The History of Woman Suffrage Volume II Part 68

WAs.h.i.+NGTON, Jan. 17.

This convention, of which I sent you some account in my last letter, adjourned last night, _sine die_. Lincoln Hall has been crowded at all the sessions except one, when an admission fee was charged. And the admission fee worked up a little unpleasantness in another direction, for in such a case a license has to be bought of the city authorities. So on Thursday evening before the meeting opened, word was sent to Miss Anthony in the ante-room, that a police officer was after her. "Well, let him come then,"

she replied; "I shan't go after him, that's sure." In due time the policeman walked in, bra.s.s b.u.t.tons and all. Miss Anthony had a pleasant little conversation with him for a few minutes. The policeman was very mild and amiable, and so was Miss A. Having had considerable experience with officers of justice(?), she has gotten a little used to them--in fact, rather indifferent. Hard knocks and rubs conduce to philosophy, and Miss Anthony has acquired a philosophy akin to that of Diogenes in his tub. She told the policeman she had no intention of paying this government for the poor privilege of coming here to demand justice at its hands. While Miss Anthony was as calm as a June morning, and wholly indifferent in the matter, Mrs. Belva Lockwood, a practicing attorney in this city, raised such a din about the policeman's ears that he took to his heels, and didn't darken the ante-room doors of Lincoln Hall again while the convention was in session. That license remains _in statu quo_.

Mrs. Stanton said that people were always saying women didn't want to vote, but the fact that the word "male" was in all the statute books showed that men knew all the time that they would vote if they had a chance. But whether they want to or not is a matter, she claimed, that had nothing to do with the question. It is time woman had a civil rights bill. No woman can enter Columbia College, Princeton, Harvard, or Yale. During the century we have spent $16,000,000 for the boys of New York, and $1,500,000 for the girls. Are you willing to believe, women, that your girls are sixteen times less valuable than the boys? What is the reason of this low valuation of woman? Because she is never to have anything to do with the State. It is a humiliating thing to ask, but I insist that the white women of this country be placed on the same civil and political footing with the colored men from the plantations of the South. If a woman traveling alone is belated at night, the hotels slam their doors in her face and turn her into the street. We want a civil rights bill that shall make every white woman just as respectable as a negro or a white man.

Mrs. Blake followed with an anecdote of a girl who applied for admission to Ann Arbor University. One of the sentences she had to translate from the Greek was this one from Antigone: "Seeing then that we are women, ought we not to be modest and not try to compete with men?" She took the highest honors in Greek, and was ahead of every man in the cla.s.s. She prepared a Greek composition and introduced this sentence: "Seeing then that we are men, ought we not to be ashamed that we have been vanquished by women?"

Mrs. Stanton thought if girls could come out of colleges and schools ahead of the boys in their studies, it was pretty clear proof that they could accomplish almost anything within the power of human capacity, for girls have to study under all sorts of disadvantages that boys do not have to contend with. Hang a hoop-skirt on a boy's hips; lace him up in a corset; hang pounds of clothing and trailing skirts upon him; puff him out with humps and bunches behind; pinch his waist into a compa.s.s that will allow his lungs only half their breathing capacity; load his head down with superfluous hair--rats, mice, chignons, etc., and stick it full of hair-pins; and then set him to translating Greek and competing for prizes in a first-cla.s.s university. What sort of a chance would he stand in running that race or any other!! Mrs.

Stanton read a civil rights bill for women, to be presented to Congress. This bill is to secure to them, equally with colored men, all the advantages and opportunities of life; open to them all colleges of learning; secure to them the right to sit on juries; to sue and be sued; to practice in all our courts on the same terms with colored men; to be tried by a jury of their peers; to be admitted to theaters and hotels alone; to walk the streets by night and by day, to ramble in the forest, or beside the lakes and rivers, as do colored men, without fear of molestation or insult from any white man whatsoever, to secure equal place and pay in this world of work.

She also presented a series of resolutions, nine in number. The first five are for freedom generally, and no taxation without representation. The sixth and seventh denounce the bills of Senators Frelinghuysen and Logan, the former being designed to deprive the women of the Territories of jury trial, and the latter to restore the common law in the Territories. The eighth recognizes the importance of the organization of the Grangers; and the ninth opposes the granting of general amnesty to former rebels. This resolution Mrs. Stanton denounced, speaking in favor of universal amnesty. Quite a spicy discussion ensued on this resolution, which was drawn up by Mrs. Joslyn Gage. Mrs. Stanton in her remarks in opposition, said it was hardly worth while for women in their conventions to throw any stigma on Jefferson Davis. The inst.i.tution of slavery was sustained by the North as well as the South; the North got out expurgated editions of books for the Southern market. It was in bad taste for the North to denounce the South, and it was in particularly bad taste for woman suffragists who are clamoring for representation and for the ballot, to call for its denial to any part of the nation.

Col. R. J. Hinton, of Was.h.i.+ngton, also denounced the resolution, saying that it violated one of the fundamental principles of the woman suffrage platform, which is that the limitation of suffrage is a gross outrage. Miss Anthony very pertinently said: "All the trouble on this platform is that we haven't the right to vote. If we had it we shouldn't complain of anybody else voting." The resolution was voted down by a large majority.

At the evening session the Hall was literally packed. Mrs.

Dundore of Baltimore, and Miss Taintor of California were the first speakers. Then the fascinating St. Louis lawyer, Miss Phoebe Couzins, whose logic is as sound as her wit is sparkling, was introduced, and delivered an address on "Woman as Lawyer," a subject which, in most hands, would have put the audience to sleep, but in hers, kept them wide awake with laughter and applause at her brilliant sallies. At the conclusion of her speech the Hutchinsons sang a stirring song, and then Miss Anthony introduced the colored member of Congress from South Carolina, Mr. A. J. Ransier, who spoke unqualifiedly in favor of woman suffrage. Mr. Ransier is president of a woman suffrage a.s.sociation in South Carolina. He was a little inclined to repeat himself, and after having returned several times to the statement that he had "no speech to make," an old lady in the audience popped up on the bench and said: "Well, if you haven't got a speech to make, I have," and immediately started out at the rate of twenty-five knots an hour, utterly oblivious of the rights of Mr. Ransier, who already had the floor, and who was very politely waiting for her to subside. Miss Anthony, after patiently waiting some time, said she should have to call the lady to order, but she paid no attention to the call. After a while the ludicrous situation set the audience to smiling audibly, and the louder they smiled, and the greater the excitement grew, the swifter flew the old lady's tongue. After consultation among the managers of the meeting, it was finally decided to send a policeman to quietly remove this garrulous disturber of the peace. A policeman was accordingly summoned, but his entreaties had no effect on the old lady, who stoutly maintained her perch, and declared she would not go with him. Then Miss Couzins descended from the platform, and accomplished with her winning ways what the policeman couldn't. She calmed the troubled waters--got the old lady to sit down by her side and keep the peace the rest of the evening. Who wouldn't maintain the peace when entreated from such a quarter? Mr. Ransier was enabled to finish his speech--a really good one--Miss Anthony remarking at its close that she wished she could have had him for her judge instead of Mr. Hunt. She then made a wide awake and telling speech, which, if this letter were not already too long, I should like to give. At its close she introduced Mrs. Guthrie, a daughter of Frances Wright, that woman of rare mind and original thought, who came from England to this country some forty or more years ago; and who, with Robert Owen and some others, tried to start a colony on the community system.

To the surprise of all, Mrs. Guthrie declared herself opposed to woman suffrage. At the close of her remarks the Doxology was sung, and the convention adjourned _sine die_.

F. E. B.

The correspondent of the Boston _Commonwealth_, after giving a pen-picture of the ladies on the platform, said:

The Convention laid out some very practical work for the consideration and action of Congress. It circulated a pet.i.tion and obtained six hundred names of citizens, both men and women of the District, asking that the word male be stricken from the organic act of the District government. This was presented by Mr.

Dawes, for Mr. Butler, to the House, and referred to the Judiciary Committee, before the members of which the ladies to-day had a hearing. Their case was presented and briefly argued by Mr. Miller, a lawyer of some promise and reputation, a resident of the District. Mrs. Sarah Spencer, of Was.h.i.+ngton, addressed the Committee on the legal points involved. She said that the pet.i.tioners did not conceal the point that the XIV.

Amendment did not give them the right to vote, but since Congress had referred them to the State legislatures, they came now to ask that the women of the District be allowed to vote. Mrs. Spencer answered the argument so often made, that all of the bad women would vote and the good ones would stay at home. She said in reply to this oft-repeated objection, that she had found in talking with that cla.s.s they made the same objection to woman suffrage that the fas.h.i.+onable women make, and were quite as averse to its adoption. Again, she said statistics show the lamentable fact that only one-fifth of this cla.s.s live to be eighteen years of age; their average length of life being only five years, no real danger was to be apprehended from giving woman the ballot. Mrs. Spencer spoke with feeling, and evidently made a favorable impression upon the Committee. Mrs. Lockwood made a few pertinent remarks. As this lady has lately been admitted to the bar in this city, she can speak from experience upon many points of law and fact. Miss Burr, of Hartford, asked simply for full justice, eschewing law and legal lore upon the subject, willing to be numbered with Plato and John Stuart Mill on this question. Miss Couzins appealed to the heart; as so many knock-down arguments had been hurled at their heads she preferred to attack the heart. She said she felt great delicacy in appearing before so much learning and wisdom, but the veteran commander-in-chief of the forces, Miss Anthony, had ordered her to the front, and when she told her she must spike a gun, like a good soldier, although a raw recruit, she obeyed. Miss Anthony introduced the speakers, and closed the meeting with a few well-chosen words.

It was a picture worthy the brush of an old master. Eleven lawyers seated around a table, with Benjamin F. Butler at the head, listening to women pleading for the right of self-government. Their faces, as they listened, every one of them with respectful attention, was a study worthy the most thoughtful student of human nature. Some of them listened, no doubt, for the first time to an argument in favor of this innovation, but the most unbelieving were evidently impressed with the earnestness and strong feeling displayed in the advocacy of the cause. The room was well filled with spectators, drawn together, some from sympathy, others from idle curiosity, but all were compelled to respectful consideration by the ease, dignity, and ability displayed by the ladies in presenting their cause. Only upon the faces of a few newspaper reporters just emerging from adolescence into manhood, rested the traditional sneer at the strong-minded; and when the hour for adjournment arrived, one of the members of the Committee remarked he regretted that a longer time could not have been given to the ladies. To those who think the cause of woman suffrage has gone backwards, we commend the proceedings of this meeting of the Judiciary Committee.

In addition to the pet.i.tion for suffrage in the District, another one has also been drawn, which Mr. Loughridge, of Iowa, will present at an early day, asking for the remission of the fine imposed upon Miss Anthony for voting at the last Presidential election.

By the way, an incident showing the singular independence of Gen.

Grant happened on Sat.u.r.day. When the President was taking his afternoon stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue, he met Miss Anthony and Miss Couzins. Instead of bowing and pa.s.sing on, as most any one of the high dignitaries occupying official position would have done, he stopped, shook hands, and entered into conversation with them. The chief justices.h.i.+p being the absorbing subject of interest, Miss Couzins suggested the name of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, since he seemed to have so much trouble in getting a man to suit. The President pleasantly replied he would not subject any woman to the ordeal of such an examination as she would be subjected to over Sunday, if the announcement of the nomination to that office were made. Miss Anthony said if he would only nominate Henry R. Selden, her counsel, the man who had brains and courage enough to defend her for voting for him, the country would at once recognize it as the best possible thing that could be done. The group, as they stood there on the avenue, the President of the United States with a pleased and animated face, and Miss Anthony, whom everybody knows and respects, even although they don't believe in suffrage for women, and the strikingly handsome young lawyer from St. Louis, in animated conversation over the Chief Justices.h.i.+p, was the object of attraction of all pa.s.sing by. If some fortunate photographer could have taken the picture his fortune would have been secured beyond doubt.

The May Anniversary[158] of 1874 was held in Irving Hall, with the usual list of speakers.[159] The attendance was large throughout.

Martha C. Wright, one of the most judicious and clear-sighted women in the movement, was elected president. A large number of letters[160]

was received from nearly every State in the Union.

On May 28th, 1874, while the bill to establish the Territory of Pembina was pending in the Senate, Mr. Sargent, of California, moved to add "s.e.x" to line 10 of section 5, which would make the clause read:

_Resolved_, That the Legislative a.s.sembly shall not, at any time, abridge the right of suffrage, or to hold office, on account of s.e.x, race, color, or previous condition of servitude of any resident of the Territory.

Mr. SARGENT.--In the same connection I move in the first line of section 5 to strike out the word "male," so as to read "every inhabitant of the United States."

The PRESIDENT _pro tempore_.--The question is on the amendment of the Senator from California.

Mr. SARGENT.--At the time when the last National Convention of the Republican party a.s.sembled in Philadelphia, which nominated General Grant for his second term, there was a.s.sembled a body of able, respectable ladies of the United States, who urged upon that convention a consideration of the subject involved in the amendment which I propose; and as a concession to the demand made by those persons, a plank was inserted in the platform whereby it was declared that the Republican party would treat with consideration the claims of women to be admitted to additional rights. Since that time, although the Republican party has had a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Congress and elected the President of its choice, and now has full power and has had ever since the a.s.sembling of this Congress to carry out this promise, not one step has been taken in this direction. It has not been for want of pet.i.tion or solicitation. It certainly has not been because the matter has not been called to the attention of both Houses of Congress, for pet.i.tion after pet.i.tion has been presented, and no action has been taken except adverse action in the other House, the committee reporting back those pet.i.tions with the recommendation that the prayer be not granted. In the Senate we have not yet been favored with the views of the committee to whom those pet.i.tions were referred. Considering that a great const.i.tutional question was involved, it might be a.s.sumed that these subjects would receive very early attention at the hands of the committees of the Senate; but up to this time we have had no light on the matter.

I believe, Mr. President, that the amendment which I offer to this bill is justified by the organic law of the United States, and in fact required by that law. Before the adoption of the XIV.

and XV. Articles of Amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States women were hedged from the ballot-box by the use of the word "male." Since that time another rule has been prescribed by the organic law, giving to all citizens of the United States the right to exercise this highest privilege of a citizen. By the XIV. Article of Amendment it is provided that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." This most important declaration is now the organic law of the United States. It does not say "all males born or naturalized in the United States," but "all persons," and it can not be contended successfully that a woman is not a person, and not a person within the meaning of this clause of the Const.i.tution.

This being the status of all individuals, male and female, they being citizens of the United States, it is provided that "no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Of course if any State is prohibited from doing this, any Territory should be prohibited from doing it, because no Territory can const.i.tutionally do that which a State itself can not do. Then, if women are citizens of the United States, and there is no right to abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, as proclaimed by the supreme law of the land, what are these privileges and immunities? Grant White, in his able work on "Words and Their Uses," defines, on page 100, the privileges and immunities of citizens, and among them gives the right to vote and the right to hold office. Webster gives the same definition of the word "citizen" and so does Worcester, and Bouvier's Law Dictionary speaks expressly of these rights of citizens of the United States to vote and hold office; and there is little adverse authority to these definitions.

The Const.i.tution, if it needs construction at all--and it would hardly seem to need it in a case so plain as this--must be construed by the ordinary and authoritative use of the words contained in it; and here is both the ordinary and the authoritative use of those words. This matter has not been without judicial construction. In the Circuit Court Reports (4 Was.h.i.+ngton, 371), it was held that these privileges and immunities included the right to hold office and to exercise the elective franchise; and this view was adopted by Chancellor Kent in his Commentaries, volume II., page 71. So that both by United States courts and the best and highest commentary upon the laws of the United States the construction which I contend for of the XIV. Amendment is insisted upon and ably ill.u.s.trated. The considerations which I have urged address themselves not merely to Republicans, they address themselves with great force to my Democratic friends who are such sticklers for the Const.i.tution.

Although that is true, nevertheless the Republican party has pledged itself especially to a respectful consideration of these demands in its last national platform, and it has control of both Houses of Congress and of the executive department.

Pa.s.sing from that consideration, we have all persons born or naturalized in the United States declared by the Const.i.tution to be citizens; and we have the meaning of the word "citizen" given by our courts, by our lexicographers, by our law commentators; we have further their "privileges and immunities" settled by all these authorities to include the right to vote and the right to hold office. In consonance with this organic law, the policy of which is not open to discussion because it has been adopted according to all the legal forms by the people of the United States, I offer this amendment.

Were this the time and place, and were not the discussion foreclosed by the considerations which I have already advanced, I might speak at some length upon the advantage which there would be in the admission of women to the suffrage. I might point with some pride to the experiment which has been made in Wyoming, where women hold office, where they vote, where they have the most orderly society of any of the Territories, where the experiment is approved by the executive officers of the United States, by their courts, by the press, and by the people generally; and if it operates so well in Wyoming, where it has rescued that Territory from a state of comparative lawlessness to one of the most orderly in the Union, I ask why it might not operate equally well in the Territory of Pembina or any other Territory? I hope the time is not far distant when some of the older States of the Union like New York, or Ma.s.sachusetts, or Ohio may give this experiment a fuller chance. But so far as it has gone, the experiment has been entirely in favor of legislation for admitting women to the ballot-box. And I do not believe that in putting these higher responsibilities upon women we degrade their character, that we subject them to uncongenial pursuits, that we injure their moral tone, that we tarnish their delicacy, that we in any way make them less n.o.ble and admirable as women, as wives, and mothers. I believe that by realizing the intention of the Const.i.tution, which uses words that are so fully explained by our courts and by our writers upon the uses of words, we simply open a wider avenue to women for usefulness to themselves and to society. I think we give them an opportunity, instead of traveling the few and confined roads that are open to them now, to engage more generally in the business of life under some guarantee of their success. I believe that, instead of driving them to irregular efforts like those which they recently have made in many of the States to overthrow liquor selling, it will give them an opportunity through the ballot-box to protect their families, to break up the nefarious traffic and purify society. As it is now, their energies in this direction are repressed, and sometimes in order to have force are compelled to be exercised even in opposition to law. I would give them an opportunity to exercise them under the forms of law, and I would enforce the law by the accession of this pure element. I do not think that they would be corrupted by it, but rather that society and politics would be purified by admitting them to the ballot-box and giving them this opportunity.

I therefore trust that, in the spirit of the pledge that was made by us as Republicans, in the spirit of the adhesion to the Const.i.tution professed by our democratic friends, there may be an a.s.sent to this amendment, and that the United States will engraft this feature in the organic law of this new Territory. There is nothing peculiar in the form of this proposition. All the original steps which we took toward circ.u.mscribing slavery were taken by engrafting provisos on the organic laws of Territories, from Nebraska down, providing that the Territories, when organized, should not do this or that affecting the liberty of human beings. In the mode pursued by that legislation, and according to those precedents, I now propose that the Const.i.tution shall be invoked; that women shall have the right in this Territory which is guaranteed by the organic law.

Mr. STEWART.--If this region is to be created into a Territory, I think it eminently proper that this amendment should be adopted.

The question of female suffrage is a question that is being seriously considered by a large portion of the people of the United States. We may think lightly of it here; we may think it never will be accomplished; but there are a great many earnest people who believe if females had the ballot they could better protect themselves, be more independent, and occupy useful positions in life which are now denied to them. Whether they be correct or not, it is not necessary for us to determine in pa.s.sing upon this amendment. Here is a new Territory to be created, and it is a good opportunity to try this experiment. If it works badly, when the Territory becomes a State there is n.o.body committed. It is not an amendment of the organic law of the nation. This is a bill simply providing for the organization of a Territory and for a preliminary government, and I should like for one to see this experiment tried. It is suggested by my friend on my right (Mr. Conkling) that it can not spread unless it is catching. (Laughter.) If it works well, if it succeeds in protecting females in their rights and enabling them to a.s.sert their rights elsewhere and obtain such employment as is suitable to them, I hope it will become catching and spread all over the country, if that is the light in which it is to be treated. I am in earnest about this matter. I think this new Territory is the place to try the experiment. If it works badly, we can see it, and no great harm will be done. If it works well, the example will be a good one and will be imitated. We first tried the experiment of negro suffrage in the District of Columbia, and it became catching and spread all over the South. Now, when there is a large portion of the people of the United States desirous of having this principle ill.u.s.trated, here is a fair field for the ill.u.s.tration of it, that they may see and we may see, whether there is anything in their arguments by the practical ill.u.s.tration of them for a few years until this new Territory shall become a State. I say let them have female suffrage there and try it. If it works well, their arguments will be vindicated; if it works badly, it need not be followed. I hope that the Senator from Minnesota will consent that this shall become a part of the law. Let us try it. It will do no harm.

Mr. BOREMAN.--I do not propose to enter into a discussion of the question of the const.i.tutionality or unconst.i.tutionality of woman suffrage, nor a discussion of the propriety or impropriety of the adoption of a provision in favor of it upon this bill. I think this is not a very good time to "try experiments," to use the language of the Senator from Nevada, and I trust we may have a vote upon this question.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ingalls in the Chair).--The question is on the amendment proposed by the Senator from California.

Mr. SARGENT and Mr. SPRAGUE called for the yeas and nays, and they were ordered.

Mr. MORTON.--I desire simply to state my views upon this amendment; views long entertained. I am in favor of the amendment on what I regard as the fundamental principles of our Government, upon the theory upon which we have based our Government from the beginning. The Declaration of Independence says:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The word "men" in that connection does not mean males, but it means the human family; that all human beings are created equal.

This will hardly be denied. I remember it was formerly contended that the Declaration of Independence in this clause did not include black people. It was argued learnedly and frequently, in this Chamber and out of it, that the history surrounding the adoption of that declaration showed that white men only were intended. But that was not the general judgment of the people of this country. It was held to embrace all colors and all races. It embraces both s.e.xes; not simply males, but females. All human beings are created equal. That is the foundation principle of our Government. It then goes on to say:

That, to secure these rights, governments are inst.i.tuted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to inst.i.tute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

If these rights are fundamental, if they belong to all human beings as such, if they are G.o.d-given rights, then all persons having these G.o.d-given rights have a right to use the means for their preservation; the means is government: "To secure these rights, governments are inst.i.tuted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." I ask you whether the women of this country have ever given their consent to this Government? Have they the means of giving their consent to it?

The colored men had not given their consent to it. Why? Because they had not the right to vote. There is but one way that the consent to government can be given, and that is by a right to a voice in that government, and that is the right to vote. I know it was argued in times past in regard to the South that the master gave the consent on the part of his slaves; that he represented them; that he had their good at heart, and that he gave their consent. We denied that. We know it was not true. Now, sir, to come down to the main question, I ask if the women of this country have given their consent to this Government? You say they are consenting. I say they are a.s.senting to it, the majority of them; but they have no means of giving their consent to this Government within the theory of the Declaration of Independence; and they can not consent to it unless they have a voice, have a right to vote "yes" or to vote "no."

What was the old theory of the common law? It was that the father represented the interests of his daughter, the husband of his wife, and the son of his mother. They were deprived of all legal rights in a state of marriage, because it was said that they were taken care of by those who stood to them in these relations; but they never were taken care of. The husband never took care of the rights of his wife at common law; the father never took care of the rights of his daughter; the son never took care of the rights of his mother. The husband at common law was a tyrant and a despot. Why, sir, he absorbed the legal existence of his wife at common law; she could not make a contract except as his agent.

Her legal existence was destroyed, and the very moment the marriage was consummated he became the absolute owner of all her personal property. What was the theory of it? The old theory of the common law, as given in elementary writers, was that if the wife was allowed to own property separate from her husband it would make a distinct interest; it would break up and destroy the harmony of the marriage relation; the marriage relation must be a unit; there must be but one interest; and therefore the legal existence of the wife must be merged into that of the husband. I believe a writer as late as Blackstone laid it down that it would not do to permit the wife to hold any property in severalty from her husband, because it would give to her an interest apart from his.

We have got over that. It took us one hundred and fifty years to get past that, and from year to year in this country, especially in the last twenty-five years, we have added to the rights of the wife in regard to property and in many other respects. We now give to her a legal status in this country that she has not in England or in any European country. She has now a legal status that she had not twenty-five years ago, and progress is still going on in that direction. While it was argued by old law-writers and old law-makers that to allow women to hold property separate from their husbands was to break up the harmony of the marriage relation, we know practically that it has not worked that way. We know that as we have made woman independent, recognized her legal existence as a wife, secured her rights, it has elevated her. We know that instead of disturbing the marriage relation, it has improved it constantly; and I believe that the woman has the same natural right to a voice in this Government that the man has. If we believe in the theory of our Government that must be so. I believe that as you make woman the equal of man in regard to civil rights, rights of property, rights of person, political rights, you elevate her, you make her happier; and as you do that you elevate the male s.e.x also.

This idea that women will be degraded by allowing them to go to the polls comes down to us from other countries and from remote periods of civilization. Why, sir, in countries now that claim to be civilized it is said that to allow the wife or the mother to go to the dinner-table with the husband and meet his guests face to face degrades her and degrades them. In some countries a woman must not appear on the streets unless she is so closely veiled that she can not be recognized; for it is said to allow her to go upon the streets barefaced or so thinly veiled that she can be recognized, subjects her to insult and degrades her; and in some countries to-day it destroys her character as effectually as other things would destroy her character in our country. We know that is a prejudice; and the idea that woman will be degraded by giving her the right of suffrage is a remnant of that same idea.

It is born of the same parentage. It has no sounder reason for it than these other nations have. I believe that to give women the right of suffrage would elevate the character of suffrage in this country. It would make the polls more decent, more respectable than they are now. Why, sir, fifty years ago the idea of women attending political meetings was intolerable to a great many people. The idea of her going to lectures of a scientific character was thought to be out of all reason. But now women go to political meetings. In almost every canva.s.s in my State there are nearly as many women who attend the meetings as men. What is the effect of it? Are they degraded? On the contrary, their presence elevates the character of those meetings. It is an a.s.surance of peace, it is a security against rowdyism and violence, because in this country men have to be very low if they are guilty of rowdyism or blackguardism in the presence of women.

We have a habitual respect for them; and I can testify from my own experience in politics that the attendance of women upon political meetings, so far from degrading them or affecting men injuriously, has elevated the character of political a.s.semblages, has made them more respectable, has secured to them immunity from violence, and from degrading scenes and blackguardism, and so it will be at the polls. When a woman is allowed to go to the polls and vote her sentiments and convictions, it will have the same effect there that her presence has in society. There is not a bit of doubt about it. And there will be no more discord in the family circle than there was when, in violation and against the old principles of the common law, you gave a woman the right to retain her legal existence after marriage and to own property separate and apart from her husband. These old notions have been giving away one after another little by little, and we shall finally come down to the true theory of our Government in all respects, and that is to allow every person, man or woman, who is to be affected and controlled by the Government, whose interest or whose happiness is to be controlled by or depends on the administration of that Government, to have an equal voice in that Government. Therefore I give my vote heartily and cheerfully for this amendment.

Mr. FLANAGAN.--I confess, sir, that I was delighted when my distinguished friend from California presented this amendment.

Unlike my distinguished friend from Indiana, however, I am a new convert to this doctrine. He has been of this opinion long since, I am gratified to learn. I have reflected much on this subject, and within the last few months I have settled down in my determination, and that is to advocate this great measure. Why have I so recently arrived at that conclusion? In the last few months the women's war upon the whisky trade and intemperance at large has prompted me thus to declare unequivocally for them and their glorious efforts. It is from them and with them that I hope, judging from their success up to this time, to save this great Nation from the worst curse known to the human family, that of intemperance; and I believe it is they and only they through Almighty G.o.d who can do it. Man has been found incompetent and unable to perform that great and desired object. And gratified am I to receive the idea from my distinguished friend, that if women had the right to vote they would not be expelled from many pursuits as they now are, or be compelled to go upon the streets as they now are, seeking in self-defense the preservation of man.

The effect of this measure on politics has been so well described by the distinguished Senator from Indiana that I need not comment upon that branch of the subject. They would tend to purify the atmosphere morally, either at the ballot-box or anywhere else, I care not where it may be. They are more directly interested in good morals, in the temperance of the world and everything bearing on that line, than the husbands are. I think it is a right they are ent.i.tled to in every sense of the word, and from this time henceforth I am a woman's rights man.

Mr. MERRIMON.--Mr. President, I will not yield to any Senator in the measure of my respect for and admiration of woman; I do not propose by any act or word of mine to detract from her dignity or to diminish the pleasures she may enjoy in this life; but I claim the right to be the judge, in conjunction with herself, of what is best calculated to elevate and protect her dignity and promote her happiness. I do not believe that woman herself believes that her dignity would be elevated or her happiness promoted by putting her upon an exact equality, civilly or politically, in both points of view, with man; and very strong and controlling evidence of that fact is, that neither in this country nor in any country has woman--I mean the great ma.s.s of them--ever demanded such a state of things. Our Government has existed for about a hundred years, and the number of females who have demanded to be invested with equal political and civil rights and to be placed upon an exact equality with the male portion of our population, compared with those who have remained in retirement, who have staid at their homes and lived and ruled within that sphere in which it seems G.o.d intended that they should rule, is as a drop in the sea. So it appears in this conclusive way that the women of America do not demand this state of things. They do not protect themselves by votes, nor do they need to do so. They shape the man when he is a child, rule him with the power of love, and thus they shape, affect, and often control the destinies of men, nations, and empires. I do not propose, however, to go into a discussion in detail of what the women desire or what we ought to grant. My main purpose is to reply very briefly to some remarks that fell from the honorable Senator from Indiana [Mr. Morton] in reference to the Declaration of Independence. I differ, with all respect, from the revolutionary construction which he puts upon that instrument. It is true, as he says, that the Declaration of Independence provides in these words: