreign countries' in

the act of 1897 is to be regarded as having been understood by
Congress to be subject to the rule of interpretation of the
phrase given by the Supreme Court in the case of Fleming v.
Page, where it was held that under our revenue laws every port
is regarded as a foreign one until expressly established as
domestic under the authority and control of the statutes of
the United States.

"That the clause of the Constitution which declares that

duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the
United States does not apply to nor govern these cases,
 because the term 'United States,' as there used, means only
the territory comprised within the several States of the
Union, and was intended only for their benefit and protection,
and not for the benefit or protection of outside territory
belonging to the nation; that in the latter sense duties on
imports from these islands are uniform throughout the United
States, because they are uniformly imposed at every port in
the United States, so that there is no preference given to the
ports of one State over those of another, nor is any
inequality between the several States created.

{671}

"That the right to bring merchandise into the United States is

a right entirely within the regulation of Congress; such right
in no wise differs as to either citizens or aliens.
Citizenship carries with it no special or peculiar privileges
at the custom-house. The American, the Spaniard, the Porto
Rican, are treated alike. The basis of the customs laws is not
ownership, but (1) the geographical origin of the shipment,
and (2) the nature of the goods. The duty is imposed against
merchandise, not upon the importer. "The Government contends,
therefore, that in view of the fact that tariff laws are 'in
rem,' there is no principle of justice, much less of
constitutional restriction, which forbids Congress from taxing
in this way the merchandise of outlying possessions of the
United States when brought into the ports of the Union. That
the limitations of the Constitution as to customs, etc., were
intended to secure equality between the States in the
geographical sense, and not to forbid Congress from exercising
the ordinary sovereign power of taxation as to the products of
other sections of country not included within the geographical
boundaries of the States; for which we rely upon the opinion
of this court in Knowlton v. Moore as decisive and conclusive.

"If the foregoing propositions are sound, then it is

established (1) that the tariff act of 1897 was intended by
Congress to classify as foreign all countries not a part of or
belonging to the United States at the time of its passage, and
the subsequent cession of the Spanish islands to the United
States did not operate to admit imports from those islands
free of duty, under that law; (2) that the tariff act so
construed and enforced violates no constitutional rule of
uniformity.

"And the case of the plaintiffs in error would seem on these

grounds to have no legal foundation.

"The Government might well be content to rest its argument

upon these propositions. But counsel for the plaintiffs in
error, in the court below as well us in this court, have gone
far beyond these limits, and have challenged and denied the
constitutionality of certain provisions of the treaty of
Paris, contending that the cession of Porto Rico and the
Philippine Archipelago effected a complete incorporation of
those countries with the United States, so that they have
become a part of the United States in the fullest and largest
sense, not only internationally, but organically, so
completely, indeed, that no difference or distinction can be
made by law between imports from those countries and imports
from one of the States of the Union.

"They insist that there can be no limited or qualified

acquisition of territory by this nation; that when Porto Rico
was ceded to the United States it came at once under the
obligations of the Constitution and became entitled to the
privileges of the Constitution, its inhabitants citizens of
the United States, and its territory a part of the United
States. They argue, therefore, that the clause of the treaty
which says that 'the civil rights and political status of the
inhabitants shall be determined by the Congress,' in so far as
it is intended to defer the full enjoyment of the rights and
privileges of citizenship under the Constitution until
Congress shall bestow them hereafter upon the inhabitants, is
'ultra vires' and void, or at least superfluous and
ineffective, because the Constitution 'ex proprio vigore'
extends at once, as an automatic operation, to all territory
ceded to this Government, and no treaty or treaty-making power
can hinder or even suspend it. …

"Counsel have been at great pains to prove that the Government

of the United States is one of delegated powers, and that its
powers are not absolute and untrammeled, but subject to
certain limits never and nowhere to be transcended; that the
vague political entity known as The People stands behind the
constituted agencies of government, holding in reserve the
sources of supreme power, capable and ready to alter or
destroy at its pleasure the machinery heretofore set up in its
behalf. They call these doctrines truisms, and so they are.
They do not help us in this case.

"The Government of the United States has been vested not with
all powers but only with certain particular powers. These
particular delegated powers are in some respects limited and
confined in scope and operation, but in other respects they
are entirely unlimited. So that the real and practical
question is whether there is any limitation preventing the
particular thing here complained of.

"It is worth while, in passing, to allude to the undeniable

fact that 'The People' referred to are not the people of the
Territories or of the outlying possessions of the United
States, but the people of the several States, who ordained and
established for themselves and their posterity the Federal
Constitution.

"Counsel confuse ideas when they argue that the contention of

the Government in these cases implies the possession by
Congress of all unlimited and despotic powers in the
government of territory. We mean no more than this court meant
when it said:
"'The power of Congress over the Territories is general and
plenary.

"'Its sovereignty over them is complete.

"'It has full and complete legislative authority over the

people of the Territories and all departments of the
Territorial governments.

"'The people of the United States, as sovereign owners of the

National Territories, have supreme power over them and their
inhabitants.

"'In legislating for the Territories Congress would doubtless

be subject to those fundamental limitations in favor of
personal rights which are formulated in the Constitution and
its amendments, but these limitations would exist rather by
inference and the general spirit of the Constitution than by
any express and direct application of its provisions.'"

In the Supreme Court of the United States,

October Term, 1900, John H. Goetze, Appellant, &c.;
Brief for the United States.

On the 8th of January, 1901, four other causes, involving

substantially the same questions, came before the Supreme
Court, and, by order of the Court, were consolidated, to be
dealt with virtually as one case. The titles of the cases were
respectively as follows:

Elias S. A. Dc Lima et al., plaintiffs in error,

agt. George R. Bidwell;

Samuel B. Downes et al., plaintiffs in error,

agt. George R. Bidwell;
 Henry W. Dooley et al., plaintiffs in error,
agt. the United States;

Carlos Armstrong, appellant,

agt. the United States, and George W. Crossmon et al.,
appellants, agt. the United States.

{672}

For the plaintiffs, in the case of Henry W. Dooley et al., the

Honorable John G. Carlisle made an oral argument, in which he
said: "What is the Constitution? In the first place it is not
only the supreme law of the States composing the union, but
the supreme law of the land; supreme over every branch and
department of the Government; supreme over every one
exercising authority under the Government; supreme over every
other law or order or regulation, and supreme over all the
people, wherever they may be, within its jurisdiction, and
what we claim is, that so long as this Constitution exists
absolute and arbitrary power over the lives, liberties, or
property of the people can be exercised nowhere in this
Republic. It is now argued that it is supreme only within the
boundaries of the several States, unless Congress extends it
to the Territories; that it limits the powers of Congress only
when legislating for the geographical area embraced in the
States; that the inhabitants of the States are the only people
who can, as a matter of right, claim the benefit of its
guarantees and prohibitions for the protection even of those
personal and property rights which have for ages been secured
by the common law of England, and that all other people within
the jurisdiction of the United States are dependent for the
protection of their civil rights substantially upon the will
of Congress. The question whether the Constitution should be
declared to be the supreme law of the whole land, or only the
supreme law of the respective States and their inhabitants or
citizens, was presented in the Federal Convention of 1787, and
was finally disposed of by the adoption of the clause as it
now stands in the Constitution, which declares it to be "the
supreme law of the land.

"In the plan proposed by Mr. Charles Pinckney, of South

Carolina, it was provided that 'all acts made by the
legislature of the United States pursuant to this
Constitution, and all treaties made under the authority of the
United States, shall be the supreme law of the land,' etc. (1
Elliot, page 46). Mr. Patterson's plan proposed 'that all acts
of the United States in Congress assembled made by virtue and
in pursuance of the powers hereby vested in them, and by the
Articles of Confederation and all treaties made and ratified
under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme
law of the respective States, so far as those acts or treaties
shall relate to such States or their citizens,' etc. (pages
71, 72). These plans and others were referred to the Committee
of the Whole House and were reported back without any
provision upon this subject. Afterwards the Convention
unanimously agreed to the following resolution:

'That the Legislative acts made by virtue and in pursuance of

the Articles of Union and all treaties made and ratified under
the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law
of the respective States, so far as those acts or treaties
shall relate to the said States or their citizens or
inhabitants' (page 100). Thus it stood when referred to the
committee of five, of which Mr. Rutledge was chairman, and on
the 6th of August, 1787, that committee reported back to the
Convention a draft of the proposed Constitution, the eighth
article of which was the same as the resolution last quoted,
except that in the place of the words 'Articles of Union' it
contained the words 'this Constitution' (page 120). This
report was considered in the Committee of the Whole, and on
the 23d of August the eighth article was unanimously amended
so as to read: 'This Constitution and all laws of the United
States made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made under
the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of
the several States and of their citizens and inhabitants,'
etc. (page 151).

"This was the form in which the article stood when the whole
draft was referred to the committee of eleven, but when
reported back September 12, it constituted the second clause
of the sixth article and declared that the Constitution and
laws and the treaties made and to be made should be 'the
supreme law of the land,' and so it now stands as part of the
Constitution. If the clause had been adopted in the form
agreed to in the committee and inserted in the first draft,
there would have been at least a certain degree of
plausibility in the argument made here for the Government, but
even in that case we think the powers of Congress would have
been limited whenever and wherever it might attempt to
exercise them. But it is argued here that the history of the
Constitution and the language employed in the preamble, and in
some other places, show that it was intended to establish a
government only for such of the States then existing as might
ratify it, and such other States as might thereafter be
admitted into the Union, and that, therefore, while it confers
power upon Congress to govern Territories, it does not require
that body to govern them in accordance with the supreme law of
the land; that is, in accordance with the instrument from
which the power to govern is derived. Even if the premises
were true, the conclusion would not follow; but is it true
that the Constitution was ordained and established for the
government of the States only? If so, how did it happen that
the great men who framed that instrument made it confer the
power to govern Territories as well as States? It is true that
the Constitution was ordained and established by the people of
the States, but it created a National Government for national
purposes, not a mere league or compact between the States, and
jurisdiction was conferred upon that Government over the whole
national domain, whatever its boundaries might be. It is not
true that the Government was established only for the States,
their inhabitants or citizens, but if it were true, then it
 could exercise no power outside of the States, and this court
would have to put a new construction upon that provision which
authorizes Congress to dispose of and make all needful rules
and regulations respecting the territory, or other property,
belonging to the United States. The necessary construction of
that clause would be that it conferred power only to dispose
of land or other property, and to make necessary rules and
regulations respecting land or other property belonging to the
United States; that is, belonging to the several States
composing the Union. It would confer no power whatever to
govern the people outside of the States."

Supreme Court of the United States,

October Term, 1900,
Henry W. Dooley [et al.] vs. the United States:
Argument of J. G. Carlisle.

{673}

On one point the argument of Mr. Charles H. Aldrich, attorney

for the plaintiff in the case of the "Fourteen Diamond Rings,"
was as follows: In "the relations of the United States to other
nations, our government is a sovereign state, and has the
right, and as such 'free and independent State has full power,
to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish
commerce, and to do all other acts and things which
independent States may of right do.' In this relation it is
correct, as I conceive, to speak of the United States of
America as a unit and use a singular verb. It is such unit and
has this power because there was created a government upon
which the people conferred these powers. If war is declared it
must be under the constitution; if peace is concluded it is in
the exercise of a constitutional power; if commerce is
established it is because Congress under the constitution was
given power to regulate commerce; if alliances are contracted
it can only be done under the constitution. In short, the
sovereign nation exists through the adoption of the
constitution, and its powers are derived from that instrument
and must be found, as this court has often declared, in the
language thereof or by necessary implication therefrom. We are
in the Philippines and Porto Rico and can be rightfully there
only in the exercise of some of these enumerated powers, as in
the language of the tenth amendment, 'the powers not delegated
to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it
to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to
the people.' This amendment designates the constitution as the
source of the power of the United States and excludes the idea
of power free from constitutional restraint derived by
implication from powers delegated by the constitution.

"Nor is it true that at the time this declaration was made all
independent states or nations claimed and exercised the right
to acquire, hold and govern foreign dependencies, and no state
or nation then recognized its obligation to confer on the
people of such acquired territory the privileges and
immunities enjoyed by the people of the home government,
except at its own will and discretion. It is true that all
independent states claimed and exercised the right to acquire
territory, but if it were important in this case I think the
arguments of Pitt, Camden and Barre could be used to establish
the proposition that under the British Constitution as it
then was, that nation had, from the time of King John and the
Great Charter until King George, recognized that its subjects
had essential rights not dependent upon the 'will and
discretion' of the home government. It is unnecessary to
follow that subject here. It is sufficient that the
Declaration of Independence was brought about by the assertion
on the part of King George and his ministers of precisely the
present doctrine of this administration and its
representatives in this court. If value is to be attached to
contemporary history that fact cannot be lost sight of. The
speeches of Grenville and Townshend in favor of unlimited
power on the part of Parliament over the American colonists
and their affairs have been substantially parodied in Congress
by the advocates of unrestrained power over our 'colonies,' as
it is now unfortunately fashionable to denominate them. The
signers of the Declaration of Independence held that as
subjects of the British Constitution there was no right to
impose taxes upon them without their consent, to deprive them
of trial by jury, to deprive them of their legislatures, and
to declare Parliament in vested with power to legislate for
them 'in all cases whatsoever.' These and other grievances
were held denials of rights belonging to every British subject
as such and to justify rebellion and war. It seems impossible
that a people who rebelled for such reasons established a
State invested with the very power which they had denied to
the British government and the assertions of which made
rebellion necessary.

"This argument that the power to declare war and conclude

peace carries with it, as an auxiliary, power to do whatever
other nations are accustomed to do with the people and
territory acquired through the exercise of these powers, has a
remarkable likeness to the arguments put forward at the
beginning of the century with reference to the Alien and
Sedition Acts. The supporters of the constitutionality of
these acts claimed that the common law had been introduced and
become a part of the constitution of the United States, and
therefore the powers usually exercisable under the common law
could be exercised by the Congress of the United States in the
respects involved in those acts. Mr. Madison's letter
discussing this contention was answered, so far as it asserted
the right of a state to nullify an act of Congress, but was
never answered, so far as it denied the existence of the
common law as a part of the constitution of the United States.
His objections to that contention, succinctly stated, were,
that if the common law was a part of the constitution, then
there were no constitutional limitations. Congress, like
Parliament, could legislate in all cases whatsoever; that the
President would be possessed of the royal prerogatives (as is
now claimed in this case by the Attorney-General); that the
judiciary would have a discretion little short of legislative
power; that these powers in the different branches of the
government would not be alterable, because, being in the
constitution, they could only be repealed by amendment of that
instrument; and, lastly, that the constitution would have a
different meaning in different States, inasmuch as the common
law was different in such States, and that it would lack the
certainty which a constitution should have, as the common law
was an ever-growing or varying body of law, and, therefore,
with reference to the proper action of the government in each
instance, the question would be important as to what portion
of the common law was in the constitution and what not so
embodied.

"Nearly every sentence of Mr. Madison's able argument with

reference to the common law as a part of the constitution is
applicable to the contention that sovereign powers, so-called,
as derived from or defined by international law, became a part
of the constitution of the United States through the
delegation of the powers to make war, conclude peace, and make
all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and
other property belonging to the United States. This court has
adopted the view of Mr. Madison. It is hoped that the child of
the old error by which again the executive and legislative
power is sought to be enlarged through the incorporation into
the constitution of 'the sovereign power of other nations'
will receive the same answer.

"In fact, we submit that this court has already held that
sovereign power in the sense that the words are used in the
law of nations as prerogative rights of the King or Emperor,
not only is not vested in the United States or in any branch
of its government, but cannot be so vested. The sovereign
power is with the people. In leaving it with the people our
government marked a departure from all that had previously
existed."
 Supreme Court of the United States,
October Term, 1900, Number 419:
C. H. Aldrich, Argument in reply.

{674}

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901.

Military and naval expenditure,
compared with that of other Powers.

See (in this volume)

WAR BUDGETS.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (January).

Apportionment of Representatives under the Twelfth Census.
The question of obedience to the Fourteenth Amendment.
Restrictions of the elective franchise in the States.

Section 3 of Article 1 of the Constitution requires that

"Representatives … shall be apportioned among the several
States which may be included within this Union according to
their respective numbers. … The actual enumeration shall be
made within three years after the first meeting of the
Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent
term of ten years. … The number of Representatives shall not
exceed one for every 30,000; but each State shall have at
least one." The first meeting of Congress was in 1789; the
required first census of the United States was taken in 1790,
and, in obedience to the constitutional requirement, the
enumeration has been repeated within the closing year of every
decade since, to supply the basis for a new apportionment of
representatives among the States. The twelfth census, taken in
1900, called for such new distribution, and action upon it was
taken in Congress in January, 1901.

As the section quoted above stood in the Constitution until

1868, it contained a further clause, inserted as one of the
original compromises made between the slaveholding and the
free States, requiring that the determination of numbers to be
represented in the several States should be made "by adding to
the whole number of free persons, including those bound to
service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed,
three-fifths of all other persons." This original clause of
the Constitution was superseded by the Fourteenth Amendment,
adopted in 1868, which introduced this new provision, in its
second section: "Representatives shall be apportioned among
the several States according to their respective numbers,
counting the whole number of persons in each State, except
Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election
for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of
the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive
and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the
Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants
of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of
the United States, or in any way abridged, except for
participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion
which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole
number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such
State." To many persons it seemed to be very clear that this
provision of the amended Constitution required account to be
taken of the qualifications by which a number of States have
abridged the suffrage, especially where done for the
understood purpose of disfranchising colored citizens and that
Congress was left with no discretion to do otherwise.

See, (in this volume),

LOUISIANA, NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA,
MISSISSIPPI, and MARYLAND.

Those holding this view in the House of Representatives gave

support to the following resolution, introduced by Mr.
Olmsted, of Pennsylvania:
"Whereas the continued enjoyment of full representation in
this House by any State which has, for reasons other than
participation in rebellion or other crime, denied to any of
the male inhabitants thereof, being 21 years of age and
citizens of the United States, the right to vote for
Representatives in Congress, Presidential electors, and other
specified officers, is in direct violation of the fourteenth
amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which
declares that in such case 'the basis of representation
therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of
such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
citizens 21 years of age in such State,' and is an invasion of
the rights and dignity of this House and of its members, and
an infringement upon the rights and privileges in this House
of other States and their representatives; and

"Whereas the States of Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut,

Delaware, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Wyoming, Oregon, and other States do, by the
provisions of the constitutions and statutes of said States,
and for reasons other than participation in rebellion or other
crime, deny the right to vote for members of Congress and
Presidential electors, as well as the executive and judicial
officers of such States and members of the legislatures
thereof, to male inhabitants 21 years of age and over and
citizens of the United States; and such denial in certain of
the said States extends to more than one-half of those who
prior to the last apportionment of representation were
entitled to vote in such States; and

"Whereas in order that the apportionment of membership of the

House of Representatives may be determined in a constitutional
manner: Therefore, be it

"Resolved by the House of Representatives, That the Director

of the Census is hereby directed to furnish this House, at the
earliest possible moment, the following information;
 "First. The total number of male citizens of the United States
over 21 years of age in each of the several States of the
Union.

"Second. The total number of male citizens of the United

States over 21 years of age who, by reason of State
constitutional limitations or State legislation, are denied
the right of suffrage, whether such denial exists on account
of illiteracy, on account of pauperism, on account of
polygamy, or on account of property qualifications, or for any
other reason.

"Resolved further, That the Speaker of the House of

Representatives is hereby authorized and directed to appoint a
select committee of five members from the membership of the
Census Committee of the House of Representatives, who shall
investigate the question of the alleged abridgment of the
elective franchise for any of the causes mentioned in all the
States of the Union in which constitutional or legislative
restrictions on the right of suffrage are claimed to exist,
and that such committee report its findings within twenty days
from the date of the adoption of this resolution to the said
Census Committee, and that within one week after the said
report shall have been received by the Census Committee the
Census Committee shall return a bill to the House of
Representatives providing for the apportionment of the
membership of the House of Representatives based on the
provisions of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of
the United States."

{675}

Republicans, hardly less than Democrats, in Congress and

outside, were averse to raising what could not fail to be a
burning sectional issue, and grounds for ignoring the
constitutional mandate were sought with considerable eagerness
on both sides. Strict obedience to the requirement of the
Constitutional provision was claimed to be impracticable, at
least within the time available for proceedings connected with
the present apportionment of representatives. Said one
speaker, opposing the resolutions in the House: "There is not
a State in this Union that has not added to or subtracted from
the Federal constitutional requirements—not one. … If there is
any addition, whether as a matter of police regulation or
otherwise, to the constitutional amendments regulating the
franchise and the resultant representation in this House—if
there is addition or subtraction of one iota—then those who
desire to live up to this Constitution, no matter whether they
ruin their neighbors, no matter whether they again kindle the
fires of sectional strife, those who in their love for the
Constitution are so mentally rigid that they would demand its
enforcement though they set the Union aflame, must include
every State in this Union."

Said another: "How would anybody find out how many people in
the State of Mississippi were disfranchised for the reasons
stated in this resolution? There is there an educational
qualification. How are you to determine how many of the men in
the State of Mississippi who did not vote, did not vote
because they were disfranchised under the educational
qualification? Then there is a qualification in extension and
not in limitation of the suffrage, saying that even those who
can not read and write may still vote, provided they can give
an understanding interpretation of the Constitution or any
part of it. How are you going to determine how many are
disqualified by that? And then there is a qualification which
says that those can not vote who shall not by a certain time
have paid their poll tax. Out of the number of people who did
not vote, how are you going to determine which of them have
not voted because of the educational qualification? Which
because of the understanding qualification? Which because of
the poll-tax qualification? Which because of the registration
qualification? How many because of the pure Australian ballot
which exists in the State of Mississippi? … There is not a
State in the Union which has the Australian ballot which by
the very fact and the necessity of voting according to that
Australian ballot does not prevent the citizen who can not
read and write from voting if he votes a split ticket of any
sort."

A third speaker remarked: "To live up to that amendment, 'that

no male inhabitant shall be deprived of suffrage except for
participation in the rebellion or other crimes,' the male
inhabitant, I take it, is he who has acquired domicile in that
State, and the moment that he acquires domicile, and is a
male, he is a 'male inhabitant' of that State, and entitled
at once to suffrage; and yet every State in the Union, I
believe without exception, has requirements as to residence
not only in the State, but in the city, in the county, in the
precinct and ward and the voting place; and everyone of those
requirements, as every gentleman on that side must admit, are
in direct conflict with and contravention of the fourteenth
amendment to the Constitution of the United States literally
construed."

But the advocates of obedience to the Constitution, supporting

the resolutions of Mr. Olmsted, planted their argument on the
very facts brought against it, as demonstrating the need of
measures to check a growing tendency in the country to
restrict the elective franchise. Said Mr. Shattuck, of Ohio:
"We find that in 1870 there were three States that had
abridged their electorates—California, Connecticut, and
Massachusetts. In these three States there was a
constitutional provision for an educational qualification,
which disfranchised a certain percentage of the
electorate—namely, the illiterates. But, in those States, the
percentage of illiteracy is very light, averaging about 6 per
cent. The basis of representation would hardly have been
affected in those States had the fourteenth amendment been
conformed with.
"An examination into the election laws of the various States
reveals an astonishing tendency at this time to abridge their
electorates. When the Congress which adopted the existing
apportionment discussed the matter ten years ago but three
States had abridged their electorate by action of the State,
and in these the percentage of disfranchised males was but 6
per cent. But since that time similar policies have been
adopted by other States, and to-day we face the fact that ten
of the forty-five States of this Union have abridged their
electorates, and that in these the percentage of males 21
years of age and over, disfranchised, averages over 20 per
cent. The constitutions of several other States permit such an
abridgment. Besides, there are other States preparing to adopt
these policies and to disfranchise thousands of men who to-day
hold the right of franchise. In view of this remarkable
tendency it is inconceivable that Congress can longer permit
the fourteenth amendment to remain a dead letter, and to pass
a bill making an apportionment based solely upon the
population and neglecting the proviso which applies to all
States which have abridged their electorate.

"We will not review the past by any discussion of the question
as to whether the provisions of the fourteenth amendment
should have been made effective when the last apportionment
was made ten years ago. We find to-day conditions existing
which make its enforcement imperative. I do not propose to
discuss at this time whether the reasons given for these
abridgments by the people of the various States are valid or
not. … I am simply pointing out the conditions as they exist;
I am simply pointing out that the time has come when the
tendency of the States to abridge their electorates has grown
to such proportions as to demand that this Congress shall
proceed in a constitutional manner in making the new
apportionment. I do not say that States have not the right to
establish educational qualifications for their electors, but I
do maintain that when they have done so they must pay the penalty
 prescribed in the Constitution, and have their representation
abridged proportionately.
{676}
I do not say that we shall punish only Louisiana;
I do not say that we shall punish only Massachusetts;
I do not say that we shall punish only California;
but I do say and insist, as the representative of a State in
which every male member 21 years of age and over is guaranteed
the sacred right of franchise, that there is a constitutional
remedy prescribed for their acts, and I do demand that that
remedy be applied."

The following interesting table, showing the restrictions of

the electorate in the various States of the Union, was
appended to the remarks of Mr. Shattuck:

STATES.
REQUIREMENTS AS TO CITIZENSHIP. [First paragraph]

PERSONS EXCLUDED FROM SUFFRAGE. [Second paragraph]

ALABAMA.
Citizen of United States, or alien who has declared intention.

Convicted of treason or other crime punishable by

imprisonment, idiots, or insane.

ARKANSAS.
Citizen of United States, or alien who has declared intention.

Idiots, insane, convicted of felony until pardoned, failure

to pay poll tax, United States soldiers on duty in State.

CALIFORNIA.
Citizen by nativity, naturalization, or treaty of Queretaro.

Chinese, insane, embezzlers of public moneys, convicted

Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

textbookfull.com