ans already at
their command, from their own chimney-corners, they can readily procure
the insertion of the needful clause. And so with any other real abuse.
Men are now ready to listen, and ready to act, when additional
legislation is prudently and sensibly asked for by their wives and
mothers. How they may act when women stand before them, armed
CAP-A-PIE, and prepared to demand legislation at the point of the
bayonet, can not yet be known. {END FOOTNOTE}

If husbands, fathers, brothers, are ready any day to shed their heart's
blood for our personal defense in the hour of peril, we may feel
perfectly assured that they will also protect us, when appealed to, by
legislation. When they lay down their arms and refuse to fight for us,
it will then be time to ask them to give up legislation also. But until
that evil hour arrives let men make the laws, and let women be content
to fill worthily, to the very best of their abilities, the noble
position which the Heavenly Father has already marked out for them.
There is work to be done in that position reaching much higher, going
much farther, and penetrating far deeper, than any mere temporary
legislation can do. Of that work we shall speak more fully a moment
later.

SECONDLY. THE INALIENABLE NATURAL RIGHT OF WOMAN TO VOTE; AND
IMPERATIVELY SO IN A COUNTRY WHERE UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE IS A GREAT
POLITICAL PRINCIPLE.

This second proposition of the advocates of female suffrage is of a
general character. It does not point to particular abuses, it claims
the right of woman to vote as one which she should demand, whether
practically needed or not. It is asserted that to disqualify half the
race from voting is an abuse entirely inconsistent with the first
principles of American politics. The answer to this is plain. The
elective franchise is not an end; it is only a means. A good government
is indeed an inalienable right. Just so far as the elective franchise
will conduce to this great end, to that point it becomes also a right,
but no farther. A male suffrage wisely free, including all capable of
justly appreciating its importance, and honestly discharging its
responsibilities, becomes a great advantage to a nation. But universal
suffrage, pushed to its extreme limits, including all men, all women,
all minors beyond the years of childhood, would inevitably be fraught
with evil. There have been limits to the suffrage of the freest
nations. Such limits have been found necessar